The Smartspeed Performance Improvement Blog

Available from Amazon and other online retailers Why business performance often falls short Many businesses do not struggle because people do not care. They struggle because expectations are unclear. Leaders want better results, but teams are often left to interpret what “better” actually means in day-to-day work. Why clarity matters more than criticism That is where What Does Good Look Like? can make a real difference. The book helps leaders and managers turn vague ambitions into clear, practical standards. Instead of reacting when things go wrong, it encourages a more useful approach: define what good looks like in advance, communicate it clearly, and help people work towards it consistently. How the book improves performance This matters because business performance is shaped by everyday actions. If your team does not know what good planning, good communication, good handovers, or good problem-solving look like, performance will always be inconsistent. You may get ...

Cutting corners can feel like a sensible shortcut when you’re busy. A quick workaround. A step skipped “just this once”. But in most businesses, the real damage isn’t immediate. It shows up later as higher costs, more rework, slower decisions, frustrated customers, and a team that spends more time firefighting than improving. In other words: cutting corners doesn’t just affect today’s task. It quietly undermines overall business performance. Why Shortcuts Become Expensive Most corner-cutting starts with good intentions: “We don’t have time.” “We’ll tidy it up later.” “It’s only a small job.” The problem is that shortcuts create a new normal. Standards drift: The agreed way of working becomes optional. Bad habits form: The shortcut becomes the default, not the exception. Rework increases: Issues that should have been prevented get fixed later at a higher cost. Decisions get weaker: Without the right checks, data, or handovers, you get more guesswork. Trust e...

Running a business is a constant balancing act—juggling priorities, firefighting issues, and trying to keep your team on track. But what if you could achieve meaningful improvements without overhauling your entire operation? The answer lies in quick wins—small, practical changes that create momentum and deliver results fast. Here’s how you can use simple routines to boost your business performance, based on proven methods from ‘ Every Business Needs a Routine ’. Available from Amazon and other online stores 1. Start Your Day with a Team Huddle A brief daily meeting—no more than 10 minutes—sets the tone for the day. Focus on: Yesterday’s wins and lessons Today’s top priorities Any roadblocks needing attention This habit improves communication, surfaces issues early, and keeps everyone aligned. 2. Use RAG Trackers for Clarity A Red-Amber-Green (RAG) tracker is a visual way to monitor key metrics and spot trouble before it escalates. Update it daily or weekly—whichever suits y...

A Manager's Guide to Constructive Conversations We've all been there. You notice a team member doing something that's affecting performance - maybe they're skipping a critical step in the process, or perhaps they've developed a shortcut that's creating problems downstream. You know you need to address it, but the thought of that conversation fills you with dread. What if they get defensive? What if it damages your working relationship? What if they think you're micromanaging? So you put it off. And the problem continues. Performance suffers. Frustration builds. The Real Cost of Avoiding These Conversations When managers avoid correcting behaviour, the impact ripples through the entire operation: Quality suffers as incorrect methods become the norm Efficiency drops when people work around problems instead of fixing them Team morale declines as those doing things correctly feel their efforts don't matter Process drift accelerates until nobody remembers...

Do you get hung up on the idea of perfection, when it comes to improving the performance of your business? Most of us do. People are watching what we do and this can be off putting. But, rather than watch what people do, what should we (all) be focussing on? Results! Perfection can be an absolute pig when it comes improving our business performance . If we could jump from where we are today to some perfect state, we'd all do it. The important thing for non-critical improvement projects is direction of travel, followed closely by pace of travel. Finding something that works better than today and implementing it puts you ahead of most people trying to improve their business. Once you have it in place you can iterate and upgrade what you have done, moving you another step closer to your vision of perfection. Available from Amazon , Apple Books and more If you subscribe to the PDCA (Plan, Do, Check and Act) approach, then this is an ideal time to put your belief into practice. Take th...

When discussing change projects with clients, time is a key factor. Like anything, if you have already walked the (continuous improvement) path you have a better idea of how hard and how long things will take. These conversations are no different. What I have found is that when you break down the project into the individual tasks, most people that are relatively new to change will expect the tasks to take longer. They often build in lots of procrastination time in too. A quick remedy If you are experiencing this issue in your organisation, here's a quick way to fix this. When your team member is defining the actions required to make a change happen, partner them with a more experienced person until they have at least three improvements under their belt. Use this as a way to estimate a realistic duration for the tasks. Don't confuse deadlines with duration The work content for a task and the duration to complete it are often two separate things. A task might have a total of fift...

The reason I wrote the book What Does Good Look Like? was for this reason. Improvement shouldn't be hard. For many organisations we spend too much time telling people what we don't want and not enough time being clear about what we do want. Available from Amazon What does a good performance look like? Describe it to yourself, clarify it and then describe it to your team. Just doing this can be enough to witness a step change in your performance. Tie it in with some decent Standard Operating Procedures and you have the making of a sustainable change. Are you up for having a go at this? Giles About the author: Giles Johnston is a Chartered Engineer who specialises in helping businesses to grow and improve through better business processes and embracing Kaizen . Giles is also the author of Effective Root Cause Analysis and ' What Does Good Look Like? ' .

Have you heard of the sunrise meeting approach? It's a fast and simple management approach that helps your teams to focus on the essential parts of their role. This can be used to maximise output and achieve high on time delivery performance. I've just uploaded this video to You Tube that explains: what a sunrise meeting is,  what the benefits are, how you create one, and how our ERP system ( Fraction ERP ) helps to run a sunrise meeting. The sunrise meeting approach is one of my 'go to' tools when working with a new business that needs to get a grip over their operational performance. If you haven't come across this term before then I hope the video above gives you some good ideas. If you need some more detailed instructions, and some more ideas on how to apply the approach, check out my book Sunrise Meetings on Amazon , Apple Books and other platforms here . Giles About the author: Giles Johnston is a Chartered Engineer who specialises in helping businesses t...

Have you experienced the last minute scramble? You are trying to complete a project, or get ready for an audit, and a large proportion of the tasks are completed just before the end. That's the scramble. All those days / weeks / months you originally had available to you didn't count for anything. This kind of experience is known as the hockey stick effect: The red line shows the hockey stick. Last minute productivity. There are good arguments for working this way, allowing the effort to be concentrated so you can do other things beforehand. However, mistakes, stress and delays are more likely in my experience. The green line is your planned activity. Regular activity and output throughout the life of your project / process management. This is easier to manage and takes away the problems listed above for last minute frenetic action. The orange line, however, is a proactive front loaded approach. If you have the capacity, why not pull ahead the activities and ensure decisions ar...

My popular book on creating effective Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) is now available on the Perlego platform: https://www.perlego.com/book/5053294/ If you have a subscription for Perlego, you'll now be able to access my book. Enjoy, Giles About the author: Giles Johnston is a Chartered Engineer who specialises in helping businesses to grow and improve through better business processes and embracing Kaizen. Giles is also the author of Effective Root Cause Analysis and ' What Does Good Look Like? ' .

Have you used the fishbone tool for root cause problem solving? Good. What about using it in reverse to help with goal setting and improving buy in from your team? Oh... The good news is that my book The Reverse Fishbone is now available on a range of e-book platforms (as well as Amazon ). The book shares ideas on how to get the most from this approach and how you can roll the idea out in your organisation. So, if you are looking for a fast, easy, way to engage your teams with goal setting and creating recipes that generate better results, this book is worth a look . I hope you enjoy it, Giles About the author: Giles Johnston is a Chartered Engineer who specialises in helping businesses to grow and improve through better business processes and embracing Kaizen. Giles is also the author of Effective Root Cause Analysis and ' What Does Good Look Like? ' .

My book Every Business Needs a Routine is now available on platforms other than Amazon. The book is aimed at people that want to realise the power of routine and habit. If you find yourself dealing with crises that have arisen from some small task that has been overlooked for too long then this book is for you. Stop firefighting, starting building an effective routine for you and your team. The book is quick to read and explores how you can expand the idea of routines into all levels of a business and even at a personal level. Distribution of the book now includes Apple Books , Kobo , Everand and more. For the full availability, other than Amazon , click here . I hope you enjoy the book. Giles About the author: Giles Johnston is a Chartered Engineer who specialises in helping businesses to grow and improve through better business processes and embracing Kaizen. Giles is also the author of Effective Root Cause Analysis and ' What Does Good Look Like? ' .

Many years ago I saw many managers berate their staff for getting things wrong.* The same managers grumbled about the performance of their team and this was the opposite of what I was trying to achieve with their teams. A simple realisation was made... They had told the team what they didn't want but hadn't spent the time to tell them, precisely, what they did want. By making this small shift, about being clear about what the desired outcome was , results started to materialise. This is not rocket science, but it is a useful lesson to keep in your back pocket. If you aren't witnessing the results you want, it might be time to clarify expectations. There might be some reading this that don't think that this should be necessary. Until telepathy is a common business skill, I'm afraid it is going to have to be this way. If you want some ideas on how to move from grumbling and into performance, then check out What Does Good Look Like? It is available from Amazon , Apple ...

When you sit and look at the list of improvement projects you have created, it can sometimes feel overwhelming. If you aren't making progress this feeling increases. If you start to think about your normal day job as well... yes, let's not think about that for the moment. The truth is that results are the only thing that count . Having a long list doesn't count. Making a start on a project doesn't count. Available from Amazon Getting near the end doesn't count.

Many years ago I helped a team with their future state mapping problem. Available from Amazon They had mapped out their current state and highlighted a few issues that needed resolving. However, they were stumped by the request to ' create a future state map '. The senior management team wanted something revolutionary that would really change the performance of the function they were mapping. I'd seen this problem quite a few times before. The team gets a big challenge with no real plan and they end up being paralysed. I knew the team from a previous project and I was keen that they won, so I offered them a step by step process to follow. We therefore didn't have to rely on flashes of inspiration to create a future state map. I was able to support them through a series of questions that led them to solving their challenge. They avoided having an empty presentation to the senior management team and managed to slash around 80% of their lead time and associated costs from...

When you are up against it, you can't spread yourself thin. You need to focus. This is especially important when you need a change to keep your business operations afloat. So, if you can't do everything, what do you choose? Some prompts If you find yourself in this predicament, try these prompts to clarify your thinking: What flavour is the change you need to make? Is it production? Is it sales? Is it financial? What area is going to create the greatest relief if you tackle it? Where can you do less? What activities can you drop temporarily to free up resource? Who can you ask to join you? Who in your business has the skills and motivation to help you take action and get results fast? Where would some good old fashioned discipline and routine work well? What standards have you dropped that you need to put back in place? Hit it until you hit it Available from Amazon Once you have chosen an area and decided to focus, you need to keep your target in your sights. If you have manage...

I've had a few conversations over the past weeks about rules. Not policies that cover a business, but rules around operations and scheduling. The core of the debates has been around 'will we hamstring ourselves if we implement rules to help guide the teams?'. My view is that rules will help iron out many problems and make your life easier in the long run. Pros and cons Some benefits that jump to mind: People know where they stand (including customers). Decision making becomes clearer. You stop having to re-invent the wheel! Performance improves . Some drawbacks that come to mind: You need to think through the scenarios where the rules don't help you and decide (in advance) if you want to cater for the 10% of situations (hopefully less!) that don't work perfectly with your rules. You need to be firm and enforce the rules. In real life A long time ago I worked with a manufacturing business that was having a nightmare with their on time delivery performance . A handful...

It is a challenge to not do the work of your team when they mess up. I see this in lots of places I visit. Someone on the team messes up, there's no time left, so the manager rolls up their sleeves and takes over. Two observations. Available from Amazon 1. You don't increase the capacity of your team if you step in. 2. The person you help out hasn't felt your pain and therefore isn't incentivised to avoid this situation in the future. Now, we all make mistakes. I am talking here about the consistent mistakes. So, without being vindictive about this situation, how do you ensure that your team feel some of the pain whilst also learning how to avoid this situation in the future . I'd like you to use this musing as a prompt to help you avoid crises in the future. Here is one idea, to get you started. Look at the work that needs to be done, to get you out of the crisis, and give the most 'painful' part to your colleague. Help them, but cherry pick the best bits f...

Most leaders are good at providing feedback to their teams. Do more of this, do less of this... it isn't rocket science. But, what happens when you leave out the 'do more of this' statement? I see this from time to time. A busy and frustrated manager complains about what they don't want but fail to make it explicit what is wanted . All that happens in this situation is dwindling motivation. The people in question (it is rarely aimed at an individual, in my experience) start to wonder what is the right course of action. They second guess. They procrastinate. They doubt their own abilities. And, what's the result for the business? Whilst I can't guarantee an answer, it is likely that high performance is the default answer. So, what can you do if you see this happening in your organisation? Available from Amazon and other online book stores An easy first step is to make sure that clear direction regarding what is wanted is provided. The second step would be to loo...

My new book is free to download (Kindle version) this weekend . Specifically, it is free from the 13th of January 2023 to the 17th January 2023. I wrote it for business managers and owners that are fed up of being stuck in Groundhog Day! I wanted to challenge the thinking of this group about how routines are defined and used within their organisation. Most organisations have underdeveloped routines. They usually apply routines solely to the lower levels of an organisation. But what about the Board? What about the senior management team? Routines don't have to be rigid. You don't have to lose flexibility, creativity or talent. But, you can do something to stop you getting in your own way! If this rings a bell with you, then get hold of your free copy this weekend. Alternatively, if  Kindle isn't your thing, you can purchase a copy of the paperback from the same page . I hope that you get some good ideas from this short book (it has taken me three goes to condense the informa...