I was privileged to spend some of my time yesterday working with an individual who is looking to change direction career wise.  We flew through our 2 hour slot and he went away with work to do and thoughts to be had.  I came away feeling revitalised and invigorated by the acknowledgement that I love what I do in my work and that I am a very lucky individual as a result.

Too many of us get locked into career paths which turn out to be dead ends or monotonous or taking us to somewhere we have to wish to be.  Another recent Career Counsellee (is there such a word?) had entered the world of work 'the easy way' by working for his Father.  He realised, some 30 years later, that he absolutely hated what he was doing, that it was making him ill and that he needed to change careers.  Luckily he was able to secure sufficient 'redundancy' funds to give him some time to contemplate where he wanted to be and is now busy with a hotchpotch of jobs which all give him the fulfilment that was so missing from his other job.  Life is what you make it and if you aren't happy with what you are doing ask yourself if you are prepared to continue to suffer or whether the time has come to take action!

Tummy's rumbling . . . . poached eggs on toast seems like a damn fine idea!

Got a certificated ISO9001 system?  It might be time to start thinking about what processes you outsourced and how you control those outsourced processes.  

Over the last 10 years businesses have increasingly outsourced key activities e.g. design, HR, Pension Management alongside other less business critical issues such as healthcare, vehicle management etc.  In some cases that outsourcing has been well managed but in others there has been a 'phew don't need to worry about that any more' approach.  Expect ISO9001:2015 to take a much stronger view on outsourced processes with you needing to show that you understand the risks presented and have effective controls in place to manage these. 

I recently ran a course on the likely changes to ISO9001 and as part of the introductions asked the delegates to tell the group a bit about themselves and their management system, and to share how they thought their update process would work.  One of the group told us that at the last visit their certification body auditor had told them that their manual was 'not in the right style or format' so he'd re-written it all for them as part of the audit.  My hackles rose and I could see bewildered faces around the rest of the room.  Of course it transpired that the certification had been issued by a non-UKAS approved body, and when the individual stayed back at the end of the course to ask why I'd raised my eyebrows at the news of the auditor writing the manual it took all my skills of tact and diplomacy to explore, gently, what independence was there and how much faith they could put in the person writing the manual being at all objective about it.  I asked what trails they'd followed during the audit and found that because they'd been so busy doing the re-write they hadn't had time to actually audit . . . .  

Time after time companies are hoodwinked into believing that there is value in having a system written by and certificated by one of these non-UKAS bodies.  Time after time I feel so sorry for them - they've been 'had' - convinced that this is a good solution and that the badge they will proudly present on their website shows they have something of value in place.  Time after time those who understand Quality Management Systems will look at the badge and think 'oh no, another poor soul sold a pup'.    Sad times, and the cost savings they think they will have made will be far offset by the fact that anyone who knows anything will look, laugh and pass them by for that lucrative contract.  If you are thinking of seeking certification for any management standard make sure you pick a certification body which is UKAS approved, or approved by another National body.  Don't be sold a pup!