I am training a group of engineers and managers on planning R&D work. And I’m getting nowhere. A manager and his best lead engineer keep attacking every thing I say.  For every example, they have a counter example.  For every method, they are already doing it, only better and different.  They never really overrun projects.   [more]

We resist change at various levels.  And we must address each level, or change won’t happen.  We might get short term improvement, – but it won’t stick.  We have to climb the Resistance to Change Pyramid.

Actions are the source of improvement, not people. I remember a director at a contract R&D firm. He complained out loud and often about his staff. He had come from a big car manufacturer where apparently they could measure load curves for engines in a quarter of the time it took his current team to get them. [more]