Two of the Most Effective Ways to Help Overwhelmed Employees

Overwhelmed employees can have a negative impact on both the individual’s well-being and the overall performance of your business. When your employees are overworked, stressed, and struggling to keep up with their workload, they may become disengaged and unproductive. This can result in decreased performance, lower job satisfaction, increased absenteeism, and higher turnover rates, which […]
8 Types of Waste in Process: Part 2

In last week’s blog, I shared with you the importance of categorizing your process problems and the first four types of waste in process: waiting, motion, inventory, and overproduction. Today I’ll be sharing the last four categories into which process problems can fall. Looking at problems as a category helps us see based on fact […]
8 Types of Waste In Process: Part 1

In a previous blog, I shared with you how to properly identify the problems in your processes. In my work leading teams through process improvement, it wouldn’t be a surprise if you were able to name a hundred problems. Facing this number of issues could be overwhelming, especially in a service-based business (non-manufacturing), where it’s […]
Celebrating 2.5 Years of the UNprofessional Podcast: Revisiting Our Favorite Episodes

To celebrate our two-and-a-half-years of the UNprofessional podcast, I am delighted to share with you the top three episodes from the past six months. If you’ve been enjoying the blog, I can assure you that you’ll find these episodes even more engaging and insightful. 💡How to identify problems in your processes In this episode, I […]
Differentiating Kaizen, Lean, And Six Sigma

Kaizen, Lean, and Six Sigma are three different things. But they all come from the same initiative and have the same goal, which is to improve processes. The difference is in the HOW they do it. To start, Lean and Six Sigma are practices, while Kaizen is a philosophy. What Kaizen is in process improvement […]
Blog Quarterly Digest: Top 3 Most Popular Blogs of Q2 2023

As we gear up for the second half of the year, it’s time for leaders and businesses to ramp up their efforts and set themselves up for success. But how can you navigate the challenges and seize the opportunities that lie ahead? The secret sauce lies in process improvement. Our top three blogs from the […]
2 Common Mistakes In Problem-Solving

In last week’s blog, we discussed how to identify problems in a process. Today I want to share with you a couple of mistakes I see people do in problem identification and how you can avoid them. Mistake #1: Identifying problems as the root cause People tend to mistakenly identify the root cause of the […]
How To Identify Problems In Your Processes

Operations will always have problems. But before trying to fix all issues in your processes, it’s important to keep in mind that not all problems are created equal. People will say something’s a problem today because it’s happening right now and it’s the most urgent thing on your plate. If a problem only happens once, […]
What’s Hurting Your Culture & How to Fix It

Does the office feel chaotic? If so, listen up. It’s quite common that when I start working with a client that the initial energy of the working environment is tense and disorganized. People aren’t entirely sure of their roles and responsibilities. If they are documenting them, and I say if, the documentation isn’t standardized. Not […]
Will Process Standardization Take Away Your Fluidity And Agility As An Organization?

Losing fluidity and agility is a common concern for service-based companies when standardizing and building expectations around their processes. They are worried that standardization might hinder them from serving their customers in the way they do best. There is that fear that standardizing processes will take away the human element of the way they do […]