For most who travel through Milwaukee’s Mitchell International Airport, we see a sign as we exit airport security identifying “The Recombobulation Area.” We probably take that sign for granted – perhaps we shouldn’t. First a little history. Recombobulation is somewhat of a made-up word, wryly invented by Barry Bateman, Mitchell International’s now-retired airport manager. According…
Every time I go to a new city, I MUST make a pilgrimage to the local motorcycle dealership. Last week while in Scottsdale, Arizona, I needed a little service work on my BMW F800GS. The closest dealership was “GO AZ Motorcycles & Scottsdale Harley-Davidson.” I didn’t know anything about GO AZ, but I was blown…
Fair, Fear, and Failure… I was inspired to write this article by watching A Christmas Story (for the 50th time at least!). When poor Ralphie accidentally uttered the “F” word, he brought down the wrath of Mr. and Mrs. Parker, ultimately getting a bar of soap in his mouth for his indiscretion. But it got…
My best motorcycle buddy is Tom Myers, a partner at the law firm Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren, headquartered in Milwaukee. I met him more than 25 years ago. In my first meeting with Tom as his client, he asked me a crucial question: “John, what is your goal for the business?” I didn’t really understand…
So you want your people to make good decisions? One of our RESULTS.com clients asked me to recommend a process to would help his people make good decisions, even when he could not personally be there to advise them. The CEO travels a lot and wants to give people the freedom to make decisions in…
One of the concepts I really like from the book “Playing to Win” by A.G. Lafley (Procter and Gamble CEO) and Roger Martin is their strategy “sniff test”. I have found the sniff test to be a useful tool to quickly determine whether an organization understands what a “real strategy” is and whether or not…
Many companies claim to have a strategy, but all they have done is an exercise in goal setting. This is a mistake. Here’s how to create a “real” strategy. Research from the Harvard business school shows that (up to) 90% of strategies fail due to poor execution. This assumes your company even has a “real”…
KPIs vs. OKRs. Talk about alphabet soup! What do these 3 letter acronyms mean, and what exactly is the difference? Lately, a number of clients have asked about the difference between OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), so what exactly is the difference? The OKR acronym has been getting some press…
By working closely with our clients, we’ve identified a real need for companies to set, manage & measure customer service KPIs. All too often we’ve found that customer service teams could be doing far better than they expected or, they’re just not getting the credit they deserve.Customer service is a very broad subject, and the…
“Always plan ahead. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.” Cardinal Richard Cushing Greetings from 32,000 feet over Salt Lake City, Utah…. Today, I visited a factory with one of my clients who is a key supplier, and experienced an incredible tour by the materials manager, Bob. In this plant, this materials manager isn’t a…