Monthly Archives: August 2009

Workers Allowed Recreational Use of the Internet are More Productive

Posted on August 30, 2009 by John Hunter

Freedom to surf: workers more productive if allowed to use the internet for leisure “People who do surf the Internet for fun at work – within a reasonable limit of less than 20% of their total time in the office … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Psychology, Respect | Tagged internet, Psychology, research, respect for people | 2 Comments

Dr. Deming Webcast on the 5 Deadly Diseases

Posted on August 26, 2009 by John Hunter

The W. Edwards Deming Institute has posted Dr. Deming’s 1984 video on the 5 deadly diseases of western management. Lack of constancy of purpose Emphasis on short term profits – “creative” accounting, focus on quarterly profits Annual Performance Appraisals – … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Economics, Lean thinking, Management, Performance Appraisal, Popular, quote, webcast | Tagged Deming, long term thinking, management, management experts, management webcast, Performance Appraisal, Popular, quote, webcast | 7 Comments

Management Improvement Carnival #73

Posted on August 20, 2009 by John Hunter

Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog Carnival The Maddening Effectiveness of Root-Cause Analysis – “And I wonder: how often this is a subtle blockage to individuals and teams doing good root cause analysis? How often am I fearful of Really Knowing … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Management | Tagged Carnival | Comments Off

Blame the Road – Not the Person

Posted on August 19, 2009 by John Hunter

The system is responsible for 90, 92, 94, 97% of problems – W. Edwards Deming. Fix the system, don’t blame the people. When you seek system fixes you approach situations differently than if you search for people to blame. By … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Data, Deming, Economics, Health care, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged Creativity, Deming, Economics, Health care, health care system, Innovation, Systems thinking | 5 Comments

YouTube Uses Multivariate Experiment To Improve Sign-ups 15%

Posted on August 17, 2009 by John Hunter

Google does a great job of using statistical and engineering principles to improve. It is amazing how slow we are to adopt new ideas but because we are it provides big advantages to companies like Google that use concepts like … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Data, Design of Experiments, Google, IT, Management, Process improvement, Quality tools, quote, Science, Software Development, Statistics | Tagged curiouscat, Customer focus, Data, Design of Experiments, experiments, Google, Innovation, internet, management, Science, Software Development, Statistics | 2 Comments

Baking in Quality to Software Development

Posted on August 15, 2009 by John Hunter

One of the reasons my organizations switched to Ruby on Rails for software development was the great integration with automated testing. We always wanted to have good test coverage on our software applications (which are web applications – some used … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, IT, Lean thinking, Management, Process improvement, Quality tools, Software Development | Tagged agile management, Deming, inspection, Lean thinking, Quality tools, Ruby, Software Development, software testing | 2 Comments

Don’t Hide Problems in Computers

Posted on August 11, 2009 by John Hunter

Making things visible is a key to effective management. And data in computers can be easy to ignore. Don’t forget to make data visible. Paul Levy, CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston recently hosted Hideshi Yokoi, president … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, IT, Lean thinking, Management, Quality tools, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged Data, Health care, IT, lean healthcare, lean management, lean manufacturing, Lean thinking, Toyota Production System (TPS) | 3 Comments

Management Improvement Carnival #72

Posted on August 10, 2009 by John Hunter

Jon Miller is hosting the Management Improvement Carnival #72 on the Gemba Panta Rei blog, highlights include: Three Key Principles when Leading without Authority – One piece of advice passed down by Toyota managers is to “lead as if you … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival | Tagged Carnival | 1 Comment

CEO’s Castles and Company Performance

Posted on August 8, 2009 by John Hunter

Where are the Shareholders’ Mansions? CEOs’ Home Purchases, Stock Sales, and Subsequent Company Performance by Crocker H. Liu, Arizona State University and David Yermack, New York University – Stern School of Business We study real estate purchases by major company … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Economics | Tagged executive pay, leadership, management research, overpaid executives, research | 3 Comments

Bogus Theories, Bad for Business

Posted on August 6, 2009 by John Hunter

The Wall Street Journal has a book review of The Management Myth by Matthew Stewart. The book flushes out the ideas Matthew Stewert explored in a previous article in the Atlantic about the failure of management to mature as a … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Science | Tagged Deming, Lean thinking, management, management experts, management research, managing people, Systems thinking | Comments Off