A Theory of a System for Educators and Managers
Posted on October 25, 2010 Comments (3)
Excerpts from The Deming Library Volume XXI, Dr. W. Edwards Deming, Dr. Russell Ackoff and David Langford demonstrate that educators can begin a quality transformation by developing an understanding of the properties and powers of systems-oriented thinking. You can order the entire video, as well as the rest of The Deming Library.
Great stuff! If you enjoy this blog (the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog), you definitely should watch this webcast. This video has some great insight into education, learning and systems thinking. It also provides a good explanation of systems thinking compared to analysis. Dr. Ackoff: “You cannot explain the behavior of a system by analysis.” “The performance of the whole is never the sum of the performance of the parts taken separately: but it’s the product of their interactions. Therefore, the basic managerial idea introduced by systems thinking is that to manage a system effectively you must focus on the interactions of the parts rather than their behavior taken separately.”
Dr. Deming: “You may reduce defects to zero and go out of business.”
Dr. Ackoff: “Most discussion of education assume that the best way to learn a subject is to have it taught to you. That’s nonsense… Teaching is a wonderful way to learn. Therefore if we want people to learn we have to make them teach.” If you want more on this see David Langford’s work which provides great advice on how to improve learning and education.
Related: Dr. Deming Webcast on the 5 Deadly Diseases – An Introduction to Deming’s Management Ideas by Peter Scholtes – How to Manage What You Can’t Measure – Marissa Mayer Webcast on Google Innovation – Traffic Congestion and a Non-Solution
Why Don’t Football Players Just Thrown the Ball Out of Bounds to Stop the Clock
Posted on October 24, 2010 Comments (1)
I have never understood why players don’t lateral the ball out of bounds to stop the clock in pro or college football in the USA. If time is running out and the player is tackled in bounds the clock keeps running and time can expire. You can stop the clock by running out of bounds. Also if the ball goes out of bounds the clock is stopped. I figured maybe there was some rule against just throwing the ball out of bounds to stop the clock. I never hear announcers explain that they can’t just throw the ball out of bounds due to a rule, though.
I decided to go the the source, on page 73 of the official NCAA football rules it says the clock stops: “With fewer than two minutes remaining in a half a Team A ball carrier, fumble or backward pass is ruled out of bounds.”
However, on page 103 (of 272) it states: “A ball carrier may hand or pass the ball backward at any time, except to throw the ball intentionally out of bounds to conserve time. [The penalty for breaking the rule is] five yards from the spot of the foul; also loss of down.” The clock is started when the ball is ready for play (rule 3-4-3 says the clock restarts on the ready to play signal for “unfair clock tactics” penalties).
From the rule book appendix: “A ball carrier, late in the second period, throws a backward pass out of bounds from behind or beyond the neutral zone to conserve time. RULING: Penalty – Five yards from the spot of the foul and loss of down. The clock starts on the ready-for-play signal.” By the way an illegal forward pass has the same penalty.
Still to me this leaves a very good reason to lateral the ball out of bounds. It should certainly take less time to line up and ground the ball after the ball is marked ready for play than it would if the clock is never stopped. Often you could still have time to run a play or just ground the ball and stop the clock.
The NFL does use a 10-second runoff rule, and with the referee winding the clock on the ready for play, which would likely make an deliberate attempt a bad idea. But as far as I can tell college rules don’t have that time penalty. It seems to me, if you want to have a rule against stopping the clock that way, it probably is wise to have the 10 second penalty.
Even if for some reason taking that penalty doesn’t work if you are in the middle of the filed you could thrown it to someone near the sidelines to let them get out of bounds. Also if you at least make that attempt and then the ball goes out of bounds (just form your lateral) it seems to me you at least have the hope the referees won’t call the penalty that requires your intent to thrown it out of bounds to stop the clock, in order for it to be a penalty.
Related: Randomization in Sports – NHL Experiments with the Rules of Hockey – Physicist Swimming Revolution
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Management Improvement Carnival #113
Posted on October 20, 2010 Comments (0)
Pete Abilla hosts the Management Improvement Carnival #113, highlights include:
- Just Open my Mouth and Go To the Gemba by Bryan Zeigler:
I see the same thing in factories all the time. There is a problem. We sit at our computers and analyze process information, warranty data, etc when we should just go out and see the problem ourselves. I also see us use the latest greatest technology just because its the new gizmo, when there are many ‘old fashioned’ techniques that are better, faster, and cheaper.” - Lean Advice from Sobek and Smalley by Brian Buck: “From our experience, improvement efforts in companies become ineffective when the emphasis becomes adhering to a standard tool and enforcing a certain way of doing things.” – highly recommended book Understanding A3 Thinking page 133.”
Related: Management Improvement Carnival #21 – Management Improvement Carnival #79 – Management Improvement Carnival #45
Posts on Managing People from Around the Web
Posted on October 18, 2010 Comments (1)
My thoughts on managing people are based on Dr. Deming’s thoughts on management. The over-simplified explanation is that people want to do good work. Performance problems should be looked at first, second, third, fourth and fifth as problems with the system not the individual.
I believe organizations should practice continual improvement with the participation of everyone. Decisions should be based on evidence not the opinion of the highest paid person in the room (or even worse – “policy”). Coaching is good. Performance appraisals are bad.
Poor performing processes need to be improved by the people working on those processes. Those people need to be provided the tools (knowledge, time, support) to improve.
People don’t need to be motivated and empowered they need to be given the the opportunity to do what they want to do naturally: a good job. Managers need to help people by eliminating the de-motivation that so many organizations seem designed to create for people at work.
Management and human resource staff need to do a much better job of providing people opportunities to do a good job and take pride in their work. Far too many people are forced to suffer through poorly managed systems when trying to do their jobs. By improving the work environment, organizations can improve their results (customer satisfaction, profit, productivity…) and employee satisfaction.
Developing Staff, Managing People, Coaching
- Managing The Good, The Bad and The Ugly with Your Employees by Jim Keenan – “I believe coaching people is a process. I don’t believe coaching people or managing people can be done reactively… To develop the strengths or mitigate the weaknesses of your employees, get them on the table early and keep them on the table.”
- The Eight Steps to Driving Successful Large Scale Change by John P. Kotter – “The obstacles take many, many forms: bosses who haven’t bought in; IT systems not capable of supporting the strategies; lack of the skills needed to make the vision a reality; a lack of training to develop these missing skills. The guiding coalition finds ways to eliminate these obstacles, empowering people to do what they want and what the change effort requires.” from his new book Buy-In: Saving Your good idea from getting shot down.
- Do more experiments faster by Tom Peters – “The best performers, I said, seesawed back and forth between ‘ideas’ and ‘actions.’ That is, they had a ‘big idea.’ (Or a small one, for that matter.) Rather than think it to death, they immediately got the hell into the field and experimented with some element of it (a prototype). They watched what happened, adjusted, and then quickly ran another experiment.” [use this idea in your coaching - (experiment and adjust) and also as a guide to those you are coaching - John Hunter. by the way I completely agree with doing more experiments faster. I completely disagree with the idea systems thinking somehow precludes that.]
- A Secret No One Tells New Managers by Wally Bock – “Controlled confrontation is a key part of being a boss… Your objective is for your team member to leave your meeting thinking about what will change and not how you treated them.”
Good Policies for Managing People
- Start at the Wall by Paul Hebert – “How many of the processes actually decrease effectiveness and are really barriers enacted years ago for issues that no longer are issues? What ‘behavioral’ issues could be solved by changing the environment the person is in?”
- Standardization the prerequisite for any meaningful improvement by Steven Spear – “Without defining what you expect to do and what you expect to happen, you cannot meaningfully determine if what is happening is a bona fide problem or merely the result of work done out of control.”
- Social Learning = Organically Sloppy. How business really gets done by Kevin Grossman – “Social learning welcomes impromptu scenario-based training and development opportunities. Organically sloppy, the way we really learn to transform ourselves and the business.”
2010 Deming Prize
Posted on October 15, 2010 Comments (1)
The Union Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) has awarded the Deming Prize to 4 companies in 2010: Corona Corporation (Japan), Meidoh (Japan), GC Dental (China) and National Engineering Industries Limited (India).
Organizations receiving the Deming Prize since 2000 by country (prior to that almost all winners were from Japan):
| Country | Prizes |
| India | 16 |
| Thailand | 9 |
| Japan | 7 |
| USA | 1 |
| Singapore | 1 |
| China | 1 |
This is the first time a Chinese company has won a Deming Prize. The parent company, GC Dental (Japan), was awarded the Deming Prize in 2000 and the Japan Quality Medal in 2004.
The 2010 Deming Prize for Individuals went to Dr. Takao Enkawa, Professor, Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Tokyo Institute of Technology. Previous recipients include: Kaoru Ishikawa, Genichi Taguchi, Shoichiro Toyoda, Hitoshi Kume and Noriaki Kano.
Related: 2009 Deming Prize – 2008 Deming Prize: Tata Steel – Deming Prize 2007 – 2006 Deming Prize
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Positivity and Joy in Work
Posted on October 14, 2010 Comments (4)
After my father died, for years (at least 10), people I never had met before would emotionally share what a positive influence he had on their lives. He did great stuff helping organizations improve. But the majority of people were not telling me how much he helped the organization improve [there were also a bunch of engineers and statisticians 
that were more impressed with his insights and expertise]. But most people talked about was how much happier they were because of the changes he helped them see they could make in their lives.
He helped them expect to take joy from work and so they did (and a big part in taking joy in work for most is helping others take joy in work – you don’t find many workplaces with 15 miserable people and one joyful person). Many had to leave their current organizations that were too broken for them to fix. But after they saw what they should expect they couldn’t just keep passing time without joy in work.
Now I am sure their were hundreds of people that never talked to me that never made any such change. But the number of people that did took what was a decent chance that I would continue working with the management ideas I absorbed from him (data based decision making, Deming, joy in work, respect for people…) and made it a very great one. Unfortunately I am nowhere near as affective as he was.
Creating organization that show respect for people in the workplace and give them tools to improve is far more powerful than most people understand. Most people get scared about “soft” “mushy” sounding ideas like “joy in work.” I have to say I sympathize with those people. But it is true.
To get “joy in work” it isn’t about eliminating annoyances. Fundamentally it is about taking pride in what you do and eliminating the practices in so many organizations that dehumanize people. And to create a system where the vast majority of people can have joy in work most of the time requires a deep understanding and application of modern management improvement practices (Deming, lean thinking, etc.).
The photo shows Dad, William Hunter, and me on the beach.
In response to A Breath of Lean Positivity – Paul Akers
Related: William G. Hunter Award – Peter Scholtes – Joy in Work, Software Development
Tags: Bill Hunter,Career,Deming,John Hunter,Joy in Work,management,Psychology,quote,respect for people
Carnival of Human Resources
Posted on October 13, 2010 Comments (1)
As I have discussed in this blog I believe the ideas Douglas Mcgregor’s laid out in The Human Side Of Enterprise 50 years ago. People want to do a good job. Managers don’t need to use carrots and sticks to get employees to perform. They need to remove the de-motivators that organizations so often put in the way of workers. Here are some recent blog posts from around the web on how we can improve the management of people in our organizations and other posts related to HR in the latest Carnival of HR.
- What can I do about someone with a bad attitude? by Wally Bock – “Working on a ‘bad attitude’ directly is a trap. It gets you argument, denial, or withdrawal. So identify the behavior or performance behind the attitude and work on that.”
- I’d love a vacation, but I just can’t… by Karen Bernhardt-Sumple – “It’s time to encourage employees to take time off – for their benefit, as well as the company’s!”
- Don’t Underhand Your Pitch by Kim Urban
- Depersonalized Workplaces are L.A.M.E., not Lean, Harming Productivity and People by Mark Graban – “Many people think a vibrant or fun-looking workplace is the key to productivity. The authors suggest that it’s actually the level of control over the workplace that makes all the difference.”
- Can corporate cultures really be boiled down to one of four categories? Jennifer Miller asks readers to consider adding to the list of definitions.
- Career management tips for those that love their jobs by Dan McCarthy
- Realizing Frontline Improvement by Lee Fried – “senior leaders to need to create the support systems that allow frontline improvement to come alive. They need to provide training and coaching, provide common methods, allow the teams to have time to get started and most importantly they need to show up and participate.”
- I’m Doing a Bad Job. Can I Still Get a Raise? by Suzanne Lucas, Evil HR Lady
- Improve morale go to the gemba by Dan Markovitz – “go to the actual place where your people are working. Talk to them. Say thank you. And find out what’s important.”
Photo by John Hunter, on the Cascade Pass trail in North Cascade National Park. My travel photo blog includes more pictures.Management Improvement Carnival #112
Posted on October 11, 2010 Comments (0)
Tim McMahon hosts the Management Improvement Carnival #112 on the A Lean Journey blog. Highlights include:
- Establishing a Classroom Culture – David Kasprzak explores the question of “what if work was like going to school?”
- Overlooked Waste Reduction of Kanban – Matt Wrye reminds us that kanban can reduce information flow not just inventory but the real goal is about flow.
- 5 Reasons You Need to do DMAIC – Christian Paulsen shares a personal story explaining why you need to use DMAIC.
- What Leaders Need to Think? – Dragan Bosnjak says that leaders be concerned to create and train their successors.
- Daily Kaizen (Lee Fried), Teach Everyone the Business – Lee, a lean facilitator at Group Health in Washington, writes “When I reflect on Health Care and my own organization I do not think we do a very good job at helping team members understand the financial side of the business.”
- Doing Common Things Uncommonly Well (Anna Roth), A Culture of Safety: Forgiving – A hospital CEO writes “I am not suggesting we forget harm or look away from difficult situations. I am suggesting we learn to forgive and not let it divide us as looking for blame will.”
- Running a Hospital (Paul Levy), Fishbones – Yet another blogging hospital CEO says “But, the idea of Lean is to focus on the problem and not the person. This is not about blame. It is about a workplace environment that has evolved over the years — full of work-arounds and inefficiency and waste.”
- Lean Thinking in Healthcare (Marc Rouppe van der Voort), Book – Toyota Kata: My friend Marc, from the Netherlands, gives his thoughts on the first three chapters of Mike Rother’s book Toyota Kata: Managing People for Improvement, Adaptiveness and Superior Results.
- Visual Management for having a baby by Xavier Quesada Allue – “The team members (us, the parents) were not working full time on the project. This means that at certain moments, if necessary, we could scale up our efforts on this project to the detriment of other parallel projects we were doing”
- “Systems Thinking” and Me: Never the Twain Shall Meet by Tom Peters – “The best performers seesawed back and forth between ‘ideas’ and ‘actions.’ … Newtonian ‘scientific method,’ wholly dependent on ideas shaped and reshaped by actions—my studies of Nobel laureates in the sciences, for example, suggests (and not oversimplifying by much) that the winners ‘do more experiments faster.’”
- How To Go From Idea To Launching With Paying Customers In 8 Steps by Jasonl Baptiste – “Start killing off things you don’t need right away and leave them to Version 1.1,etc., but also make sure the really important ones have a very high priority… This will make it easier to get the product in the hands of your customers AND it will also make you laser focused on the things that truly matter to your customers.”
- If The Student Hasn’t Learned… by Mark Rosenthal – “Instead of looking for cultural reasons why ‘this won’t work here” we kept faith that, if the initial response was silence and non-participation, there was something that we needed to address in the way we taught, and in the environment we were creating.”
- First Steps – Improving Your Meetings by Jamie Flinchbaugh – “But even for a meeting, this can lead to significant time and action items. If you want to keep it simple and manageable, end your meetings with these 3 questions: 1. What’s 1 thing that we did well? 2. What’s 1 thing that we can improve? 3. What’s 1 thing that we will do differently?
- Go That Way, Really Fast by Jeff Atwood – “Google went from nothing, no web browser at all, to best-of-breed in under two years. Meanwhile, Internet Explorer took longer than the entire development period of Chrome to go from version 7 to version 8.”
- Delegate, don’t dump by Wally Bock – “Part of your job is to help your team members develop. That will only happen if you give them as much control over their work life as you can, based on their ability to do the job and their willingness to tackle it on their own. “
- Bridging the Knowing-Doing Gap by Jon Miller – Mr. Ohno did not tolerate the knowing-doing gap in his presence. One was scolded for claiming to understand something without first putting it into action. Stories like this are the source of the Taiichi Ohno-ism ‘Understanding means doing’.”
- Toyota Texas Tour – Concepts From the Visitor Center by Mark Graban – “I was surprised to see how much of the focus was on TPS. You’d think the general public just wants to know how cars are built (and the visitor center does explain stamping, paint, etc.). But it’s apparently Toyota is proud of TPS as a core of who they are.”
- When to coach the process, and when to coach the solution by Jamie Flinchbaugh – “Your focus is not on the solution or the problem itself, but on the process that either created or missed the problem that would end up enabling future problems. Obviously you might end up doing both, but that is a larger investment of your time.”
- Hitting a WIP Limit by “Such a simple thing, but now instead of increasing the number of spinning plates, we’re putting energy into moving the current work faster, which I suspect is going to be more satisfying for developers too.” by Andrew Walker
- The Importance of the Daily Meeting by Kevin Meyer – “Traditional organizations wait a week or two between staff meetings to discuss issues, and by the time the meeting rolls around many subtle issues have been forgotten.”
- Does the “Deming Connection” have a down side? – “Most companies pour money into sales and marketing to lure new customers while giving their existing ones short shrift, in an effort to minimize costs and maximize revenue.”
- We’ve got leaders. What we need is leadership by Wally Bock – “Your challenge is to accomplish the mission and care for your people. That will only happen if you do leadership work, management work, and supervision work.”
- Evidence-Based Study Tips: Nine Ways To Help You Learn by Bob Sutton – “Adopt a growth mindset: This might be the most important of all; as Carol Dweck’s wonderful research shows, when people believe that their intelligence and abilities are malleable rather than fixed, they try harder of learn more”
- Gemba Tales: Developing Leader Standard Work – Five Important Steps – key components of leader standard work.
- Flinchbaugh: Small-i ROI as Applied to Strategy – Sometimes instead of focusing on the big R in ROI, it can pay to find a unique niche requiring just a small i.
- Lean Blog: Mental Models: Standardized Work and Performance Measures – Standard work and performance measures mean different things in a traditional command and control organization versus a lean organization.
- New Rules for Management? No! – “New” rule: “Look out, not in.” What kind of rule is that? It is pretty obvious you need to do both. I find it incredible the amount of time that is taken trying to show “new” ideas that amount to absolutely nothing. See comments on: Fast Company Interview: Jeff Immelt.
- How Google Works – Google understands when you experiment things might not work out. Google’s solution is to experiment quickly and fail early (turn the pdsa cycle quickly). That is something every organization can apply.
- Quality and Innovation – For getting some good ideas about what managers/executives should understand about innovation Gary Hamel and Clayton Christensen (The Innovators Solution by Clayton M. Christensen and Michael E. Raynor, 2003) offer very valuable information.
- Usability Failures – if 63% of purchasers return your phone that you think “have nothing wrong with them” you have bigger problems than production defects.
- Motivation – Most manager focus on motivating people is wasted time and effort. Instead managers would be much more effectively used improving the system, learning, coaching, eliminating de-motivation…
- Ron Pereria (Lean Six Sigma Academy)
- Jon Miller (Gemba Panta Rei)
- Kevin Meyer (Evolving Excellence)
- Matt May (In Pursuit of Elegance)
- Jamie Flinchbaugh (Lean Learning Center)
- and this site, John Hunter (Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog)
Related: 2009 Annual Management Blog Review Part 2 – Management Improvement Carnival #78 – Management Improvement Carnival #44
Create a System That Lets People Take Pride in Their Work
Posted on October 7, 2010 Comments (7)
I believe I learned this from Peter Scholtes, though maybe I am remembering it wrong or explaining it wrong (so give him the credit and if I mess it up it is my fault). I believe there is a problem with using the term empowered. Using the term implies that it one person empowers another person. This is not the correct view. Instead we each play a role within a system. Yes there are constraints on your actions based on the role you are playing. Does a security guard empower the CEO to enter the building?
Some systems are setup with a great deal of micro managing. Then consultants look around and say you need to empower your employees to think. Which often results in mangers saying “you all are empowered” go forth and do good work. Saying that is meaningless. What matters is changing the system. The system needs to respect people. That is not increased by people using the word empowered. In fact it is decreased, I believe, due to the implied notion that one person “empowers” the other (what can be granted can be withdrawn).
I believe organizations should be designed so that decisions are made at the appropriate level. Systems should be designed to produce good results by allowing people to contribute. People should be trusted to do their job. They should not be micro-managed.
People deserve to have a system that is managed to allow them to most effectively do their job. They should have standard work instructions. Decisions should be based on an understanding of variation. Non-value added work should be eliminated (freeing people to do valuable work). Ideas should be judged based on the merit of the idea not the position of the person expressing the idea.
When discussing empowerment this topics come up, but the wrong term reinforces the wrong view of the situation. It is similar to the problem with “motivation.” What managers need to do is eliminate de-motivation – not to motivate. Manager’s don’t need to “empower” employees they need to fix the system to treat employees with respect and allow them to do their jobs well.
You don’t need to think about empowering people if you have a system that lets people take pride in what they do. If you think you need to empower staff, instead fix the system that requires you to think they are in need of empowerment.
Comic by Joe Sayers, Wanna play work?
Related: The Joy of Work – Signs You Have a Great Job … or Not – People: Team Members or Costs – Respect for People
Tags: Deming,Joy in Work,managing people,Psychology,respect for people
Six Sigma Interview with Jack Welch
Posted on October 4, 2010 Comments (0)
The short video includes some interesting points by Jack Welch on six sigma. GE was a huge company and did plenty of things that could be criticized. But often those criticizing take it much to far and disregard the sensible things GE understood and was doing well.
Quotes by Jack Welch: “variation is evil” “Will six sigma companies get more valuation in the marketplace? Not unless they produce results. You can’t put up a slogan that says we are a six sigma company and think the pe is going to move.”
Related: 3M CEO on Six Sigma – Management Advice Failures – New Rules for Management? No! – Has Six Sigma been a failure?
Tags: Investing,management,management webcast,quote,Six sigma
Management Improvement Carnival #111
Posted on October 2, 2010 Comments (0)
Mark Graban hosts the Management Improvement Carnival #111 on the lean blog, highlights include:
Related: articles on improving health care management – Management Improvement Carnival #62 – Management Improvement Carnival #29
Manufacturing Jobs Increasing for First Time Since 1998 in the USA
Posted on September 29, 2010 Comments (1)
Surprise! Blue collar jobs are coming back
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The unemployment rate for manufacturing workers has also shown much greater improvement than for workers overall, dropping to 9.5% in August from 13% in December. That compares to a far more modest improvement to 9.6% from 10% for the overall labor force.
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Gains so far have been concentrated in four industries — automotive, fabricated metals, primary metals and machinery
This is good news for the economy. I believe it is partially due to more companies rethinking off-shoring practices which are flawed and adopting lean manufacturing ideas. As I have written for years USA manufacturing output has continued to increase and still remains by far the largest manufacturer. China is making huge gains by growing their output dramatically (not by the USA’s output decreasing). Manufacturing employment in the USA (and everywhere else – including China) has been decreasing for 20 years. The main stories are not jobs moving but jobs being eliminated by productivity improvement and China growing manufacturing output not a decline in manufacturing output in the USA.
Related: Worldwide Manufacturing Employment Data – 1979 to 2007 – Manufacturing in the USA, and Why Organizations Often Don’t – Top Manufacturing Countries in 2005
Management Improvement Carnival #110
Posted on September 21, 2010 Comments (1)
The management blog carnival is published 3 times a month with select recent management blog posts. Also try Curious Cat Management Articles for online management improvement articles.
Related: Curious Cat Management Books – management quotes – management glossary
Change How Your Business Changes
Posted on September 13, 2010 Comments (0)
John Kotter believes technology and globalization are requiring us to change more rapidly. “It is very difficult to innovate without requiring people to do something different.” If an organization culture is mainly avoiding making anyone uncomfortable, innovation and improvement are quite difficult.
Improvement is required to stay in business today. The key to good management systems is how rapidly improvement is achieved, not that improvement is being made.
Related: Communicating Change – Process Improvement and Innovation – Building on Successful Improvement – How to Improve
Management Improvement Carnival #109
Posted on September 10, 2010 Comments (1)
The management blog carnival is published 3 times a month with select recent management blog posts. Also try our collected management articles and blogs posts at: Curious Cat Management articles.
Management Improvement Carnival #108
Posted on September 3, 2010 Comments (0)
Kevin Meyer hosts the Management Improvement Carnival #108 on his blog, highlights include:
Related: Lean Daily – Management Improvement Carnival #93 – Management Improvement Carnival #44
The role of leadership in software development
Posted on August 30, 2010 Comments (0)
The webcast of Mary Poppendieck’s talk, The role of leadership in software development, at Google. As usual Mary does a very nice job of providing some good historical background while exploring wise management practices (tied to software development but plenty useful for any manager).
via: Sheep of a different fold
Related: Lean, Toyota and Deming for Software Development – Webcast on the Toyota Development Process – Don’t Use Performance Appraisals – Lean Software Development – The Leader’s Handbook
Management Blog Posts from July 2006
Posted on August 27, 2010 Comments (1)
Photo by John Hunter: Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, Kentucky.
Lean Daily
Posted on August 25, 2010 Comments (0)
Lean Daily consolidates the latest posts from seven excellent lean blogs in one convenient, free, iPhone app. Learn more about it, see a simulator demo, and download it directly from iTunes.
Mark Graban, Lean Blog, took the lead and a number of us combined efforts to provide this as a free service to our loyal readers:
This iPhone app allows you to read these lean blogs while on the go. You can also listen to and view some multimedia lean content, such as the Lean Blog Podcasts and Video Podcasts and the Gemba Academy sample videos in the app as well. You can also find lean news and some other feeds.
Related: Curious Cat management blog directory – Interesting management content (Reddit) – search for management content online
Managing Our Way to Economic Success
Posted on August 23, 2010 Comments (0)
From Managing Our Way to Economic Success, Two Untapped Resources by William G. Hunter, my father. Written in 1986, but still plenty relevant. We have made some good progress, but there is much more to do: we have barely started adopting these ideas systemically.
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W. Edwards Deming has illustrated one of the troubles with U.S. industry in terms of making toast. He says, “Let’s play American industry. I’ll burn. You scrape.” Use of statistical tools, however, allows you to reduce waste, scrap, rework, and machine downtime. It costs just as much to make defective products as it does to make good products. Eliminate defects and other things that cause inefficiencies, and you reduce costs, increase quality, and raise productivity. Note that quality and productivity are not trade-offs. They increase together.
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Potential information surrounds all industrial processes. Statistical techniques, many of which are simple yet powerful, are tools that employees can use to tap and exploit this potential information so that increasingly higher levels of productivity, quality, and innovation can be attained. Engaging the brains as well as the brawn of employees in this way improves morale and participation…and profits.
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What is called for is constant, never-ending improvement of all processes in the organization. What management needs, too, is constant, never-ending improvement of ideas.
Related: William Hunter, articles and books – Invest in New Management Methods Not a Failing Company – The Importance of Management Improvement – Statistics for Experimenters
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