I ran across the "Sourcing Sage" and his creative cartoons about outsourcing.  I found the cartoons to be entertaining but not-so-much the sage advice.  His wisdom is that in order to outsource/share services an organization needs to do the following: Process Documentation Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) Training Curriculum Knowledge Base Product Documentation Organizational Optimization Workstation ...»

The last American election "exposed" outsourcing as an evil, and in part, a reason one presidential candidate defeated another.  The belief is that outsourcing - foreign or domestic - helps to optimize a business function.  I heard this argument for the hundredth times on the Washington Times Communities website in an article titled, Outsourcing vs. ...»

Another American icon bites the dust.  Sure, we still have our auto manufacturers even if they are a shadow of their former selves.  We are a divided country . . . haves and have nots, 1% and 99%, management and labor, Republicans and Democrats.  The list can go on.  Winners and losers, except in the ...»

A small victory this past week as the elections kicked out one Common Core promoter in Tony Bennett in favor of an educator.  This was an upset or was it.  Indiana educators were so incensed by Bennett's "target-driven and keep the teachers out of improving education" approach that they started a grass roots effort to ...»

David Walker of the Comeback America Initiative that he founded is often on CNBC explaining what it will take to get America on track.  It is the same story . . . build a plan, budget the plan and institute performance measures.  To paraphrase Mr. Walker, the former US Comptroller, "this is what big, successful ...»

You would see it more often in manufacturing, but divided responsibility plaques service organizations too.  Typically, in manufacturing it would be seen in quality control efforts where management would declare high-quality products.  The management paradox is that more inspection predictably led to higher error rates.  When two or more individuals inspect the same product to ...»

"Can you blame your competitor for your woes?" he would intone to groups of corporate managers. "No. Can you blame the Japanese? No. You did it yourself."  - W. Edwards Deming The bruising of egos for those in management was a staple when Dr. Deming would speak to such groups.  A certain disdain for those ...»

The first Labor day in the US was celebrated September 5, 1882.  A "Workingmen's Holiday" as it was called. Living in Indianapolis, you run into Labor Unions that have slowly but progressively disappeared.  Sure, you still have the Teacher's Unions and many others but workers in Unions represent about 11.8% of all wage ans salary ...»

This isn't a post for Rs or Ds as I hear them often referred, it is an appeal to common sense.  I have listened and will continue to listen to the debates and speeches that will determine a winner or loser in November's election.  Ahh, the American political process . . . Winner doesn't mean ...»

My AT&T package (phone, internet, wireless and TV) has been under-performing for the past few months.  They replaced the modem which apparently they do quite often as the UPS store in my area indicated they got 6 - 10 a day through their store.  Solved part of my problem - phone works - but didn't ...»

I know what you are thinking . . . "my organization makes workers accountable with measures, performance reviews and inspection."  Well, we aren't talking the same lingo. Rarely do you find measures in service organizations that matter to customers.  Usually the measures are all about reducing costs and meeting budget.  Let me tell you a ...»

I recently read an article by Doc Searls in the Wall Street Journal called, "The Customer as a God."  Customers have long catered to service organizations by being treated in a  herd mentality - meaning the customer has to adjust to to the service organization.  However, the future holds a very different environment. Doc Searls ...»

It's like a kick in the head . . . every time I walk into a service organization and have a look at their operations- by performing "check" - I am left with the same sense of disbelief as the previous service organization.  Front-line staff left with no hope of delivering service from entrapping technology.  ...»

I recently gave a speech at the CAST conference in San Jose.  I met many interesting professionals that are on the cutting edge of software testing.  These folks are rebels in their industry and stretch the bounds of "normal software testing.  Have a conversation with them and you will know what I mean.  It wasn't ...»

You can find almost anything on the internet these days.  I found a piece by A Current Affair on Australian TV that talks about how hard it is to voice a complaint in today's IVR infected and functionally separated  organizations.  The piece highlights how fast sales lines are picked up and how slowly complaint lines ...»

Functionally separated organizations have one thing in common . . . they don't have a clue. Each function absorbs the demands placed upon them from some IT application and off they go to work.  The unfortunate workers that have to interact with customers that encounter such work design bear the burden of brutal backlash when ...»

If it wasn't bad enough that SPC charts disappeared from the Hawthorne Plant after WWII as management adopted a mass-production mindset, 67 years after Japan kicked our collective behinds we still think the same about management.  Worse, we have even fallen deeper into insignificance in the US.  Short-term thinking driven by the financial markets and ...»

The word Yankee or the shortened form "Yank" is an offensive word when used by foreigners, especially those residing in the UK.  Yankee dates back in time, the song Yankee Doodle developed by the British as an insult in 1775.  In true American form, we adopted the term in a complimentary sense.  We won the ...»