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When Fixing What's Broken Doesn't Work

Expertivity Technologies , Alex McDonnell

When Fixing What's Broken Doesn't Work

Don't Improve Your Legacy Business System, Shed It! For over 30 years now I have been engaged by organisations in the service and knowledge-work sectors to help them improve their performance. In almo...

26 Dec 2020

Joined-Up Thinking and the "Germ Theory of Management"

Expertivity Technologies , Alex McDonnell

Joined-Up Thinking and the "Germ Theory of Management"

If I hear another commentator, while bemoaning the ills of our country (any country but in my case Ireland), say that "what we need is some joined-up thinking" and say it as if it's some "as-yet-to-be...

26 Dec 2020

Today's Problems Come From Yesterdays Solutions.

Expertivity Technologies , Alex McDonnell

Today's Problems Come From Yesterdays Solutions.

The above quote from Peter Senge's great book "The Fifth Discipline" is one of those profound pieces of wisdom that, even when said out loud,, doesn't always capture the depth of the insight. Edward D...

26 Dec 2020

What is Lean Enterprise Excellence & Operational Excellence

Expertivity Technologies , Alex McDonnell

What is Lean Enterprise Excellence & Operational Excellence

Our CEO Alex McDonnell explains what Lean Enterprise Excellence & Operational Excellence is: quality management improvement project industry experience depth understanding black belt shingo model...

26 Dec 2020

Why "Cause" beats "Urgency" every time.

Expertivity Technologies , Alex McDonnell

Why "Cause" beats "Urgency" every time.

I admire John P Kotter, I have been an avid reader of his books and an evangelist for his message about leading change. In his book "Urgency" Kotter says he believes that "the single biggest error peo...

26 Dec 2020

Transforming Lean: Is Leans Roots in Japanese Religion and Culture holding it back?

Expertivity Technologies , Alex McDonnell

Transforming Lean: Is Leans Roots in Japanese Religion and Culture holding it back?

Christian Wittrock from Aarhus University in Denmark wrote an interesting paper* in 2015 tracing Leans roots in Japanese religion and culture. The abstract from his paper states: "James Womack, Daniel...

26 Dec 2020

Service Sectors Biggest Problem Solved: How Long is a Piece of String?

Expertivity Technologies , Alex McDonnell

Service Sectors Biggest Problem Solved: How Long is a Piece of String?

Anybody familiar with fractals will know that the answer to the question is "infinite". Fortunately most teams in service and knowledge work organisations don't need to calculate the length of your co...

26 Dec 2020

Easiest Way To Improve Performance? Step 1: Stop Making Things Worse!

Expertivity Technologies , Alex McDonnell

Easiest Way To Improve Performance? Step 1: Stop Making Things Worse!

I work with service and knowledge work organisations and it's often quite surprising to them how much they can improve performance by just stopping making things worse. Of course, its not that people ...

26 Dec 2020

"Whistling Past The Graveyard" of Bad Performance Measures.

Expertivity Technologies , Alex McDonnell

"Whistling Past The Graveyard" of Bad Performance Measures.

In Ireland, where I come from, we have a tradition of folklore, mystery, tall tales, "sayings" and proverbs that cover every possible life situation, one of which is "whistling past the graveyard". Ac...

26 Dec 2020

Ryanair: When Complex Adaptive Systems bite back!

Expertivity Technologies , Alex McDonnell

Ryanair: When Complex Adaptive Systems bite back!

Ryanair is Europe's largest airline and is probably the first modern day organisation to build a successful business model based on despising its customers, its people and its suppliers. It could do t...

26 Dec 2020

Ryanair: A Lesson for Leaders, Managers, Unions and Society

Expertivity Technologies , Alex McDonnell

Ryanair: A Lesson for Leaders, Managers, Unions and Society

There's been a lot of feedback on my earlier post on Ryanair supporting the post but also pointing out the great things that Ryanair has achieved for society such as low fares, the boom and ease in tr...

26 Dec 2020

McLaw & Associates and Xpertivity Join Forces

Expertivity Technologies , Alex McDonnell

McLaw & Associates and Xpertivity Join Forces

McLaw & Associates and Xpertivity Limited were both founded by Alex McDonnell and Paula Lawton. Paula and Alex have now brought both companies together under the Xpertivity brand with the services pre...

26 Dec 2020

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