Tag Archives: critical thinking

Learning from Customers

Posted on March 2, 2021 by John Hunter

Don’t make it hard for customers to be heard. Provide training and tools to employees to document customers voices. Train employees to learn as much as possible from customers. Value the time employees spend listening to customers and learning from … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Management | Tagged critical thinking, culture, Customer focus, customer service, Data, feedback, learning | 1 Comment

Factfulness – The Importance of Critical Thinking

Posted on June 4, 2019 by John Hunter

Factfulness by Hans Roling (of TED talks and Gapminder charts fame) is an exceptionally good book. It provides great insight into how to think more effectively and how to understand the reality of the world we live in (versus the … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Data, Systems thinking | Tagged critical thinking, curiouscat, Data, long term thinking, Psychology, Systems thinking | 1 Comment

Design the Management System with an Appreciation of Confirmation Bias

Posted on February 26, 2019 by John Hunter

To create strong organizations we must create management systems using an appreciation of psychology. We must understand that people have tendencies that must be addressed by designing a management system built to take advantage of the strength those people bring … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Psychology | Tagged critical thinking, culture, management, managing people, organization as a system, Psychology, respect for people, robust | 1 Comment

Poorly Stratified Data Leads to Mistakes in Analysis

Posted on April 18, 2018 by John Hunter

Stratification can help provide insight into the nature of the real world situation. Determining what is a sensible conclusion to draw and what is not is aided by an understanding of statistics and expert knowledge of the situation the data is drawn from. Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Management, Statistics, Systems thinking | Tagged critical thinking, curiouscat, Data, evidence based management, management, Statistics | 2 Comments

The Importance of Critical Thinking and Challenging Assumptions

Posted on July 12, 2017 by John Hunter

There are many factors that are important to effectively practice the management improvement ideas that I have discussed in this blog for over a decade. One of the most important is a culture that encourages critical thinking as well as … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Management, Process improvement, Psychology | Tagged change, critical thinking, culture, curiouscat, Data, decision making, evidence based management, problem solving, Psychology, theory of knowledge | 4 Comments

Manage Better by Managing Less

Posted on September 5, 2012 by John Hunter

Matt May included “Silhouettes” from selected authors in his new book: The Laws of Subtraction (shipping October 26th). I am honored to be included: the following my silhouette. Early in my career, I had a supervisor ask me why I … Continue reading →

Posted in Management | Tagged critical thinking, John Hunter, management, Systems thinking | 5 Comments

Customers Are Often Irrational

Posted on May 31, 2012 by John Hunter

Penney Pinching “The first rule is that there are no irrational customers,” Drucker wrote in Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices. “Customers almost without exception behave rationally in terms of their own realities and their own situation.” “in terms of their own … Continue reading →

Posted in Psychology | Tagged critical thinking, Customer focus, decision making, Drucker, evidence based management, marketing, Psychology, Systems thinking | 6 Comments

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

Errors in Thinking

Posted on March 19, 2007 by John Hunter

The Doctor’s In, But Is He Listening?, text and podcast from NPR: Jerome Groopman (photo) is a doctor who discovered that he needed a doctor. When his hand was hurt, he went to six prominent surgeons and got four different … Continue reading →

Posted in Health care, Management, webcast | Tagged critical thinking, Health care, theory of knowledge | Comments Off

All Models Are Wrong But Some Are Useful

Posted on March 4, 2007 by John Hunter

“All Models Are Wrong But Some Are Useful” -George Box A great quote. Here is the source: George E.P. Box, Robustness in the strategy of scientific model building, page 202 of Robustness in Statistics, R.L. Launer and G.N. Wilkinson, Editors. … Continue reading →

Posted in Fun, quote | Tagged critical thinking, experiments, George Box, prediction, quote, Statistics | 6 Comments