Monthly Archives: August 2012

New Deadly Diseases

Posted on August 29, 2012 by John Hunter

Management and the economy keep evolving. Many good things happen. In the last decade the best things are probably the increased deep adoption of lean thinking in many organizations and the adoption of lean and Deming methods in software development (agile software development, kanban and lean startup [which I do realize isn’t limited to software development]). Sadly all the deadly diseases Dr. Deming described remain. And, as I said in 2007, I think 2 new diseases have become so widespread … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Deming, Economics, Innovation, Lean thinking, Management, quote, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Ackoff: Corporations Are Not Led By Those Seeking to Maximize Shareholder Value

Posted on August 23, 2012 by John Hunter

If I had to limit myself to a handful of management experts, Russel Ackoff would definitely be in that group. Thankfully there is no such limit. Ackoff once again provides great insight, with great wit, in the above clip. A corporation says that its principle value is maximizing shareholder value. That’s non-sense. If that were the case executives wouldn’t fly around on private jets and have Philippine mahogany lined offices and the rest of it. The principle function to those … Continue reading →

Posted in Fun, Management, Systems thinking, webcast | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Creating a Quality Culture

Posted on August 21, 2012 by John Hunter

This month Paul Borawski (CEO of ASQ) has asked the ASQ Influential Voices to share their thoughts on the Feelings and Quality Culture. I don’t think creating a culture of continual management improvement is complex but it takes more commitment than most organizations seem to have. To build a culture that supports customer focused continuous improvement a management system needs to reinforce consistent behavior over the long term. There is far too much saying certain things (customers are valued, people … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Management Improvement Blog Carnival #176

Posted on August 20, 2012 by John Hunter

Karl Scotland is hosting the 176th Management Improvement Carnival. Highlights include: One set of posts that caught my eye was on Agile Fluency. The original post by James Shore and Diana Larsen proposes “a model of Agile fluency that will help you achieve Agile’s benefits. Fluency evolves through four distinct stages, each with its own benefits, costs of adoption, and key metrics”. Dave Nicolette responded that “the gist of the article appears to be that we can effect organizational improvement … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival

Leading Manufacturing Countries from 2000 to 2010: China, USA…

Posted on August 13, 2012 by John Hunter

Over the years I have been posting data on the manufacturing output of leading countries. In 2010 China finally overtook the USA to becoming the leading manufacturer (long after you would have thought listening to many news sources and political leaders). In a previous post on the Curious Cat Economics Blog I looked at the output of the top 10 manufacturing countries with a focus on 1980 to 2010. In 1995 the USA was actually very close to losing the … Continue reading →

Posted in China, Manufacturing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog Carnival #175

Posted on August 10, 2012 by John Hunter

The Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog 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 me online: Google+, Twitter, Reddit, and more. Reflections on My (Brief) Time with Dr. Deming by Mike Stoecklein – “He was harsh and stern with senior management at the seminars – wanting to shake them into the … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival

Customer Focus by Everyone

Posted on August 7, 2012 by John Hunter

There are many critical elements to a management system. One that is fundamental, yet still poorly executed far too often, is creating a system where all staff can focus on enhancing value to the customer every day. If your enterprise does not focus on this, it should. If you think your enterprise does, my first, second and third suggestions are to think more critically about whether it really does. If the answer is yes, then you are lucky to work … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Deming, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

My New Book: Management Matters

Posted on August 2, 2012 by John Hunter

I have a new book in progress: Management Matters. It is now available in “pre-release format” via leanpub. The idea I am experimenting with (supported by leanpub) is pre-publishing the book online. The ebook is available for purchase now, and comes with free access to the updates. My plan is to continue working on the book for the next few months and have it “release ready” by October, 2012. One of the advantages of this method is that I can … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, curiouscat.com, Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Process improvement, Psychology, Quality tools, quote, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog Carnival #174

Posted on August 1, 2012 by John Hunter

The Curious Cat management blog carnival is published 3 times a month with hand picked recent management blog posts. I also collect management improvement articles for the Curious Cat Management Articles site; an RSS feed of new article additions is available. How to Identify Your Team or Organization’s Purpose by Jesse Lyn Stoner – “What is the end-result that you offer? Look at your purpose from the viewpoint of the result, not the products or services you offer.” What we … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Management | Tagged , , ,