 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
A Man and His Razor
It is vain to do with more what can be done with less. William of Ockham This is Ockham's famed Razor. A shorthand version of the razor might be, "keep it simple." When complexity is added to a relationship, process or organization without good reason, the result is usually a loss of focus, clarity and effectiveness. Roles become blurred, goals are uncertain and success is haphazard. Bureaucracies are prime violators of the principle. Clinging to management structures designed in the 19th century to help the railways run on time, many organizations maintain complex supervisory relations that unnecessarily slow work. Even in companies that have slashed middle management, the supervisory web remains-though often working under a new name. Team captains may have replaced department heads, but someone is still signing leave requests. The reengineering movement brought a significant corrective to this complexity. While the quality initiative asked, "how can we do it better," reengineering asked, "should we do it at all?" The question is an excellent filter for leaders striving for simplicity. It should be asked before any decision is made or action taken. It is a modern extension of the Razor that helps "keep it simple." George Ebert is the President of Trinity River Seminars and Consulting, a firm specializing in the custom design and delivery of team building, personal growth and ethical development programs. Mr. Ebert is a highly sought after speaker, educator and consultant with over thirty years experience in both the public and private sectors. He has presented widely throughout the Unites States. He is the author of the management cult classic, Climbing From the Fifth Station: A guide to building teams that work!
MORE RESOURCES:
Google News |
 |
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Passion for Profits Business owners and managers are busier than ever. As their businesses grow and become more complex, they find that they don't have the time to be all things to all people. Top 10 Things Every Business Should Provide for Every Worker - Including the Boss! Doing business and meeting the needs of workers is increasingly complex. Employees and managers often prefer a cafeteria-list of fringe benefits (a "flexible spending account") so they can choose increased health care, child care or more time off as their individual preferences dictate. Don't Get Down - Manage Up! "Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him." - Aldous HuxleyEver have one of those supervisors that just didn't quite get it?Perhaps you even wondered from time to time how in the world this person ever became a manager in the first place?The truth is that most of us, at some point in our career, will experience this firsthand. Efficiency Around The Office Nearly every office, be it commercial or home-based, may have areas of inefficiency that can be improved upon. We are not talking sales figures or profit margins or budgets, but inefficient waste and resource management. Why Outsourcing Could Be The Best Thing You Do For Your Business While it's probably not true to say that the traditional 9-5 job is on its way out, it IS true that more and more businesses these days are starting to see the value of outsourcing the jobs they can't cover themselves. Things like copywriting, PR, programming - even secretarial and admin support - are being outsourced to freelancers working from home or running their own business. Two Critical Success Factors in an ITIL Implementation Any IT manager who wants to pursue the IT Service Management journey by implementing the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) needs to understand two very important factors well in advance.? The first factor is to have dedicated, trained and committed process owners. Parenting Your Employees to Better Performance Have you ever worked for someone who was such a micro-manager that it drove you crazy? And have you ever worked for someone who was so hands-off that you felt like a lone warrior on the battlefield? These are examples of you working for leaders who did not adapt their style based on the employee's needs. I would venture to guess that you were not entirely motivated to put out your very best effort every time when you were feeling such frustrations. Travel the World - for Free! I have been very fortunate to travel to several countries of the world while on business - countries I may have never visited on a holiday. There are pros and cons to working/doing business in a foreign country vs. Appraisal Systems - Not Living Up to Their Objectives Almost, if not all organisations have them, they've been around for a very long time and some organisations swear by them, however on the whole the average appraisal system fails to live up to the expectations of the organisation and often they can cause more trouble than they are worth."So, minister, here we are at the end of your government and the record doesn't look to good, crime is up, hospital care down, the economy still shaky and poor public services. Show Me the Money! Are you ready to raise money for your startup?Leslie Mitts, Managing Practice Leader at the Wharton SBDC and Lead Advisor for the Wharton Venture Initiation Program, tells us that most entrepreneurs coming through her programs are focused on raising capital, even though there are higher priorities in many of their businesses. Since fresh dollars help drive the business engine, this is a natural entrepreneurial concern. Across The Interview Table! Job interviews are easier for the interviewer or the interviewee if you plan and prepare and use proper interviewing techniques. On this page are job interview questions and purpose of each interview question, because there is a purpose behind each and everything that we do and similarly there should be a purpose behind each and every question that we ask in interview. Tales from the Corporate Frontlines: Providing Career Opportunity This article relates to the Career Opportunity competency, commonly evaluated in employee satisfaction surveys. It explores issues such as internal growth opportunities, potential for advancement, career development importance, and the relationship between job performance and career advancement. Have You Always Thought That The Best Ideas Come From Research Or Management? Think Again Many entrepreneurs and chief executive officers are unaware that there are many factors that put ordinary workers at a great advantage over R&D and management when it comes to generating useful improvement ideas and even new products ideas for a corporation.The people in research are usually hindered by the fact that it is difficult for them to stay in touch with the day to day running of the business and the problems that arise. Executive ESP: A Pathway to Success! We all have psychic abilities that we use daily, although most of us don't even realize that. The full study of this issue would take many books, and years of experience to grasp all the factors. The Art of Motivation and Need Fulfillment Industrial/clinical psychology and applied psychiatry have made tremendous strides in understanding human behavior. New discoveries and applications toward understanding human behavior are being announced with increasing frequency in these inexact sciences. Management Training: Are You Satisfied With The Results? If you're not satfied with the results of your management training programs, maybe it's because you handle training as a 'one shot' event rather than a process of developing your people to be better managers.One of the common misconceptions is that a manager can take a course and voila he is now skilled in communicating with others, or managing his time or delegating work. Turbo Charge Your Career With The Most Powerful Leadership Tool Of All: The Leadership Talk: Part 1 Leaders speak 15 to 20 times daily. You speak at meetings, you speak across their desks, you speak on the phone, you speak in e-mails, you speak at lunch, beside the water cooler, and on elevators, etc. How to Coach Your Employees - 5 Simple Steps Anyone Can Do! Want to get more from your people, but you don't know how? Are you up for a small challenge and prepared to do things a little differently? If so, we have five changes to your style that you will find easy to incorporate into the way you work and your people will love you for it; you will have more time and your business will flourish.Think about it - is that not worth just the little effort required? Stop Fixing ThingsNext time someone comes to you with a problem in your business, STOP, before you give the solution and try the next step. Action Learning: Its More Than OJT For centuries companies have used on-the-job training (OJT). OJT works because it follows much of what we know about adult learning theory. 4 Tips on How to Avoid Communication Lines Breakdown For example, in a small, two-person company, there is often the greatest opportunity for direct conversation and discussion throughout the day. There are only two possibilities for verbal communication and it's usually quick, easy and descriptive.
|
|
|
 |
 |
