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Think about it!!! | | |
Can you think of a word in
the English language that contains all five vowels (a, e, i, o, u) only once
each and in the right alphabetical order?
There are rare botanical words such
as acheilous and caesious and also other not widely known
scientific words, but can you think of any words that meet these criteria that are in fairly common everyday
English usage.
There are at least two.
Answer at the bottom of this column
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Did you know?
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There is more than one type
of infinity.
If you were asked to name
the biggest possible number, you would probably say "Infinity". But what is
infinity? Most of us would think that if you started counting at "one" and went
on to "two, three" etc. and continued counting forever you would get to infinity.
Well you would, but it would only be the smallest form of infinity, that
mathematicians call Aleph-zero.
There are other even larger forms of infinity
e.g. Aleph-one, a number so large that it cannot be reached even if you count
forever. And there are an infinite number of even larger infinities, the
biggest of which is Absolute Infinity, which is so vast that its definition is
based on the idea that any attempt to describe it always describes something
smaller.
Is all this making your head spin? Well that's hardly surprising, as Georg
Cantor, the German mathematician who first wrestled with these concepts in the
1870's, had bouts of mental illness that led to frequent spells in an asylum.
Perhaps we should stick to numbers that we can describe more easily!
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Featured Tool
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Having read about Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa in our Quality Guru
series to the right, you might want to have a go at using his "Fishbone" or
"Cause and Effect" diagrams as diagnostic tools. If you are not familiar with these, or have
used Fishbones before and simply want some help with recording the results,
then RFFlow have some useful software to help you. You can either try it free
of charge, or have a look at and/or download several Fishbone examples and
templates, by following this link to the relevant section of their website.
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| Online Excellence Calculator |
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Do you want to see how your organisation might perform if assessed against the EFQM Excellence model?
There are many types of self assessment available to organisations wishing to use this widely used excellence framework.
By following this link you can experience just one method of assessing your organisation in a short 10 minute matrix based assessment. | |
Think about it!!!
Answer
| | abstemious, facetious
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| Newsletter Archive |
| To view our previous newsletters in our archive please click the link above |
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If you found this issue interesting and believe a friend or colleague would find the articles useful please click on the button above to send it to them.
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Greetings!
Some interesting statistics
have emerged recently that suggest many managers are not doing their best to
make themselves approachable to their employees, who would rather go to anyone
but them for advice and support. Take a look at our article below "How
approachable are you?" that contains some useful tips on how to avoid this
problem.
Also this issue, our regular
features include the third in our Quality Guru Series - Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa.
We are also very pleased to announce that our office manager, Jo, is
joining a ladies only midnight walk in support of a very worthy cause.
See "ley hill solutions walks with the stars". I do hope
you will join us and Jo in supporting the Hospice of St Francis (Berkhamsted).
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ley hill solutions walks with the stars
Jo Hull, the office manager at ley hill solutions would
really appreciate your support when she gets her walking shoes on and takes part in the Walk with the Stars
Midnight Walk 2010 on 19th June 2010 to raise money for the
Hospice of St Francis (Berkhamsted).
The Hospice of St Francis, located not far from ley hill
solutions head office, aims to bring peace, comfort and dignity to patients and
families facing the crisis of serious and terminal illness, by providing specialist care for people with terminal
illness and support for their family and friends.
It provides care and
support in patients' homes, at its day hospice and at its In Patient Unit and
offers assessment and skilled clinical care, respite breaks, home support, day
care and bereavement support. Hospice staff
also do educational work in the community. Care is provided free of charge and
a flexible and individual approach is made in each and every case.
For the Hospice to continue in this much valued work, external
support is ever more important, as NHS funding covers just 19% of the Hospice's
running costs.
Please support Jo on the
Midnight Walk - it's very easy
to donate - just click here to go to Jo's JustGiving page. JustGiving will
send your donation straight to The Hospice of St Francis (Berkhamsted) and will
automatically reclaim Gift Aid if you are a UK taxpayer, making your donation
worth even more.
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How approachable are you?
Managers are failing to make themselves approachable,
according to a survey by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) and the
British Library, which suggests 85% of staff would rather go elsewhere for work
guidance. A reluctance to bother their boss was the reason cited by nearly half
of employees polled and a further 30% said they were too scared of looking
incompetent. Nearly a quarter said they would never turn to their manager for
advice because they did not value their judgement.
These are quite alarming statistics, but here are
some tips to help you ensure you are amongst those managers and leaders whose
people not only feel comfortable about turning to you for advice and support,
but also believe there is no better source of this.
Be available
Keep your door open or work in an
open plan environment with your team around you. Try allocating a set time at
regular intervals when any of your staff can talk to you about anything and
make sure you are there (appropriate frequency will depend on the exact nature
of your work e.g. first half hour of the day, first Monday of the month). Have
regular 1:1 meetings with each member of your team and make sure these are not
interrupted or postponed.
Be open and honest
It is really important that
your staff can trust you to tell them the truth, as and when appropriate, even
if it is bad news. Readily sharing information with them not only stimulates
trust and loyalty, it also makes them more likely to make you their first port
of call when they need to know something, rather than trust rumour and gossip.
Create a no blame culture
Treat mistakes as
learning opportunities, analysing the facts in a non-emotional way and agreeing
together how you can improve things next time. Encourage the whole team to do
this and challenge anyone who tries to apportion blame.
Take a sincere interest in your people
Know what
their aims and aspirations are and help them to structure their personal
development accordingly (but also in line with business goals and needs of
course). Without necessarily getting too close, or appearing nosy, learn
something about their life outside work and respect their need for a work/life
balance. Do not make unreasonable work demands that clash with their personal
priorities.
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Quality Guru Series
3. Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa
Born in Tokyo
in 1915 and also raised and educated in Tokyo, gaining an engineering degree in applied chemistry,
Dr Kaoru Ishikawa first became a naval technical officer, moved on to work at the Nissan Liquid
Fuel Company and then became a professor at the University of Tokyo. In 1949 he joined the Japanese Union of Scientists
and Engineers (JUSE) quality control research group. It was his skill at
mobilising large groups of people towards a specific common goal that was
largely responsible for Japan's quality-improvement initiatives. He translated the concepts of,
amongst others, W. Edwards Deming (second in our Quality Guru Series),
integrating and expanding these into the Japanese system of management.
In 1962, in
conjunction with JUSE, he introduced the concept of quality circles, which
embedded quality training at all levels of an organisation. These soon became
very popular and formed an important link in a company's Total Quality Management System. Ishikawa also wrote books on
quality circles and on Quality Control (his Guide to Quality Control was
translated into English). In 1982 he developed the Ishikawa diagram (also
known as the Fishbone or Cause and Effect diagram), which is used to
determine root causes.
The diagram systematically represents
and analyses the real causes behind a problem or effect. It organises the major
and minor contributing causes leading to one effect (or problem), defines the
problem and identifies probable causes by narrowing down the possible ones. It
also helps groups to be systematic in the generation of ideas and to check that they have stated the
direction of causation correctly. The diagrammatic format also helps when presenting
results to others.
Ishikawa is also known for the assembly and use
of the "seven basic tools of quality" i.e. -
Pareto analysis - what are the big problems?
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Cause and effect diagrams - what
causes the problems?
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Stratification - how is the data
made up?
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Check sheets - how often it occurs
or is done?
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Histograms - what do overall
variations look like?
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Scatter charts - what are the
relationships between factors?
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Process control charts - which
variations to control and how?
He believed these seven tools should be
known widely in an organisation, if not indeed by everyone, and used to analyse
problems and develop improvements. Used together they form a powerful tool kit.
Respected throughout his life as a major contributor in the field of quality, in 1977
he was awarded the Blue Ribbon Medal by the Japanese Government for
achievements in industrial standardization and in 1988, a year before his death, he also received the Order of the Sacred Treasures, Second
Class, a Japanese order of merit. |
ley hill solutions aims to be one of Europe's most innovative consultancy organisations specialising in the tools and methods to improve the way your business works and performs. We use internationally recognised standards and frameworks such as ISO9001 and the EFQM Excellence Model to develop solutions that are right for your business.
Please contact us at ley hill solutions if we can be of any assistance.
Sincerely,
Graham Hull
ley hill solutions limited | |
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The information provided in this newsletter and on our website is as correct and up to date as we can make it. no warranty, express or implied, is given regarding its accuracy. We do not accept any liability for errors or omissions. We shall not be liable for any damages (including, without limitation, damage for loss of business or loss of profits) arising from the use of, or inability to use, this site or any information contained it it, or from any action or decision taken as a result of using this site, or any such information. |
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