Outside-Force Business Development Firm

Observing is Learning in Leadership Dr. Shawn Wolf | Outside-Force BDF   The dynamic of people in the workplace is an interesting behavior to observe; I had the not so enjoyable experience of observing such choices from a gurney. And, yes, I do believe how we behave is a choice. Yep, at a way too young age, I had my right hip replaced… two and a half times!! So, some of it was self-inflicted (way too much running) but going through three significant surgeries, two of which were “crisis” mode, provided the opportunity to observe some interesting human and leader/manager behavior. “How we behave is a choice.” My second and most extensive surgery resulted from fracturing my femur, just below the ball of the bone, which of course triggered my second surgery, and first hip replacement (surgery #1 was hip resurfacing, only 18 months or so earlier). Of course, I ended up in the local emergency room, in extreme pain, and along with numerous other individuals to have variou...

Fostering a Lean Culture Through Your Employees Andrea Vaughan | Outside-Force BDF   While working for a traditional batch manufacturer in the early 2000’s we faced many of the typical challenges - bloated inventory, many interruptions in flow, frustrated team members, missed shipments, cash flow challenges, and so much more. Then we saw lean in action and it changed our paradigm. Be careful not to encourage quality over quantity; and, competitiveness over teamwork. Challenges are inevitable when you begin such a significant transformational journey. The first major impact was to the employees, and it was a doozy; how we paid our team had by using a piece rate system. When we implemented one of the first major changes, it was eliminating piece rate and moving to hourly rates. The team loved piece rate and was not happy to see it go, yet we realized as we learned Lean, that such a structure was adverse to Lean. Piece Rate encouraged quantity over quality and...