In every manufacturing operation there is variability. The variability becomes evident whenever a quality characteristic of the product is measured. There are two basically different reasons for variability, and it is very important to distinguish between them. Normal Distribution Variability Inherent in the Process occurs even when all adjustable factors known to affect [...]
Ellis Ott in his book on Process Quality Control pointed out that every manufacturing operation has problems. Some are painfully obvious; others require ingenuity and hard work to identify. Every research and development person, production engineer and supervisor has to be a troubleshooter. Anyone hoping to become a research and development person, production [...]
Research conducted at the Center for Creative Leadership in the mid-1990s found that in order to be an effective leader of a technical organization charged with innovation, leaders need to discover their own aesthetic competencies and learn how to apply these in order to revitalize themselves, their work, and the organizations they serve. [...]
As mentioned in the section on teamwork above, building a successful team requires lots of hard work, ideas, experience, and good fortune. Leaders and team members alike need highly tuned people skills to thrive over the long haul. The successful leader is an exceptional coach and relationship builder. In his work on coaching, [...]
The principles of teamwork can best be explored by adult learning models. These models are where people try out their teamwork skills in actual tasks and activities. It is not just book learning, it is experiential. Workshops usually focus on case studies that are relevant to the team members. Case studies lead learners [...]
Most people like to think of themselves as team players in public it is fashionable to say I’m all for teams. But when a person gets back to their organizations with 13 pressures, demands, politics, egos, and self-interest; teamwork is right out the window. Chris Argyris, an expert on group dynamics, describes this [...]
MOMs, unlike Mavericks, can be developed, both in terms of skills and credibility. However potential MOMs are likely to perform better as a MOM if they are Mavericks as well, and show some proclivities for this role. Typical tools MOMs use for the various central role elements shown in the above MOM Advocacy [...]
Language Comparison MOMs are multilingual in the sense they seem to understand the different strata of the Corporation speak different languages. The Language Comparison figure illustrates this. Language is an essential element of MOMs credibility. MOM networks fill a critical translation function both horizontally, between various innovation constituencies, and vertically, between low-level Mavericks [...]
In his book “the innovator’s dilemma” Clay Christensen talked about how an organization’s immune response system stamps out new breakthrough ideas. To thwart this immune response, Dick Cheverton, Lanny Vincent, and Bill Wilson found that maverick innovators’ new ideas and projects could best find their way to commercialization through the use of a [...]
HR training, assessment, and educational materials are increasingly available through educational institutions, professional societies, and corporations. The key for such programs is to make them available to all levels of the organization, just in time for whenever an individual wants or needs to obtain a skill, and in a variety of formats that [...]
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