Randall Munroe illustrates RA Fisher point that you must think to draw reasonable conclusions from data. Click the image to see the full xkcd comic.
The Curious Cat Management Improvement Carnival has been published since 2006. We find great management blog posts and share them with you 3 times a month. We hope you find these post interesting and find some new blogs to start reading. Follow John Hunter online: Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn, more.
- Questioning the Value of the P-Value by Jon Miller – “Father of modern statistics Ronald A. Fisher invented the p-value as an informal measure of evidence against the null hypothesis. Although often overlooked, Fisher called on scientists use other types of evidence such as the a priori plausibility of the hypothesis and the relative strengths of results from previous studies in combination with the p-value.”
- Teachers Cheating and Incentives by Dan Ariely – “they began to do anything that would improve their performance on that measure even by a tiny bit—even if they messed up other employees in the process. Ultimately they were consumed with maximizing what they knew they would be measured on”
- It’s About The Journey and Sometimes It Starts With Failure by Tim McMahon – “If we allow ourselves to become discouraged during the learning process we may give up right before we reach our goal. Anytime we learn from our efforts we are in the process of succeeding. Each lesson brings us closer to our intended result.”
- When Patents Attack – “as many as 80 percent of software engineers say the patent system actually hinders innovation. It doesn’t encourage them to come up with new ideas and create new products. It actually gets in their way.” (I added “An outdated intellectual property system” as deadly management/economic disease number 9 – building on Deming’s 7 deadly
diseases a few years ago – John). Also from NPR: The Patent War - 3 Things You Can Do When Your Manager Doesn’t Support Continuous Improvement by Ron Pereira – “So keep fighting… keep learning… keep improving. If you do this, one thing is for certain, you and the organization you work for will be better off even if they don’t realize it.”
- I’m just fine! Wish I Could Say the Same for Health Care in this Country by Jeff Fuchs – “How thoughtful of them to give me an ER bay where I could see their goings on. Their wasted motion, their absence of mistake-proofing or visual controls, their failed attempts to communicate with each other, failed service opportunities, excessive patient transportation, and more. How very thoughtful.”
- Whither Requirements? by Dave Rooney – “The closer together the people who need the system and those who implement it work, the higher the probability that a shared understanding will occur. The more frequent the opportunities for feedback, the higher the probability of a shared understanding. The more you can defer the expression of details in the requirements until they are really needed, the higher the probability.”
- The CEO Can’t Champion Everything by Jamie Flinchbaugh – “It’s easy to say we need the CEO. Sure, that would be nice. But don’t let this be an excuse. You have many battles to engage in while leading change in the organization. Learn where to push, where to give, and what will help you move along the furthest, the fastest.”
- Why bosses need to show their soft side by Daniel Pink – “since most corporate managers have reasonably sound technical skills, as well as access to the same information and tools, mastery of these nominally soft aptitudes is creating a fault line that’s separating who moves up and who stays put.”
- Paul O’Neill Podcast Interview on Patient Safety by Mark Graban – “Allegheny General Hospital started their infection prevention efforts using these principles: get people involved, get them observing how the care is done, come to agreement with all about how they would do the work, do it the same way everyday”
- Boss’s Tip of the Day: Use checklists by Wally Bock – “Simple checklists can give you a big boost in performance without an increase in either ability or team size. They’ll help you get routine things done routinely and free up your mind to concentrate on more important things.”
- 37signals is looking to hire a filmmaker by Jason Fried – “This is job full of freedom, exploration, and creativity, but at the end you need to deliver practical, effective, and beautifully polished and produced videos. From behind the camera you should know how to get the best of someone who’s in front of the camera.”
- Maslow on Dealing with Authoritarians by John Hunter – Maslow uses “strong language, but what those authoritarians do when they rip apart companies and people lives to serve their own vanity deserves strong words.”
