Category Archives: Learning and Development

How and what do we learn?

4th Sigma: Project Charters, Part 3 – Building Consensus

Posted on June 9, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

A Project Charter is a document that describes a project, names the people who will perform the project, what their roles will be and the name of the project sponsor (the individual that requested the project). Any book on Six … Continue reading →

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The 4th Sigma: Analysis Paralysis… More Options Don’t Always Help

Posted on May 25, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

Any good management book or management system provides you with more than a few tools or the steps for a process. The best books remind that you are applying these systems to people, people with preferences and limitations. Some people … Continue reading →

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Pipe Dreams: Pursuit Of The Right Quality Metric

Posted on May 16, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

Quality can mean different things, often many things, to any individual. The term “quality”, by itself doesn’t necessarily clearly spell out what you mean. Identifying what quality means (in the context of a specific project) is vital to any improvement … Continue reading →

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The Mind Muddle Of Multi-Tasking

Posted on May 10, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

Multi-Tasking. We’ve all used this term for doing more than one thing at a time. As in, “Look at me Ma… I’m doing the laundry and watching TV… I’m Multi-Tasking!” Most of us have even been told to do more … Continue reading →

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The Truth About Six Sigma (Part I): Bake it into your Operation!

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

Where was I? Oh, now I remember! All the talk about Six Sigma… it’s the latest thing, it’s just a bunch of old techniques, it can perform miracles, it can do a lot of damage if you’re not careful.  There’s … Continue reading →

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Is Quality Control A Waste of Time?

Posted on April 28, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

If we roll back the clock just a bit, the support services provided by most large corporations lacked any formal quality control. You had people who were dedicated to performing a function, but there wasn’t formal training or process controls. … Continue reading →

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Grime and Punishment: Why Best Practices Matter (Part II)

Posted on April 21, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

Yesterday we looked at CLI’s (Central Line Infections), a type of infection that results from the use of a Central line, the needle and flexible tube used to insert an intravenous drip bag. CLI’s are extremely dangerous and expensive, infecting … Continue reading →

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Do Outsourcers Know What Time It Is?

Posted on April 8, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

Today, I was puttering around on the Internet, on a site that I frequently visit, Linked-In. I decided that I would take a look at their “Answers” section, which lists questions by members that other members are invited to answer. One of … Continue reading →

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Filling The Big Shoes

Posted on March 31, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

Every manager needs to plan for the development and promotion of their staff. Over the past few years the economy has been slow, so for most of us planning on how to hang on to our existing staff has usually … Continue reading →

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