Safety Culture Plus

The following is an Editorial Reviews of this book that I found.  It looks good and may be a good source for your library.  Just follow the link on the book to purchase.

Through impressive results, Six Sigma has proven to hundreds of organizations around the globe that settling for “good enough” won’t work. Now Peter S. Pande, foremost expert on change leadership and coauthor of the bestselling The Six Sigma Way, challenges leaders to seek a new standard of leadership excllence and apply principles inspired by Six Sigma to take their companies to a new level.

The Six Sigma Leader defines successful leadership in the 21st Century. With illustrative examples and proven strategies such as “The 10 Second Rule” (taking that extra time to make sure you’re asking the right questions to get the information you need), the book offers techniques that link leadership improvement to real business results, and explores.  To read the rest of the review, click here.

This is an interesting article on general overview of our culture.

26 February 2009

Do You Truly Know Your Culture?

One of my real jobs is running a medical device component manufacturer with a few hundred employees.  A fun job in a thankfully still-growing industry.  When I started a few years ago the culture was one of top-down decision-making… really top down.  In fact, pretty much every decision was made at the very top, and no one else, even senior managers, decided anything.

That had to change in order for lean manufacturing have the slightest prayer, so I slowly began to expect people at all levels to stand on their own two feet.  I knew that we had a group of very talented people who were fully capable of making decisions, and I also knew that there were very few decisions of such significance that we couldn’t recover from one that was poorly made.  To read the rest of the story, click on the link below.

Evolving Excellence: Do You Truly Know Your Culture?

From the Inside Flap
Six Sigma is a proven and highly effective business initiative for improving customer satisfaction and increasing the efficiency of processes. But diving into Six Sigma without the proper preparation and planning is inviting failure. That’s why there’s Rath & Strong’s Six Sigma Leadership Handbook. This practical guide from the global leader in Six Sigma solutions helps business leaders understand the methodology and major issues of Six Sigma and achieve successful implementation.    To see the reviews of this book, click on the link below.

Rath & Strong’s Six Sigma Leadership Handbook: Rath & Strong | Make Money Myself

I found this nice article on the SafetyXChange email that I receive.  I think that it is a great article and everyone should read it.  The 15 rules that he discuss are just common sense, but do we really do it.  This is problem that I have seen, we tend to take things for what they are and live day-by-day.  Some times we do not let other into our network and when you loose a job, as I have just been cut back, you start to network.  With a lack of networking, your chances of find a job may takes longer.   In my case we will find out.

Topic: 15 RULES

How to Market Yourself

February 12, 2009

Jonathan Klane

As a health and safety consultant and a sole-proprietor, my family depends on my ability to generate revenue (i.e., bring in some bucks!). When I started my business, I had already been a consultant for many years and knew the trade. I also did my research. From that experience (and for a presentation to a marketing class), I came up with the following 15 rules to market by. Now you may wonder why I’d be willing to share these “gems” with others if they’re so good. If you haven’t figured it out by the end of this article, I’ll tell you.

Click on the link below to read the rest of the article.

How to Market Yourself | SafetyXChange

This is a great article that will provide you some insight on Leadership.  My question: Are we talking about a BOSS, a MANAGER, OR A LEADER.  In my opinion, there are not too many leaders in out society today.   Rest the story and add you opinion.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Leadership Do You Use Or Abuse Power

Writen by Graham Yemm

The dictionary defines power as "control and influence exercised over others". With positions of management, and leadership, comes power and it seems to sit more comfortably with some than others. It is increasingly recognised that organisations need good leaders if they are to go forward successfully. Their people will feel motivated, empowered and want to contribute. Leaders who are not using their power positively and abusing will act in a way which will be coercive and, in extremes, could be bullying. This latter situation is one which appears to be on the increase and is creating further problems in the workplace such as stress. This article will look at what is "power" and how it can be used productively. We want to consider how leaders can become more confident in their positions and with their power and explore the benefits for all parties when they do.

Click on the link below to read the entire article.

Management Basic: Leadership Do You Use Or Abuse Power

This article is a great article that ask why training fails.  This article provides a lot of statistics around the reason for failure.  This article remind me of my black belt project where I proved statistically some of the same elements that is discussed in the article.  This is a must read for any professional who has to conduct training or anyone in the management ranks that can not understand why some is not trained properly.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Why Training Fails

Writen by Kevin Dwyer

If the objective of training is for people to apply that learning in the workplace and make an observable difference to an organisation’s results, then almost all corporate training fails to achieve its objective and even fails to measure whether it achieved its objective.

In a 2000 study, the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) reported that only 3% of training was measured at Kirkpatrick’s "level 4" of training evaluation "results" where there is an impact on the organisation. In contrast, 95% of training was measured at "level 1" where the participants liked the training.

 

To read the rest of the article click on the link below and enjoy.

Management Study: Why Training Fails

Mine Health and Safety Management or Tools and Techniques of Investment Planning

Mine Health and Safety Management

Author: Michael Karmis

This introductory, overview book covers management, leadership, regulation, and compliance. It focuses on instilling a safety culture and fostering the ability to recognize and manage health and safety responsibilities and requirements. It details effective health and safety management systems and concentrates on safety and health hazard anticipation, identification, evaluation, and control. Intended for practicing engineers and supervisors, health and safety professionals, the research community, as well as undergraduate and graduate students in the minerals disciplines.   Read the rest of the reviews here.

The book - How Toyota became #1 (by David Magee; ISBN: 978-1-59184-179-1) in my opinion is a great book for students and business leaders and anyone else who is interested in Toyota’s amazing results over the last 70+ years (UPDATE: Toyota has just reported their first loss in approximately 70 years).  Read the entire review How Toyota Became #1.  You can also purchase the book here, just click on the book and you will be sent to Amazon.

By Matthew Harwood

12/23/2008 –

The American Trucking Associations (ATA) have released new guidelines for the trucking industry for securing cargo from pick up to delivery.

The 186-page manual, ATA Certified Cargo Security Professional (CCSP) Resource Guidebook, according to the Trucker News Service, "helps readers evaluate and manage risk and trucking security" across four main areas: transport, facilities, personnel, and data and computer security.

New Guidebook on Trucking Security Released | Security Management

This is a great article for discussing why you should measure.  This statement has been used in the safety arena for years by Dan Peterson and other professionals.  Read the entire article to get the flavor what you need to measure.  This is why Six Sigma tools can be used in safety.

"Perhaps what you measure is what you get. More likely, what you measure is all you’ll get. What you don’t (or can’t) measure is lost" – H. Thomas Johnson

Those of you who are Deming fans may liken this quote to Deming’s admonition that "the most important figures that one needs for management are unknown or unknowable, but successful management must nevertheless take account of them." (from Out of the Crisis, p121).

I came across this quote recently, which was quite apt as I was completing the end of year wrap-up required of all employees at my firm. Like many firms that run on making the metrics, making them look good, having airtight explanations for variances, plans to move the needle, and so on, the powerpoint decks generally tell a tremendous story. (If only Wall St. could see them – perhaps stock prices would be better?).

Six Sigma Blogs: What You Measure is What You Get?