by mmartyn | Nov 9, 2010 | Best Practices, Continuous Improvement, Culture, Enterprise Alignment, Leadership, Operational Excellence, Results
The Shingo Prize (www.shingoprize.com) is a non-profit organization committed to the education, assessment, and recognition of organizations achieving operational excellence. The process of applying for and receiving recognition from the prize is extensive and...
by mmartyn | Nov 4, 2010 | Best Practices, Brain, Changing Behavior, Human Behavior, Visual Management
In 2009, Charles Jacobs published a book entitled Management Rewired: Why Feedback Doesn’t Work and Other Surprising Lessons from the Latest Brain Science. In it, he discusses the power of mental paradigms and what leaders must do to change behavior. According to...
by mmartyn | Nov 2, 2010 | Brain, Creativity, Development, Innovation, Motivation, Problem Solving
In his work as an educational theorist, John Dewey believed that discovery-based education yielded the best learning. By allowing learners to connect with information through participation and experimentation they engaged more fully and identified new ideas and...
by mmartyn | Oct 28, 2010 | Changing Behavior, Development, Human Behavior, Leadership, Organizational Structure, Visual Management
I have written before about the importance of the structure and physical space in driving the development of right behaviors in an organization. On my last trip to Japan, I was again stuck by the way the japanese use physical space and organizational structure to...
by mmartyn | Oct 26, 2010 | Best Practices, Changing Behavior, Development, Engagement, Human Behavior
A few years ago, I was challenged to create a sales boot camp to significantly reduce the time it took to master the selling process in a retail furniture environment. Whereas it had previously taken 6-12 months to train a new sales person, our goal was to do it 90...
by mmartyn | Oct 21, 2010 | Best Practices, Continuous Improvement, Design, Innovation, Problem Solving
“The extent to which you have a design style is the extent to which you have not solved the problem.” – Charles Eames Design That Matters is a non-profit company who faced a problem with global implications. 1.8 million premature babies die each year from a...
by mmartyn | Oct 19, 2010 | Continuous Improvement, Cultural Enablers, Innovation, Problem Solving
Welcome to the Grand Cafe in Oxford, England. The Grand Cafe was one of the first coffee houses to open in England in 1650. With the replacement of alcohol as the daytime drink of choice, the English coffee house blossomed into a locus of learning and was crucial to...
by mmartyn | Oct 14, 2010 | Changing Behavior, Culture, Engagement, Human Behavior, Leadership, Motivation
It is rare I come across information on the practice of leadership rooted in actionable advice and useful for my clients. Recently however, I discovered a brilliant 3 minute talk on the role of leaders in starting a movement. The creator, Derek Sivers, is the former...
by mmartyn | Oct 9, 2010 | Continuous Improvement, Creativity, Innovation, Problem Solving
A Chinese man created these structures on a beach using nothing other than the natural balance of the objects. When asked how he did it, he responded “Well I guess with everything in life, there is a place of balance…” Amy Tan, once noted that the key to...
by mmartyn | Oct 5, 2010 | Best Practices, Cultural Enablers, Human Behavior, Leadership, Motivation
Recently, an executive asked me to help develop a profile for recruiting new sales managers. The company currently uses a highly refined and successful selection process which hires results-oriented sales managers who aren’t afraid to give pointed feedback and hold...
