Tag Archives: Management

Process Improvement and Innovation

Every so often an article appears discussing the need to change focus from process improvement to innovation (and recently they are followed with quite a bit of blog talk). I disagree on several grounds. First you have needed to focus … Continue reading

Posted in Creativity, Deming, Innovation, Management, Process improvement, Psychology, Quality tools, quote, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

People are Our Most Important Asset

One of the beliefs I try and get the organizations I work for to adopt is to truly value excellent people. The costs are challenges of hiring great people, to me, makes it critical to do what you can to … Continue reading

Posted in Creativity, Deming, Management, Performance Appraisal, Psychology, Respect | Tagged , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Ackoff’s F-laws: Common Sins of Management

Russ Ackoff once again does a great job of providing insight into management. I highly recommend A Little Book of f-Laws [the broken link was removed] where Ackoff, with Herbert Addison and Sally Bibb, present 13 common sins of management, … Continue reading

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Management Articles, quote | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Five Pragmatic Practices

Becoming a Great Manager: Five Pragmatic Practices by Esther Derby [the broken link was removed] 1) Decide What To Do and What Not To Do Deciding what to do and what not to do helps focus efforts on the important … Continue reading

Posted in IT, Management, Management Articles, Software Development | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

What is Wrong with MBA’s

Two interesting posts from Compound Thinking: What is Management? [the broken link was removed – this is one of many examples of a good blog’s domain lapsing and being bought by someone to promote unrelated items.]: Management is helping others … Continue reading

Posted in Deming, Education, Management | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Hiring the Right People

The job market is an inefficient market. There are many reasons for this including relying on specification (this job requires a BS in Computer Science – no Bill Gates you don’t meet the spec) instead of understanding the system. Insisting … Continue reading

Posted in Career, Customer focus, IT, Management, Performance Appraisal, Popular | Tagged , , , , , , | 15 Comments

Not Innovation but Still Interesting

10 years of the most innovative ideas in business in not packed with ideas on innovation: it was obviously titled by someone hoping to catch the interest of those following the innovation fad. Still it has interesting stories originally published … Continue reading

Posted in Books, Innovation, Management | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

More on Overpaid CEO’s

CEO pay up big – but not performance: The Corporate Library analyzed the compensation of nearly 1,400 chiefs for its annual report on CEO pay. The group’s median total compensation rose 16 percent between 2004 and 2005. A year earlier, … Continue reading

Posted in Management | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Evidence-based Management

Bob Sutton’s writing includes the excellent article “Management Advice: Which 90% is Crap?” (which we discussed in: Management Advice Failures) and the Knowing Doing Gap. I just discovered his blog today which is quite good: Work Matters. A recent post includes some good advice on data and process improvement Continue reading

Posted in Creativity, Data, Deming, Health care, Management, Process improvement | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

The State of Lean Implementation

Interesting survey by the Lean Enterprise Institute notes the following as the major obstacles to transforming to a lean organization. 1 Lack of implementation know-how: 48% 2 Backsliding to the old ways of working: 48% 3 Middle management resistance: 40% … Continue reading

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