The manager of a retail store told employees that their responsibility was to make transactions easy and quick for customers. However, if an item had no price or bar code, the cashier was required to call a manager. 
What’s wrong with this picture?  
We can do two things to make it easy and non-threatening for our team members to make decisions [...]

"Everybody’s behavior makes sense to them at the time," says Dr. Aubrey Daniels, founder of the consulting company bearing his name.
We can remove the mystery and superstition for why people do the "crazy" things they do (translation: things we don’t agree with).
It’s not voodoo. It’s the consequences.
"I just don’t understand why he won’t pick up [...]

 When Vickie started working here, she went out of her way to serve her customers quickly, and with a smile. Now she takes much longer, and often just tells them why something can’t be done.
What happened to Vickie? In her first week when Vickie checked with another department in order to give fast answers to customers, her co-workers coldly informed her "That’s not [...]

 
You go, girls!
Thirty fitness buddies are exercising themselves dotty.
On the chart shown above, fitness buddies launched their goals and feedback for fitness. Buddies wrote their first names into a square, claiming it for their self-posting of points earned during a month. Their checklist of fitness behaviors they perform to earn points include keeping a food diary, hiking, playing Fitness Jeopardy, working [...]

 
Poka Yoke.
 
You think, "Isn’t that the video game my children play?"  No, that’s Pokemon, "Game Boy" game with cute animated characters.  The challenge of that game is to train your Pokemon (pocket monsters) to do non-lethal battle against other Pokemon. 
 
Poka-Yoke is the Japanese term for "mistake-proofing."  Like the video game, the challenge is to see how skillfully you [...]