The Curious Cat Management Improvement Carnival has been published since 2006. The carnival, published twice a month, links to great, recent, management blog posts. I hope you find these post interesting and find some new blogs to start reading. Follow John Hunter online: Google+, Twitter and elsewhere.
- How much is your success dependent on those around you? by Eric Barker – “You’d think that doing thousands of heart surgeries would make you better at them. Not necessarily. Surgeons only got better at their home hospital: the one where they knew the team best and developed strong working relationships…. We often take our context and those around us for granted. What is it about those around you that’s making you good at what you do?
- A Lesson on Leadership from Marrakech by Kevin Meyer – “Five times a day Muslims are reminded of their faith and are asked to reflect on it. And practicing Muslims will, whenever possible… Take the time to discover and define the true purpose of the organization. Translate that into a long-term strategy with short- and intermediate-term objectives. Then communicate and reinforce that purpose, strategy, and thinking… over and over and over.
At least five times a day.”
- The Reason Health Care Is So Expensive: Insurance Companies by Jeffrey Pfeffer – “Unless and until we as a society pay attention to the enormous costs and the time wasted by the current administrative arrangements, we will continue to pay much too much for health care.” [the administrative system used by insurance companies is a big part of the problem but there are plenty more that needs to be improved with the health care system – John.]
- This Executive Compensation Issue by Bill Waddell – What all of this means in terms of lean is that a holistic, respectful approach is an essential element of the lean philosophy – respect for people, including all of the stakeholders in the business. It is hard for me to see how anyone with the focus and priorities it takes to be in the cross hairs of the critics of CEO compensation can be such a lean leader.” [Taking What You Don’t Deserve, CEO Style – John Hunter]
- Hallmark Building Supplies: Applying Deming as a Business Strategy by John Hunter – “When thinking systemically companies learn to see the system as larger than just their organization. Hallmark Building Supplies wanted to improve the larger system by helping their customers and suppliers learn about Deming’s ideas and apply those ideas themselves.”
- 5 questions you should ask before holding a meeting by Bernd Geropp – “What is the purpose? Be specific and write it down. What do you want to achieve with the meeting? Is the purpose only to provide information? Are you planning to discuss certain topics and to develop ideas? What decisions should be taken in the meeting? A meeting has always to be result oriented. Be crystal clear about the desired outcome!”
- Scrum Commitments, Little’s Law, and Variability by Alexei Zheglov – “Another option is to reduce the average story size, which has a doubly beneficial side effect because it tends to reduce the harmful component of variation as well. As you can see in the made-up example (average 2, sigma 0.5), committing to stories even as small as half the sprint length assumes unrealistically low variability.”
- Six Suggestions to Allay People’s Fear of Change by Tim McMahon – “Generally people will accept change when they see a personal benefit. Employees who are involved in determining the benefits of change are less likely to resist it. Assist employees in identifying what the change will do for them.”
Fraser’s Hill, Malaysia, by John Hunter. See photos from my walk on Bishops Trail in Fraser’s Hill.
