Matt Cartwright, consulting, coaching, facilitation - Professional Facilitator - Matt Cartwright

SHIFT HAPPENS...JOB CUTS and More...

29/8/2012

SHIFT HAPPENS

“If we don’t shift our intention, direction and action we will end up where we are headed”

SHIFT HAPPENS. So… start accepting it. Let go of trying to stop the change or slow it down. There are likely to be 7 billion other similar stories just like yours, they just have different characters and plots but the same underlying message. Everyone you talk to is sick of change. One approach is to be more effective rather than be affected by it.

Are you working in a stuck or non-stuck environment? If not….get yourself into a Teflon Team. Stop sticking to old habits, old processes, old teams, old whining and shift. There is a lot of bad press around the economy, job cuts, poverty, famine and war. It is serious, so get serious and SHIFT into gear.

Use all the gears to leverage your mindset and workplace to where it needs to shift.

In many facilitation exercises we talk about the current and future state, the important bits are in the middle…”the action state”…or the “shifting state.” The shifting state delivers targeted action, lots of it and regularly. Guess what? SHIFT happens. Most if it starts within the mind then shifts into behaviour.

“SHIFTING” is what I coined some time ago. It’s a deliberate process of shifting thoughts, behaviours, attitudes to develop a more adaptable, resilient and optimistic view in a shifting world. It’s a holistic process that deals with complex systems and aims to understand and respond to them with more agility and sustainability.

STRAINING…..Have you noticed how workplaces over-process, over-engineer, over-produce, over-change and over strain? It’s time to get over it…don’t you think?

UNDERSTANDING YOUR SHIFT

Whenever we change one type of behaviour or situation, we are losing as well as gaining something. In order to sustain real and lasting change in the workplace we need to change ourselves first. Everyone can shift. Shifting is challenging and requires effort but not straining. The juggling act is “knowing,” that is, knowing not to get caught up in everyone’s emergency, urgency or dramas. Of course we must balance what’s important and necessary. How you view or feel about a situation is always your choice.

So…SHIFT YOURSELF to think and do what matters most. Be more effective, be lateral, be creative, be a SHIFTER. Don’t get caught up in the change, we have limited influence and control over what people decide to change in the workplace but we can shift our focus.

Journey well,
Matt Cartwright
Inspiring People, Inspiring Business, Inspiring Results
© Copyright 2008 -12

Make Today Count and Make Decisions to Act on Important Things

9/4/2012

Make today count and make decisions to act on important things

Time is an equal opportunity employer, but how we treat time is not equal.

Many people will up wake today in a box, eat breakfast from a box, get to work in a box, turn on the box when they get to work, sit in a box, got to meetings in a box, go home in a box, sit down in front of a box, get dinner out of a box and maybe open a cylinder.    Does it sound familiar to you or others around you?

If something is vitally missing for you at work then I challenge you to make today count. Good decisions make a better today and a better tomorrow. From my blogs you have probably gathered I like to keep it simple. Simple is often hardest.   For example:

What are you avoiding at work?
Who are you avoiding at work?
Why are you avoiding these people or tasks?
What’s the payoff for you?

Elite performers, don’t avoid pain, they strengthen their will, their bodies and their intentions. They ask more powerful questions, seek inspiring answers and make every training session count.

Remember pay now, play later, or play now, pay later.

The truth is we all pay at some stage, there are no free lunches in the work place.

Here are three questions to focus your decisions

If you are really serious about improving team performance or your own performance ask the following:

What is required of me?
What gives me the greatest return?
What gives me the greatest reward?

These questions may help you focus on what areas to overlook for a while.

It’s not selfish, it’s life. People perform best when they focus on their preferred work preferences and their personal priorities.

How to motivate people is the perennial question of many supervisors. I always suggest you start with yourself. Set an example, model the way, enable others to do the same, start with better recruitment processes, onboarding and performance reviews.

Good talent leave an organisation for many factors but it comes down to the core truths that many of us know. Consider these actions to retain your top talent, otherwise you may be counting how many people walk out the door.

Discuss their career development
Reduce red tape and bureaucracy
Review, recognise, reward, and refocus
Mobilise top talent to mix with other top talent
Stop shifting sands focus them on strategic priorities.
Find a project for the talent that inspires their passion
Conduct quarterly, midterm and annual performance reviews
Back off, empower accountability and stop telling them how to do their Jobs

Remember the secret of your success is determined by your daily agenda, what’s on your priority list?

Journey well
Matt Cartwright
Inspiring People, Inspiring Business, Inspiring Results
© Copyright 2008 -12

6 Needs of Staff and 10 Free Coaching Challenges

19/3/2012

6 Needs of Staff and 10 Free Coaching Challenges

I have yet to work on project or coach a workplace team where the underlying root cause of all problems hasn’t been related to people, process and roles and their responsibilities.

I have also observed the following to be true. That is, there are at least 6 basic human needs to help with people in projects or people going through workplace change. What I have found is that employees look for:

1.     certainty
2.     variety
3.     significance
4.     connection
5.     growth
6.     contribution

This isn’t always easy to find for the employee when you have limited power or influence. Think about it from the employee’s perspective.

As a manager or business leader there will be tests. It's not always about the mark you achieve its learning and applying the process. Lasting results requires continuous action. Habitual actions lead to be progress. Research also shows that people who have well-formed goals, written down are more likely to achieve those who do not. Up to 95% more likely.

Coaching Challenge for Frustrated and Fed Up workplace managers, supervisors or leaders.

1.     What might you be contributing to the workplace situation that causes others frustration?
2.     How are you helping the workplace team address the 6 basic human needs?
3.     Who in the workplace needs more of your assistance?
4.     How will you measure your contribution in assisting others in their success?
5.     To be more effective than you currently are at work what will you do more of?
6.     To be more effective than you currently are at work what will you do less of?

Okay, break it down into:

1.     What behaviours need to change?
2.     What attitudes need to change?
3.     What thoughts need to change?
4.     What processes need to change?

Imagine if you had on your own coach to help you or your team achieve greater success.

What might be the outcome?
What would that outcome give you?
What is holding you back from getting a coach?

Journey well,
Matt Cartwright
Inspiring People, Inspiring Business, Inspiring Results
© Copyright 2008 -12

Strengthen Resilience in Change and Get Inspiring Results

15/3/2012

Strengthen Resilience in Change and Get Inspiring Results

Have you noticed how many workplaces struggle with implementing change correctly. Unfortunately this impacts on the bottom line, customer service and workplace culture.

Dealing with resistance to change will be one of your greatest barriers and greatest successes.

Research repeatedly tells us that change initiatives fail due to poor planning and most of all poor change sponsorship.

Resilience in the knowledge worker economy is key to your change management success.

Our company provides both consultancy and faciliation to assist organisational and workplace change programs.

Lessons Learned

Some of the most common errors that I have found when consulting in transforming teams, services and an organisation are that they have:

Allowed too much complacency,
Failed to create a sufficiently powerful guiding coalition,
Underestimated the power of vision,
Under communicated the vision by a factor of 10x-100x,
Permitted obstacles to block the new vision,
Failed to create short-term wins,
Declared victory too soon,
Neglected to anchor changes firmly in the corporate culture.

Critical Success Factors in Change Management Process

Here are my thoughts on the critical success factors in managing your organisational change, trust me, so many people fail to use a process. At least start with a process by addressing these key issues:

Define the purpose
Prepare a business case and project plan
Define the role of the sponsor/s
Manage human resource and industrial relations issues
Establish consultation and communication processes
Conduct a stakeholder analysis
Acquire and develop change agent skills
Identify and develop plans for managing risks/threats
Develop evaluation strategies

Strengthen your individual and team resilience, through partnering with us...

We improve your change initiatives providing options to suit you including:

practical change management training
change management planning
change management implementation
change management coaching
change management tools, assessments, templates and resources
supporting teams in transition
assisting leadership transform the business.

Journey well,
Matt Cartwright
Inspiring People, Inspiring Business, Inspiring Results
© Copyright 2008 -12

“Hang on... one thing at a time….”

14/3/2012

“Hang on... one thing at a time….”

”huh…” says the multitasker and drama queen who just loves 12 hour working days.

We are busier than ever. Thanks technology and consumerism. Okay it’s great, it just increases my choices and decisions. Of course I love being productive and doing work that is meaningful and purposeful.

So here are some useful strategies for your organisation or your work team. These strategies are likely to increase productivity and more innovative thinking if you model and encourage set periods to focus, as well as shorter periods to renew.

As a past manager, here are three guidelines I’d like to share with you, there are more, but I Iike these 3, they are easy and effective.

1. Manage meeting boundaries

Schedule meetings for 30-45 minutes, rather than an hour or longer, so people can stay focused, take time afterward to reflect on what's been discussed, and recover before the next task.

NO meetings straight after lunch. That’s’ known in the facilitation world as the lullaby period. Avoid it if you can.

Start all meetings at a precise time, end at a precise time, and insist that all phone calls not be taken, unless they have an urgent family matter.

Meetings must have an agenda, purpose, and a clear intended outcome.

Record minutes only if really, really needed. Seriously do you need them??

Another meeting process I like to use is team huddles, (or cuddles, if you get along real well) They are short sharp 5 -10 minutes focused on an issue and then disband. I pick a time near meal breaks so not to disrupt the flow of other work. Then say, what are you doing for lunch????

Team socialisation opportunity….!

2. Stop demanding or expecting instant actions of others

I ask people to get back to me by generally by COB, (close of business) rather than in 2 hours. I find the quality is better and the resistance is lower. If I say 2 hours it puts me under pressure as well. The goal is to get your people out of the pressure cooker, release the valve a bit, stop being reactive. Maybe you could be more organised and forecast some the issues. On the odd occasion there will be the odd pressured moment, why, that’s because someone upstream is reactive or disorganised or there is a real emergency (well….you would like to think so wouldn’t you?)

Reactivity is not flow time or engaged time, it fragments focus, and makes it difficult for people to sustain focus on their priorities. In Lean Thinking we call this waste.

My tip to all people is if it’s urgent, please call me, don’t email me, call me.

Next….Stop harassing people and being an urgent drama queen. You’ll survive, the more urgent orientated that you are, the less time you will have…trust me.

3. Encourage Breaks

Create at least one break time during the day when you encourage your people to stop working and take a break, in fact I do it twice a day. It forces me to stop to. I’ve read and heard about others taking a group walk or workout, relax, or take a nap. Personally I've never napped. I do however go for walks. Many years ago I worked with two men who routinely slept at morning tea and they always woke up…amazing.

Okay…you have their backs covered what about yours?

Consider these four behaviours for yourself, you are not superman or superwoman you know.

1. Do the most important things first in the morning or whatever time your work day starts, preferably without interruption, for 60 to 90 minutes, with a clear start and stop time.

2. Establish regular, scheduled times to think more long term, creatively, or strategically. If you don't, you'll constantly enter the world of the the urgent.   Visit my blog on email use.

3. Take mini breaks, breakations, real and regular holidays. Real means that when you're off, you're truly switched off from work...now that's a test for many of us….. Hmmm, I think I might plan one of these breakations right now…

4. Delegate it, defer it, dump it, do something that you ought to do... I think that will help, don't you? There will always be problems to solve as long as we keep changing, that's business.
When you're fully engaged at work for defined periods you’re happier and more productive. Some people refer to it as flow. It makes sense and saves the business bottom line and your stress levels

Stop working and living in the crazy time zone

Go for a walk, smell the roses, see the sky and breathe the fresh air.   In my case it’s taking the stairs, walking past a tropical garden, crossing a busy road, chatting to the barista and getting a decent coffee. Then I re-engage fully in what matters.

7 Coaching Challenges

What are you tolerating at work that reduces your productivity?
What behaviours do you need to change to get more focused time?
Who do you need to start saying "no" to?
What do you need to stop doing and delegate?
What meetings need to be more focused and how will you achieve and do that?
What obstacles might get in your road?
How will you overcome them?

If you need help please feel free to drop me a line. Our job is to inspire people, inspire business and inspire results.

Journey well,
Matt Cartwright
Inspiring People, Inspiring Business, Inspiring Results
© Copyright 2008 -12

Beware Executive Coaching is a Business Nightmare, Protect your Investment

13/3/2012

Beware Executive Coaching is a Business Nightmare, Protect your Investment

On a Google search 12 March 2012 I searched on the following terms and this is what I found...

Executive Coaching Training 17,400,000 results
Executive Coaching 7,910,000 results Worldwide
Executive Coaching 4,880,000 results Australia

Good luck everyone, me included….

I’ll tell you why. I’ll also share some insights with you into the future of how to avoid the traps of hiring coaching services and coaching training. If you’re hiring coaching services or a coach please send me questions, I’ll try and answer them to protect your investment and business.   I’ll even review proposals and programs.

I started my own coaching and facilitation business in 2007. I also provided team development programs as a smaller part of my business structure to increase my research base for team coaching. In the 5 years I’ve seen an enormous shift to coach training, coaching services and corporate areas providing what seems to be the same service. I commend them for getting up to speed with latest trends in people and business performance.

When I finished an accredited program in the Australian education sector, (not an online US course), I was not fully prepared for executive coaching or business coaching. When I questioned other coaches who had undergone coaching certification through big US training programs, neither were they. There has been no tertiary sector degree course offered in Business Coaching. However, Life coaching which has been cleverly marketed for just over decade. Life Coaching quickly morphed into business and executive coaching. Why? More of your money…...

Oh, it reeked of fake and phoney start-ups…. Scary and I wondered what the bleep….I had got myself into.

I aspired to being one of the best in the industry and started consulting with University of Sydney to find out more to progress the professional status.   It was clear coaching, business coaching and coaching psychology was changing rapidly. It was becoming a free for all approach and here we remain today.

As a result in 2008 -09, I undertook a review of training schools through direct contact and also a meta-analysis of the literature from business, organisational psychology, organisational development, management, vocational education and coaching. My business needed a proven scientific basis. I came from a professional management and clinical background where everything needs to be proven by research and opinion was never entertained.

In 2009 -10, I conducted and independent business review of a government panel of coaching providers. Of the panel of providers credentialed or certified coaches were less than 10%, charging out rates from $250 - $695 per hour. Wow… I was shocked to think our public taxes could be used so recklessly.

Within those 2 years I developed the evidence based framework Australia Coaching Excellence Framework (ECEF).

ECEF was developed for Australian corporate, small business and not for profit sector. Have you noticed how many coaching programs use US or overseas based frameworks?   Just check whatever you choose aligns to your business structure.

ECEF was developed as a scalable, replicable, transferable and measurable model to whatever organisation that you worked in.

Today in 2012, the Australian coaching industry is saturated with a lack of research, standardisation, rigorous governance and quality control. It is an unregulated industry. It is concerning that there are no state or national registration boards.

Let’s face it you wouldn’t go and get an unlicensed electrician come in and wire up your house. And, you wouldn’t send your child to school to be taught by a non-registered teacher.

If you were an accountant, physiotherapist, teacher, nurse, psychologist or architect you will be practising under tight controls of regulation, tertiary education, legislation and competency frameworks to protect the public and business sector.

Today, 2 years later as I surf the web I sense that the business perception of coaching is still a fad and business owners are wary of HR, trainers and consultants.   I somewhat agree with their reticence and why the perception has come about.

Risk for your business

My concern for you is that the perception is likely to be around for some years unless the industry is radically regulated.   We have many international councils, federations and such as International Coaching Federation, European Coaching Federation and a plethora of University Business and Management Schools and small training providers running coaching programs etc. scrambling for your business dollar.

Who is protecting your business from rogue coaching organisations and rogue coaches?

Bottom line folks, executive or management coaching is not the silver bullet alleged to be. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Coaching can and does work.   On the flipside it also has its place and if not used correctly has no benefit at all.

Coaching is one link in your business performance process.

So why do I blog about it?

Well times are changing. The corporate world and small business needs guidance and protection. I’ve sat back and watched and seen the lack of ROI. Although you can be credentialed, and certified, I’ll be honest have a look at the ICF website it’s pretty basic, and you can still be certified and practice using non-standardised practices.

There is no watch dog in the industry…. Enter at your own risk and beware of the dogs

Okay so what now?

Sorry to be killjoy at my own party? Well what it means to you is that many consultants, facilitators, trainers now call themselves coaches or have coaching programs to offer. It means you have more risk to manage. It won’t change, it will grow, so get smart when you’re hiring. Find out from someone who can provide the risk management and protect your coaching investment.

We are so concerned about the risk to businesses that our business provides a range of services to protect your investment into coaching.

Protect your Coaching Investment

Our Consultancy Services include:

1.      Qualifying prospective coaches and organisations to protect your investment
2.      Acting on your behalf and risk stratifying coaching engagements
3.      Assisting you select and negotiate your coaching services and fees
4.      Assessing the quality, rigour and value of coaching training services that you are
considering
5.      Reviewing the performance of the coach/s to ensure they deliver on agreed performance
targets
6.      Reviewing, auditing and assessing breaches of professional conduct and ethics

I remain positive that coaching is a process to bring about performance. Don’t to get me wrong. It has enormous benefits. Just get the right service.

Our company continues to provide coaching services to key clients.   We select our clients just like they select us. Why, because we see it as business partnership not to be entered into lightly.

All the best on your search. Remember not everyone needs a coach, but they can perform better with one….

Journey well,
Matt Cartwright
Inspiring People, Inspiring Business, Inspiring Results
© Copyright 2008 -12

Inspiring Excellence, Achieving Bottom Line Results

12/3/2012

Inspiring Excellence.... Achieving Bottom Line Results

I was asked via the blog to make more resources available on Quality. What a huge task. So I’m making an effort this week to do so with this months blog. I hope that you find it useful.   Tell me if you do or if you don’t. l’ll start from simple then move to complex as the blog grows. So make sure you subscribe to rss feeds or the newsletter.

Case Study 2012, Inspiring Results

In our company we operate business processes to deliver quality. That is, the customer gets what the customer needs based on their business requirements and based on what they perceive value to be.

I’ll be transparent and start off with the basics. I have a background as Quality Manager managing healthcare accreditation, service delivery, innovation and a long background in the human service industry.

Quality is the core to our success. Our mantra is, less is more. Our business is not going to be all things to all customers. That’s fine, it’s just not the way we do business. We will take a share of business out there and service you, our customer to the quality you expect. We all have a choice, that’s the one we made.

What makes sense to our business is that our business is like a wheel of the car.

Sometimes it moves slow, other times not all and sometimes very quickly. I accept that it’s my responsibility as the driver. Our business wheel has defined spokes. Imagine a wheel on your car. Essentially the wheel moves forward when the engine is running and fuelled. Yes I know… wheels can go backwards, I know. That’s not the direction our gears are in. Central to the wheel is the business engine.

I’ll be truthfully honest, the whole car needs tune ups and servicing to keep in order. How far between tune ups is depending on driving conditions and so on…

So, yes…our business gets regular tune ups, check-ups, and inspections.   The wheels need balancing, aligning and tyres need changing.

Our business wheel has four major components.

1.      Commitment to excellence
2.      Build a culture around service
3. Business principles
4.      Measurement of the important things

Our company  has 12 principles or spokes we consider important to delivering a quality business, they are our enablers:

1.      Focus on customer and employee satisfaction

2.      Create and develop leaders and employees

3.      Build and enable individual accountability

4.      Align behaviours and attitudes with goals and values

5.      Communicate at all levels, timely, effectively and appropriately

6.      Recognise and reward success continuously

7.      Connect, share, learn, and improve continuously

8.      Innovate to make a difference by helping others succeed in their goals

9.      Research and develop new ideas to provide the best evidence based services

10.   Deliver fair, equitable and ethical services

11.   Provide socially and environmentally responsible services

12.   Deliver sustainable solutions and services

Our company focuses on Performance Results, we focus on 6 key areas

Service
Quality
People
Finance
Growth
Innovation

Central to our business is the fundamental purpose of being in business, to serve other businesses.

Core to our business is our engine, that is... it is maintained and fuelled by 4 key drivers

Meaning
Purpose
Motivation
Autonomy

Those who understand quality get what the customer and employee really wants.

Coaching challenge

Who in the organisational leadership is not focussing on quality?
What is being done about that?
If they did focus on quality what might happen?
How can you positively influence a better outcome?
When will you do that?

Journey well,
Matt Cartwright
Inspiring People, Inspiring Business, Inspiring Results
© Copyright 2008 -12

4 Irrefutable Facts about Motivation

8/3/2012

4 Irrefutable Facts about Motivation

I’m having a download but it’s to help you…trust me.. it will motivate you to think differently about work and life….

After consulting with a client I was reminded by the impact of another leader’s motivation. This leader was indoctrinated in a culture of hierarchy and glass ceilings. This hierarchy used power of the stick and carrot.

There have been many occasions where I have been asked to assist managers with a low performing employee. I have in the past reluctantly and sometimes thought it's too far gone but organisations are often keen to assist their staff. That’s a positive!!!

One of the biggest problems is we still have a number of leaders/managers working in the last century paradigm of carrot and stick mentality. It’s rife... have you noticed it?

Let's face it, people are not donkeys... although some might beg to differ, there are some stubborn people out there.....know anyone?

The carrot and stick mentality paradigm exists in organisational culture today both overtly and covertly. Nevertheless after working two years with an organisation I had discussions about recommending a performance framework (ahhh, the one they didn't even have!!!) to a transformational framework and employee engagement framework. This leader just didn't get it. It was about balance sheets.

Guess what I got ????? I got the stick across the backside and that was my last assignment in that organisation. I was glad..... It was no good me transforming people on the ground if the head honcho used last century behaviours in a modern world. That organisation still has ongoing issues with retention and recruitment.

Carrot and stick motivation, you are a donkey if you really believe it works

It's short term and so will be your business. What you sow is what you get, be careful what carrot seeds you sow……So I’m taking you to the new focus.

Your Motivation “Operating System, Donkey 1.0. Needs an Urgent Upgrade to Transform 1.0

So what will Transform 1.0 offer new users? Transform 1.0 is a metaphor…okay… stay with me. Read on….It simply offers new understanding based on research that shows the gap between motivation and business needs. The old version Donkey 1.0 does not work well with new browsers.

Questions for You or other send them to them to the blog...

#1 What drives any of us to perform at our best?
Is it money, fear of punishment, reward or is it something more than that?

The secret to high performance and satisfaction at work and at home is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world.

There is mismatch between what science knows and what business does and how that affects every aspect of life. While carrots and sticks worked successfully in the twentieth century, that’s precisely the wrong way to motivate people for today’s challenges. Do you agree or disagree?

Four elements of true motivation
In my research into motivation there are four elements of true motivation

Autonomy
Mastery
Purpose
Meaning

If you are an organisation or small business or an individual reading this and you need to know more about motivation then Inspiring Results can help you. I’ll know if you’re motivated because you may call or email me. Transform your work and how you live.

Old management techniques are like using an old software system for your computer, it's slow, unresponsive, and doesn’t work with new programs. Motivation is the same. We have decades of science that shows the way. This approach has four essential elements:

1. Autonomy, the desire to direct our own lives

2. Mastery, the urge to get better and better at something that matters

3. Purpose, the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves

4. Meaning, Man’s search for meaning is the primary motivation in his life and not a secondary
rationalisation of instinctual drives. (Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning,1959)

Now…Imagine a workplace environment where leadership mandates that all senior managers or managers must report on their key performance targets ensuring that their staff are increasing their autonomy, mastery, meaning and purpose at work. “Are you serious?”… “You bet that I am.” That would be kind of fun.....it would get us all talking that's for sure.

Imagine if all staff were appraised not only on their technical roles and abilities at work but also on their work key performance indicators such as autonomy, mastery, meaning and purpose.

7 Coaching Challenges... are you motivated yet???

How autonomous are you in your current role in your work environment?
How much meaning do you personally get from your current work environment?
How much purpose do you feel about you current work environment??
How effective are you mastering the key areas of your work or personal life?

If you manage people then answer these questions.

Who in the team could you give more autonomy to?
Who in your team could you ensure are mastering key areas of their work performance?
Who in your team have you had an in-depth discussion about their sense of meaning and purpose in relation to their work?

It's obvious, it will be easier for some businesses to keep their heads in the corporate sand as a way out of the complexities of motivation. In the long run, however, I believe that those businesses that stand by their people will have that goodwill returned many times over.

Keep motivated. It’s not easy sometimes, but it’s harder if you don’t…one day at a time...

Journey well,
Matt Cartwright
Inspiring People, Inspiring Business, Inspiring Results
© Copyright 2008 -12

Small Business Lean Initiative Has Sights on Leaning International Industry Leaders

8/3/2012

Small Business Lean Initiative has Sights on Leaning International Industry Leaders

I’m posting a quick message about the power of Lean Thinking and how I’m helping a small specialised business going lean in their own processes, automating wherever they can and also aiming to lean an international peak body to improve efficiencies in quality of service. I am unable share any commercial details. That’s business, but I will share some insights with you which I believe are helpful.

It goes like this.... I was consulting with a client today and we were discussing their proposal that was being presented to an international agency. This proposal if accepted will transform a performance culture, best practice and quality standards internationally. This result will revolutionise a quality control industry and insure its future sustainability.

Without saying too much, leaning the process will essentially transform out-dated existing quality improvement systems. It has taken the new and younger blood to ask questions…. the tough questions of ….“Why do it this way, couldn’t we do it better, here is the alternative, these are the benefits, here is a new process, can we test it?”

The challenge is the proposal has to be accepted by an international committee. I ‘Il keep you posted in the year ahead how we get ahead.

Lean is a key strategy, but don’t be fooled in to using it alone without all your other business processes.

When you Lean one process, it is likely that downstream might need reviewing as well. Lean needs to go enterprise wide for real benefit. I've seen it fail miserably in some departments like healthcare because one department does not lean all areas involved with the client journey. Additionally, not all staff are adequately engaged. Generally governance from the top is simply lacking.

One popular misconception is that lean is suited only for manufacturing. Not true. I’ve seen it used in small business, manufacturing, IT, HR, importing and complex environments like healthcare. I see Lean principles used widely in the biggest retail giant in the world. Just look at E-bay. At E-bay it’s an automated lean machine generating more site searches than Google in 2012.

Lean can be tailored and applied in every business and every process. It even applies in my household. Although the 5S techniques could do with some improving in the kids bedrooms, and okay….the garden shed to. Yes, I’m striving for perfection, it's a continuous improvement journey.

Lean is not a tactic or a cost reduction program, it’s a by-product of changing the business culture of thinking and acting as an entire organization. It has many proven quality improvement processes backing it.

Three takeaways today. Purpose, Process, People

If you are thinking more into Lean Thinking read the authors Womack and Jones, Lean Enterprise, 2nd Edition. It’s a useful book. The authors note that managers and executives that embarked on Lean transformations think about three fundamental business issues that should guide the transformation of the entire organization:

Purpose: What customer problems will the business solve to achieve its own purpose of prospering?

Process: How will the business assess each major value stream to make sure each step is valuable, capable, available, adequate, flexible, and that all the steps are linked by flow, pull, and levelling?

People: How can the business insure that every important process has someone responsible for continually evaluating that value stream in terms of business purpose and lean process? How can everyone engaging with or in lean terms (touching) the value stream be actively engaged in operating it correctly and continually improving it?

Lean needs to be tailored. The best way to experience it is to have a short workshop facilitated in workplace with your work processes. With you we will map your processes, look at bottle necks, queues, delays and so on. Then take it from there.

Mapping the journey or process is amazing. It’s like “Learning to See” how you do things in business. It’s an eye opener and you may go away scratching your head asking, “what the… why do we do that, it doesn’t make sense.” Remember many processes are inherited and never really planned or evaluated. Here is your opportunity to break the cycle. Add value… that’s your job.

We have a team of Lean experts who can provide customized training. One on one, or in small groups. Our Lean approach is a systems approach. Lean combined with coaching, facilitation, good team management, business excellence and good governance is required.

Our business is Inspiring Results in your business.

The approach to Lean is it’s a transformational process. That seems to resonate better with clients. They get it, they know something is going to happen, it has an emotion attached to it and it provides an image of a better future. Feel free to discuss how we can help your organisation big or small. We can all improve.

Also, if you interested in joining our Lean Team please contact me though this site.

If nothing changes, then nothing changes.

Journey well,
Matt Cartwright
Inspiring People, Inspiring Business, Inspiring Results
© Copyright 2008 -12

It’s not what happens to you that matters, it’s what happens in you

7/3/2012

"It’s not what happens to you that matters, it’s what happens in you”

The phone call ended like this today. “It’s not what happens to you that matters, it’s what happens in you”

I’m writing this post after a discussion with a personal friend of mine, a teacher, my mentor and my mother. A woman whom has tirelessly given to less fortunate people in many times when she herself was less fortunate. I thank her. She inspires me to keep writing, giving and following my career aspirations. I hope this post benefits you an dothers.

The Cure

Let me reassure you happiness can't be bought, mental peace cannot be injected or swallowed and no market can sell mental peace and happiness.

Overcoming difficulties at work and home has no magic pill, prescribed or non-prescribed. The big Pharmaceuticals will debate this……

The latest research is clear that the key to a happy life, now and in future is to develop a happy healthy mind. However you also need to take action and shift your focus. Many of my past clients have benefited from learning sustainable mind shifting strategies.   Whether this is cognitive behavioural or solution based coaching.

The important point is that happiness in the workplace can be positively changed if you only change the way you think about the situation, how to reframe the situation, and how to take a different course of action.

Have you noticed the negative ripple effect of some people in your organisational environment?

When people in the workplace are negative and criticising, they are uncertain about the future, their roles and responsibilities, there is a lack of praise and recognition. This obviously impacts on workers happiness considerably. Hence, productivity is reduced.

Tolerance

Tolerance is very important. If you have tolerance, you can easily overcome difficulties. If you have little tolerance or none at all, the smallest thing immediately irritates you. One of the keys to success is determination, with an optimistic attitude.

The happiness advice is pretty consistent. If people seek happiness from the outside world, from money or power, then they are in for one heck of a roller coaster ride of ups and downs.

Real peace comes from within oneself.

Unless our work or careers are linked to our values, meaning and purpose and our existence, then we are going to be limited in our ability to feel completely happy.

I know and confess in the past I have done work for works sake. And, I wasn’t very happy.

One of the key messages to take way from this post is to try to strike a balance between your outside world and your internal world and focus on trying to get the inner world balancing in the right direction.   However, let me remind you the outside world also needs modifying. That is, your role in it.

Remember, it’s the inner experience that matters most not the outer experience. So those of you stuck in a negative workplace or whatever situations start sorting the inner experience out.

There is one enemy, it’s inside you. It is natural for all of us at work, home or with friends to externalise the causation of our unhappiness. This results in anger, attachment, jealousy and hatred, these are the real enemy of our happiness journey.

Here is a free ticket for the happiness ride, enjoy and be happy.

12 Free strategies to help increase your happiness at work and home

1.      In the past month, how happy have I been really? (be truthfully honest )
2.      Where would I rather be on a score of 1 to 10?
On a scale of 1 to 10 how rate yourself (1 very unhappy, 5 happy sometimes,10 very happy)

Ask yourself the following and answer them by writing your answers down. It helps, trust me.

1.      What small things could I do to move myself further to that score that I want?
2.      What is my role in the current work or life situation that makes me unhappy?
3.      What and how am I contributing to the situation
4.      What are my attitudes that I change about the situation?
5.      What positive actions can I take to get a positive outcome?
6.      What will I take responsibility for in this situation?
7.      What changes am I not prepared to take in this situation?
8.      If I don’t change how happy will I be?
9.      If I do change how much happier might I be?
10. What’s stopping me from changing?

Journey well,
Matt Cartwright
Inspiring People, Inspiring Business, Inspiring Results
© Copyright 2008 -12