Operational Excellence |

The Perfect Storm

By John Evelyn | August 14, 2009 | Adversity,Agility,Alignment,Capability,Competition,Execution,Leadership,Lean,Leverage,Operational Excellence,Resources,Rigidity,Six Sigma,Sustainability,Technology,Transparency,Winning

Our customers make us better! Have you heard that phrase? When I have, the translation that emerges is that our customers sometimes have to drag us into improvement. In fact, it often means that we become aware of the needs to improve from feedback and complaints. Someone might argue that we sometimes innovate from negative feedback
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Francis Bacon, Top Guns, and the Breakfast of Champions

By John Evelyn | August 7, 2009 | Adversity,Agility,Blind Spots,Capability,Competition,Deming Prize,Diagnosis,Execution,Fit for purpose,Leadership,Leverage,Operational Excellence,Resources,Rigidity,Risks,Technology,Winning

It’s time for breakfast. I’m having a bowl of OODA Loops, a true Breakfast of Champions. Want some?

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“Hurry Up and Wait!”

By John Evelyn | July 27, 2009 | Agility,Capability,Competition,Customer Experience,Customer Service,Execution,General,Lean,Operational Excellence,Resources,Respect,Six Sigma,Teamwork,Technology,Transparency,Travel

This morning I was traveling. It was a long flight, but the flight crew made great time. In fact, the pilot announced that we would be in a half hour early, at the gate. Great news! I could feel those …
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“Something In The Way She Moves……”

By John Evelyn | July 24, 2009 | Adversity,Agility,Capability,Competition,Execution,Leadership,Leverage,Operational Excellence,Rigidity,Winning

We were having a discussion one night about agility. It started with the language of sports or war to develop metaphors for illustrating business parallels. Agility became my pet for that chat and endless ranting to come. I concluded that …
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“It’s Not Your Problem!”

By John Evelyn | July 22, 2009 | Agility,Capability,Competition,Customer Experience,Customer Service,Execution,General,Operational Excellence,Resources,Tapestry of your life,Teamwork,Travel,Winning

Travel mess-ups happen. If you’ve been on the road for some time, you accumulate enough stories to play one-up-on you with fellow road warriors. My wackiest experience was when I and a customer were in Suriname (Dutch Guyana) and had …
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More Gossip

By John Evelyn | July 15, 2009 | Alignment,Execution,Fit for purpose,General,Leadership,Operational Excellence,Sustainability,Tailoring,Transparency,Vision

Our last discussion was about the game “Gossip” and the calamities resembling the Tower of Babel and the language disconnects that impact our enterprises. In that initial article, I mentioned that we might need a Rosetta stone as a tool …
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“That’s Not What You Wanted?”

By John Evelyn | July 13, 2009 | Alignment,Capability,Execution,General,Operational Excellence,Teamwork,Transparency

Have you ever played Gossip, the party game? It’s simple, great fun, and revealing. In Gossip, the participants line up in a row or a circle and the first player is given a sentence, or better yet, a number of …
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You Can’t Go Back To Somewhere You’ve Never Been To

By John Evelyn | July 6, 2009 | Agility,Capability,Execution,Fit for purpose,Leadership,Lean,Operational Excellence,Resources,Rigidity,Six Sigma,Technology,Winning

My first car was a beautiful 1956 Oldsmobile; I bought it in 1968, during the early half of my senior year in high school. It increased my degrees of freedom and mobility. No more having to catch rides with my …
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“The Suit of Happiness”

By John Evelyn | June 24, 2009 | Capability,Diagnosis,Fit for purpose,General,Integrity,Leadership,Operational Excellence,Purpose and Values,Tailoring

“Every happy family is the same, but unhappy families are all different.” The opening of the Leo Tolstoy novel, Anna Karenina, captures our attention and immediately triggers a reflection of our personal perspective. I have no competence to comment on …
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The Customer Mambo ….. do you want to dance?

By John Evelyn | June 15, 2009 | Agility,Capability,Execution,General,Operational Excellence,Resources,Rigidity

Dancing is universal. It comprises virtually every demographic and global grouping of peoples we could think of. It has meanings up, down, and across our cultures, social circles, traditions, rites of passage, events, moments, fun, status and …… …
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Category Archives: Operational Excellence