article thumbnail

Goldilocks, The Three Bears, And Effective Goal Setting

Terry Starbucker

Once upon a time, there was a little girl called Goldilocks…… I’ve done a lot of budgeting, planning, and goal setting over the course of my career. This was a goal typically tied to an operating metric, like the Net Promoter Score, or the company’s “fault rate&# (i.e.

Goal 283
article thumbnail

The Failure of “The Livonia Philosophy” at my GM Plant

Deming Institute

Speaking of continuous improvement, my GM plant also had a very traditional “suggestion system,” not a Kaizen-style approach to improvement. People weren’t working together toward personal and organizational goals… and that environment was, I’d say, management’s fault. What a progressive view that was back in the 80s.

Kaizen 28
article thumbnail

How to Successfully Work Across Countries, Languages, and Cultures

Harvard Business Review

Our ways of thinking about careers, colleagues, and collaboration will need to become more flexible and adaptable. The Japanese employees, while already fluent with Japanese concepts such as kaizen (improvement) and omotenashi (hospitality), struggled to become proficient in English. Aspiring to a global career.