Tag: operational excellence

How Effective at Multitasking are We?

According to no less than the Cleveland Clinic, ” Studies (regarding multitasking) show it makes us less efficient and more prone to errors.” Cleveland Clinic goes on to make the case: When tasks are easy and routine such as, “like listening to music while walking, or folding laundry while watching TV,” these are generally not

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All Is Not Quiet

Organizational Conflict may not be visible.  Passive Aggressive executives may not exhibit the classic signs of stress. The stresses of everyday business are well understood by those in that mix.  Each individual has an agenda based on his/her personal desires as well as organizational job description and target (goal) requirements. By definition, this puts all

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What a Turkey

How many times have you seen someone do something incredibly stupid, even risking their life?  What a turkey! Story goes that Benjamin Franklin proposed the turkey as the American National Bird.  Almost 250 years later, this bird often carries a different connotation.  Often maligned, this tasty fowl has its day once a year.  Even two are

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Why Corporate Initiatives Fail

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, one definition of initiative is. “A new plan or action to improve something or solve a problem.”  In corporate parlance this often translates into yet another short-term and often politically correct effort to demonstrate forward motion/social citizenship.  Often forgotten faster than the evening news cycle as new searches for performance

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A Windy Position

In a recent online discussion, this pundit put forth the thought that fiberglass wind turbine blades can pose an environmental problem when decommissioned.  This position was quickly challenged with the rebuttal that burning coal ‘kills’ kids so it did not matter if discarded blades litter the countryside as it is worth it. According to research

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ESG Explained

According to Investopedia, “Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria are a set of standards for a company’s operations that socially conscious investors use to screen potential investments.”  Definitions of the three components are pretty straightforward: Environmental–Generally refers to the stewardship of the planet and how organizations facilitate that responsibility. Social–Facilitating organizational responsibility to the global

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Going Green? Or NOT!

The total or lifecycle carbon footprint for any energy source is a function of the manufacturing, commissioning, operation (including maintenance) and decommissioning of that asset.  Moreover, the value of an electric powered vehicles (EV) is seen as a function of the amount of fossil fuel no longer used by the vehicle.  However, this is only

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100

This edition marks the 100th post in our Critical Mass Blog series.  We have sought to provide thoughtful, unbiased insight into the contemporary business and organizational challenges we all face.  Since our first blog post on November 27, 2017 our world has turned over in ways none expected.  Likely, this trend will continue. This series

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Getting to Diverse and Inclusive Teams

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Team Models There is a tendency to see DEI through the lens of initiatives or often a process semi-outside the daily ‘organizational’ grind.  Does this represent reality? Organizations spend countless sums training employees and others they depend on for Operational Excellence performance.  They often trust global Teams to add stakeholder

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Data, Data Everywhere but Not an Answer in Sight

Awash with data, how many decisions made actually use it to add value?  Too few one suspects and partly because decision-making systems are not designed for this volume.  Much is made about Big Data and the value it can add to a business.  However, there is little said about the software applications and compute power that

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Questions, Questions, Questions

Picture sourced from LinkedIn, author unknown. It seems like there are a lot of answers these days, even to questions that have not been posed.  As of this writing, this author understands that masks work for Covid-19 but vaccines not so much although we are advised to get the shots and even a third one

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Roadmap to Decision Making In the ‘Smart’ Era

“Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.” — Napoleon Bonaparte Volumes have been written on decision-making and this pundit has offered his share of insight and comment on the subject as well.  Some of our comments regard the appropriateness of the human intercession in electronic decision making.  Others

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ESG Implementation–Strong v Weak Revisited

“A healthy corporation acts on the interests of its stakeholders and customers” — Ari Melber, Journalist Currently, organizations are being implored to implement Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) driven business models.   Proponents even suggest that investment in organizations that do not have this imprimatur should be avoided or even divested. However, one wonders what has

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Post Covid-19 Operational Performance

Not the So-Called New Normal   The light at the end of the Covid-19 tunnel may not be the train many still believe.  Populations are being inoculated at very high rates.  Moreover, there is ample evidence in my metropolitan area that the general population no longer believes or adheres to the ‘advice of experts.’  This

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Teaming Safely

“For safety is not a gadget but a state of mind”   Second only to the basic need for food, water and what is required to sustain physical life, safety and security are the next step in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.  In other words one cannot love or feel belonging or achieve a level of

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I Didn’t Do It, He Did — I Didn’t Do It Either, Someone Else Did

“When converted into productive thought and action, the energy it takes to blame, shame, and game is enough to launch anyone into heights of real success and happiness.”  – Charles F Glassman Entrée It is not often that an entire geographically LARGE state loses power and water simultaneously.  Now we know it can happen!  Welcome

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Covid-19 Positive: Telemedicine Kicked into High Gear

Crisis Drives Change In 2001 this writer approached the Houston medical community, post tropical storm Allison which flooded many basements in the Houston Medical Center with the loss of experimental data and other records.  We proposed the development of an Internet based solution to hold and manage medical records of all types.  The response to

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How Dare You!!

Lessons in Leadership—how dare you put young people in jeopardy for loss of life or failures they will live with the rest of their life? As we end Veteran’s Week, we are reminded of President Herbert Hoover’s comment, “Older men declare war.  But it is the youth that must fight and die.”  Hoover was president

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MVP: A Case of Failure

Not as Easy as it Seems When transforming this website to the Word Press platform, this author accepted the “wisdom” of various online sources and used a so called up and coming new Page Builder.  A huge mistake! After many failures and indeed public page lockups, I changed to a more established solution—the one used

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The Tyranny of the Blank Sheet of Paper

We have all had that, “Where do I start” moment?  Confronted with the NEW, sometimes the task seems daunting.  In a recent conversation, a colleague and I were discussing an adult training program.  The subject centered on how to help students jump start a creative flow. We humans are fond of using so called cheat

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Technology Assessment in the Era of Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

App developers have fallen in love with the concept of Minimum Viable Product aka MVP.  Wikipedia defines minimum viable product (MVP) as “a version of a product with just enough features to satisfy early customers and provide feedback for future product development.” This development model might make some sense for consumer software or even some

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man with burning stick while moving in darkness

Agility, Resiliency, Sustainability

In a recent Harvard Business Review, I was struck by an article about Best Practices for small businesses.  From that piece, “To successfully navigate Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) challenges like Covid-19, family business leaders can look to best practices from another organization that specializes in VUCA situations—the U.S. military’s Special Operations Forces (SOF)”

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Tumultuous Decade: What’s Next for Oil & Gas?

April 20, 2020 marks the tenth anniversary of one of the most horrific incidents in the upstream oil and gas sector—Deepwater Horizon.  In addition to the tragic loss of eleven lives, the sector forever changed.  Immediate restructuring of federal oversight resulted in the establishment of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) and their

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covid-19

Is Big Data Analysis Being Applied?

We have been hearing for years how, Big Data Analysis will help us optimize our businesses and generate performance at levels here to for never hear of.  So where is it now? Two major sources for data on the Covid-19 virus are Johns Hopkins University and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  This is

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Restoring the Global Economy: Starting Today!

Prognosticators of the future, including this one are speculating on the Post-Covid-19 world.  As with every disruptive crisis, things change going forward.  This one will be no different and will probably accelerate certain trends, end some and generate many new opportunities.  Some industry sectors and many organizations will need to transmute the way they do

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fractal

To KISS or Not?

According to legend, the term KISS or ‘Keep It Simple, Stupid’ was coined by Kelly Johnson, lead engineer at the Lockheed Skunk Works and noted by the US Navy as early as 1960.  Subsequent phrases such as ‘Less is More’ followed. At first glance, it makes sense not to overly complicate a product, process or

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Hanging App?

By one measure, the US presidential primary season is off to a rough start.  In a small state, counting the ballots became a challenge.  Wasn’t technology supposed to solve the problems of past confusions? Yet the mechanism seemingly failed—again!  How is this different from the Boeing Max 8 disaster?  In one sense it isn’t. Disclaimer: 

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10, 20, 30, 40, 50 or More!

The advent of 5 G so soon after 4 G—Humm.  What’s next?  How many G’s are there? In 1965, Gordon Moore put forth the construct that the density of transistors in integrated circuits doubled each year.  The so-called Moore’s Law has governed technology growth ever since.  However; over 50 years later, some argue that we

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2020 Vision: Are Your Stars Aligned This Year?

Depending on one’s perspective, 2020 is either the end of the last decade or the beginning of this one.  One can argue that our actual birthday is the day we were born and 12 months later we are one year old.  This suggests that on our tenth birthday we have lived a decade and a

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Reflection: Are We Near a Digital Tipping Point?

Generally, this time of year humans are wont to look back on the closing year and assess the good and the bad, and dare I say the ugly?  We celebrate successes, review the not so successes, and what is left undone.  This process prepares us for the New Year’s resolutions that are often then broken.

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