Tag Archives: Data

2011 Management Blog Roundup: Stats Made Easy

Posted on January 8, 2012 by John Hunter

The 4th Annual Management blog roundup is coming to a close soon. This is my 3rd and final review post looking back at 2001, the previous two posts looked at: Gemba Panta Rei and the Lean Six Sigma Blog. I … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Data, Six sigma, Statistics | Tagged Data, evidence based management, Six sigma, Statistics | Comments Off

Steve Jobs Discussing Customer Focus at NeXT

Posted on September 8, 2011 by John Hunter

Video from 1991 when Steve Jobs was at NeXT. Even with the customer focus however, NeXT failed. But this does show the difficulty in how to truly apply customer focus. You have to be creative. You have examine data. You … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Data, IT, Software Development | Tagged Customer focus, Data, engineering, IT, management, management webcast, marketing, Software Development | Comments Off

Annual Performance Reviews Are Obsolete

Posted on November 15, 2010 by John Hunter

Sam Goodner, the CEO of Catapult Systems, wrote about his decision to eliminate the annual performance appraisal [the broken link was removed]. the most critical flaw of our old process was that the feedback itself was too infrequent and too … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Innovation, IT, Management, Performance Appraisal | Tagged Data, feedback, in-process measures, managing people, Performance Appraisal | Comments Off

A Theory of a System for Educators and Managers

Posted on October 25, 2010 by John Hunter

Excerpts from The Deming Library Volume XXI, Dr. W. Edwards Deming, Dr. Russell Ackoff and David Langford demonstrate that educators can begin a quality transformation by developing an understanding of the properties and powers of systems-oriented thinking. You can order … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Deming, Education, Management, quote, Systems thinking, webcast | Tagged Ackoff, curiouscat, Data, Deming, Education, Innovation, learning, management, management webcast, quote, Systems thinking, theory of knowledge, webcast | 7 Comments

Managing Our Way to Economic Success

Posted on August 23, 2010 by John Hunter

From Managing Our Way to Economic Success, Two Untapped Resources by William G. Hunter, my father. Written in 1986, but still plenty relevant. We have made some good progress, but there is much more to do: we have barely started … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Economics, Management, Process improvement, Quality tools, Respect, Statistics, Systems thinking | Tagged Bill Hunter, Creativity, Data, Deming, Economics, management, Management Articles, Process improvement, Quality tools, respect for people, SPC | Comments Off

How to Manage What You Can’t Measure

Posted on August 4, 2010 by John Hunter

In Out of the Crisis, page 121, Dr. Deming wrote: the most important figures that one needs for management are unknown or unknowable (Lloyd S. Nelson, director of statistical methods for the Nashua corporation), but successful management must nevertheless take … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Popular, quote, Systems thinking | Tagged curiouscat, Data, Deming, management, managing people, Popular, quote, Statistics, Systems thinking, variation | 12 Comments

Actionable Metrics

Posted on July 22, 2010 by John Hunter

Metrics are valuable when they are actionable. Think about what will be done if certain results are shown by the data. If you can’t think of actions you would take, it may be that metric is not worth tracking. Metrics … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Statistics | Tagged curiouscat, Data, Deming, evidence based management, management, Statistics, tips | 4 Comments

Problems With Student Evaluations as Measures of Teacher Performance

Posted on June 16, 2010 by John Hunter

Dr. Deming was, among other things a professor. He found the evaluation of professors by students an unimportant (and often counterproductive measure) – used in some places for awards and performance appraisal. He said for such a measure to be … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Education, Performance Appraisal, Psychology, Science | Tagged Customer focus, Data, Deming, Education, experiments, Performance Appraisal, Psychology, Science, system thinking | 2 Comments

Taxes per Person by Country

Posted on April 7, 2010 by John Hunter

I think that the idea that data lies is false, and that such a notion is commonly held a sign of lazy intellect. You can present data in different ways to focus on different aspects of a system. And you … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Economics, Management | Tagged Data, economic data, management, Statistics | 1 Comment

Prophet Unheard: Dr. W. Edwards Deming – 1992

Posted on January 25, 2010 by John Hunter

[embedded webcast links removed because they have been removed from YouTube. To see video with W. Edwards Deming see the Deming Institute YouTube channel.] This is an interesting video on Deming and American management (by the BBC in 1992): Prophet … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Manufacturing, Quality tools, Respect | Tagged Data, Deming, Japan, Management, management history, managing people, Quality tools, respect for people | 1 Comment