Stephen Covey concludes his bestselling book ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ with the habit that makes all other habits possible – sharpening the saw. The name of this habit comes from a story in which we come across a man feverishly and exhaustedly sawing down a tree, which he’s been doing for the…
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We frequently ask people in our workshops and webinars to tell us about the challenges they experience from day to day. This is done using a non-technical audio measurement system of our own invention which we call the ‘ugh-ometer’. We simply ask people to provide us with an “ugh” if they experience any of the…
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Icebergs seem ubiquitous in the world of Continuous Improvement: there’s John Kotter’s change management fable ‘Our Iceberg is Melting’; the Iceberg model used by systems thinkers to get below the ‘surface’ events in order to understand the patterns, structures and mental models underneath; the famous Cost of Poor Quality iceberg that shows there are many…
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In her book ‘The Life Changing Magic of Not Giving a F**k’, author Sarah Knight provides advice on how we can rid ourselves of unwanted obligations, shame and guilt, to free up time for the things that make us happy. After a chapter focused on looking at ‘things’ (like basketball or having a bikini body),…
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“In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun, and – SNAP – the job’s a game!” So said Mary Poppins prior to bursting into song before a bemused looking Jane and Michael Banks. At Catalyst we always bring a spoonful of sugar to our work. In…
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It’s one thing to know the analytical tools, when and how to apply them, but it can be quite another to use them! When it comes to turning data into graphs and charts not every CI practitioner is a whizz on Excel and certainly not everybody has access to powerful stats tools like MiniTab. Recognizing…
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The Customer Is King. Putting customers at the heart of everything we do. I’ll tell you what I want, what I really want. We’ve all heard these phrases, mantras and songs (!) about being customer-centric. But what does this actually mean? Who are our customers and what do they want? There is so much that…
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You might have come to this blog expecting to read all about the Agile Methodology Steps and how to apply them. In that case, this blog is not the right one for you. In fact NO BLOG claiming to have Agile methodology steps would be right! Let me explain why. The Agile principles and manifesto…
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I was reading this week* that Apple’s newly anticipated handsets will probably not feature the cutting edge, “delighter” led, technology features we have come to love in their iPhone products over the years. This got me thinking about Kano Thinking and it’s relevance in 2019. When Noriaki Kano published “Attractive quality and must-be quality” in…
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When was the last time you saw something that wasn’t as it should be and just fixed it? Maybe your fix worked, or maybe it didn’t and you thought, ‘well at least I tried’. This sort of thing happens all the time and I guess it always will. In many cases it is not wrong,…
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