Browsing Tag
sam carpenter
14 posts
The Toilet Paper Illustration
As an example of systems-thinking, and at the risk of an awful pun, reaching for a piece of toilet paper is the bottom line. Toilet paper is a mandatory accessory. It may be the one thing that all of us have used daily for all our lives. As an illustration of a system that is...
It’s Just the Way We Do Things Around Here
When the “Shall I do it now or later?” question comes up for a new Centratel staff member, their not-yet-disciplined internal dialogue goes something like this: “What’s the difference if I do this task now or later? I just don’t feel like doing it right now. I’ll do it later because my guess is I...
Measuring the Body
Here’s an excerpt from Sam Carpenter’s book Work The System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less... Eight years ago, in the depths of my workplace chaos, I was also dealing with a very sick body and an exhausted mind. I was delirious during the day and couldn’t sleep at night. My doctor...
Gone Missing
Several years ago we had our house remodeled. Immediately after, we “flipped” another house. In both cases, numerous subcontractors, both experienced and inexperienced, did the work. Linda was the interior designer. I was the general contractor. In this world of framers, plumbers, electricians, roofers, and concrete specialists, there is an interesting commonality among inexperienced subcontractors:...
The Tip System
Here is an evaluation system, albeit waggish. It’s about tipping in restaurants, and I’ll preface things by saying I don’t believe a tip is a diner’s obligation. It’s a tip—something extra that one earns if the service he or she delivers is at least good. Linda and I sit down for a meal in a...
The Cardiovascular Equipment Sign-Up System
Here’s a remove-the-system-altogether scenario. It’s the ultimate in simplifying things. My staff and I take delight in chucking unnecessary Centratel protocols. System-elimination is great to see in personal life, too. The cardio room at the gym where I work out is equipped with dozens of treadmills, step climbers, and stationary bikes. It’s a busy place,...
Losing Key Employees
In my small business, Centratel, each of our half-dozen key management people has had several years of on-the-job experience. Training managers to operate a telephone answering service is a long, drawn-out affair because it is necessary to understand a myriad of technical details and random facts. The introduction of documentation speeds up this training process, but...
Installing a Preventative System
Sometimes we install a system and it doesn’t do much. We achieve the desired effect by the mere existence of it. At Centratel, we knew a few of our employees spent time “cruising the net” on company time. It was impossible to track these sleight-of-hand excursions and the closest we could get to managing the...
Paying the Bills: An Illustration of Replacing an Old System with a New One
For years, a nagging problem in my small business, Centratel, was the time and effort it took to pay the monthly bills. The process did nothing for the bottom line and each month required 10 to 14 hours of my time to process 60-80 payables to various vendors. I wrote the checks, entered the transactions...
Leader and High Earner
Not too long ago I participated in Cycle Oregon, a weeklong bicycle tour. Seventeen hundred riders pedaled an average of 75 miles each day through remote eastern Oregon. At night we camped in ad hoc tent cities planted at various locations along the route: rural high school football fields, small town parks, or wheat fields....
The Roots of America. The Roots of Your Business.
It’s Sunday, September 6, and Linda and I are in Philadelphia. We stand in a pouring deluge – the brunt of tropical storm Hanna is upon us – as we wait to enter Independence Hall, located in the city’s Historic District. Drenched despite our umbrellas, 30 of us enter the annex of the building. We...
The Curse of the Blackberry: A Subtle yet Virulent Anxiety
"In the past 20 years, the lure of instant gratification has gripped the youngest half of our population. For the hooked-up generation-those born after 1970 who are wedded to iPods and the immediacy/pervasiveness of the entertainment industry-it's a stretch to go backwards to consider the root of things. The gratification of the moment is a...
Communication in the Workplace: Quality versus Quantity
“The quality of your communication equals the quality of your life” - Anthony Robbins The sense I have developed over the years is that quantity of communication is more important than quality of communication. Of course, this refers to sensible discourse between two parties. It is no good if one spews unlimited information while ignoring...
Focus on the System, Not the Product
It seems logical the manager’s total efforts should be focused on the product or service itself; that all energy be directed to the work that must be done, the customers who must be found, and the money that must be made. And this is the problem! Focus entirely on these tasks without an overall strategy...