As that iconic philosopher Taylor Swift reminds us, when behaviour and communication go bad in the workplace, it can mean some Bad Blood. We’re often subject to human foibles like Liam’s loud chewing. Or Lauren’s leg jiggling when she talks. Or Lachlan’s tendency to use the word “like” in every sentence. Plus, it’s possible that …read more »
written by Maree Stuart A while back, there was quite a stir about the Federal Government’s program for funding of commuter carparks. Under the Urban Congestion Fund (UCF), established in the 2018–19 Budget, the Commonwealth sought to ‘support projects to remediate pinch points, improve traffic safety and increase network efficiency for commuter and freight movements in …read more »
You might have heard about the latest Sydney-centric communication stuff-up. It involves the Spaghetti Junction of the Rozelle Interchange. One reason for the traffic chaos came from poor signage. This miscommunication meant that there were extraordinary traffic jams and hours of lost productivity! It shows how a lack of communication can lead to frustration. It’s …read more »
written by Maree Stuart Have you heard that in New Zealand, they’re legislating for laws to ensure that bureaucrats use plain language? You’re probably thinking, that would be nice, but how does it relate to me? Have you read an ISO standard or NATA accreditation document recently??? Apart from those ISO and NATA documents, we see …read more »
We’ve been speaking to lab managers and leaders about their roles and their challenges. These conversations have been collated into a series of articles that will probably resonate not only with lab leaders, but those across other businesses as well. While their pathways may have been somewhat different, all our respondents have clocked up well …read more »
We’ve been speaking to lab managers and leaders about their roles and challenges. These conversations have been collated into a series of articles that will probably resonate not only with lab leaders, but those across other businesses as well. While their pathways may have been somewhat different, all our respondents have clocked up well over …read more »
We’ve been speaking to lab managers and leaders about their roles and challenges. These conversations have been collated into a series of articles that will probably resonate not only with lab leaders, but those across other businesses as well. While their pathways may have been somewhat different, all our respondents have clocked up well over …read more »
We’ve been speaking to lab managers and leaders about their roles and challenges. These conversations have been collated into a series of articles that will probably resonate not only with lab leaders, but those across other businesses as well. While their pathways may have been somewhat different, all our respondents have clocked up well over …read more »
We’ve been speaking to lab managers and leaders about their roles and challenges. These conversations have been collated into a series of articles that will probably resonate not only with lab leaders, but those across other businesses as well. While their pathways may have been somewhat different, all our respondents have clocked up well over …read more »
Every day we need to communicate. And whether it’s grunts from teenagers or the long, winding conversations we have with old friends, we also need to interpret what’s being said. Effective communication in the workplace is critical. Management is often judged by the quality of communications with the rest of the organisation. Teams judge their …read more »
Imagine having all the documents you deal with in a week piled on your desk. If you were to include print outs of your work and personal emails the pile would probably be too high to see over! Clearly, you’re not going to do this (no time, waste of trees) but thinking about that pile …read more »
written by Maree Stuart It’s a new school term and that means it won’t be long before students receive their next report card. If your lab were to receive a report card, how do you think you’d do? Hopefully it won’t look like this! When it comes to labs, you already know it’s important to stay …read more »
Have you ever sent a steak back in a restaurant because instead of being rare, it was extremely well done? Or returned a clothing item to a store because the large size was big enough to accommodate you and a friend? Your memory of how a company handles your complaint will colour your impression of …read more »
Breakups. Resignations. Bad health news. Job terminations. Performance reviews. We’ve all been there. We’ve all felt that stomach-clenching, head-pounding, clammy-palmed moment when we needed to have a difficult conversation with someone. Having to do this in a workplace, particularly if you’re in a supervisory role, can be even more stressful. That additional power dynamic adds …read more »
Ever since caveman days we’ve relied on others to ensure positive outcomes. Heading out on your own to grab a mammoth because you felt like a steak would have ended in a swift and probably painful death. Being on Zoom or Teams meetings means we’ve forgotten all our colleagues’ little quirks. As we’re slowly emerging …read more »
Once you’ve completed your assessment visit, you may feel like you can take a deep breath and rest on your laurels for a while. And this is absolutely true. You certainly can do this. For at least a couple of hours. Because once you’ve waved goodbye to your NATA assessment team and closed the door, …read more »
At MAS, we’ve been part of and carried out hundreds of NATA assessments. It doesn’t take long before you start to see a pattern. You begin to see the same issues emerging and learn just where a lab is going to come unstuck. Labs know that preparing for their assessment is critical. But labs are …read more »
written by Maree Stuart If you’ve been keeping up with the news, you’ll have noticed quite a stir about the Federal Government’s program for funding of commuter carparks. Under the Urban Congestion Fund (UCF), established in the 2018–19 Budget, the Commonwealth sought to ‘support projects to remediate pinch points, improve traffic safety and increase network efficiency …read more »
During the time of British rule in India, the government became concerned about the number of cobras in Delhi. To reduce this problem, the government offered a bounty for every dead cobra and initially, the program was wildly successful. Large numbers of snakes were killed for the reward and the government took a moment to …read more »
“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.” So said Stephen Covey, author of ‘The 7 habits of highly effective people’. We’ve all been guilty of this. In our recent article we discussed asking the right questions. But the best questions in the world won’t matter …read more »
Many of us can spend large chunks of our day seeking information. Whether it’s an update from a team member, negotiations with a contractor or trying to get more than an ‘ugh’ from a teenager, we usually do this by asking questions. Asking questions fuels learning, improves interpersonal bonding and rapport plus it makes us …read more »
We’ve written previously about root cause analysis and just how important it is for your quality system. Root cause analysis (RCA) is about problem solving – sort of like CSI for your quality system. As you get better at performing RCA, your process will be less reactive and more proactive, leading to improvements in your …read more »
It’s been a few months since our last article about carrying out remote assessments. Although everyone has improved with experience, there are still new things we’re discovering. During a recent webinar with our friends at the RACI Pharmaceutical Science Group, we picked up these tips and wanted to share them with you. And if you …read more »
Risk management. It’s a hot topic right now. There are 1.3 billion (that’s 1,330,000,000) entries on risk management that appear in a simple Google search. Risk can be anywhere, from the minute we wake up in the morning until our eyes close at night. We inhabit a world full of risk and uncertainty and have …read more »
Summer time is now officially ended in Australia. Over the summer, I had some time to reflect on what summer means. For me, it means holidays, sun, sand, surf, family time, different surroundings and new neighbours. As we normally do, we had a camping trip down the coast and so summer also means negotiating over …read more »