Trust (part II) - indicators of broken trust.

  In most modern countries, as much as we complain about our leaders, we can trust that the system works. In the US, we the citizens, can trust that most of the laws and regulations are designed to give us a level of protection from corporate and government predators. (Yes it’s not perfect, but I’ll illustrate just how well we collectively...

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Trust - the cornerstone of performance.

I could write an entire book about this topic, because trust is the cornerstone of performance. Toyota’s House of Lean has foundations and pillars supporting a roof that houses one thing - the most important thing in the organization – its PEOPLE… its TEAM. This blog post will likely my longest in a while, but after growing many gray hairs (not...

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Collaboration has a multiplier effect.

  I came across this article in the New Yorker and thought it to be a great collection of examples illustrating the benefits of collaboration. The point of this article is that inventors stumble upon great inventions not because they are geniuses, but because they’ve been exposed to certain events and information that when tied together...

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Success comes not from great ideas, but from those which are implemented.

This is perhaps one of the few absolute truths that apply in today’s market place. There is truly and absolutely no value in ideas unless they are implemented. That’s why it’s imperative for organizations to streamline their ideation-to-implementation processes. Many organizations have realized the value of using idea management software to achieve...

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The key to innovation: Problem Definition (Part II)

In Part I of this blog entry I illustrated how the 5-why method helps to narrow a broad problem down to its root cause. This root cause becomes the problem definition. Industry leaders know that the key to their success is to effectively identify market needs before their competitors do. To do this, they can ill afford to devote their valuable...

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The Key to Innovation: Problem Definition (Part I)

The key to innovation lies in the problem and not the ideas. In the Lean Manufacturing world, and one of the reasons why companies which live by production systems similar to TPS are successful, is that they systematically use problem solving tools such as the 8-D, the 7-Steps or the 5-Why in order to improve their processes and products. In the...

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Innovation and Cost Cutting in Healthcare.

It’s about time! For years now the healthcare industry in the US has been suffering form a sub-competitive market. Demand for services, medicine, doctors, cures… and the list goes on… has far outpaced the availability of these, and in consequence has led to yearly price increases which double or triple the rate of inflation. Now, I’m not saying...

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How do you manage 120,000 ideas?

Occasionally when talking to prospective clients about our idea management software we are asked how many ideas a healthy CI Process should generate. Our answer to them is that a healthy CI process can generate one idea per employee per month. This normally comes as a surprise to organizations accustomed to receiving one tenth as many. In the...

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Do More with Less

Several years ago we were introduced to the buzz phrase "Do more with less". This term signified the need for organizations to trim and better allocate their available resources while doing more and executing more efficiently. However, this phrase was missing something. How do you do more with less when your resources are all utilized 100%? The...

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