Category Archives: Systems thinking

Engage in Improving the Management System

Posted on April 14, 2011 by John Hunter

To actually improve management you need to engage in continual improvement of your management systems. This requires doing the hard work of challenging complacency. The job of those improving the practice of management is not to make everyone happy and … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Psychology, quote, Systems thinking | Tagged business, commentary, continual improvement, Deming, John Hunter, lean manufacturing, management, management history, Psychology, quality, quote, Six sigma, Systems thinking, workplace improvement | 4 Comments

Quality is Made in the Board Room

Posted on April 8, 2011 by John Hunter

Dr. Deming stated “Quality is made in the board room,” page 202 Dr. Deming: the American who taught the Japanese about quality. I believe, once the board and executive leadership has put in place the right management system (one that … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged continual improvement, Deming, leadership, management, Process improvement, quality, respect for people | 3 Comments

Productivity Improvement for Entrepreneurs (and Everybody Else Really)

Posted on March 14, 2011 by John Hunter

The 3 Factors That are Limiting Your Productivity [the broken link has been removed] by Evan Carmichael Elimination is at the core of every successful business. You have to focus on what you’re really good [at], what drives your business … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Management, Process improvement, Systems thinking | Tagged Career, coaching, entrepreneur, leadership, management, Process improvement, productivity, Systems thinking, waste | 2 Comments

Learn by Seeking Knowledge – Not Just from Mistakes

Posted on March 7, 2011 by John Hunter

Being open to new ideas and new knowledge is what is needed to learn. Experimenting, seeking out new knowledge is even better. You can be successful and see an even better way to do things and learn from it. This … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Creativity, Deming, Innovation, Process improvement, Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged Career, continual improvement, Creativity, Deming, experiments, fear, Innovation, learning, Process improvement, Psychology, Systems thinking, theory of knowledge | 6 Comments

Nigel Marsh: How to Make Work-Life Balance Work

Posted on February 25, 2011 by John Hunter

“I want you to pause for a minute, you wretched weaklings, and take stock of your miserable existence.” Nigel Marsh paraphrasing (or quoting, I can’t find the source though) the advice that Saint Benedict gave his startled followers. I wrote … Continue reading →

Posted in Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged problem solving, Psychology, Systems thinking | Comments Off

Management Improvement Carnival #123

Posted on February 21, 2011 by John Hunter

The Curious Cat Management blog carnival highlights recent management blog posts 3 times each month. The posts generally focus on the areas I have focused on in the Curious Cat Management Improvement guide since 1996 (lean manufacturing, Deming, agile software … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged management, Systems thinking | Comments Off

Assigning Story Points to Bug Fixes

Posted on January 27, 2011 by John Hunter

Agile software development has teams estimate the effort to deliver requests from the product owner. The estimates are done in points (in order to abstract away from hours – as estimates have plenty of variation in how long they will … Continue reading →

Posted in IT, Quality tools, Software Development, Systems thinking | Tagged agile management, kanban, programming, project management, Quality tools, Software Development, variation | 2 Comments

Is Google Failing Too Often?

Posted on January 11, 2011 by John Hunter

I think Google is extremely successful, but they do seem to consistently have problems adding to their portfolio. They did a great job with gmail. Android has been very successful. Google Maps is great. They did well building YouTube. Chrome … Continue reading →

Posted in Google, Management, Software Development, Systems thinking | Tagged disruptive innovation, Google, Innovation, IT, management, managing people, project management, Software Development | 5 Comments

The Achilles’ Heel of Agile

Posted on December 14, 2010 by John Hunter

Guest post by Jurgen Appelo When I wrote this, I was working in a big open office space in the Van Nelle Factory in Rotterdam (see photo). About 100 people work in an office that was the first of its … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, IT, Lean thinking, Management, Psychology, Respect, Software Development, Systems thinking | Tagged agile management, Books, guest post, management, Psychology, research, respect for people, Software Development, Systems thinking | 4 Comments

Building Adoption of Management Improvement Ideas in Your Organization

Posted on December 8, 2010 by John Hunter

Continuation of How to Get a New Management Strategy, Tool or Concept Adopted Target something that actually provides a good story. It often helps if there have been failures in attempts to solve a problem in the past. That makes … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Popular, Quality tools, Systems thinking, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged culture, curiouscat, Deming, lean management, lean manufacturing, Lean thinking, Management, organization as a system, Popular, Quality tools, quote, Systems thinking | 16 Comments