Harvard Business Review

If You’re Not Outside Your Comfort Zone, You Won’t Learn Anything

Summary; Public speaking. Attending a networking event. Confronting a coworker. These are uncomfortable tasks, but sometimes need to be performed for us to grow professionally. So how do you move out of your comfort zone? It’s simple: be honest about your excuses; recognize your strengths and take advantage of them; and finally, jump in. If…

Project Management

The Importance of a Project Review Board

A key to success in any Operational Excellence or Continuous Improvement program will be found in the way opportunities for improvement are harvested and prioritized; and how well the projects are managed and evaluated. I have written several articles over the past few years on what it takes to successfully design and deploy an Operational…

McKinsey & Company logo

Reviving the art of apprenticeship to unlock continuous skill development

Post-pandemic skill gaps need filling, and formal learning alone won’t do the trick. Scaling the lost art of one-on-one learning can make the difference. Recognize this situation? A manager asks a team member to prepare a presentation. The draft falls short of what’s needed, so the manager expresses her disappointment and offers feedback via email, then…

Teachers:  Your Students are your Legacy

Teachers: Your Students are your Legacy

For students in school, it’s graduation time.  Many young students are graduating from one grade to the next and still others are graduating from their high school and taking the next big step on their life’s journey into adulthood.  Of these, some will go directly into the job market; some will join the armed services;…

Scaling and Sustaining Your Education and Training Program

Scaling and Sustaining Your Education and Training Program

I have been helping companies design and deploy their Operational Excellence (“OpEx”) and Continuous Improvement (“CI”) programs for a very long time.  Mind you, I was not born with this knowledge.  Rather I gained this knowledge by working with companies and observing the challenges they faced and helping them to overcome those challenges – and…