Real Life Work Podcast with Kevin McManus: Recent Episodes
Great Systems Drive Operational Excellence
What is the 'Real Life Work' podcast? The "Real Life Work with Kevin McManus" podcast is a forum for sharing best practices that lead to better workplaces, communities, and souls. Each week, this podcast connects you with 'real work' leaders who continue to sustain success in the world of work system performance design, diagnosis, and improvement. How does the live podcast work? The live podcast takes place most Friday mornings at 6am Pacific time. All episodes are captured for on-demand listening. They can be found at the common podcast distribution sites.
If you want to be part of the live show, you are welcome. Simply message Kevin at least 24 hours prior to the start of the next podcast, and he will send you a log-on code. You will soon be able to view the podcast live on the Great Systems YouTube channel. Who hosts the 'Real Life Work' podcast? Kevin McManus, a 20-year US National Baldrige Examiner and 40-year workplace warrior, hosts the podcast. Kevin’s primary goal is to help people move closer to achieving their personal potential each day. Would you like more information on my 'Real Life Work' podcast? Would you like more information on my work systems improvement podcast? If so, please contact me via one of the connection paths below.
Also, please take the time to check out the Great Systems website. Keep improving! Kevin McManus, Chief Excellence Officer, Great Systems kevin@greatsystems.com WATCH over 50 kaizen and workplace health improvement videos on my Great Systems YouTube channel. LISTEN to my ‘Real Life Work’ podcast. It’s your source for proven kaizen, healthy workplace, and operational excellence best practices! CONNECT with me on LinkedIn LIKE Great Systems on Facebook CHECK OUT my ‘Teach Your Teams’ workbooks on Amazon.com FOLLOW me on Twitter: @greatsystems © Copyright 2024, Great Systems LLC, All Rights Reserved
These seven virtual workshop facilitation tips help reduce meeting waste and increase the potential for virtual event learning.
In this week's Real Life Work podcast, I provide ten answers to the 'how to change a work culture' question people so often ask.
This week's Real Life Work podcast looks at how to use the top Ten training effectiveness measures to measure training effectiveness.
This week’s Real Life Work podcast looks at how to use predictive analytics at work to help predict process outcomes and optimize results.
LISTEN to my PODCAST that supports this POST! Here is the PDF download for my daily Proactive Process Improvement Process. CHECK OUT my 'Pursuing Process Excellence' playlist on my Great Systems YouTube channel Be a part of my 2-day ‘Measurement, Trending, and Predictive Analytics – How the Best [...]
In this week's version of the Real Life Work podcast, I share five ways to improve environmental investigation root cause analysis. Note that this post is not about what type of root cause analysis process one should use. That is your call to make.
PLEASE SUBSCRIBE to my weekly Real Life Work podcast! PLEASE join me in Texas on April 24-25, 2023 for my NEW 'Measurement, Trending, and Predictive Analytics - How the Best Use Data to Improve' 2-day workshop! PLEASE check out the 20 hours of content on my Great Systems YouTube [...]
Please check out my Real Life Work podcast playlist! Be a part of my NEW 2-day 'Measurement, Trending, and Predictive analytics - How the Best Use Data to Improve' LIVE workshop on April 24-25, 2023. It's part of this year's TapRooT® Summit in Conroe, TX. Take a look at [...]
An effective equipment reliability and asset health improvement process helps minimize operational costs and meet customer expectations.
This week's Real Life Work podcast looks at options for measuring leadership effectiveness, including leader time use and behavior.
In this 'How to Measure Investigation Process Effectiveness' podcast, I share multiple options to measure investigation process performance.
2-Day VIRTUAL MISTAKE PROOFING WORKSHOP! Welcome to My 'Too Many Work Teams, Too Little Team Effectiveness' Real Life Work Podcast! by Kevin McManus, Great Systems LLC I call my second 'Real Life Work' podcast of 2023 'Too Many Work Teams, Too Little Team Effectiveness'. This podcast focuses on the [...]
2-day VIRTUAL Mistake Proofing Workshop Welcome to My 'Four Steps to Effective Rule Enforcement' Real Life Work Podcast! by Kevin McManus, Great Systems LLC My first 'Real Life Work' podcast of 2023 focuses on the topic of effective rule reinforcement. The focal point of this podcast, as it was in [...]
Why Our Process Improvement Fixes Fail By Kevin McManus, Chief Excellence Officer, Great Systems Welcome to this episode of the 'Real Life Work' podcast, hosted by Kevin McManus. In this podcast episode, we explore common system gaps that help explain why our process improvement fixes fail. More importantly, we look at common best practices [...]
Why Our Process Improvement Fixes Fail By Kevin McManus, Chief Excellence Officer, Great Systems There is a psychological pattern that causes many of our process improvement fixes to fail. Over the past forty-plus years, I have seen tens of thousands of corrective and preventive actions. After a while, a pattern began to emerge. I [...]
In this podcast, I share my learnings on the 'how to increase work team engagement' topic, which is a must for operational excellence.
Best Practices to Stay Union Free Podcast By Kevin McManus, Chief Excellence Officer, Great Systems LLC During my work life, I have worked in, and for, both organized and union-free companies. In some cases, we had some organized sites and others that were not. With all the labor organization efforts going on today, I thought I would share this 'best practices to stay union free' podcast. Plus, these are simply best practices for leading any workforce.
My perspective has always been that is if a company has a union in-house, at some point in time the company deserved one. Current management may lead in a much more positive way, but mental models from past negative interactions still exist. It is a challenge to undo twenty-plus years of bad management with just a few years of ‘good management’ attempts.
Like it or not, if you choose to continue to manage in a manner that could be perceived as even a bit authoritarian, entitled, non-inclusive, or unfair, a union could be in your future. I have learned that the following practices are effective in ANY workplace setting, organized or union-free.
EXPLORE MORE: Check out the Great Systems website for more free resources! Focus on Building Sound Relationships, Not Staying Union Free People give you so much more at work each day than what your naked eye can see. Conversely, if they are dissatisfied, they will take more from your organization than you will ever know. It’s not a threat. It’s simply the realities of how fairness, or the lack thereof, influences one’s performance on the job each day at any organization level.
Workplaces that are fair, fun, and focused on excellence are possible. Plus, you can even find them and experience them if one looks hard enough. They’re just not the norm. Where is your workplace at today? What would your people say if we asked them the same question?
Feel free to message me with your thoughts or questions via LinkedIn or send me an email at kevin@greatsystems.com. Kevin McManus, Chief Excellence Officer, Great Systems
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In this podcast from May 2019, Industrial and Systems Engineering (IISE) web editor David Brandt chats with IISE Fellow and ISE magazine columnist Kevin McManus. They explore the discipline of Essentialism and what it has in common with industrial engineering. Also, they discuss the various ways industrial and systems engineers apply best practices for continuous improvement in both career and personal life.
For reference, Oxford Languages defines essentialism as 'a belief that things have a set of characteristics which make them what they are.' Also, it is the task of science and philosophy to discover and express such characteristics. Wikipedia defines essentialism as 'the view that objects have a set of attributes that are necessary to their identity.' In early Western thought, Plato's idealism held that all things have such an "essence"— an "idea" or "form".
When some form of moderate, non-deterministic essentialism is necessary for explanation, industrial and systems engineering can help. ISE skills can help better define, clarify, and validate forms of social sciences that may be critical and have emancipatory potential. For example, what key workforce engagement factors drive customer satisfaction and loyalty outcomes? How can we systematically define, measure, and improve workforce engagement, morale, and motivation levels via essentialism?
Also, keep an eye out for Kevin's 'Real Life Work' podcast. My goal is to air this podcast 2-3 times a month. It will explore current operational excellence best practices and challenges in today's real world of work.
You can also connect with Kevin to stay in touch with the new tools and ideas he plans to share.
Keep improving! Kevin McManus, Chief Excellence Officer,Great Systems
www.greatsystems.comkevin@greatsystems.com
LIKE Great Systems on Facebook
CONNECT with me on LinkedIn
CHECK OUT my Amazon.com Author Page
FOLLOW me on Twitter: @greatsystems