Mike Brady

Some of the most powerful performance improvement approaches I have seen, and been involved in, are where front line team members are involved in identifying problems, designing solutions and then putting those solutions in place.  Approaches like WorkOutTM, Kaizen and Problem Solving Team Building (PSTB) embody the philosophy that the best ideas on how to improve how work gets done will come from those actually doing the work. As well as providing quantifiable improvements in performance, these approaches have the added benefit that they make front line team members feel more engaged with their organisation; they feel listened to, they feel they can affect their working lives and, when making improvements happen, they naturally feel a sense of achievement.  This is why such performance improvement approaches are often the cornerstone of cultural change programmes because of the transformative effect they can have on people. However, these types of front line performance improvemen

Having worked in in the risk and safety management area of the oil and gas industry I have seen, and in small part helped, some of the leading operators work hard on improving their safety culture.  The realisation in the industry has been that layers of processes and controls can only go so far. Front line staff need to remain aware of the risks they face and not become complacent such that they do not spot those small indicators that something is out of place.   So creating a culture that counters this tendency toward complacency, or risk normalisation, has been a focus for oil and gas operators. The oil and gas industry is not the only one that faces risks that could lead to catastrophic losses and the removal of the licence to operate. Financial institutions have faced such losses through failures in processes and controls around rogue trading, mis-selling of products and failures in anti-money laundering controls.  The Basel Committee on Banking Stability (BCBS) as well as re

I am not one who usually enjoys shopping.  When I need to buy something I like to do it with a quick surgical strike 1. Know what you want before entering store | 2. Locate item once inside store | 3. Purchase item | 4. Exit store.  No browsing, no chit chat with shop staff, no impulse purchases. Spending time in shops that aren’t selling food or drink for on-site consumption isn’t really my thing.   Professionally as well, despite working in many industries, retail has not featured strongly in my CV.   However, recently I was fortunate to get involved in a change project with a very large retail organisation with thousands of stores across the United States. As well as learning about some of the key processes in retail and meeting a variety of great people working in stores across the US, I got a first hand exposure to some of the forces currently impacting retailers.   There are new technologies are being introduced principally to increase efficiency and improve customer exper