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In word and deed do top managers honor the dignity of employees, and the value of their ideas?  Of all the POSITIVE EVENTS that influence inner work life, the single most powerful is progress in meaningful work.  The secret to amazing performance is empowering talented people to succeed at meaningful work: Facilitating progress is the…

According to Dave Wagenvoord and Ali Pervez: “It usually takes me time to explain how barter trade works, and even after that, some people get it and some people do not.  But, I am usually able to get people to give it a try, and when they do, they are blown away with the results,…

A Simple Leader’s Test: If you had to raise capital tomorrow — or if a buyer came knocking — would you lead with a bigger number or a better system? Growth vs. Yield Growth is the loudest metric because it flatters the ego.  If this growth rides on bloated processes, brittle systems, and heroic firefighting,…

Help me improve this Guide: If you like the amends, tell your friends. If despise the plea, tell me.

Someone suggested you (the owner/ founder/ chief executive): If you appreciate these 5 minutes, why not Invest 8-9 hours? Live or Virtual: Painting a full picture: Gain Clarity. Engineer Quality into your system. I hear former President Abraham Lincoln warning me:  “It is better to stay silent and be thought a fool, then speak up…

I do a lot of crying about Management. 35 years an employee, I am convinced:  You either tap into intrinsic motivation or stomp it out.  The Contrarian Thinker: The unfolding story, cannot be like the one that got us here: I discovered Deming in response to poor management: My employer (in some ways, the largest…

We have infinite defects in our cognitive ability? (Here are 289+ flaws in our thinking…) Or, could it be that our Thinking Model is flawed? Like say perhaps, our Entire Management Theory? “The biggest challenge you have in thinking about systems is becoming aware of your assumptions, because these assumptions almost always drive how you…

Ask Ed: What do you know about Dr. W. Edwards Deming? The individual most responsible for the Third Industrial Revolution Warning: By introducing W. Edwards Deming, I am challenging your unchecked assumptions. Many of these concepts could haunt you the rest of your life! Before you proceed: (14 guiding principles) Deming gives language to what…

This is the deliverable: The tangible product: Action/ Result Map: Digital and Physical maps (navigational tools) for Jumpstarting Process Improvement! We start with a map so everyone can see how your system operates.  Mapping exposes the hidden structure beneath chaos. It shows, at a glance, how tasks, technology, people and processes come together to create…

Is your business dragging you down? When you are ready to move on to Bigger and Better Things: If your asking price is reasonable, I hope to give it to you. I am looking to invest in or acquire companies in and around Charlottesville with $500k-5M in top line revenue. Preferably B2B providers, creative artisan-focused…

InnoStratix | Improving.Business: A birth place for World-Class Transformation: Transforming a small or mid-size business into a world-class organization, begins with: The new Mindset:

Decisions Simplified: Here is the answer to many questions: 0, 1, or ∞  Pretend this is an urgent matter. You have 10 seconds to decide a life-changing event. What do you do? Keep it simple: There are only three (3) possible answers: Zero, One or Infinity. 0, 1, ∞

WATCH THIS STORY BY DERRICK MAINS (ON LINKEDIN): Derrick has the best stories.  Just imagine his methodology. After watching this video, I am thinking HOW Most people tout Peter “the mother” Drucker, regurgitating his BS:  “Business, because its function is to create a customer and sustain it, has only two purposes:  Marketing and innovation.  Marketing…

Deming vs Drucker. Here is my personal MRKT/MBO rant: This here is Chat: (nice me) Pros and Cons of Management by Objectives (MBO) Pros Cons (especially from a Deming perspective) Deming vs. Drucker Interestingly, Deming and Peter Drucker agreed on many things, but they approached organizations from different directions. Drucker Strengths Drucker emphasized: His famous…

How do you shape up lazy and incompetent employees? If this is you, let me share a little story found in Stephen R. Covey’s masterful book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Powerful Lessons in Personal Change.  The excerpt goes like this: I was in a group once where someone asked, “How do you…

Does your company share a common aim? How do you know? In The 8th Habit, Stephen Covey uses a soccer analogy to illustrate the devastating lack of alignment, trust, and purpose in modern workplaces. Transposing statistics into an analogy: He relates statistical workplace surveys to a hypothetical soccer match to show how disconnected employees often…

The quality of management is determined by how well it sees its throughput. Where do your best operational insights come from? Who works directly with your customers and clients? If an employee points out a problem, offers a suggestion, mentions something not working, they often get nominated to fix it: Without extra pay. Without support.…

Risk #1 Key Person Dependency: When knowledge lives in people rather than systems, buyers see risk. Risk #2 Tribal Knowledge: Every undocumented process lowers scalability. Risk #3 Heroic Employees: If your best people are carrying the business, they are masking system failures. Risk #4 Invisible Bottlenecks: Most companies cannot identify where capacity is being lost.…

Deal strategy consult: 15 questions. 10 minutes. The score tells you which evolution you are living in. Clarity:– Transferable value in one sentence– Quarterly optimization target– Value question on every major decision– Progress metrics beyond revenue– Definition of “winning” at the next evolution Autonomy:– Documented owners for recurring tasks– Weekly leadership meetings without the founder–…

Run this before you talk to a single buyer, banker, or broker. CLARITY[ ] Can I explain in one sentence what creates transferable value in my business?[ ] Does my team know what we’re optimizing for this quarter?[ ] Do I know what “winning” looks like at my next evolution? AUTONOMY[ ] Does every recurring…

Three 3 part strategy:  Diagnosis:  Most organizations unknowingly suppress the productive capability they already pay for because their systems are poorly designed, poorly understood, undocumented, and psychologically misaligned.  Over time, dysfunction becomes normalized.  Companies tend to mistake adaptation for efficiency. Guiding Policy:  Most organizations possess far more capability than their systems allow them to express. …

Questions About School: Questions About Human Potential: Questions About Work & Organizations: Questions About Systems Thinking: Questions About Psychology & Variation: Curiosity Hooks / “Mind-Blowing” Verbal Questions: Gateway Questions Introducing Deming: “Why do we usually blame people for problems created by systems? “What kind of environment helps human beings thrive?” “Deming believed most people want…

How I see it: One hell of a theory for problem solving using the simplest of tools… Thank you Derrick! M4: Map/ Method/ Model/ Mechanism: Map: (Action/ Results) Can you visually see your process? Are you operating blind? Mapping is the collaborative visualization part; helping everyone visualize and improve your workflows. Think of it like…

Suppose you get to bed tonight and sleep well.  Sometime in the middle of the night, while you are sleeping, a miracle happens and all the troubles that brought you here have been resolved.  When you wake up in the morning, what is the first small sign you would like to see that would make…

The very first testimonial of the Action Result Mapping process: From the technology industry: “The team reported their findings from the first day session. They discovered only 91 minutes of work in a process that was taking the team 32 days to fulfill.” (Everything else was meetings, bureaucracy, approvals, status updates, double checks, triple checks. …

LinkedIn post What is Quality? These are eight characteristics/ dimensions of quality. This framework was proposed by Harvard Business School Professor David A. Garvin in 1987: Quality Is Not Inspected In. It Is Designed In. Most CEOs say quality matters. Far fewer manage their organization in a way that makes quality inevitable. Quality is not something you…

While exploring UXD: (user experience design) It felt like something was missing: Focus on your client. Duh! Got it? (Why does UX, EX, CX, DX, PX, my take of BX, require specialization? From the top? Why is X an afterthought? Why not front and center? Get your priorities straight: Anyhow, this is what I was…

How about a Psychological Moon Shot? Says the Alchemist Rory Sutherland: “Making a train journey 20% fast might cause $100M but making it 20% more enjoyable, might cost almost nothing.  Biggest progress in the next 50 years:  May come not from advancements in technology, but in psychology and design thinking.  Put simply:  It is easy…

The MBA Oath: MBAoath.org I am Parker Son of Quanah Fixer of process Here at Improving.biz

Internal reference: Free images:  https://unsplash.com/       https://www.pexels.com/ Hex Code:  https://www.color-hex.com/ Color contrast check:  https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/   Color wheel: https://www.figma.com/color-wheel/ QR Generator Code:  https://qrcode.tec-it.com/en/MeCard Alternative to Figma:  https://www.canva.com/ Stick to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG):  https://www.w3.org/WAI/tips/designing/ https://www.dailyui.co/  Become a better designer in 100 days – daily challenges. https://medium.com/  stay curious  Accessibility:  https://www.springboard.com/blog/design/accessible-design/ User-centered design:  https://www.usability.gov/what-and-why/user-centered-design.html  Statistics:  https://www.statista.com/ Google’s…

To make Step 1 remote, digital and infinitely more helpful, I use Lucid Software. Here is my badge to show you I am at least somewhat capable: Triage, Mapping, Modeling: Whatever you call it; STEP 1 By itself, Will have a powerful and positive influence in and on your business: Increasing its capacity no less…

With the help of ChatGPT: PART I: Here are several types of self-assessment tests commonly used by businesses to evaluate different areas of performance, capability, and readiness. Each focuses on a specific domain of the business: 🔹 1. Business Model Assessment Evaluates how well your business model fits your market, delivers value, and generates revenue.…

🚀 Why You’re Not Scaling (Yet)… And Why a Fractional COO May Be the Smartest Move You’ve Never Made Most growing businesses hit the same wall: The real problem? You are still the operator in your own business.And no matter how brilliant your vision, you cannot scale what you are stuck inside of. That is…

Here are a few books supporting this idea: 🔹 The Rudolph Factor: Finding the Bright Lights that Drive Innovation in Your Business – By Cyndi Laurin 🔹 Freedom’s Forge: How American Business Built the Arsenal of Democracy That Won World War II – By Arthur Herman 🔹 Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us – Daniel…

We run Process Triage as an application-only engagement. You should not have to guess what is breaking your operations, nor gamble on yet another consultant who leaves behind binders instead of results. That is why we offer the Clarity & Control Guarantee: If you do not walk away from Process Triage with a clear process…

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I just heard about this and thought I would share it: Stephen Meade’s Tornado technique:  Answers the question: What do you do?  Narrow it down: Tornado Script for Business Acquisitions with a Deming Approach 1. Who You Are & Your Approach (Clarity & Specificity) “Hi, my name is [Your Name]. I specialize in acquiring and…

“When an employee applies to your organization and shows up on their first day, they are hoping this is their dream job, that “this is the one.” Six months later when they do not show that same enthusiasm, engagement and intrigue; that is what your organization did to them over time. They showed you their…

Does it shock you knowing that virtually ALL of our thinking is based on the past? Do you really think business schools heavily rely on forecasting? Most, teach how business was done in the past. Hence; A great deal of our business thinking stems from Frederick Taylor’s Scientific Management.  Modern management thinking is also infused…