Blog
“Practical, jargon-free guide to building an excellent business one small change at a time”
Going with the Flow
What picture springs to mind when you hear someone say “flowchart”? Then you look at the word (flowchart) or is it two words (flow chart)?! Both spellings are correct, so don’t be worried. Do you see a crazy spaghetti mess of shapes and lines? Would you believe me if I told you that you only […]
The 80/20 Rule and Why Should I Care?
Why should you care about the 80/20 rule aka Pareto’s Principle? What if you could invest just 20% of your effort or resources and get 80% of your results? What would you do with the time and money you liberated? Quality guru and management consultant Joseph M. Juran popularized Pareto’s Principle through Juran’s work on […]
Processes are Recipes for Success
What do you think of when you hear the word “processes”? Does some image like a manufacturing line pop into your mind? Except for giving a speech, would you rather do anything EXCEPT look at your business processes? Have you ever used a recipe? Then you followed a process. Every process has ingredients. Let’s look […]
A Traditional Turkey…Story
Morena Baccarin (Inara on Firefly) has been credited with saying, “You like to think that you’re bigger than your traditions and customs, but they form who you are.” So here is a Thanksgiving story, with a little twist. A man and woman fell in love. Their first Thanksgiving was spent far from family. She cooked […]
Cooking a Meal is a System in Action
We’ve talked about processes and problem-solving in earlier blogs. Systems thinking is where you put everything together. We don’t reflect much about systems, just like we often don’t think about the processes we use every day. In its simplest form, systems are what you get when you combine processes. One way to understand systems is […]
Solve Business Problems Like a 5-Year-Old
We all have problems. What we don’t all have is a proven and consistent way to solve our problems. Problem solving should not be a process that turns you inside out. Have you ever watched a five-year-old get into a cookie jar? Yep, we are going to solve problems like a five-year-old. Problem: Want cookie…Mom […]
Houston, We Have a Problem…Or Do We?
Those four words, “Houston, we have a problem,” have become part of our cultural language. We often use the phrase when we encounter an unforeseen problem. As small business owners and managers, how do we know when we have a problem? If we expect one thing and get something else, then we know we have […]
Do You Use Routines in Your Business?
Do you use routines in your business? I bet that you do. You see, routines are the actions we take to get stuff done. We use routines so that we don’t have to come up with new ways every day to handle the hundreds of things we must manage or complete. With good routines, […]