Author Archives Cate Lawrence

Become ResponseAble

Cate Lawrence - Jul 01, 2013 - No Comments

I love transparent and sustainable processes. During my talk at this year’s International Supply Management Conference we explored applying such systems to “Enhance Global Supply Chain Team Collaboration.” One conference attendee was clearly aggravated by cultural differences, communication style differences, and, digging deeper, fundamental differences in supply chain partners’ priorities.

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It’s Not Easy Being Videoed

Cate Lawrence - Apr 15, 2013 - No Comments

Have you been in that video conference call where you can see that people are going for the expressionless look? Kind of reminds me of that scene in the movie “Speed,” where our hero, Keanu Reeves, admonishes the passengers on the bus to make only small movements so that the

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Behave Your Way IN to Effective Outsourcing

Cate Lawrence - Apr 08, 2013 - No Comments

Outsourcing arrangements with well-managed relationships are more likely to be successful. Relationship management can create a 20-40% difference in service quality, cost, and other performance factors. Globally, organizations investing most in developing successful relationships consistently perform better than competitors in the same sector. Transparency and trust are not just “nice-to-have”

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Your Email Got There, but Did Your Message?

Cate Lawrence - Mar 12, 2013 - No Comments

Why do operations professionals need to enhance collaboration skills within supply chains? Because transactions will continue to become increasingly complex. We have always dealt with supply and demand challenges, but the pace of innovation creates more liability for obsolescence, and as the drive to enhance the customer experience becomes greater,

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Collaborating with a Service-Dominant Logic Platform

Cate Lawrence - Feb 14, 2013 - No Comments

Operations management and marketing professionals often take different views of how to leverage the power of the customer. The traditional view of producing goods or services naturally causes different business units to respond to their own performance incentives. Taking a different approach that reflects I at I some and view

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Soft Skills for Hard Targets

Cate Lawrence - Feb 05, 2013 - No Comments

We hear about “soft skills” often, which basically describe how we play well, or do not play well, with others. So we are talking about listening, speaking, negotiating, collaborating, trust, influence, customer experience, team development, etc. Some use a framework, such as Emotional Intelligence Quotient, to provide something of a

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What Can You Do Right Now?

Cate Lawrence - Jan 30, 2013 - No Comments

“Lean tools can be taught to anybody. We know now that the soft skills are the critical part of this whole process.” This is according to an operations manager at Herman Miller, a leading furniture manufacturer. What can you do right now that will improve your soft skill set and

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Speeding to Synergy

Cate Lawrence - Jan 13, 2013 - No Comments

Communication Process Improvement for Rapid Merger Integration An examination of merger integration issues, and how three organizations have employed communication process improvement methods, including the Management By Strengths (MBS) program, to achieve remarkable results during challenging times. Speeding to Synergy →

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RESET

Cate Lawrence - Jan 13, 2013 - No Comments

Taking Resourceful Action Now for a Nimble Organization Time is the ultimate non-renewable resource, but people are capable of taking control of this resource to accelerate processes in every business function. RESET →

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I Don’t Think I Ever Saw that Email…

Cate Lawrence - Jan 13, 2013 - No Comments

We know that conflict is going to be part of team activity. When we speak of reducing conflict, we are talking about unproductive conflict, the kind of conflict that does not yield a creative solution, but rather hampers progress. Effective communication minimizes misunderstandings. The major problem with distributed teams is

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