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Category Archives: Systems thinking
The Customer is the Purpose of Our Work
A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider … Continue reading
Posted in Customer focus, Management, Psychology, quote, Respect, Systems thinking
Tagged aim, Customer focus, customer service, food, Psychology, purpose, quote, respect for people
6 Comments
Continual Feeding
I like growing things. I think it is part the connection to system thinking I have had since I was a kid. I like finding ways to leverage my effort so that I put in a bit of thought and … Continue reading
Posted in Investing, Management, Systems thinking
Tagged build capacity, coaching, John Hunter, managing people, Systems thinking
3 Comments
Selling Quality Improvement
In this month’s ASQ influential quality voices post, Paul Borawski asks How Do You “Sell” Quality? I am amazed how difficult it is to sell quality improvement. I look at organizations I interact with and easily see systemic failures due … Continue reading
Keys to the Effective Use of the PDSA Improvement Cycle
The PDSA improvement cycle was created by Walter Shewhart where Dr. Deming learned about it. An improvement process is now part of many management improvement methods (A3 for lean manufacturing, DMAIC for six sigma and many other modifications). They are … Continue reading
Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Popular, Process improvement, Quality tools, quote, Systems thinking
Tagged continual improvement, curiouscat, Data, Deming, experiments, management, PDSA, Popular, Process improvement, Quality tools, quote
15 Comments
Learn to Code to Help Your Career
I believe there are big benefits to knowing how to code (programing, software development). What is possible for your organization is often significantly impacted by understanding how to properly use software (and create it, coding, when needed). The lack of … Continue reading
Posted in Career, Creativity, IT, Management, Systems thinking
Tagged Career, curiouscat, engineering, IT, management, programming, Software Development, Systems thinking, technology, usability
3 Comments
We are Being Ruined by the Best Efforts of People Who are Doing the Wrong Thing
Deming’s Second Theorem: “We are being ruined by best efforts.” What did Dr. Deming mean by this? Another quote by Dr. Deming might give you a clue? “Best efforts will not substitute for knowledge.” Irwin, the porcupine at the Animal … Continue reading
Posted in Deming, Management, Psychology, Systems thinking
Tagged Deming, Fun, management, Psychology, Systems thinking, theory of knowledge
8 Comments
Web Seminar with Gerald Suarez: Better Thinking About Leadership
In2In offers some great opportunities for those interested in management improvement. Their conference is excellent. They also offer various conference calls with speakers knowledgeable about Deming and Ackoff’s ideas. These normally take the form of conference call presentations (similar to … Continue reading
Posted in Deming, Management, Public Sector, Systems thinking
Tagged Ackoff, Deming, leadership, learning, Public Sector, seminar, training
1 Comment
USA Spent $2.6 Trillion, $8,402 per person,17.9% of GDP on Medical Expenses in 2010
The federal government financed 29% of total health spending in 2010, a substantial increase from its share of 23% in 2007. Meanwhile, the shares of the total health care bill financed by state and local governments (16%), private businesses (21%), and households (28%) declined during the same time period. Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Health care, Systems thinking
Tagged business, economic data, Economics, economy, Health care, health care system, USA
2 Comments
Trust But Verify
The following are my comments, which were sparked by question “Trust, but verify. Is this a good example of Profound Knowledge in action?” on the Linked In Deming Institute group. Trust but verify makes sense to me. I think of … Continue reading
Posted in Data, Deming, Management, quote, Respect, Systems thinking
Tagged Deming, evidence based management, in-process measures, Psychology, Quality tools, quote, respect for people, Systems thinking
2 Comments

Why Use Lean if So Many Fail To Do So Effectively
If less than 1% of companies are successful with Lean, why are we doing it? Lots of us are not. I would say the efforts I see “fail” are because they don’t do it. They have something they call TQM, … Continue reading →