Category Archives: Systems thinking

Giving Away Your Service for Free on Weekends

Copilot is a cool application that lets you control someone else’s computer. So you can receive technical support remotely. You let someone access your computer and copilot takes care of the sometimes very complex task of linking the two computers … Continue reading

Posted in Creativity, IT, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Learn from Russel Ackoff

The In Thinking network offers many great ways to learn. This week they have 4 hour long conference call discussions with Russ Ackoff. Thought Pieces (suggested links to review in preparation for the conference call) Lecture on “Systems Practice” at … Continue reading

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Creating Jobs

Do Lean Companies Create Fewer Jobs? No, they create more. If you assume the lean company grows sales at the same rate as some poorly management company then it may well be that the lean company creates fewer jobs. However … Continue reading

Posted in Career, Deming, Economics, Lean thinking, Management, Popular, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Prediction Markets with Google Employees

Another interesting experiment from Google: Using Prediction Markets to Track Information Flows: Evidence from Google In Google’s terminology, a market asks a question (e.g., “how many users will Gmail have?”) that has 2”5 possible mutually exclusive and completely exhaustive answers … Continue reading

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Stratification and Systemic Thinking

I am reading a fascinating book by Jessica Snyder Sachs: Good Germs, Bad Germs. From page 108: At New York Hospital, Eichenwald and infectious disease specialist Henry Shinefield conceived and developed a controversial program that entailed deliberately inoculating a newborn’s … Continue reading

Posted in Creativity, Data, Deming, Health care, Innovation, Management, Quality tools, Science, Statistics, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Communicating Change

Response to: Sales Compensation Plan Changes [the broken link has been removed] I believe the best way to communicate such changes is to explain how they tie into the long term vision of the organization. This requires that such a … Continue reading

Posted in Deming, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Dr. Deming 4 Day Seminar

The W. Edwards Deming Institute is sponsoring a 4 day seminar using videos of Dr. Deming’s seminars and facilitated by Ed Baker, Dave Nave, and Joyce Orsini: Quality, Productivity, and Competitive Position. Ed Baker was the person at Ford responsible … Continue reading

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Engineering Innovation for Manufacturing and the Economy

Editorial: Engineering Innovation, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: They are the invisible heroes in business, the men and women who make innovation possible. They are people like Mary Ann Wright at Johnson Controls in Milwaukee, the former chief engineer for the Ford … Continue reading

Posted in Economics, Lean thinking, Management, Manufacturing, Public Sector, Science, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

The Problem with Targets

Targets can seriously damage your health by Simon Caulkin Targets, claim their defenders, are simple, they provide focus, and they work. Yes, they do. Unfortunately, these are also their fatal flaws. The simplicity is a delusion. As Russ Ackoff put … Continue reading

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The Lazy Unreasonable Man

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” – George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman That quote sprang to mind … Continue reading

Posted in Fun, Management, Psychology, quote, Systems thinking | 5 Comments