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Wholehearted performance checklist
"The antidote to exhaustion is not rest; the antidote to exhaustion is ... ... wholeheartedness" - David Whyte We perform at our finest when we are wholly engaged. Whether we are working or playing tennis, we achieve our best (with least effort) when we are fully focused on what we are doing, when we enjoy the task in hand without stress. Yet this engagement can often be missing. For example, our tendency to constantly evaluate ourselves may get in the way. So does our fear of "getting it wrong". For many successful professionals, boredom can be a big distraction)

Preparing for Successful Process Improvement
An integral and often overlooked step in improvement work is the preparation work: defining the project and gathering the facts that are essential to gaining a good understanding of the existing process. Too often this initial phase of a project is given cursory attention or ignored altogether. This is the first in a series of papers dealing with the up-front work in process improvement projects.

Never Ask This Question In An Unexpected Event
How do you react to an unexpected event? When something goes wrong OR something that has been working very well is not working NOW, do you say to yourself: Oh! My God,why me? How can I complete this task without this thing working? OR This is happening for a reason. What is it that I need to learn NOW or What is it that I can do now with the gifts I have?

Other improvement work Related Articles

Preparing for Successful Process Improvement
An integral and often overlooked step in improvement work is the preparation work: defining the project and gathering the facts that are essential to gaining a good understanding of the existing process. Too often this initial phase of a project is given cursory attention or ignored altogether. This is the first in a series of papers dealing with the up-front work in process improvement projects.

The Service Factor during Economic Turbulence
Improving and maintaining good customer service is not an exciting endeavor. It involves detailed study and steadfast execution rather than temporary brilliance or inspiration. Therefore, customer service improvement is fundamentally an effort of continuous improvement. You must develop a basic competency in process improvement to attain and sustain high levels of customer service. This means that it is absolutely critical during tough economic times that you don’t make the mistake of cutting resources that support service excellence in your attempt to control operational costs.
Goals Will Guide You to Success
If you want to be successful in life, you need to set goals for yourself. Work hard to accomplish everything you have dreamed. Analyze your weaknesses, and the areas that need improvement. You can achieve any goal if you create a plan and work hard enough.
Productivity Improvement via Method study
There are a number of approaches to improving productivity: the best-known currently is probably ‘Lean’ but such approaches go back many years to the days of the early ‘productivity pioneers’. Many people (and especially people of ‘a certain age’) will immediately think of ‘time and motion’ when asked to describe a productivity methodology. This refers to the early days of ‘work study’ when the aim (as it often still is today) is to reduce the time taken by, and the motion involved in, work. The ‘improvement’ methodology of work study that derived from time & motion study was method study … and an understanding of method study gives a real insight into how all productivity improvement methodologies work.

Continuous Improvement
Firstly, this article asks the question ... "Is Continuous Improvement possible?" With a slight caveat ,the answer is 'yes'. It then sets out how you can achieve continuous improvement - without adopting any of the commercial 'methodologies, without using expensive consultants. You will , of course, have to put in some effort ... mainly thought! But it is possible - for any busines.
Change Management Can Lead to Rigidity and Resistance to Change
Beware of formal organization improvement or "change management" (an oxymoron) plans. Like strategic plans, organization improvement or change management plans can reduce an organization's effectiveness. They can lead to rigidity, bureaucracy, and resistance to change. This sounds like an argument against planning. It's not. We have found that constant and ongoing personal, team, and organization improvement planning is vital. But too many "change management" and improvement plans are built on the same faulty premise as strategic planning - that there is a right path, which can be determined in advance and then implemented. We often hear managers declare that they have the right strategic or improvement plan, but the reason things aren't going according to plan is because of "execution problems." This is a deadly assumption.
Just a Job or a Source of Deeper Joy and Meaning?
If we're going to be an effective energy leader, then our work can't be work. We need a job that isn't a job, it's a joy. When I love what I'm doing, I never have to go to work again. If I didn't love the personal and organization improvement field, I wouldn't study, note, and file hundreds of books and magazines each year. I wouldn't produce the dozens of columns and articles I've written.
Matching Team Types and Focus
Managers' growing understanding of the power of a team-based organization has created an explosion of teams. We're now seeing a profusion of high-involvement teams, high-performance teams, corrective action teams, service and quality improvement teams, project teams, task forces, steering councils, process management and improvement teams, problem solving teams, cross-functional teams, departmental teams, work teams, regional or branch teams, self-directed and self-managed teams, semi-autonomous teams...to name just a few.

Process Management Pathways and Pitfalls (Part Two)
Make sure all your process improvement activities are clearly and tightly linked to your strategic imperatives. Each effort should also have highly focused and specific improvement goals (that are an aggressive, major stretch) and measurements. Establish feedback and follow-up steps for each process management and improvement team.

Why Most Change Programs and Improvement Initiatives Fail
Many team and organization change and improvement efforts are lost or badly bewildered. Decades of studies have consistently shown that 50-70 percent are failing. There are as many reasons that improvement endeavors lose their way, as there are people, teams, and organizations trying to improve.
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