These seven virtual workshop facilitation tips help reduce meeting waste and increase the potential for virtual event learning.

In this week's Real Life Work podcast, I provide ten answers to the 'how to change a work culture' question people so often ask.

This week's Real Life Work podcast looks at how to use the top Ten training effectiveness measures to measure training effectiveness.

This week’s Real Life Work podcast looks at how to use predictive analytics at work to help predict process outcomes and optimize results.

LISTEN to my PODCAST that supports this POST! DOWNLOAD my 'Be Proactive with Daily Process Improvement' PDF DOWNLOAD my 'Personal Kaizen Pursuing Process Excellence' certificate overview PDF CHECK OUT my 'Pursuing Process Excellence' playlist on my Great Systems YouTube channel Bring my VIRTUAL 2-day ‘Best Practices in [...]

In this week's version of the Real Life Work podcast, I share five ways to improve environmental investigation root cause analysis. Note that this post is not about what type of root cause analysis process one should use. That is your call to make.

LISTEN to this post as a podcast! PLEASE SUBSCRIBE to my weekly Real Life Work podcast! PLEASE join me in Texas on April 24-25, 2023 for my NEW 'Measurement, Trending, and Predictive Analytics - How the Best Use Data to Improve' 2-day workshop! PLEASE check out the 20 [...]

LISTEN to my 'Measurement Madness' post as a podcast! Please check out my Real Life Work podcast playlist! Be a part of my NEW 2-day 'Measurement, Trending, and Predictive analytics - How the Best Use Data to Improve' LIVE workshop on April 24-25, 2023. It's part of this year's [...]

LISTEN to my ‘Common Equipment Reliability and Asset Health Questions’ post as a podcast! Be a part of my NEW 2-day ‘Measurement, Trending, and Predictive Analytics

LISTEN to my ‘How to Measure Leadership Effectiveness’ post as a podcast!

In this 'How to Measure Investigation Process Effectiveness' podcast, I share multiple options to measure investigation process performance.

LISTEN to my 'Too Many Work Teams, Too Little Team Effectiveness' post as a podcast! 2-Day VIRTUAL MISTAKE PROOFING WORKSHOP! Welcome to My 'Too Many Work Teams, Too Little Team Effectiveness' Real Life Work Podcast! by Kevin McManus, Great Systems LLC I call my second 'Real Life Work' [...]

This post looks at why our process improvement fixes fail. More importantly, it gives you key ways to help fix those problems. LISTEN to the podcast for this post! CHECK OUT my 'Introduction to Process Improvement' video on My Great Systems YouTube Channel Why Our Process Improvement [...]

Why Our Process Improvement Fixes Fail By Kevin McManus, Chief Excellence Officer, Great Systems Welcome to this episode of the ‘Real Life Work’ podcast, hosted by Kevin McManus. In this podcast episode, we explore common system gaps that help explain why our process improvement fixes fail. More importantly, we look at common best practices to fix that problem. If you would like to read the text for this podcast, please follow this link! Why Do Our Process Improvement Fixes Fail? There is a psychological pattern that causes many of our process improvement fixes to fail. Over the past forty-plus years, I have seen tens of thousands of corrective and preventive actions. After a while, a pattern began to emerge. I saw the same pattern with attempts to address ‘unsafe act’ and ‘unsafe condition’ audit findings. It wasn’t just the ‘weak fix’ pattern many people see in their organizations. You know what I mean by weak fixes. Think of your favorite retraining, procedure expanding, and punishment focused changes. Instead, it was a pattern of a less visible nature. In a nutshell, here is what I saw: Our fixes tend to be weak, and in turn fail, when we blame people and equipment for our problems. The root causes we select set the stage for weak versus strong corrective actions. Those root causes are a result of the root cause questions we ask, how we collect and analyze evidence, and the design of the root cause analysis process itself. As Henry Ford said, “If you always do what you’ve always done, you will always get what you’ve always got.” How often do your fixes fail? Is it possible that a root cause analysis process shift, along with a psychological shift, could lead you towards a more error free workplace? Learn More About the TapRooT® Root Cause Analysis Process If you want to learn more about the TapRooT® root causes analysis process, you can always visit the TapRooT® website. Some favorite quick access links of mine include: 3-day VIRTUAL TapRooT® Root Cause Analysis Workshop I still teach 10-15 virtual 3-day courses a year for System Improvements as a contract instructor. If you would like me to teach this course in your company, one option is to contact me directly. Then, I will help you get a quote from System Improvements. Also, you can request to have me as your instructor when you book a virtual course through the System Improvements website. 2023 TapRooT® Summit I will be at this annual event once again in 2023. In 20

The Real Life Work ‘How to Increase Work Team Engagement’ Podcast In this podcast, I share my learnings on the ‘how to increase work team engagement’ topic, which is a must for operational excellence. PLEASE SUBSCRIBE to my Real Life Work Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, or Spotify. Cheers! You can find the transcript / post for my ‘How to Increase Work Team Engagement’ podcast on the Great Systems website. Just follow this link! Do you know how to increase work team engagement levels? When I first entered the world of work more than 40 years ago, employee involvement was becoming the rage. Now, organizations realize that both effective individual and work team engagement are critical to achieve true, sustainable operational excellence levels. Unfortunately, many don’t know how to increase work team engagement. Here are some engagement ideas that work for me. First, people are the foundation of organizational success. ALSO, engagement reflects a degree of connection that goes beyond ‘mere’ involvement. However, true, meaningful engagement is not easy to come by. This is especially true if your prevailing work culture actually encourages employee disengagement. The phrase ‘I am only going to do what they tell me to, and nothing more’ comes to mind. EXPLORE MORE: Empowerment, Engagement, and Creativity Drive Innovation Fairness matters most relative to compensation work system design impact on engagement levels Most importantly, strive to design a fair compensation system. Appropriately recognize each employee for the contributions they make to organizational success. Don’t base recognition simply on one’s job title. Unfair, or poorly deployed, compensation systems drive down engagement levels. The “What’s in it for me?” question is very pervasive and powerful. Plus, it focuses on much more than pay. Be sure to look at other forms of compensation. Examples far too many companies ignore include the work environment, formal recognition opportunities, and benefits. Do you want to learn how to increase your work team engagement levels? Do you have other work team engagement questions? If so, please send me an email at kevin@greatsystems.com. Keep improving!

Root Cause Analysis Frequently Asked Questions Podcast Welcome to this week’s edition of the Real Life Work podcast, brought to you by Great Systems. Today’s episode focuses on root cause analysis ‘frequently asked questions.’ I consistently encounter these questions as a contract virtual instructor for the Taproot® root cause analysis process. Please email or message me with your questions and podcast ideas. More importantly, enjoy the podcast. In order to improve ANY process, you must find and minimize the root causes of process waste. Most organizations would say that they know this. They could easily show you how they invest lots of time and money over time in attempts to do this. What they might struggle to do, however, is demonstrate to you the effectiveness of their current root cause analysis process. How do you find root causes? How effective are the root cause analysis questions your problem solvers ask? Are you interested in a 3-day virtual Taproot® root cause analysis course? I regularly teach 3-day virtual root cause analysis courses as a contract trainer for the Taproot® root cause analysis process. If you would like me to teach your course, simply send me an email and I will connect you with System Improvements. Also, feel free to ask for me as your instructor when you book your 3-day virtual course. I always welcome your questions via kevin@greatsystems.com. Do you have unanswered root cause analysis or problem solving questions? If so, please feel free to send them my way. Most of all, keep improving! Kevin McManus, Chief Excellence Officer, Great Systems www.greatsystems.com kevin@greatsystems.com LIKE Great Systems on Facebook CON

Measuring Process Improvement Effectiveness Podcast By Kevin McManus, Chief Excellence Officer, Great Systems LLC This ‘measuring process improvement effectiveness’ podcast comes from one of the most popular posts on my Great Systems website. It began as an Industrial and Systems Engineer magazine  article I wrote a few years ago. Back then, I had just completed another national Malcolm Baldrige Performance Excellence Program site visit. On that particular site visit, my role was to evaluate the organization’s processes for information capture, analysis, and use. Like most high performing companies, this organization tracked the number of ideas submitted and implemented. However, they could not factually demonstrate or describe how best practices and innovations came from this core set of ideas. Also, it was a challenge to look at how improvement status shifts occurred over time. How well did they manage idea backlogs or droughts? What percentage of submitted ideas became best practices or innovations? Please listen to the podcast to learn more. Plus, please subscribe to the podcast so you can receive notification when my freshest content drops. Keep improving! To read this post, please follow this link: How to Measure Process Improvement Effectiveness Feel free to message me with your thoughts or questions via LinkedIn or send me an email at kevin@greatsystems.com. Kevin McManus, Chief Excellence Officer, Great Systems www.greatsystems.com      kevin@greatsystems.com LIKE Great Systems on Facebook CONNECT with me on LinkedIn

Best Practices to Stay Union Free Podcast By Kevin McManus, Chief Excellence Officer, Great Systems LLC During my work life, I have worked in, and for, both organized and union-free companies. In some cases, we had some organized sites and others that were not. With all the labor organization efforts going on today, I thought I would share this ‘best practices to stay union free’ podcast. Plus, these are simply best practices for leading any workforce. My perspective has always been that is if a company has a union in-house, at some point in time the company deserved one. Current management may lead in a much more positive way, but mental models from past negative interactions still exist. It is a challenge to undo twenty-plus years of bad management with just a few years of ‘good management’ attempts. Like it or not, if you choose to continue to manage in a manner that could be perceived as even a bit authoritarian, entitled, non-inclusive, or unfair, a union could be in your future. I have learned that the following practices are effective in ANY workplace setting, organized or union-free. EXPLORE MORE: Check out the Great Systems website for more free resources! Focus on Building Sound Relationships, Not Staying Union Free People give you so much more at work each day than what your naked eye can see. Conversely, if they are dissatisfied, they will take more from your organization than you will ever know. It’s not a threat. It’s simply the realities of how fairness, or the lack thereof, influences one’s performance on the job each day at any organization level. Workplaces that are fair, fun, and focused on excellence are possible. Plus, you can even find them and experience them if one looks hard enough. They’re just not the norm. Where is your workplace at today? What would your people say if we asked them the same question? LISTEN to the Podcast! To read this post, please follow this link: Best Practices to Stay Union Free Feel free to message me with your thoughts or questions via LinkedIn or send me an email at kevin@greatsystems.com. Kevin

Best Practices to Stay Union Free (or Attract One) … It’s Your Choice! During my work life, I have worked in, and for, both organized and union-free companies. In some cases, we had some organized sites and others that were not. With all the labor organization efforts going on today, I thought I would share my best practices to stay union free. Plus, these are simply best practices for leading any workforce. My perspective has always been that is if a company has a union in-house, at some point in time the company deserved one. Current management may lead in a much more positive way, but mental models from past negative interactions still exist. It is a challenge to undo twenty-plus years of bad management with just a few years of ‘good management’ attempts. Like it or not, if you choose to continue to manage in a manner that could be perceived as even a bit authoritarian, entitled, non-inclusive, or unfair, a union could be in your future. I have learned that the following practices are effective in ANY workplace setting, organized or union-free. EXPLORE MORE: Check out the Great Systems website for more free resources! My First Two Experiences with Organized Workplaces I can’t take all the credit for the best practices I share here, by any means. Each of my first two employers was organized, with one union being small and the other being the United Auto Workers (UAW). As a ‘fresh out of university’ Industrial Engineer, I saw little difference in terms of how the union’s presence affected the performances of a given site. Both Locals would file the same flavor mix of grievances – working hours, safety concerns, wage rate versus seniority, bid job rights, etc. There did not seem to be any significant difference in work rules or work practices. People could be happy or unhappy. Such happiness seemed to be driven mainly by where they worked and who they worked for, not by the union’s presence. Both sites had improvement teams, but only a small percentage of the workforce was involved. By the turn of the century, both companies were out of business. Most people simply came to work each day, did their jobs, and went home. Learning How to Design Work to Stay Union Free My third employer was not organized. Such a status did not figure in my job selection process, but the five years I spent in that environment dramatically affected my career path. On an annual basis, we would have a lawyer from back East come in and teach us about how to stay union free. It was all legit and legal from a labor relations standpoint. We made rubber roofing, in a part of the country that had a strong Un