Businesses have always had the need for effective leaders. Certainly, many businesses prosper despite not having a strong leader at the helm. The super, successful businesses, however, have really effective leaders. They know how to make the right decisions at the right times. They know how to motivate employees and navigate obstacles. They have a…

Open communication and reasonable expectations are among the attributes of any admirable leader. I’ve been in executive positions for about a decade now. While it’s been an incredibly rewarding experience, I can’t say that I started out as the CEO I am today. In fact, I got off to a pretty …

I’m a fan of reading inspirational and motivational quotes. I often find a great quote and share it with my team at Shepard Presentations, and sometimes with the readers of this column as well. That brings me to Dan Sullivan, creator of the Strategic Coach® program. Dan is a great coach who is full …

The Punk Rock of Business: Applying a Punk Rock Attitude in the Modern Business Era “Leaders don’t create followers, they create more leaders.” —Tom …

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about process improvement lately. I think some of my frustration with current process improvement methodologies is that we don’t properly define process. The common process mapping acronym SIPOC (Supplier – Input – Process – Output – Customer) leaves off what I believe is the most important part of…

In this episode, Brian and Craig explore the final side of The Creativity Cube – Collaboration and Conflict.

A few weeks ago, I published a post about the Four Levels of Process Mapping. Several colleagues have asked that I elaborate on the Management View and the Process View. If you recall, the Management view shows the major areas where work-in-process inventory may be held by the process and the major flows of data,…

In Episode 4 of The Process Leadership Show, Brian and Craig discuss two more sides of The Creativity Cube: Criteria and Cultivation. The Criteria side relates to how ideas, once generated, are chosen. Craig present how to determine criteria, and then how to use those criteria to choose from our ideas. The Cultivation side is…

In this episode of The Process Leadership Show, Craig and Brian discuss the third side of the Creativity Cube: Creators. Creators are tools that are used to spark new ideas. More advanced than simple brainstorming, Creators challenge our thinking. For more information about Better Brainstorming using The Creativity Cube, head to brainstorm.coach.

In last week’s post, I discussed how Purpose is missing from the typical process mapping tool SIPOC (Suppler – Input – Process – Output – Customer) and how adding it can positively affect our process improvement. Today, I’d like to discuss how Purpose affects process quality. There has long been a debate in the quality…

Have you ever heard to map your process at the 5,000 foot view or the 50,000 foot view? Many times one of the first things we learn about process mapping is that there are different levels of abstraction, or different amounts of detail in process maps. From a conceptual standpoint, that makes sense – in…

SCAMPER is an acronym used in creativity and Lateral Thinking to stimulate creative thought. The letters in SCAMPER stands for: · Substitute · Combine · Adapt / Automate · Modify · Put to another use · Eliminate · Reverse We apply these mnemonics to the Canvas, using each trigger in each block in the Canvas….