Meetings: As certain and as joyous as death and taxes There are very few people that actually enjoy meetings. I have never heard anyone say, “I can’t wait for the meeting this afternoon” unless it’s followed by “I won’t have to eat at my desk.” Certainly, the people who are called to attend a meeting largely lack enthusiasm are energetic unless they, or their project, are the reason for the meeting – and even then, only if it’s expected to be a positive experience for them. And the person calling the meeting will not usually be enthusiastic or energetic unless the reason for the meeting is something joyous or dreadful – or unless they are an autocrat or narcissist who just wants to tell people what to do, how to do it – and otherwise ladle-on (usually unreasonable) commands and demands. So, if nobody enjoys it, why do we meet at all? Read More |
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 State of Readiness Workshop Sept 12 – 13, 2019 | Omaha, NE The Operational Excellence Society, together with the Iowa Lean Consortium, are excited to invite you to join us for this unique 2-day Masterclass and Workshop based on the groundbreaking book, “State of Readiness” by Joseph Paris. |
 Operational Excellence Week Canada October 21- 23, 2019 | Toronto, Canada Join Joseph Paris at this excellent event where he will be delivering a Workshop as based on his groundbreaking book “State of Readiness”. Register now and receive a copy of the book for free at the event! |
Five leadership styles behind the success of giant MNCs Ceridian is as an information services company. And, according to its CEO, David Ossip; “… Negative employee attitudes can harm workplace culture, impacting morale and employee engagement, and may also result in a ripple effect of unhappy customers.” Mr. Ossip recognized this problem and its being a threat to the business. He made use of his skilled and purposeful leadership with a deep understanding of what is required to engage people and satisfy customers. He accomplished this, in part, by incorporated an app into the payroll and benefits to capture the entire employee experience. by Amal Mohamed Read More |
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Talent Acquisition ; The Key to Success or Failure by Ben Gledhill Sadly this article is not about the Transformers. Sorry. It is about something not as exciting but maybe just as important. We are seeing more and more organisations looking to “transform” their Talent Acquisition/Resourcing functions, either as part of a wider HR/People programme or maybe simply wanting to try a new piece of tech. Having been through a few (and still going strong on the current one) I thought I would share a few bits of insight that might assist others, starting with today…why can a transformation often go wrong? Now there are many reasons why things can go slightly south when you are looking to go through a period of transformation, whether it is a single project or several programmes. A little birdie called McKinsey told me that 74% of business transformations fail. Not HR, not Payroll, not Reward, not even Talent Acquisition. General business-wide. If they are failing, what chance might we have? |
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Operational Excellence Society |
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Lessons from the Military on Creating Highly Effective teams |
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In this episode of State of Readiness, I interview Carl Kirpes, responsible for Crude Oil Strategy & Analysis at Marathon Petroleum Corporation. Carl and I met some years ago at an annual conference of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers when he was just graduating from Iowa State University – and we have stayed in touch over the years. Listen in as we follow Carl’s career; from being a walk-on player on the Iowa State Football team and the influence Coach Rhoads had on him, to his joining GENESYS Systems Integrator where he rose to the position of Vice President of Operations in just about a year from graduating, and now at Marathon. He will also share with us the importance of always learning, of being mentored, and of being a mentor. Hear about how Carl applies a concept he coined Reflective Leadership, dive into the ALL IN mentality of the Iowa State collegiate football program, and uncover how “Individuals provide the potential, but teamwork creates the results.” |
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This episode finds us short of guests, but the show must go on.! So, in an act of desperation and in search of fresh meat, we look inward and bring Chas – our podcast technician extraordinaire – from behind the curtain and into the spotlight. Little did we know we were going to enter “Dr Whoopee’s Wayback Machine” and go back in time to discuss the earliest in personal computer technology. Names like “Sinclair” and “Apple-II” – when a 20 MEGAbyte hard drive and 640 KILObytes of memory was the most anyone could ever possibly need – and a 40 MEGAbyte hard drive was living like a Saudi Prince. Listen now! |
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So You Want to Write a Book?
My book, “ State of Readiness“, was published in May this year (2017). And it’s been almost six months since I have written a fresh article. It’s not been for a lack of topics. In fact, I have several topics in the queue for articles I want to write. But, publishing a book took a lot of effort and I found myself exhausted from writing. So, I put my pen, typewriter, word-processor on the shelf for a while until I could regain my strength. |
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