Monthly Archives: March 2012

Continual Feeding

Posted on March 29, 2012 by John Hunter

I like growing things. I think it is part the connection to system thinking I have had since I was a kid. I like finding ways to leverage my effort so that I put in a bit of thought and effort and then get to enjoy the fruits of that effort for a long time. This idea also guides my investing approach. I planted a vegetable garden in my yard a few years ago. My strategy was to find methods … Continue reading →

Posted in Investing, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

How Could They Know?

Posted on March 28, 2012 by John Hunter

I am a big fan of Dr. Deming’s ideas on management. The way I see one of the quotes of Dr. Deming used I don’t agree with. Dr. Deming said “How could they know?” to explain why people continued to follow less successful practices (for example, page 55 of Out of the Crisis). How could they know of better practices, he would say. I must say I have always thought the answer to that question was pretty easy. They could … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Management Improvement Blog Carnival #161

Posted on March 21, 2012 by John Hunter

Nicole Radziwill is hosting Management Improvement Blog Carnival #161. Highlights from this edition include: The Odds of Finding a Four-Leaf Clover Coffee Shop Buzz is Good for Your Creativity One Year after the Fukushima Nuclear Accident Make sure you check out the full carnival post on the Quality and Innovation blog.

Posted in Carnival | Tagged

Selling Quality Improvement

Posted on March 19, 2012 by John Hunter

In this month’s ASQ influential quality voices post, Paul Borawski asks How Do You “Sell” Quality? I am amazed how difficult it is to sell quality improvement. I look at organizations I interact with and easily see systemic failures due to faults that can be corrected by adopting management improvement strategies that are decades old. Yet executives resist improving. The desire to retain the comforting embrace of existing practices is amazingly strong. What sells to executives are usually ideas that … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Massively Unjust Executive Compensation Damages Companies and Investments

Posted on March 13, 2012 by John Hunter

For years I have believed the massively unjust executive compensation packages have been doing great harm to American businesses. As an investor, one of the big risks that has to be evaluated is how much of the business profits executives will divert to their personal bank accounts. And investors also have to worry about the risks executives take to reach huge incentives which then greatly damage your investment. In 2007, I added two of my own deadly diseases to Dr. … Continue reading →

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

Management Improvement Blog Carnival #160

Posted on March 11, 2012 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, innovation, lean manufacturing, customer focus, process improvement…). Reflections on the 100th Birthday of Taiichi Ohno by Masaaki Imai – “Taiichi Ohno always placed respect for the worker first in his approach to kaizen. His focus was always on the customer, both external and internal” A … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Lean thinking | Tagged , ,

Engineering Management Thoughts Based on Facebook Experience

Posted on March 8, 2012 by John Hunter

Yishan Wong is the new CEO at Reddit, an excellent social media site I have written about previously. In looking at his background I found some interesting articles he wrote on engineering management based on his experience at Facebook engineering. He starts with “make hiring your number one priority, always.” To me this is a specific knowledge worker issue. Hiring is always important but the importance in knowledge worker settings (especially when there is quite a bit of poaching good … Continue reading →

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

Keys to the Effective Use of the PDSA Improvement Cycle

Posted on March 6, 2012 by John Hunter

The PDSA improvement cycle was created by Walter Shewhart where Dr. Deming learned about it. An improvement process is now part of many management improvement methods (A3 for lean manufacturing, DMAIC for six sigma and many other modifications). They are fairly similar in many ways. The PDSA cycle (Plan, Do, Study, Act) has a few key pieces that are either absent in most others processes of greatly de-emphasized which is why I prefer it (A3 is my second favorite). The … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Popular, Process improvement, Quality tools, quote, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

Management Improvement Blog Carnival #159

Posted on March 1, 2012 by John Hunter

David Kasprzak is hosting Management Improvement Blog Carnival #159 on My Flexible Pencil. Highlights from this edition include: 3 Ways to Go Agile in Your Workplace in the New Year Managing Your Logistics as You Grow Your Business Raising awareness of ROWE [Results Only Work Environment] and Lean Necessary and Valuable are not the same Make sure you check out the full carnival post on My Flexible Pencil.

Posted in Carnival, Management | Tagged