Illustrated Steve Jobs quote on Design, with two images
Steve Jobs — not much needs to be said about his influence on design and quality and making things the right way. Here is a quote about design and how to make improvements.… Continue reading
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Illustrated Steve Jobs Quote on Innovation
Steve Jobs — not much needs to be said about his influence on design and quality and making things the right way. Here is a quote about the motivation to make improvements and… Continue reading
Working hard, but making progress?
A lot of people work hard every day. But sometimes we can also find a way to do things differently. There are often alternative choices. And there are two miles of ditch… Continue reading
Thoughts on Thinking about Workplace Innovation
…or, “A Desk is a Dangerous Place from Which to View The World!” Ideas are good, but not every idea is a good idea. And a desk is one of the places where… Continue reading
People and Organizational Alignment – Working Together
People sharing a common goal can get a lot more accomplished than people who are each working individually. The key is to keep them motivated and feeling like they are accomplishing the goals… Continue reading
Team Building Games for Large Groups – The Goal is to Mine Gold! As much as WE Can!!
The Search for The Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine has the theme of mining as much Gold as WE can, something that tabletops often ignore in their attempt to win the game for their… Continue reading
People who are attacked by management WILL defend themselves
A simple illustrated concept is show here. Basically, the reality is that people who feel they are being attacked by their management will defend themselves in some way. Often, this involves a personal… Continue reading
People who feel attacked will get institutionalized defenses
If people feel that they are being attacked, they will eventually band together and formalize their defenses. They have lots of ways to accomplish this structural defensiveness. The key is to identify the… Continue reading
Thoughts on Constraints and Improvements in Processes and Flow
We need to recognize where our processes are constrained and look for ways to make improvements in how things flow. This involves planning and collaboration and communications, key issues for leadership.
Continuous Continuous Improvement of Processes and Procedures
I use the words, “Continuous Continuous Improvement” because of the reality that many people will say that they have DONE continuous improvement, which is really a paradox and not possible. How can you… Continue reading
The Paradox of Making Progress Forward as a Team
Thoughts on teamwork and making progress. Two business slogans used in marketing that are combined with the reality of how organizations really work. Do you think that this represents the worker reality?
Teaching The Caterpillar to Fly – Thought to Remember
This is a simple theme that we use in our thoughts about Teaching The Caterpillar to Fly. You can find a 5-part series of posts and illustrations by clicking on the image. You… Continue reading
Teamwork and Progress – Some thoughts on working together
Ah, the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1893, where the soldiers fired the gun and everyone took off to claim the land that they wanted. It was a great way to populate the state… Continue reading
Doing Nothing is NOT Making Progress
It is surprising how many people think that maintaining the status quo is actually maintaining anything. A cartoon on that looks like this: And, when we consider the situation, it looks and sounds… Continue reading
Daniel Kahneman’s View of How People Really Think
Here is my view of the main theme of Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman’s most excellent book on how people think and make decisions. It is a great read. One key point… Continue reading
Plan the Work, and then Work the Plan! Two cartoons
Yep. Most organizations do not seem to get things very aligned. But the reality is that things can actually work out just fine. Remember to celebrate the success!
Sabotage and Worker Disengagement – The Pin Hits the Balloon
It takes a lot of crap for people to finally get mad, but when they do, you can often hear a loud, “POP” as the pin hits the balloon. You can expect no… Continue reading
Mud, Alligators, Sharks and Leadership – Impacts on Motivation
On issues of progress and improvement, as viewed from being up to your axles in mud and dealing with alligators. One from our Lost Dutchman framework of how to improve teamwork and the… Continue reading
What Customers Think about how things really work
Here is The Customer involved in how things are working. From their perspective, all they feel are the impacts of poor systems and policies. But sometimes they can also feel improvements. The solutions… Continue reading
The Knights of the Square Table – some thoughts
Here are some thoughts about performing to capability and motivation:
Scott’s Marketing Image for our Square Wheels toolkits
I thought this a solid and simple way of representing the business improvement opportunity that exists for most managers in most organizations:
Traveling with the Square Wheels Team
I saw some slogans for traveling and thought that they made pretty funny captions for Square Wheels One: Performance Management Company sells easy to use toolkits for generating better involvement, engagement and innovation.
Famous Last Words about how things really work…
I thought these comments were pretty funny, so here they are:
Flying High with Square Wheels
Those Square Wheels are actually good things to have on a hot-air balloon. They work well for helicopters, too. You can also use them for going down very steep hills… Plus, they cook… Continue reading
More on Leadership Balance
There is this one, too. Balance is critical for good leadership. (And I sent this one out after flubbing an email to a group of customers.)
Leadership Balance
Leaders have to be a lot of things to a lot of people an awful lot of the time. Balance is one of the keys, for sure. Thought you might like this little… Continue reading
Alligators and Sharks – they mean competition
We’ve played with the metaphor of alligators and sharks as “motivating forces” in many of our workshops. Sometimes, you have to just get moving! You just cannot afford to freeze and not make… Continue reading
Alignment and The View from The Top
Organizations need alignment in order to make efficient and effective progress on the journey forward. This is how it should look!
Activity is not Action.
Looking busy and keeping active simply prevents you from looking around to see obvious performance improvement possibilities. The Round Wheels are already IN the wagon. Consider this as you step back from the… Continue reading
Making progress, 50 Feet Farther than Last Year
This is a poem, but it is also the punchline to my Favorite Closing Story, “The Moose Joke!” You can click on the image to go to a download page for the joke.
There is always two miles of ditch…
A few thoughts on managing change and improvement:
Playing with Ideas involves and engages
The Round Wheels are already in the Square Wheel wagon. But implementation requires people to play with ideas before they can truly implement change. Playing with ideas helps involvement and innovation and generates… Continue reading
Turbocharging The Teamwork
In Lost Dutchman, teams can acquire a Turbocharger, which is a metaphor for a Best Practice. This enables them to perform at a higher level, simply because they have innovated and improved how… Continue reading
Collaboration Really Looks Like This
In many organizations, the thrill of competition tends to make it more fun to compete than collaborate. Innocent sabotage is a common happening.
The Potential to Make Things Happen
Unseen potential is always there. Good ideas can come from unexpected places.
Politics, Culture and Organizational Mud. How do we make progress?
Getting things done? Maybe. What changes do we need?
The Pin CAN Hit the Balloon, and it does!
The pin will eventually hit the balloon and things will go pop. People will take only so much before they get mad. Sabotage is one result of an angry workforce. And what angers… Continue reading
Everyone Can Contribute, Surprisingly
Ideas can come from everywhere. Don’t be surprised, just look for good ones when they appear. Good ideas come from hands-on people, who understand the realities of how things work and who have… Continue reading
My Team and the issue of Collaboration
Interdepartmental Collaboration is a recognized oxymoron – two words that do not go together. Often, it is simply our policies and procedures and attitudes towards others that generate the result. Consider possibilities… … Continue reading
Dealing with the Mud of Management and the making of improvements
Sometimes, we get up to our axles in mud and we need to consider that there might be a different way to address issues of performance, rather than doing the same old thing… Continue reading
Thoughts on Mentoring – Teaching the Caterpillar to Fly
A lot of what we do is simply about perspective and viewpoint. Good leaders tend to see things differently and look for potential. The butterfly is already in the caterpillar. And caterpillars can… Continue reading
Thoughts on Intrinsic Motivation
How things really work. With some obvious inferences about what might be done differently… Why do the above, when we might do something more like this: How might we do things more better… Continue reading
Great Walls in Communications and Teamwork
In China, there is a Great Wall. There are also Great Walls in most organizations, each with its own wagon trains. Is Interdepartmental Collaboration an oxymoron?There are lots of ways to improve communications.… Continue reading
Tractors versus People – The Workplace
There are always other solutions. Not all of them are great ones! Be careful what you wish for. Not ALL things are really improvements and there are impacts from everything you press onto… Continue reading
Discover the Road – Square Wheels and Mud, a Haiku
A Haiku on dealing with the mud of the journey forward. Note that you are NOT on the road… Do things better and differently. Please Like this if you LIKE this! Have FUN… Continue reading
Collaboration and Innovative Thinking
People with different views can collaborate to produce a better outcome. People can combine their different perspectives to generate an even richer idea for innovation and implementation. For the FUN of It! Dr.… Continue reading
Square Wheels: On Alignment
Working is different than working together. Teamwork requires alignment and shared goals. More often, people are actively running around in chaos and confusion. So, here is a Haiku on how things work and… Continue reading
About Scott Simmerman
Dr. Scott Simmerman is the creator of the Square Wheels illustrations about organizational behavior and the author of numerous team building games; his flagship product is The Search for The Lost Dutchman’s Gold… Continue reading