It's your brand and you love it! 

Hammers. They're pretty straightforward to use. 

But have you watched someone adept at using them, like a carpenter? They know how to use this simplest of tools in a way that I can't. And a hammer only does two things: puts in nails and takes them out.

In my past posts, I have looked at process improvement from the organisation’s point of view. This time, I want to look at it from the consultant’s point of view—after all, the consultant is the key player in process analysis.

If you spend a lot of time writing, ensure your effort is not wasted. 

How? I’m glad you asked.

I’ve been participating in LinkedIn discussions about the quality of writing ... well, the lack of it. And I’ve read pieces in the press about the falling standards of English, like this article in the Sydney Morning Herald.

This got me thinking about the amount of formal business documentation that gets released without being properly proofread, edited and reviewed.

One of the most startling implications of Einstein’s equations is that two people with independent reference points will see the same event as occurring at different times. To see something happening at the same time, the viewers must both be looking at it from the same place. On the surface this may not appear to have much relevance to process, but it does—a process operates according to the same law.

Do you work in procurement?  Do you on occasion work with procurement to develop, say, a request for proposal (RFP)?

Then you’re in the right place!

This series asks you to think more carefully about your procurement documents.  It’s about helping you to produce a better product that results in the best possible solution or service for your organisation.

Which is more important to your organisation?  People or process?

This reminds me of that unanswerable question: which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Whilst it would cause me great joy to spend a few paragraphs on the perils of debt, wallowing in countless examples of how it has ruined most people’s enjoyment of the 21st century, my attention is turned more directly to a particular type of debt and the effect that it has on organisations. That debt is time debt.

Let me pre-empt this post by saying that I embrace the use of technology in both the business and social worlds. Look, if it hadn’t been for early adopters like myself who purchased the Apple Newton in the early 90s (and then returned for the Newton II) we may never have seen the development of the iPhone and its growing list of competitors!
 

I hate flowcharts!  Harsh, yes, so allow me to explain …

As a means of mapping or modelling a process, socialising and refining it, and as a visual representation of it, flowcharts are hard to beat.  They make processes easier to define, understand and follow. 

But as the final documented form of processes, flowcharts aren’t always effective.

It's not flowcharts per se that are the problem—it's that, often, they’re poorly drawn.  And that's why I hate flowcharts.

If I had a dollar for everyone who has asked me ‘how is business?’, I would be sailing the world on my 80’ yacht and ignoring the GFC!  However ...
 

MS Word templates.  Do you use them?

When I say ‘template’, I don’t mean a single-paged document with a few headings that you have to try and craft a report from.

I mean a multi-paged fully-branded document based on a company-wide style sheet.  And I mean a structured document with standard headers, footers, sections, headings, and lots of instructions to explain what’s expected of the author.

So, why bother with templates like that?