I’ve watched the engineering industry glorify speed over sense for years. We praise people who respond to emails at midnight. We celebrate those who jump from meeting to meeting without breaks. We reward constant availability over actual output. Let’s call this what it is. Broken. I recently came across an article on Nature.com that introduced me to slow productivity. This…
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Recent articles claim people are less productive when working from home. From my experience, this is far from true. But it’s not just my observations. Stanford University found a 5% productivity increase during remote work, and the University of Sydney reported similar findings. Another benefit of working from home is that the average worker saves four hours weekly by not…
Change is challenging for people and should only be engaged when there are clear benefits. Engaging in change just for the sake of change can create unnecessary disruption, individual disengagement, and dissatisfaction. In this blog post, we’ll explore the essential considerations to make before embarking on a change initiative. Make Sure the Team is Ready for Change For change to…
Leaders’ constant expression of busyness can significantly impact team performance and morale. It sets a negative example, leading team members to feel pressured to appear busy to seem important. This pressure sets the scene for a slew of bad habits and poor optics. Leaders who consistently portray themselves as busy may encourage similar behaviours in their team, fostering a culture…
In my previous posts, we explored the challenges faced by engineering teams working with offshore design support offices and how lean principles can help streamline workflows. This week, we’ll look at specific lean solutions we implemented that can transform engineering workflows and achieve better outcomes. Streamlining Information Flow One major issue identified was the disorganised flow of information, leading to…
In my recent post “Lean Management in Design and Construction“, I provided an overview of how lean principles, originating from the Toyota Production System, can drive significant efficiency and performance improvements in the workplace. This week, I want to look into a specific application – optimising workflows between a local engineering team and their offshore design support office. The team…
The first subject I studied as part of my Masters was lean management. I had only ever heard about lean management in a negative context, whenever I had heard people speak about it, they were talking about companies cutting staff to the point teams had to work steady overtime to keep up. So I was quite curious as to what…
Have you ever wondered why projects consistently take longer than originally planned? I touched on the topic in my Master’s dissertation and found that the answer may lie in a cognitive bias known as the planning fallacy, and I recently stumbled upon a fantastic article by Dave Stewart, “The work is never just ‘the work’” where he discusses his personal…
The concept of intellectual property and originality is always somewhat of a hot topic. Many people feel protective of their ideas and content, often becoming upset when they see others sharing similar thoughts or concepts. However, I believe that knowledge sharing is essential for personal and collective growth. In this post, I want to explore why I embrace others sharing…
Managing change effectively can significantly impact your company’s growth and success, whether it’s minor adjustments or major overhauls. Outcomes can vary significantly – some changes succeed while others fail. Similar to individuals facing challenges and undergoing transformative experiences in life, organisations also encounter complexities, uncertainties, and resistance during change processes. The first step in navigating organisational change is differentiating between…