how am I rewarded

we had a annual staff meeting this past monday. It went as well as could be expected. one of the most important changes that I am making this year is connecting the Kaizen events to a bonus. So for all the employees if they want to get their year end bonus they must lead four kaizen events, that's one every quarter, and we have them every two weeks so there is plenty of opportunity. I don't think they liked it that much, I guess it is just rules in general that people don't like. I tried to explain to them that all I am really asking for is 5% of their time that I employ them for to be spent on making shop improvements. Shop improvements help everybody the client and the employee. I don't think that my staff really thinks that kaizen events are important. so to help them understand I have attached a monetary reward to it. In essence I am rewarding the behavior that I want. I want employees that contribute to making the run book, which kaizen events are. the run book is how we do what we do.

As far as the bottle neck of q4 08. I have been thinking about that and trying to understand it. One of the things that I learned is that it began in July of 08. We were supposed to start to install a job in the beginning of July, but due to the job site not being ready for us we couldn't start until end of August. that put me back 6 weeks at least. Now people might ask why don't you just hire more people to get the work done. It is just not that easy, it take a person 6 months to get up to speed to how we like things done. Not mention the financial commitment of another employee, which is a risk I don't feel comfortable taking now let alone last September or any time during q4 08. So from that I learned that one thing I need to do is explain how important the schedule is to the clients, and possibly state in the beginning of a project that if installation schedule is not maintained then we will run late, we will not be able to adjust our schedule. the schedule is a very real thing and there are consequences if your job site falls behind. Those are strong words, I try to be everything I can even more to my clients. It is not a perfect world and adjustments need to be made. Truth is I don't want to sound like a pre-madonna, I want to come across as flexible and able to accommodate any situation. But I have to look at the limits of my company and its staff me included. There is more that I have learned from the bottle neck of q4 08 I will share later.

On a positive note, as I get caught up and am starting to progress on the jobs that I really fell behind on I am getting a new sense of energy and excitement about my work. Seeing the jobs come to completion and the new ones starting to take shape is so very rewarding to me.