ByMatthew Arnold
Fans of Only Fools & Horses will remember Dell-Boy’s great line to the supermarket check-out girl, “Did you sue them?” When asked who, he replied “The Charm School!” And many of us will have found ourselves in circumstances when we would have loved to use the same sarcastic wit. Good customer service is one of…
ByMatthew Arnold
A terrific management development essay by Fiona Dent – CLICK HERE 1. Be patient 2. Active listening 3. Flexibility 4. Build, link and develop ideas together 5. Show your understanding 6. Check that understadning 7. Express yourself fluently 8. Be enthusiastic 9. Remember the unextinguished fire 10. Above all, plan and prepare
ByMatthew Arnold
Employ your time improving yourself by other men’s writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have laboured hard for. – Socrates.
ByMatthew Arnold
The ability to learn faster than your competitors may be the only sustainable competitive advantage. – Arie De Geus
ByMatthew Arnold
The ability to really change organisations lays with the senior team. We’ve all heard of the need for a “burning platform” as an ignition for change – put who at the top will “admit to failure” if a burning platform exists. We’re immediately into a conundrum, which locks most management teams into continuing with what…
ByMatthew Arnold
Toyota may well train their employees, but the real investment is allowing these employees to engage their brains at work – giving them time and space to make continuous improvements. And yes, they may well need a little help in learning how to do this. The “investment” here is time away from immediate productive work…
ByMatthew Arnold
You’ve decided you need to change – there’s a problem, and it’s got to stop. You now understand the true purpose of the organisation – so you know where you’re aiming and why. You’ve understood the end-to-end process – and realise it’s broken. You now have two decisions: What method do you use to design…
ByMatthew Arnold
It’s easy to get stuck in a rut, or “turn native” when faced with a problem, a way of working, or when a decision is needed. And when working in groups, you may also sometimes wonder where others’ viewpoints are and where their suggestions (which may not always appear helpful) are coming from. Edward do…
ByMatthew Arnold
A few weeks ago I attended a conference where one of the speakers (a charismatic and knowledgeable young man) spoke about the need to engage the workforce in the change process. All good, sensible stuff. During the presentation one of the attendees asked “but what if we can’t get the senior managers to agree to…
ByMatthew Arnold
I was talking to a colleague recently, and began discussing some of the transformation work that I had undertaken to help improve customer service at a local authority. (See my blog entry here.) Not for the first time, an assumption was very quickly made that an improvement to service, and a dramatic reduction in the…