Category Archives: Systems thinking

Losing Consumers’ Trust

Posted on February 24, 2008 by John Hunter

Last week their was a recall of 143 million pounds of beef in the USA. Lets take a short systemic view at what is going on. The public has an interest in a safe food supply which is difficult to … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Management, Psychology, Science, Systems thinking | Tagged Customer focus, export, food, government, health, Psychology, regulation, safety, Systems thinking, trade | 5 Comments

Software Supporting Processes Not the Other Way Around

Posted on February 19, 2008 by John Hunter

Rental Car IT What was funny about that exercise were the looks we got from the no nonsense King of IT: “Of course, we want things to be simple and flexible — why are you bothering to tell us this?” … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, IT, Lean thinking, Management, Software Development, Systems thinking | 10 Comments

Giving Away Your Service for Free on Weekends

Posted on January 28, 2008 by John Hunter

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 Creativity, Joel Spolsky, marketing | 3 Comments

Learn from Russel Ackoff

Posted on January 21, 2008 by John Hunter

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 →

Posted in Career, Education, Management, Systems thinking | Comments Off

Creating Jobs

Posted on January 19, 2008 by John Hunter

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 Deming, economy, jobs, lean manufacturing, Manufacturing | 5 Comments

Prediction Markets with Google Employees

Posted on January 10, 2008 by John Hunter

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 →

Posted in Creativity, Data, Economics, Google, Psychology, Statistics, Systems thinking | Comments Off

Stratification and Systemic Thinking

Posted on January 6, 2008 by John Hunter

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 critical thinking, Data, evidence based management, Health care, Science, Statistics, Systems thinking | 2 Comments

Communicating Change

Posted on December 29, 2007 by John Hunter

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 change, communication, management, purpose, Systems thinking | 5 Comments

Dr. Deming 4 Day Seminar

Posted on December 12, 2007 by John Hunter

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 →

Posted in Career, Deming, Education, Management, Systems thinking | Comments Off

Engineering Innovation for Manufacturing and the Economy

Posted on November 11, 2007 by John Hunter

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 Economics, engineering, Manufacturing, Wisconsin | 4 Comments