Yearly Archives: 2013

Curious Cat Management Improvement Carnival #202

The Curious Cat management blog carnival has been published since 2006. New posts are published once or twice a month. I also publish a collection management improvement articles on the Curious Cat management improvement articles site. What Inexperienced Leaders Get … Continue reading

Posted in Carnival | 1 Comment

Taking Risks Based on Evidence

My opinion has long been that football teams are too scared to take an action that is smart but opens the coach to criticism. So instead of attempting to make it on 4th down (if you don’t understand American football, … Continue reading

Posted in Competition, Creativity, Data, Innovation, Management, Psychology | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Jiro Dreams of Sushi

Jiro Dreams of Sushi is a documentary on a Japanese sushi restaurant, Sukiyabashi Jiro, that is full of great quotes for those interested in continual improvement. Throughout the film people discuss a never ending focus on doing better and better … Continue reading

Posted in Customer focus, Process improvement, Respect | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Management Improvement Carnival #201

The Curious Cat Management Improvement Carnival has been published since 2006. The carnival, has been published twice a month – but will now be published once or twice a month depending on how things work out. I hope you find … Continue reading

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Resources for Using the PDSA Cycle to Improve Results

Using the PDSA cycle (plan-do-study-act) well is critical to building a effective management system. This post provides some resources to help use the improvement cycle well. I have several posts on this blog about using the PDSA cycle to improve … Continue reading

Posted in Deming, Management, Process improvement, Quality tools | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Managers Are Not Non-Leaders: Managers Need to Practice Things We Classify as Leadership Traits

Saying “Managers care about efficiency and leaders care about effectiveness” is like saying “Doctors care about theory and nurses care about patients.” Managers that don’t care about effectiveness are lousy managers. Leaders that don’t care about the gemba are lousy … Continue reading

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Popular, quote | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

How to Sustain Long Term Enterprise Excellence

This month Paul Borawski asked ASQ’s Influential Voices to explore sustaining excellence for the long term. There are several keys to pulling sustained long term excellence. Unfortunately, experience shows that it is much easier to explain what is needed than … Continue reading

Posted in Management, Process improvement, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Management Improvement Carnival #200

The Curious Cat Management Improvement Carnival has been published since 2006 and this is the 200th edition. The posts selected for the carnival focus on the areas of management improvement I have focused on in the Curious Cat Management Improvement … Continue reading

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Jeff Bezos: Innovation, Experiments and Long Term Thinking

Jeff Bezos, bought the Washington Post. He has long showed a willingness to take a long term view at Amazon. He is taking that same thinking to the Washington Post: In my experience, the way invention, innovation and change happen … Continue reading

Posted in Creativity, Customer focus, Innovation, Process improvement | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Management Improvement Carnival #199

The Curious Cat management blog carnival has been published since 2006. New posts are published once or twice a month. I also publish a collection management improvement articles on the Curious Cat management improvement articles site. Disentangling Standardization, Harmonization and … Continue reading

Posted in Carnival | 1 Comment