"You can now download my new book for free!"

Download my free ebook, Leadership Skills Learned on the Playground

Now in ebook format: Got Kids? Pack It up!

You asked for it (thank you).  I've created my interactive packing paperback for kids in ebook format!  The link below will take you directly to the site.  You can download immediately. 

Tired of spending money on items you already have but forgot to pack? This ebook gives the kids the fun of "checklisting" over 100 "forget-me-not" items and prevents that waste of money, time and stress. Fifteen (15) topics with pictured items listed under each one helps them learn planning and organization skills but we won't tell them! (adults have used it too!)

The difference between the paperback and the ebook:  ebook does not contain the back of the book "journal/diary" section.

 

  La Petite Femme's Bookstore

Travel time and the Packing is Easy! a primer for the young trekker

Got Kids?

Have fun on your adventure!!

Order today, just click on the link below

La Petite Femme's Bookstore

Publishers Who's Who

Patricia Wickham is listed in the 16th Edition of Who's Who Publishers; Empowering Executives, Professionals, & Entrepreneurs Around the Globe.

Just in time for graduation- Creating Your Unique Selling Points (USPs) will net you the job you're looking for!

This 44-page instructional guide will hand-hold you through the process of developing an unbeatable individual strategy for the job you want!

 
Management luminary Tom Peters promoted the idea of self-marketing. "We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc." Creating your Unique Selling Points (USP) is the genesis to helping you... More > identify your brand. Getting a job is the process of selling oneself as the person (brand) who exceeds the needs of the potential customer, the employer. This blueprint for identifying personal Unique Selling Points will give you the confidence to get the job you want!
 
American poet Dr. Maya Angelou's grandmother once said to her,

"Those who give...get.

Those who learn...teach."

It is with this thought in mind, I authored the book.  Find a quiet space.  Yes, you're going to have to think.  And, quelle horreur, you’ve going to have to write, sometimes longer than 144 characters.  Two great life-learning skills!  Once complete, you'll know what your USPs are.  You might be surprised.  I was.

To order your success tool, click here:  La Petite Femme's Bookstore

From the Pulpit

Love this parting joke from Father today and wanted to share:

One of the questions asked of a 90 year old woman during an interview:  "If you had to choose, would you rather have MS or dementia?"  The woman paused for a minute and then responded:  "MS".  "Why?" asked the interviewer.  She replied:  "It would be sad to lose a drop of wine from my glass.  It would be worse if I couldn't remember where the bottle was!"

Go in Peace.

A.I.M. - All Inclusive Management - a child's perspective

You are familiar with the verse "and a child shall lead them".  I spent the weekend with my grandchild.  She  gave me several porcelain dolls as Christmas gifts.  There was quite a variety - small, large, brunettes, blondes, etc. 

One of the conversations we had (she is 7 going on 31) was a "mean girls" story.  It seems she is being harassed by one of the "popular" girls in her classroom.  One day the girl is nice, the next day mean. 

You know someone like that at work.  Suffering from either a low self-esteem or having been belittled as children, "mean folks" project the negative behavior when they are older.  We have created an entire section of the Human Resource department entitled "diversity" to ensure the proper behavior for our ever-changing environment.  Rather than focus on differences, we must focus on our similarities.

We placed all the dolls on my hotel bed and I asked her to sort the dolls as many ways as she could focusing on the things that the dolls had in common.  Some of the ones she came up with are pictured below.  There were more, I just wanted to give examples.

the group



wearing blue dresses

brunettes

blondes

wearing white shoes

on pedestals

both sides of the spectrum

wearing hats

Creating the scenarios and the dialogue made her feel better and more prepared for the next time she had to deal with the "mean girl".  If you have boys, use cars or trucks to create the same opportunity for understanding all-inclusive.mangement skills.

It is important to know for all of our uniqueness, there are more things that make us the same.  Those are the characteristics we need to focus on when dealing with people and understanding interpersonal management styles. 

Value Stream Mapping – Appraising your Business Supply Chain

Hope all of you had a happy holiday and are ready for 2013!  Last year I wrote about defining your 2012 objectives and putting them into actionable events.  I hope that as you review your objectives and actions, you were able to complete each one.  If not, and they are still important to you, determine why you weren’t able to accomplish, define whether or not they are still achievable and if the answer is yes, place those at the beginning of this year’s list.

For those of us who are responsible for achieving increased profits, I wanted to address the process of value stream mapping.  A value stream includes all activities to bring a product from your vendor’s raw material into the hands of the customer.  It includes all activities from Sales through the receipt of dollars for your product.  Any part of the process that takes time and resources but does not add value to the product is waste!  

Statistics show that 60% of operations activities do not add value to the customer.  VSM provides the key to

n      Reduce lead times

n      Improves product quality and space utilization

n      Reduces rework/scrap and inventory levels

n      Reduces indirect labor costs

Value Stream Mapping (VSM) serves as a personal magnifying glass and provides you with the tools to stand back, identify the waste in your business and to streamline processes to get rid of wa$te.

First, question how you currently run the organization.  How are sales measured? Are they measured by actual orders received and shipped?  In which case, you can invoice and receive monies.  Are they measured by what is forecasted by the sales person?  Does the product actually ship or is your warehouse filling up?

Order Entry:  Are orders tracked through the system based on need date or ship date?  Does everyone know?  Is the computer set up correctly to reflect?

How do you measure performance or do you?  Do you determine the sales accuracy of your sales people?  Do they understand that under-ordering or over-ordering will impact the levels of inventory on hand or the amount of wasted money spent on expediting and premium freight?

New Product Design is the key to your customer retention and growth.  It is the number one process to measure (your) business performance. Are all players at the table at the genesis of the new product - Sales / Engineering/ Producing Plant or Service provider/ suppliers / customer?  Have you evaluated the amount of old items that needs to be used up to avoid obsolesce and all the costs surrounding this waste?  Do we know the real date of the new product, part or service or will we upset and/or lose customers with a late introduction?

Purchasing/Inventory Management’s responsibility is to eliminate extras (they cost money in transporting, storage, and space).  This means we must evaluate our decisions to insure that we carefully order only what we need.  Working hand in hand with Sales people will assist in scheduling (only) needed parts.  This means that standards must be set for sales people and suppliers.

Once we understand how the stream should flow we need to evaluate the work involved in meeting our value stream objective.  Use a storyboard to facilitate “seeing” the process.  A picture is worth a thousand words and visualizing the process negates the denial factor.  What you will almost always learn is “gee, I had no idea….”

First, we must specify (remember, magnifying glass evaluation) the current process stream.  How does your organization really work?  Each step of each activity must be documented.  I always suggest using post-it notes as they are easy to move around as you begin to evaluate the waste in the process.  Once each step is documented – go back to the first one and evaluate the following:

• What is the labor cost per action – break labor down per step/action.
• How many forms do we need to use for each action – what is the cost of printing the forms?  Are they 100% useable or old and need to be replaced?  Can you combine several of them to save costs?
• How many times does the paperwork move from one desk to another before actually being actioned – quantify the labor costs as well as the potential loss of customers.
• Does your IT system enhance or delay your process – what has it cost you in customers?  What has it cost you in low productivity (and more errors) from your frustrated employees?

 Once each of the steps has been quantified in the process, sum to arrive at the total stream cost.                                                             $ TOTAL  _______________ 

Now, define the process stream if everything worked right. (labor, steps process, movement  process, IT process)  What will be the anticipated value of each?  Quantify each step as you did before.  Arrive at a sum total for this process stream. 

                                                                               $ TOTAL  _______________ 

Now, you are in the position to quantify your savings

Step 1. (the old way)    List the cost of old stream                   $_________________

Subtract

Step 2.  (the new way)  List the value of new stream              $_________________

Enter your total Activity Based Cost Savings (labor, steps process, movement process, IT process)                  

Value Stream Cost Benefits Dollars         $  _________________

Evaluate your strategy for eliminating waste in the process to insure success

ò  Define waste / AOP (Areas of Opportunity)

ò  Define process owners

ò  Develop Value Stream PITs (Process Improvement Teams)

ò  Schedule progress meetings between all process owners (internal / external) to insure understanding, buy-in or consensus!

As non-value streams are eliminated and streamlined solutions are implemented, remember to update the storyboard to show continued progress.  Invest those saved dollar$ on value-added education, capital equipment, and/or ergonomic equipment and furniture for your employees.  Provide cost reductions to your customers on your products and/or services without losing a dime!  The short term effort is well worth your long term objective.

WHERE WILL YOU BEGIN?