How Kanban Improves Work Flow
Kanbans are a tool for structuring how work flows into the work-in-progress queues so that workers do not get overloaded and can use their time most effectively. Kanbans, and variations on them, are widely used in software projects (e.g. Scrum and Agile) and manufacturing (e.g. Lean and Six Sigma). Blue Belt
How to Double Your Personal Productivity in Under Two Weeks
There just never seems to be enough time in the life of a manager toget all the things queued up in front of you done. Do you know that feeling? It doesn’t have to be like that though. Two simple skills can make you up to 16 times more productive! Read on to see how you […]
Secrets to Staff Bonus Plans
Paying staff a bonus or other incentive is a well tested method of improving their commitment to the business’ management goals. The secrets of the Staff Bonus Plans are revealed below. Read this if: you want to know more about how bonuses should be constructed to drive the goals of the business. Many bonus systems are […]
Benefit from Labour Efficiency Ratio Metric
The cost of labour is one of the largest overhead expenses in most businesses. Any inefficiency here is an expense that must be recovered from the potential Profit of the organisation. Labour tends to grow of its own accord and it is very difficult for the business operator to know just how labour productivity is going as […]
Level 3: Production & Efficiency Menu
You can grow your Profits with what you have if you focus on the following streamlining tools. With YOUR problem in mind, select the area below that best fits your problem. Note: Campaign, Skills Module or Leader’s Briefings signup may be required for some articles Drill down to the article that provides the solution for […]
Take Advantage of Agile / Scrum / Kanban to Increase Productivity
In a smaller business there is always plenty to do and many demands on a managers most limited resource; time. Often the owners time is the major bottleneck on the growth of the business (see the introductory article to Theory of Constraints). Plenty of other businesses have struggled with prioritising time before you and several techniques that are very similar have evolved. The three best known of these are named Agile / Scrum / Kanban. Various references cite improvements in team productivity ranging from 25% to 300% by using these methods. This article introduces these concepts and a way of using a free software app named Trello to manage the process. A mix of Yellow and Blue Belt introductory material.
How to Do Your Life Plan
The old adage that ‘money isn’t everything’ is very true. Wealth, in its own right, is a pretty limited description of what goes together to make a life worth living. In 12Faces, we stress the need for a clear sense of direction for your business by way of having clear goals. This Recipe covers similar ground for yourself. Yellow Belt
Level 4: HR Productivity & Motivation Menu
There is always more to be done than you possibly have time for. With YOUR specific issue in mind, select the area below that best fits. Note: Campaign, Skills Module or Leader’s Briefings signup may be required for some articles If you want to work reasonable hours, and have a life outside the business, […]
Peter Principle: Promotion to Incompetency
Laurence J Peters in his book “The Peter Principle” (Peters & Hull, 1969) argues that people are likely to be promoted until they reach a point where they are unacceptably incompetent. At this point, they are unlikely to be promoted any further (at least in a well ordered organisation) because they are no longer competent and so remain at that level indefinitely. The great worry about this is that they are incompetent at this level so the organisation is impacted by the presence of these incompetent people. Yellow Belt
What Parkinson’s Law Tells Us about Wasted Work
Northcote Parkinson, writing in 1955, semi humorously proposed his ‘law’ that “Work expands to fill the time available for its completion”. This is very true. Staff will often take as much time as is available to them to work on a project even though that might mean unnecessary embellishments. Even good staff do this because they want to seem to be busy and not slacking off. You have to learn how to judge been useful work and time-filling work. Yellow Belt