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Pocket CCC app now available for Android devices

My first app is now available on Google Play for Android devices. Many of my clients have asked me if I could make a simple Concern Cause Countermeasure (also known as CCC and 3C) app for their smartphones so that they have the tool at hand whenever they are walking around their business. Long story short, I made an app for Android devices and it has just been published on Google Play. It is called Pocket CCC  and costs £1.79. The app also links to a web resource to show you how to get the most out of the app and this approach. This app is great if you want to capture concerns floating round your business and want to generate simple but effective improvement countermeasures . If you have never used this approach before then you can use the tutorial to get you up to speed quickly. The interface has been stripped back so that it is Lean and only takes about 30 seconds to understand how to use it. To get your copy visit Google Play here or click on the button below.

"What Does Good Look Like?" now available on iTunes

The conversion of my book What Does Good Look Like? for iTunes has now been completed. Get away from Groundhog Day and into a higher gear with this practical book The book is designed for business managers that are fed up with sub-standard performance. Many times this is down to the standards not being adequately described. Other times the team don't have a grasp of a vision of what good looks like, so how can they ever achieve it? The book contains simple methods to develop these visions and part two shares more practical ideas on how you can best implement the change. To get hold of your copy of my book follow the link below: Buy your copy from iTunes Enjoy, Giles About the author Giles Johnston is a Chartered Engineer who specialises in helping businesses to grow and improve through better business processes. Giles is also the author of Business Process Re-Engineering and creator of the ' Making It Happen ' continuous improvement toolkit.

Continuous Improvement and the Five Legged Race

Many improvement projects need the buy in of several people before they can progress. Amongst these people there will be some that have a firm view of what needs to happen and are keen to make progress. Some of the people won't be sure and they will need more time. Other people might not be that interested and have other priorities they want to focus on. None of this is wrong. It is an observation of mine and one that I see repeat on a regular basis with the businesses that I come into contact with. But, if we take the principle from the observation we have an interesting improvement strategy (one that I personally use when I get stuck with my client's improvement projects). You might have worked out the approach from the title of this blog post, but it is analogous to a three-legged race (or four, five, nine...). If someone in the group moves in the wrong direction and / or at the wrong speed then the whole group falls over. In the example I gave at the start it

Do Your KPIs Pass the Ultimate Test?

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are a vital part of any management team's toolkit. Get them right and KPIs can help you to lead your team to victory and success. Get them wrong and they suck up time and resources and frustrate all of those that are involved with the activity. I was working with a team the other week and they had come up with about twenty different KPIs they could use for their function and they were getting stuck as to how to proceed. I asked them to test their measures against the ultimate test: "Can you use the KPIs to make management decisions?" Great KPIs can help you make swift decisions that affect the outcomes for your business. Effective metrics allow you to keep the standards you need in your business in place. Well thought through measures guide and support your thinking, making you more effective and efficient as a manager. The team I worked with applied this simple test and eliminated pointless metrics, enhanced oth

How to Write a Book Using the 100 Words a Day Challenge(!)

For those of you that are regulars to this website, you will know that I have recently published my next book - What Does Good Look Like? The purpose of this post is to explain how I wrote the book when I was already up to my eyeballs with consulting projects, a busy home life and some voluntary work thrown into the mix. Clients and friends have asked me in the last few weeks " How do you have time to write another book? " The short answer is that I am the same as pretty much everyone - I don't have time to write a book! Available for Kindle and in paperback That's where our good old friend Kaizen comes in. I didn't write a book; I created my own 100 words a day challenge. Writing a book - I don't have time for that! Writing 100 words a day - how could I fail? If you haven't come across the Kaizen method before it is a brilliant approach to break big challenges down into tiny bite size chunks. The real power of Kaizen is to avoid triggering

First Official Review of 'What Does Good Look Like?'

My new book What Does Good Look Like?  has now received its first official review: innovate risk wrote on the 20th of October: Available in paperback and on Kindle "Quite simply I have bought 3 more copies of this book to provide to members of my team. For too long, the focus of consultants and advisors has been on "define the problem" and then resolve, but to me that was always missing the real point. The real point is to define "what good looks like", or "what awesome looks like" as per Giles. This book hits this exact point between the eyes and I thoroughly recommend reading this quick and easy book. The techniques provided are simple but most importantly easy to understand and undertake. We need to move away from defining the problem, to defining what "good looks like" for our customers and our people." (This quote was taken from  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07J3988KW#customerReviews ) To get your copy of the book c

Have You Defined Your Performance Principles?

Get your copy today Available from Amazon and iTunes When we experience the day to day frustrations of our team not working in the way that we want them to we have a few options: We can shout at them and tell them that their work isn't good enough. We can try and figure out why their work isn't good enough and try to help them improve. We can articulate what good looks like and help share with them some principles we want them to work to. The last point, sharing with them the principles of how you want your team to run, can be invaluable not just for your under-performing team members but for the wider business. Let me give you an example. I worked with a business that was struggling to keep up with their client projects. We looked at a number of their failings and came up with handful of 'performance principles' that included: We don't do surprises - if something bad happens tell your team mates immediately and work on a plan together. Wal