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Increasing Workplace Productivity: 4 Steps to Get It Right

What Is Workplace Productivity? Key Terms Workplace Productivity The ratio of outputs produced (goods, services, decisions, value) to the inputs consumed (time, effort, cost, resource) to produce them. Improving productivity means either increasing output from the same inputs, or maintaining output with fewer inputs — without compromising quality. In people management, productivity improvement is about…

5 Business Process Improvement Steps to Maximise Your Bottom Line

What Is Business Process Improvement? Key Terms Business Process Improvement (BPI) A systematic approach to identifying and eliminating inefficiencies, defects, delays, and waste from business processes in order to improve quality, reduce cost, increase speed, or enhance customer value. Effective BPI differs from random optimisation activity in that it is targeted, data-driven, and linked to…

What Is Business Process Reengineering? A Complete Guide

What Is Business Process Reengineering? Key Terms Business Process Reengineering (BPR) The fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in performance measures such as cost, quality, speed, and customer satisfaction. Defined by Michael Hammer and James Champy in Reengineering the Corporation (1993), BPR distinguishes itself from continuous improvement (Kaizen/Lean) by…

SMART Goal Setting Examples: 37 Templates Across 6 Categories

How to Use These SMART Goal Setting Examples Key Terms SMART Goal A goal that is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Every example below follows this structure — giving you a concrete model to adapt rather than starting from a blank page. The examples below are organised into six categories. Each can be adapted…

Histogram Graph: What It Is and How to Use It for Process Analysis

What Is a Histogram? Key Terms Histogram A statistical chart that displays the frequency distribution of a continuous data set by dividing the data into intervals (bins) and showing how many data points fall within each interval. Unlike a bar chart (which compares discrete categories), a histogram reveals the shape of a data distribution —…

Lean Culture: Why Tools Alone Never Create Lean — And What Does

What Is Lean Culture? Key Terms Lean Culture The set of shared values, behaviours, habits, and leadership practices that make continuous improvement the natural, daily way of working — rather than a project or initiative. In a true Lean culture, improvement is not something done periodically by specialists; it is something everyone does, every day,…

Process Flow Charts: Types, Symbols, and How to Create Them

What Is a Process Flow Chart? Key Terms Process Flow Chart A visual diagram that maps the sequence of steps, decisions, and flows within a process, using standardised symbols to represent activities, decision points, inputs, and outputs. Also known as a process map or flowchart, it makes an invisible process visible — enabling teams to…

Setting SMART Goals: The Complete Manager’s Guide to Goal Setting

What Are SMART Goals? Key Terms SMART Goals A goal-setting framework — first introduced by George T. Doran in a 1981 Management Review article — that defines effective goals as those which are: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. The framework provides managers and teams with a consistent standard for translating strategy into actionable, accountable…

Dealing With Difficult Employees: A Manager’s Practical Framework

What Causes Difficult Employee Behaviour? Key Terms Difficult Employee Behaviour Actions or patterns by an employee that persistently obstruct team performance, create conflict, or violate expected conduct standards — including disruptive communication, resistance to direction, negativity, poor performance, or interpersonal aggression. Critically, most difficult behaviour has an underlying cause that, when properly diagnosed, significantly changes…

What Is Corporate Culture? Definition, Types, and How to Change It

What Is Corporate Culture? Key Terms Corporate Culture The shared values, beliefs, behaviours, norms, and assumptions that characterise an organisation and shape how its members interact, make decisions, and get work done. Culture is “the way we do things around here” — often unwritten, largely invisible, and powerfully determinative of organisational performance. It operates below…

McKinsey 7S Model: A Complete Guide to Organisational Alignment

What Is the McKinsey 7S Model? Key Terms McKinsey 7S Model An organisational effectiveness framework developed by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman at McKinsey & Company in the 1980s (and further elaborated in their book In Search of Excellence, 1982). The model proposes that seven interdependent elements must be aligned for an organisation to operate…

Change Management Models: Lewin, EASIER, Kotter and When to Use Each

What Are Change Management Models? Key Terms Change Management Models Structured frameworks that guide organisations through planned transitions — helping leaders and teams navigate the psychological, cultural, and operational dimensions of change in a sequenced, evidence-based way. They exist because organisational change has a well-documented failure rate: McKinsey research finds that 70% of transformation initiatives…

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