Mark McDonald

Note:  This piece seems to have missed its posting.  Its part of a series on  Signs of Weak Management so please consider this as part of that series, just a little out of sequence.
All business is a people business to one extent or the other. Business effectiveness or dysfunction results in part from the strength [...]

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Process means different things to different people.  For some it is a four-letter word.  Something to be avoided.  Something that is bad.  Every organization is taking a fresh look at their processes as they look for new ways to raise performance.  This is transitioning views on process, its importance and its role in companies that [...]

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There are seven sources of waste or muda in lean thinking. One of these sources of waste is unnecessary or excess motion.  In manufacturing, workers having to engage in overly strenuous or damaging movements create waste.
In IT there are few overly strenuous motions – even in extreme programming.  Think about Unnecessary/Excess Motion as the ‘hero’ [...]

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In tight times executives look to cut cost by reducing waste and abuse while focusing on what really matters.  This makes sense, particularly as an economy shifts from growth or stability into recession.
Waste delivers a one-time benefit.  You do not reallocate the waste into a ‘waste bank’ for future savings.
Relying on waste as a source [...]

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“The truth, what is the truth?” is the question that Meryl Strep’s character asks at the climax of the Oscar winning movie Sophie’s Choice (1982) Wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie’s_Choice_(film).  In the movie the question of truth shapes the characters, their decisions, their weaknesses and ultimately their fate.  Questions regarding the truth have the same effect on [...]

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Déjà vue is more than an experience.  In some organizations the feeling of having been there and done that is part of corporate culture.   Weak management sits at the center of this experience, as the world seems to go by time after time after time.   The repeated experience can easily cause the enterprise work its [...]

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Information is the currency of management. 
In rich companies information flows across the company funding collaboration and fact based decisions.  Managers make decisions with a clear understanding of reality and a way of measuring performance.   In these companies information is a resource for the
Poor companies hoard information.  Managers hold information and ‘spend’ it to get something [...]

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Everyone knows that the company is facing a number of challenges.  Just ask people what is wrong and you will get an earful of reasons why things are not what they are supposed to be.  There are many reasons.  There are even more answers regarding what the company should do.  When you ask, so what [...]

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Tough times require leaders to commit to delivering results.  Weak managers see this as a time to sit on the side and only jump onto the bandwagon when the results are clear.  Strong managers on the other hand, play the role of the little red hen and get to work.  A red hen sees the [...]

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Weak management manifests itself when companies find themselves under pressure.  Blame storming is one of those signs.  Defined as meeting where people admire the problem, describe how things got that way and were to place blame and responsibility.  I first heard the term watching a commercial for Comcast, a U.S. based communications company.
Blame storming is [...]

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