If you look up the definition for ‘communication’ you’ll see that it involves sending a message then having the sender ensure that the message was received and understood the way the sender intended. ‘Sending an e-mail’ is NOT ‘communication’. It…

We need to focus on our users when we’re designing and improving our management systems. This may seem obvious, but you’d be amazed at how many times a client will ask, “Will the auditor accept this?”. Of course we want…

“What’s in it for me?” is a question everybody asks at one time or another. You’d think ‘What goes around comes around’ would be enough to engage and contribute, but not everyone believes in Karma. So if you feel that…

Not all of the managers that I’ve met over the years have been able to actually demonstrate that they are meeting the requirements of the ‘Leadership’ section of the Standard. On a few occasions I’ve run a training course and…

When we think of getting value out of Internal Audits, sometimes we draw a blank. Or we think that asking if everyone’s following their procedures will do the trick. Here are 3 ways to get more value out of our…

One way to simplify your management system is to reduce the number of super-detailed text-based procedures. Once they are in place, you might be temped to audit simply to see if everyone’s following them. This causes two problems. The first…

It’s all about the risk, these days, and the better we manage it, the better off we are, period! The new Standard calls for it, yes, but it’s just good business practice to assess where the potholes are in our…

…if you choose ‘Operator error’ as the cause of your latest non-conformance. When Ishikawa introduced the world to his ‘Fishbone’ for doing root cause analysis, his research showed that employees in organizations make errors, of course, but only about 6%…

Getting value out of Internal Audits is a constant challenge. Many of our clients found it helpful to change the focus of their audits from ‘Are people following procedures?’  to ‘Find ways to improve our system’. By getting the focus…

Years ago I used to deliver training in the stores of a national chain here in Canada. Most of the material was focused on the customer: How to handle difficult customers, How to tell if a customer complaint is legitimate, How…