Category Archives: Systems thinking

Purpose of an Organization

Posted on August 16, 2005 by John Hunter

W. Edwards Deming described the purpose of an organization in New Economics, on page 51, as: The aim proposed here for any organization is for everybody to gain – stockholders, employees, suppliers, customers, community, the environment – over the long … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Popular, quote, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged Deming, organization as a system, Popular, respect for people, suppliers | 23 Comments

Saving Lives: US Health Care Improvement

Posted on July 16, 2005 by John Hunter

8 part special report by US News and Word Report on improving the US Health Care system. Join IHI in an ambitious initiative called the 100K Lives Campaign. Its goal is to save 100,000 hospital patients’ lives by 9 a.m. … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Health care, Management Articles, quote, Systems thinking | Tagged Health care | 10 Comments

Management is Prediction

Posted on July 14, 2005 by John Hunter

re: post on prediction [link broken, so removed] on the Deming Electronic Network, Petter Ogland wrote: …that intelligence more or less boils down to updating a predictive model of the world. As far as I can see, this is the … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Process improvement, Quality tools, quote, Systems thinking | Tagged Deming, prediction, Process improvement, theory of knowledge | 10 Comments

Fast Company Interview: Jeff Immelt

Posted on July 14, 2005 by John Hunter

Fast Company Interview: Jeff Immelt, CEO, GE. What makes a growth leader today, and how does that differ from the sort of leader who was effective at GE in the past? GE has always been a believer in leadership development. … Continue reading →

Posted in Innovation, Management, Process improvement, quote, Six sigma, Systems thinking | Tagged business, Management, Process improvement, Six sigma, system thinking | 6 Comments

Millennium Development Goals

Posted on July 9, 2005 by John Hunter

re: Six Sigma Training for the G-8? Interestingly Prime minstrel Blair recently showed an understanding of systems thinking (specifically how targets can result in worse performance, when targets result in distortion of the system rather than improvement). In the targets … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Health care, Management, Six sigma, Systems thinking | Tagged Economics | Comments Off

Targets Distorting the System

Posted on June 13, 2005 by John Hunter

I still remember Dr. Brian Joiner speaking about process improvement and the role of data well over a decade ago. He spoke of 3 ways to improve the figures: distort the data, distort the system and improve the system. Improving … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged Brian Joiner, Data, Deming, management, Systems thinking | 6 Comments

From Mechanistic to Social Systemic Thinking

Posted on June 9, 2005 by John Hunter

The Ackoff Center has posted a presentation, From Mechanistic to Social Systemic Thinking (pdf format), given by Russell Ackoff in November 1993 at the Systems Thinking in Action Conference. As usual he presents many great ideas well. And ten years … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Systems thinking | 2 Comments

SEC chief quotes Deming

Posted on May 16, 2005 by John Hunter

Security and Exchange Chairman William H. Donaldson Speaks At Chartered Financial Analysts Institute Annual Conference [broken link removed]: This approach will, ultimately, better serve investors, and it will also gradually temper the pressures on some corporate executives to fudge the … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged Deming, Psychology, system thinking, targets | 1 Comment

Traffic Congestion and a Non-Solution

Posted on May 9, 2005 by John Hunter

Topic: Management Improvement, Problem Solving I read, Study: Nation’s Traffic Jams Worsening [the broken link was removed], today on CNN.com. That same headline could have appeared in newspapers every day for the last few years. For decades traffic congestion has … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged Ackoff, cars, Creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, Systems thinking | 8 Comments

Designing a New Organization

Posted on January 22, 2005 by John Hunter

re: What about Designing New Organizations? [the broken link has been removed] Guidance for “designing a new organisation and not for analysis of an existing one?” (edited) I would add Russell Ackoff to the top of the list of those … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Systems thinking | Tagged Ackoff, Deming, Systems thinking | 1 Comment