Monthly Archives: June 2011

I Will Co-Facilitate a Deming Seminar in Singapore July 25-27

Posted on June 27, 2011 by John Hunter

The W. Edwards Deming Institute is working with the NTUC LearningHub to offer management seminars in Singapore. I will be co-facilitating a Deming 2 1/2 day seminar in Singapore with Kelly Allan in July. The 2 1/2 day Seminar, Deming’s New Philosophy of Management, is open for registration to the public. In the seminar you will learn the way of thinking taught by Dr. W. Edwards Deming. Those ideas have been used by leading companies around the world and the … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Deming, Management | Tagged , , , , , ,

Management Improvement Carnival #134

Posted on June 20, 2011 by John Hunter

The Curious Cat Management Improvement Carnival has been published since 2006. We find great management blog posts and share them with you. We hope you find these post interesting and find some new blogs to start reading. You may submitted a post to the management subreddit to have it considered for the next carnival. See more photos from North Cascade National Park, Washington, USA. To Change Culture, Change the System by David Joyce – “Deming learned it’s not a problem … Continue reading →

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Avoiding Tragedy of the Commons for Software Development

Posted on June 15, 2011 by John Hunter

Kanban and Tragedy of the Commons The “Tragedy of the Commons” archetype often manifests itself through “Shared Services”, when a small number of people with specific skills, work across different teams. Each team in isolation gets benefit from the Shared Service, but when demand for the service exceeds its capacity, then nobody benefits. At a smaller scale, a team with a low “bus factor”, or a hero, can also suffer from a tragedy of the commons, when too much work … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Software Development, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

The aim of leadership is not merely to find and record failures of men

Posted on June 13, 2011 by John Hunter

The aim of leadership should be to improve the performance of man and machine, to improve quality, to increase output, and simultaneously to bring pride of workmanship to people. Put in a negative way, the aim of leadership is not merely to find and record failures of men, but to remove the causes of failure: to help people to do a better job with less effort. W. Edwards Deming, page 248, Out of the Crisis This is a great quote, … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Deming, Management | Tagged , , | 8 Comments

Management Improvement Carnival #133

Posted on June 10, 2011 by John Hunter

The Curious Cat management blog carnival is published 3 times a month with select recent management blog posts. I also collect management improvement articles through Curious Cat Management Articles, you can subscribe via RSS to new article additions. Why I can’t convince executives to invest in UX (and neither can you) by Jared Spool “Neither I, you, nor anybody else can convince an executive to invest in user experience… You’ll need to do something custom. Something specific to their current … Continue reading →

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Management Blog Posts From August 2006

Posted on June 8, 2011 by John Hunter

Here are a few posts from the Curious Cat Management Blog back in 2006. Distort the System by focusing on data improperly – “When people mistake the data proxy for the thing to improve… they focus on improvement of how the data looks not of the system. That is the wrong strategy.” Eliminate Slogans – Text from the poster: “If a pretty poster and a cute saying are all it takes to motivate you, you probably have a very easy … Continue reading →

Posted in Management | Tagged ,

Management Improvement Carnival #132

Posted on June 1, 2011 by John Hunter

The Curious Cat Management blog carnival highlights recent management blog posts 3 times each month. The posts generally focus on the areas I have focused on in the Curious Cat Management Guide since 1996 (Deming, agile software development, systems thinking, lean manufacturing, customer focus…). If management stopped demotivating their employees… by Mark Graban – “Think of a person in your workplace who is considered to have a “bad attitude.” Do you think they started their career or their job at … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Lean thinking, Management | Tagged , , | 1 Comment