Each month we provide a new and timely article for your enjoyment and an archive of previous articles for your reference.

Current Article

Do Your Employees Have a Sense Of Purpose? If you're not sure, ask them.

Previous Articles

Inflation Continues to Vex Expansion: One cause of inflation is the need to buy essential equipment, even when supplies are low.

Will Automation Destroy Jobs? There's a great deal of concern, but technology tends to create jobs, not take them.

How to Give Negative Feedback that Succeeds: If you’re disappointed with a direct report’s performance, use the word.

Dealing with the Great Resignation: Resignations continue to run well above normal and dealing with the problem requires some new thinking.

Not Everyone Wants to Lead: Differentiating between those who want to lead and those who prefer to follow is essential to a well run operation.

Stop Upsetting Your Employees: Annoyed employees will be less efficient than employees who are satisfied. Here are some tips.

Overcoming Resistance to Change: Like it or not, dealing with change is an essential skill for every manager.

Handling the Brilliant Bastard: Some employees are simply trouble, but are they so talented that no rules should apply?

Inventory and Agility: Under supply and over supply usually are equally undesirable, except when they aren't.

Ready for the Future? The best way to survive future disruptions involves preparing for them now.

Does Your Warehouse’s Strategy Include Working From Home? Knowledge workers can work from anywhere, but should they?

Investing in Wellness: Doing everything possible to maintain good health in your company’s workforce is intelligent economically and it’s also the right thing to do.

Leadership Versus Caring: Managers with excellent people skills sometimes allow those skills to mislead them.

The Art of Persuasion: Thinking of persuasion as something to be used only by the sales department is short sighted. It's a valuable management tool.

Are We Counting or Communicating? Most organizations have at least three types of communicators, but they don't speak the same language.

Becoming a Better Listener: Listening is one of the most important skills any manager can learn.

Kindness Versus Competition: Does a Darwinian approach work for some businesses?

Positioning for the Future: Brand names are less important today, so it's essential to position your company with peak performance.

Leading a Distributed Workforce: We're still dealing with changes made during the Covid pandemic. How are your remote workers getting along?

Why Efficient Warehouse Leaders Fail: Focusing on people is as important as focusing on getting things done.

Better Time Management Improves Meetings: Meetings can waste a lot of time, but there are strategies for improvement.

Not All Feedback Can Be Positive: Every manager has to deliver negative feedback occasionally, so it's important to know how to do it right.

Three Key Elements for Leading Change: When organizations fail at implementing change, it's often because one of three key elements was overlooked.

Be Proactive, Not Reactive: Instead of being busy, be effective. That's the key to proactive managment.

How Do You Differentiate Your Warehouse? Differentiation is essential to a well run warhouse.

How to be a Better Leader: Leaders succeed when they learn how to provide effective leadership.

Guidelines for Providing Feedback: Feedback can be helpful or harmful. Here are guidelines to help you provide better feedback.

Advantages of Apprenticeships: The United States has few apprenticeship programs, but they offer some clear advantages.

Beware Smart Phone Addiction: Do you know people who are addicted to their smart phones? Are you one of them?

Are you measuring retention? You already know that it's better to keep an existing worker than to need to attract a new one. What about your workforce?

Are You Efficient or Effective? Efficiency may be important, but effectiveness is even more important.

A Three-Step Process for Retaining the Best People: There always seems to be a shortage of good people, and personnel development is not always well understood.

Controlling the Tendency to Micromanage: It's an easy habit to fall into, and one that must be eliminated.

The Importance of Travel Time: Too many warehouse management teams underestimate the costs of inefficient travel.

Why do we need certification? How important is certification in creating a committed, skilled, honest management team?

Overcoming the Skills and Culture Deficit: The importance of rewarding people for quality work, not endurance.

Successful Interviewing: Asking the right questions and watching for caution signs result in better hiring.

What Does Your Customer Care About? The features you list on your website may not be benefits that customers are seeking.

Accepting Personal Criticism: Feedback isn't always pleasing, so it's important to understand how to get the most out of criticism.

Three Critical Passive Skills: Three often-neglected management skills are more important than they may seem to be.

Beware the Hindrance Trap: People work better when their managers are coaches, not dictators.

Overcoming Micromanagement: Micromanagement drags you and your direct reports down, so now is a good time to develop delegation skills.

The Importance of Passive Management Skills: Observing, listening, and sensing are as important as the better known speaking, writing, questioning, promoting, and inspiring.

Maintaining Work-Life Balance: Overwork may seem to be productive, but it's really just the opposite.

Beware of a Culture of Silence! Involve people by showing them that their opinions matter.

Four Steps to Kicking the Micromanagement Habit: Micromanagement is like an addiction, but it can be beaten.

Why They Join, and Why They Leave: Prospective employees look for three conditions when considering an employer. Do you measure up?

The Value of Keeping Score: Employees want to know how they're doing and a well designed system of measurements can be used to monitor the progress of both employees and projects.

Time to Prune the Trees: A businesses grow, it's important to consider the painful task of eliminating unprofitable activities.

It's All About Vision!: The importance of knowing where you're going as described by former General Electric CEO Jack Welch.

Civility and Leadership: Good leaders control their tempers and show respect for others, even when they disagree.

Don't Automate Just Because You Can: The cost of automation has come down and that can lead to bad decisions about implementation.

Manage Things, Lead People: Some people think you can manage people, and the results are usually unfortunate.

Problems with Unlimited Connectivity: Managers who demand that employees be reachable at any time create problems, not solutions.

The Value of Consistency: In warehousing operations, surprises are not welcome.

The Untold Story about Multi-Floor Industrial Buildings: Existing buildings can be retrofitted to serve as warehouses.

The Right Way to Measure the Labor Market: Understanding the differences between the unemployment rate and the labor force participation rate.

Performance Management Systems Really Manage Performance? The short answer is no, but the full answer is a bit more nuanced.

The Changing World of Customer Returns: Handling returned goods can be a problem as the number of returns increase.

The Benefits of Assessment: It's important to assess operations and equally important to avoid comparing dissimilar operations.

Beware a Culture of Silence! A silent workplace is not an indication that everyone is in agreement.

Improving the Employment Interview: The importance of open-ended questions.

Are Warehouses Now More Valuable than Offices? Surprising, but apparently true.

Serial Numbers for Reverse Logistics: Why serial numbers are important for returns.

Good Questions Help to Develop People: The right questions are usually non-judgmental.

Changing Trends in Office Furniture: Trends in office work are reflected in furniture.

Is Unlimited Connectivity a Bad Practice? Being connected is useful, but there are significant downsides.

Why Are They Called Soft Skills? Consider this one insightful question.

Don’t Automate Just Because You Can: Automation can save time and money, but it's not always the right solution.

Controlling the Time Wasters: How to identify and halt people who seem intent on wasting your time.

Manage Stuff, Lead People: There's a big difference between the two.

Warehousing Without Pallets: Pallets have served the industry for decades. Is it time to get rid of them?

The Dark Side of Email: Dealing with email may consume nearly a quarter of your work day. Are you using that time wisely?

The Consequences of Hiring or Promoting the Wrong Person: Hire people carefully; mistakes are costly in more ways than one.

Image-Based Scanning: A Better Mouse Trap? Faster scanning changes everything.

CLO — Chief Listening Officer: Writing and talking are important for good managers, but so is listening.

Managing Your Customer's Inventory: Computerized inventory management software can eliminate outages.

I Trust You What does this mean? Let's consider it.

Are Moos a Threat or Promise? Now would be a good time to find out more about massive open on-line courses.

Who Threatens the Successful Distributor? There are three constant threats and we'll quickly consider each.

The Future of Robotics: Long-term pay-backs are no longer the case. It's time to consider the technology.

The Critical First Day: Hiring a new employee is expensive, but about one third of new hires will quit within 6 months. The first day is important for employee retention.

Adapting to Complexity: Leveraging software to manage complex situations in the warehouse.

A Step-by-Step Process in a Warehousing Startup: A plan is essential and this article considers some basic steps.

Assessing the Risks of Warehousing: When you're faced with making a decision that involves risk, three questions are important.

Leadership Styles: Consider he two primary leadership styles and their effectiveness.

Questions for Your HR Executive: How effective is your Human Resources manager?

Corporate Culture: Why it's important for your employees to understand what it is.

The Critical First Day: About one third of new employees will quit within the first six months. This can be reduced with better on boarding procedures.

Negotiation: Art or Science? Beware one-size-fits-all approaches.

Do we need a multilingual workforce? Let's consider why not.

Understanding E-Learning: E-learning can be an efficient way to bring knowledge to your employees.

Apprenticeship: Could this be the Answer to Our Current Talent Shortage?

Are Leaders Born or Made? Let's consider the question.

Don't Automate Just Because You Can: Automation can be a good thing or a bad thing. Be sure to understand this before automating a process.

Margins Are More Important Than the Top Line: It's easy to concentrate on revenue and it's also wrong.

The Neglected Metric Called Churn: Are your employees and clients loyal? If you have a high churn rate, something is wrong.

What Is Supply-Chain Management? Find out more this month in the Top Shelf article.

Changing Horses: What are you doing to plan succession for top management? Probably not enough.

Thinking about Buying a New Warehouse Management System? Maybe it's worth considering some alternatives first.

Hiring for Talent: Suggestions for finding the best employees.

Visibility in a Crowded Marketplace: Thoughts about what you can do to ensure your business remains viable.

Change: Is it a threat to your job?

Failure Isn't Always What it Seems: Victory sometimes follows multiple failures.

The Danger of Denial: When presented with factual information, one of the most dangerous reactions is denial.

Logistics Management Is More than Cutting Costs: If you concentrate solely on reducing costs, you're dropping the ball.

Tools and Trust: Are you wasting money by trying to protect tools?

Prescription Before Diagnosis Is Malpractice: Before providing a solution, be sure you understand the problem.

Are You a Turtle or a Dinosaur? The climate is changing and your survival depends on the answer to that question.

Clothes Make the Person: How you dress can have an effect on how your employees perceive you.

What Causes Warehouse Damage? There are many causes, but nearly all of them will be in one of just seven categories.

Catch People Doing Something Right: Positive re-enforcement is often far more effective than negative re-enforcement.

The Miracle of the Box: The shipping container literally changed the world, creating winners and losers along the way.

Three Questions about Leadership: These are important questions, one that can affect the future of your operation.

The Curse of Excessive Waiting: Waiting frustrates everyone. It's time to find solutions to the problem.

Accountability: Knowing who's responsible for every task leads to a better operation.

Loyalty versus Price: Is your service viewed as a commodity or have you developed customers who are loyal?

Warehousing Is All about Trust: This may seem obvious, but it's sometimes easy to forget.

Managing with Good Questions: One of the most powerful tools available to you is a good question. Ask and prosper.

Dependability: Is this your employees' most important trait? Should it be?

The Importance of Giving Feedback: Let people know how they're doing.

Coping with Private Equity: Is a private equity firm in your future?

The 4/10 Work Week: Are you ready for it? It can offer benefits for warehouses that operate 6 or 7 days a week.

NIMBY and Office Productivity: Sometimes a warehouse problem might be happening closer to home than you think.

As we publish new articles, earlier articles will be archived here.

Do Railroads Have a Future? Railroads were in decline for much of the second half of the 20th Century, but the future looks bright.

A Customer Relations Credo: Keeping your customer satisfied is relatively easy if you follow the rules.

The Hierarchy of Safety Priorities: When a hazard is found, what should happen next?

Niche Marketing in the Warehouse: Warehousing is a business that's uncommonly receptive to niche marketing.

The Ten Flavors of Warehousing: This is not a one-size-fits-all business and there are at least 10 business models. Can you identify more?

Learning from Mistakes: Instead of punishment for mistakes, consider them ways to learn how to provide better services.

Success Can Be Dangerous: Complacency can be the result of long-term success.

Are You Overlooking Critical Measurements? In addition to all the obvious measurements that are important to the health of the operation, some are often overlooked.

The Importance of Training: There's no question that training is also important to your employees but it's also important to your customers.

Your People Need to Know: Instead of keeping workers in the dark, share information with them. The results are trust and better performance.

Make IT Your Competitive Advantage: Many of today's most successful businesses are founded on a solid information technology foundation.

Outsourcing or Nearshoring? Remember the race to move factories to Asia 10 years ago. Now there's a race to bring them home.

The Difference Between Artisans and Laborers: A dedicated professional becomes an artisan by going beyond the expected and providing services that were not contemplated.

Why You Should Be a Preferred Shipper: The trucking business is changing and if you're not considered to be a preferred shipper, you'll be at a disadvantage.

Understanding Risk: Both buyer and seller must recognize that risk is a part of any business proposition and, as risks increase, so does the price.

Start with the End in Mind: Know what you hope to accomplish before you start.

Controlling Quality By Asking Good Questions: Good questions are the key to obtaining meaningful answers. Here are some clues.

Retention: The importance of retaining both clients and employees cannot be overstated. How does your company rate?

Safety Still Comes First: It may be an old topic but Ken offers a different approach and 5 priorities for warehouse operators.

Why Green Is Keen: Being green may be good for the environment and it can also be good for the bottom line.

Diogenes in 2012: Today's skill sets are not the same as those needed 20 years ago. Are you looking for the right skills?

Three Hallmarks of Warehousing Quality: Retention of employees and clients are two of the three key indicators.

Housekeeping and Discipline: Cleanliness are warehousing don't always go together but they should.

Overwhelmed by Communications: The answer is delegation.

What Should You Stop Doing? Are you spending time on activities that are useless and unrewarding? If so, why?

Building a Culture of Innovation: The best companies are always looking for better ways. When an employee finds one, what rewards are given?

Is Strategy a Dirty Word? No, but strategic planning and studies should often have lower priorities than they do have.

Affordable Green: Are "green" tactics and sustainability only for big corporation? The answer is No.

Logistics, Geography, and Oil: The high price of fuel is changing many of our assumptions. Are you keeping up?

Deliverable Mediocrity: As a manager are you committed to excellence?

Do They Value What You Add? Just because you call it "value added" doesn't mean your clients agree.

Coping with Change: Today's warehouse managers face new challenges and the survivors will be the ones who respond best to change.

Building a Culture of Innovation: Managers must reward creativity. What steps could you take today to encourage innovation?

Mistakes Managers Make: The customer comes second is just one thing that top-flight managers keep in mind.

The Importance of Delegation: What's involved in delegating tasks and how to delegate successfully.

Supply Chain Education Today—Improvements Needed: Bill McBeath examines educational opportunities for the industry today and finds them wanting.