James Lawther
James Lawther is a middle-aged middle manager. To reach this highly elevated position he has worked for many organisations, from supermarkets to tax collectors and has had multiple roles from running a night shift to doing operational research. He gets upset by operations that don't work and mildly apoplectic about poor customer service.
I travel a lot with work. It is not glamorous. I'd love tell you that when I said I was in K.L. I meant...
The idea for this post came from The Customer and Leadership Blog by Maz Iqbal. You have heard the story of Goldilocks and the 3...
Many will tell you that clarity of purpose is all important. Your purpose is what you are here to do If you are clear about…
How do you climb a ladder? Climbing a ladder is straightforward… Put one foot on a rung Reach up the side rails one hand at…
Imagine you worked for McDonald's and you had a super new idea for a product, the McPizza. How would you test it? Option 1:...
In 1958 Leonard E Read wrote an essay about making pencils. He described: The growing of trees The work of a lumberjack The operation of…
Come at once. We have struck a berg. It's a CQD, old man You have heard this story On the 15th April 1912 the Titanic…
We all have biases; things that we believe are true, that drive our decisions and actions. But those biases can be blind spots, so they...
My youngest daughter has just turned 5. She is a big girl now. For her birthday we gave her a bicycle, it...
Yesterday I read that only 5% of the changes we make at work are changes for the better. Only 1 in 20 improvements...
I am 45. They say that when middle-age is upon us our broad minds and narrow waists swap sizes. It is happening to me, (certainly…
We have all been told to "walk in our customer's shoes". When we walk in our customer's shoes we can understand what our customers want:…
People won't follow commands. They won't follow directives; they hate being told to what to do. This is a problem, particularly if you want that…
We work in large organisations that ban access to social media. We have long-winded IT policies that forbid our employees from tweeting, liking, stumbling or...
That is a libelous statement, but it is fairly obviously true, I was in McDonald's with my children only last weekend and it was...
When you ask for an organisation chart I bet you expect to see something like this: If I gave you an organisation chart that looked...
There is a line of thought that there are three types of target: 1. Fact of life targets If you don't meet these targets you...
A terrible headline, I apologise, but now I have your full attention… 1. Find inner clarity All processes do things, they have a purpose, a...
What do you think of the team you manage? Are they the crème de la crème or a shower of … Is that a...
We have all heard that "money doesn't motivate". I'm not sure I totally agree. If you can't afford your weekly food bill...