How to fix 90% of problems at work

Applying the first three core practices of Kanban will fix 90% of issues we have in knowledge work. Kanban is an approach to incremental, evolutionary process change for organizations.

System eats culture for lunch

Peter Drucker, a management guru who has written extensively on knowledge work, is quoted for saying “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”. He wants to emphasize the importance of culture over strategy. If you focus on strategy, but not on your culture, it’s the culture that…

Yelling improves employee performance

If you yell at resources (e.g. people) when they perform poorly, they will perform better next time.

This is easy to demonstrate. Take a normal 6-sided die and throw it. When you get a 1 or a 2, yell at the die and make it understand how…

To get more done we must work on fewer things

A cobbler is a person who repairs shoes. A cobbler’s work queue is his shelf of shoes. The shelf can only fit a certain amount of shoes. It is a physical limitation that cannot be overlooked and buying a bigger shelf won’t repair shoes any faster. If…

You are part of a system

Systems thinkers always seemed to understand more of the world than I did. That’s what sparked my interest towards systems thinking. I too wanted to understand the world like they did.

Measures should not be targets

In most companies, measures and targets are directly linked to each other. When you start measuring something it immediately also becomes a target. To make things worse, compensation is based on how well individuals meet those targets.

Budget is the worst invention ever

This blog is about replacing obsolete guiding principles in business. Budgeting is a prime example of such a principle. Budgets are a relic of the past, yet still heavily relied on in most companies.

University does not teach you leadership

“In classes, students are given problems and taught to seek the solutions that their teachers expect; students’ success depends on their ability to do so. This even carries over to corporate managers who, when presented with a problem, want to know what their…

A lesson on leadership from a diabetic drunkard

Years ago I spent a summer working as a security guard at a mall. One day when on shift I got a call from the grocery store. A drunkard had passed out right in front of their main exit and they wanted him removed.

Targets make companies fail

A goal states a challenge that needs to be addressed. It’s a general direction to head in, not a path to follow. It describes what the destination is like, but doesn’t say where it is. There’s a broad set of options on how to reach the goal. An example of a goal would be: We want…