Paper Route

My Paper Route Ordeal “It will be a good experience for you, son.” Throw a newspaper fast ball to the roof When I was about 10 years old my Dad volunteered me to have a paper route in town. His comment was “It will be a good experience for you, son. “Our local paper was […]

One Stop Service Shopping at a University

Ours was a traditional university with most of the offices scattered in the three story administration building. Our student customers spent much lost time trying to find the correct offices for their needs like parking permits, financial aid etc. A small Kaizen team was formed to come up with ideas to alleviate this student confusion. […]

Never Neglect Details. Walk The Process. Do It Yourself To Learn How To Do It.

I had just reported into a new organization and was given a huge orientation packet with a three-page checklist. When I asked individuals how long it would take to complete the check-in process the answers varied from 4 hours to two weeks. There were four different types of employee groups but just one check-in process […]

My Blog

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My Altar Boy Career

Nice Cassock Altar Boy Tommy I was required to be an altar boy for our church. I did not really want to be one but it was expected of me and the nuns at my school trained all the altar boys. They also showed somewhat blatant favoritism for altar boys, holding out faint hope that […]

Monthly Letters Equals Kaizen Discipline

I had just taken over a department and was struggling with understanding exactly what my employees were working on and what their key projects were. Most reporting to me was informal, inconsistent and incomplete. I was involved in trying to transform the department based on the new company strategies.  I actually did conduct an As […]

Market Your Purchasing Successes with the Use of Storyboards

By Dr. Tom DePaoli Purchasing professionals need to realize that they must not only market their purchasing strategies but their successes. Many purchasing professionals neglect to create a marketing plan for their organization. I use the term marketing plan synonymously with communication plan. Some of the goals and techniques of your marketing-communication plan should be […]

Make Your Followers “Create” Department Goals

63. Make Your Followers “Create” Department Goals Break your department up into teams. Make them come up with some goals for the year, not you. Give them no resources or tools to complete them. Require them to report on them monthly and berate them if they make no progress. Story One of my colleagues had […]

Listen To Your Followers’ Problems And Help Them.

I once had an employee who was initially very upset that I took over as leader of the department. She thought that she deserved to be promoted and become the leader. She had more experience than me. She was very cold to me and resisted any initiatives that I proposed. Shortly thereafter, her mother became […]