Monthly Archives: October 2009

Russell L. Ackoff: 1919 -2009

Posted on October 31, 2009 by John Hunter

We lost another of the absolutely best minds in management history, this week. Somehow, many managers, do not know of Russell Ackoff’s ideas. I find that amazing. Dr. Ackoff is one of two management thinkers that any manager, that is serious about improving management results in their organization, must study (the other is Dr. Deming). The Curious Cat management library includes many articles by Russell Ackoff. Transformation and Redesign at the White House Communications Agency by March Laree Jacques is … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Innovation, Management, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Worker Retention at Zappos

Posted on October 29, 2009 by John Hunter

Tony Hsieh, chief executive of Zappos, spoke at a recent y-combinator event (two great organizations we have mentioned before). Facebook and Zappos’s Different Views on Worker Retention “We actually want our employees stay with the company for a long time, for 10 years, maybe their entire life.” … “We now provide mentorship and training so employees can join at the entry level and, over a period of five to seven years, have the opportunity and training to become senior leaders … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Deming, Fun, Management, Psychology, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Communicating with the Visual Display of Data

Posted on October 26, 2009 by John Hunter

Anscombe’s quartet: all four sets are identical when examined statistically, but vary considerably when graphed. Image via Wikipedia. ___________________ Anscombe’s quartet comprises four datasets that have identical simple statistical properties, yet are revealed to be very different when inspected graphically. Each dataset consists of eleven (x,y) points. They were constructed in 1973 by the statistician F.J. Anscombe to demonstrate the importance of graphing data before analyzing it, and of the effect of outliers on the statistical properties of a dataset. … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Quality tools, Statistics | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Management Improvement Carnival #79

Posted on October 22, 2009 by John Hunter

Mark Graban is hosting Management Improvement Carnival #79 on the lean blog, highlights include: A Natural Match (Deborah Dolezal, Lean Healthcare Grand Rounds): “As a healthcare worker and an implementer of lean, I am often struck by the similarity of the human body and the lean methodologies.” Kaizen Corner — for lack of a battery (Paul Levy, Running a Hospital): “The idea is to keep asking why (the 5 why’s) until they discover the root cause, which is defined as … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Managing to Test Result Instead of Customer Value

Posted on October 19, 2009 by John Hunter

Computer hardware and software creators use benchmarks as one tool to compare the performance of alternative products. At times this can be very useful. You can learn what software of hardware is faster and that may be a very valuable factor. However, any measure is determined by the operational definitions used in collecting the measure. And if people have incentives to improve the measured number they often will do just that (improving the measure) rather than improving the system (the … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, IT, Management, Software Development, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments

2009 Deming Prize

Posted on October 16, 2009 by John Hunter

The Union Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) has awarded Niigata Diamond Electric (Japan) and Siam White Cement Company (Thailand) the Deming prize. Organizations receiving the Deming Prize since 2000 by country (prior to that almost all winners were from Japan): Country Prizes India 15 Thailand 9 Japan 5 USA 1 Singapore 1 The 2009 Deming Prize for Individuals went to Dr. Hiroshi Osada, Professor, Graduate School of Innovation Management, Tokyo Institute of Technology. Previous recipients include: Kaoru Ishikawa, Genichi Taguchi, … Continue reading →

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

Management Improvement Carnival #78

Posted on October 10, 2009 by John Hunter

The Curious Cat Management Improvement Carnival provides links to recent blog posts for those interesting in improving management of organizations. Journey from Agile To Lean by Kenji Hiranabe – “Agile is a connector between business and software engineering…. From the business perspective, IT or software development is just one activity in the value stream of a company.” Planning Managerial Capacity by Dan Markovitz – “While it’s very easy to take on more projects and responsibilities, it’s *stopping* work that’s critical … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival | 1 Comment

Management Improvement Carnival #77

Posted on October 1, 2009 by John Hunter

The Curious Cat Management Improvement Carnival provide links to recent blog posts for those interesting in improving management of organizations. A lesson in strategy, taught by a Cat by Mark Hurst – “Without direction, we’re presenting our flipcharts and our powerpoints to the Cheshire Cat. And he just griiiiiiins.” Respect for People, Underutilized People, and Waste by Pete Abilla – “Worldview and Values matter – those dictate the behaviors of everybody in the company. When ‘tools’ don’t work, that is … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Lean thinking, Management | Tagged , , | 2 Comments