#171 – DOING RIGHT VS. DOING IT RIGHT – JOSEPH PARIS

Featured

Paris_Aug2012It seems that not a day goes by without our reading about someone getting caught in the processes of a system – aggreged not (necessarily) by nefarious intent, but by a process that didn’t take into consideration some set of circumstances.  Sometimes, the angst endured is amplified by the subsequent processes initiated in a chain of events.

Take the situation of Dr. David Dao who, on April 9th 2017, was supposed to fly from Chicago to Louisville on United Flight 3411.  Continue reading

#170 – CONSIDERATION OF RISKS IMPROVES THE VALUE OF STRATEGIC PLANNING – J. WOODY STANLEY, MICHAEL GRAF, DANIEL FODERA

Featured

Michael J. Graf P.E.

Michael J. Graf P.E.

Government agencies continually face the challenge of addressing complex societal problems with constrained resources. Among Federal agencies, strategic planning is a common practice that helps agency leaders identify their priorities and improve performance. While strategic planning does not guarantee they will foresee all future events and issues, a risk based strategic planning process is more likely to highlight emergent trends and, as a result, agency managers are better positioned to face an uncertain future. Continue reading

#169 – PDCA IS NOT BEST PRACTICE – GREG CARROLL

Featured

team-carroll-150x150There is a gaggle of Management Consultants pushing the 20th century mantra of Good Management Practice as a panacea to all the ill of today’s business environment. The key plank in most of these methodologies is that old chestnut “the PDCA cycle” for Continuous Improvement. If your consultant wears this as a badge, run a mile

Business Management is no longer just about Financial Accounting or Office Administration.  And Best Practice is not just someone’s vague opinion.  Leading businesses from around the world have, thru the international standards organization, put down a comprehensive set of guidelines for a broad range of Systems Management areas covering the lifecycle management Best Practices. Continue reading

#161 – THE ISO 9001:2015 STANDARD AND THE PLAN-DO-CHECK-ACT CYCLE – MURRAY GONZALEZ

Featured

Untitled-150x150ISO 9001:2015 was revised for many reasons. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) cited the needs driving those changes:

  • Adapt to a changing world
  • Reflect the complex environments in which organizations operate
  • Provide a consistent foundation for the future
  • Ensure the new standard reflects the needs of all relevant interested parties
  • Ensure alignment with other management system standards1

Continue reading