Monthly Archives: November 2011

Management Improvement Carnival #149

Posted on November 21, 2011 by John Hunter

Jon Miller hosts Management Improvement Carnival #149 looking at blog posts examining motivation, highlights include: a wonderful cat photo Kevin Meyer found some bright spots on his trip to India and documented them in several fun articles in Evolving Excellence. My favorite was leadership lessons from Ganesha, a set of mindsets and behaviors that are both motivating personally and constructive in motivating others. On productivity and motivation, one article began by explaining how researchers found that doing or saying something … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Psychology | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Psychology of Improvement

Posted on November 16, 2011 by John Hunter

Even if ideas are good and have significant importance (high value to customers, reduce waste dramatically, improve safety…) implementing the ideas can be difficult. Getting people to make an effort to improve a situation by simply laying out the dry facts is not very effective. You need to engage in the management system to make your ideas something other people care about and want to do (you need to consider the psychology of getting things done in human systems). Often … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Deming, Management, Psychology, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Management Improvement Carnival #148

Posted on November 11, 2011 by John Hunter

Jamie Flinchbaugh hosts Management Improvement Carnival #148, highlights include: Since I’m just back from the 1st Lean for HR Summit, I thought I would also showcase an HR-oriented blog. This one from Emily Douglas challenges HR to step up to the plate in The HR Puzzle. Old Lean Dude, aka Bruce Hamilton, aka “Toast Guy”, writes in Illogical Progression on how hoshin gets used as an organization progresses on their lean journey. Michael Baudin writes about the use of sports … Continue reading →

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Manufacturing Skills Gap or Management Skills Gap?

Posted on November 7, 2011 by John Hunter

I stumble across articles discussing the problem of manufacturers having difficulty finding workers with the skills they need (in the USA largely, but elsewhere too) somewhat regularly. While it is true that companies have this problem, I think looking at the problem in that way might not be the most insightful view. Is the problem just that potential workers don’t having the right skills or the result of a long term management skills gap? To me, the current manufacturing skills … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Manufacturing, quote, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Practical Ways to Respect People

Posted on November 3, 2011 by John Hunter

What matters is not your stated respect for people but your revealed respect for people. Here are some ideas that I collected on how to practice respect for people. Don’t waste people’s time: have meetings only when necessary and provide agendas in advance. Use email effectively instead of presenting material in meetings that can better be presented in email. Don’t have complex benefit manuals, aimed at making lawyers happy, that employees are expected to use. Do what you say you … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Psychology, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Management Improvement Carnival #147

Posted on November 1, 2011 by John Hunter

Jason Yip hosts the 147th edition of the Management Improvement Carnival on his blog: You’d think with all my video game experience that I’d be more prepared for this. Highlights include: Being Responsive is Critical for Successful Customer Development by Ben Yoskovitz — “Customers can be quite forgiving. But what they won’t tolerate is being ignored.” Failure is Essential to Knowledge Work by Keith Swenson — “Viability will depend upon learning to cultivate a culture that not only accepts failure, … Continue reading →

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