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, evidence based management, lean manufacturing, agile software development, systems thinking…).
Me in my father's office, drawing by John, photo by Bill Hunter
- Why Startup Hubs Work by Paul Graham – “The problem is not that most towns kill startups. It’s that death is the default for startups, and most towns don’t save them… Both components of the antidote—an environment that encourages startups, and chance meetings with people who help you—are driven by the same underlying cause: the number of startup people around you.” [Creating entrepreneurship hubs is extremely important economically. Many countries are very interested in making this work for them. Doing so is not easy and still is a huge advantage the USA benefits from in the Valley and also NYC, Boston… – John, previous post: The Future is Engineering]
- “Management By Walking Around” vs. “Gemba Walks” by Mark Graban – “Study the Toyota model. Read Norman Bodek’s article. Read Quint Studer’s work on “rounding for outcomes” (a great thing to read whether you are in healthcare or not). Studer emphasizes stopping to truly engage with employees, not just slapping them on the back. Bonus – read Jamie Flinchbaugh’s IndustryWeek piece on effective gemba walks.”
- What I Learned From Steve Jobs by Guy Kawasaki – “Customers cannot tell you what they need… Changing your mind is a sign of intelligence…”
- About Spread by Lee Fried – “While spreading standard work over time is essential to increasing the rate of improvement of an organization it will never occur or sustain without simultaneously putting in place a Management system.” [this theme is repeated over and over, without a management system the gains made are real, but small fractions of what is possible when management thinks and acts fundamentally differently – John].
- What Google VP Marissa Mayer Does as an “Idea Connector” – “holding three weekly sessions where she is accessible to all Google employees who want to pitch a new idea. She brainstorms with these scout-equivalents and presses them for more details on the proposed products’ functionality before deciding whether to champion the ideas to company leaders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.”
- True North: Find the gap to the ideal state to stretch yourself by Jeff Liker – “The reason for adding in the step of defining the ideal state is that there is a tendency to set your targets too low unless you can see how wide a gap there is.”
- Reasons I love working in software – “1) I get to work with people who really love what they do.
2) I get to work with people who are insanely open to change.” - The 5 Whys: Brilliant Processes Drive Brilliant Results by David Walter – “The 5 Why assessment is one of the most basic tools that LeanCor uses to focus on processes in order to achieve maximum results. It is a building block for establishing the principles of flow, standard work, quality at the source, and visual management guides.”
- Dealing with Toxic Team Members by Wally Bock – “Dealing with toxic team members is one of the most frustrating and wearying parts of your job, but it’s also one of the most important.”
- Interviewing: I and We by John Hunter – “Creating systems that work well often isn’t tremendously exciting and tales of creating systems that avoid disasters seem boring. I didn’t have to be heroic isn’t as sexy as and I was a hero in this way 3 months ago and then last month I saved us from disaster when…”
Related: Dr. Deming: “Does the customer invent new product of service? The customer generates nothing. No customer asked for electric lights…” – Marissa Mayer Webcast on Google Innovation
