Monthly Archives: May 2013

Peter Senge on Systems Thinking

Posted on May 28, 2013 by John Hunter

People must be willing to challenge their mental models in order to find non-obvious areas of high leverage – which allow significant improvement. System thinking is a term that is often confusing to people. From my perspective it is important to understand the importance of leverage. Understanding systems lets you find solutions that may not be direct, but provide powerful leverage. Another important point is looking at the organization as a system. Understanding the interdependence of the aspects of the … Continue reading →

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

Executive Leadership

Posted on May 21, 2013 by John Hunter

Senior executives must lead management improvement efforts. When senior executives only give lip service to management efforts the result is normally the same: little happens. When Dr. Deming was working with companies after the 1980’s NBC white paper, If Japan Can Why Can’t We, he wouldn’t work with companies if the CEO wasn’t attending the meetings and learning how to manage the organization better. Dr. Deming had seen far too many CEOs want improvement but wanted to delegate the effort … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Management Improvement Blog Carnival #193

Posted on May 15, 2013 by John Hunter

The Curious Cat Management Improvement Carnival is published twice each month. The posts selected for the carnival focus on the areas of management improvement I have focused on in the Curious Cat Management Improvement Guide since 1996: Deming, lean thinking, innovation, respect for people, customer focus, etc.. Dr. Deming’s “Role of a Manager of People” by Mark Graban – quoting Dr. Deming “A manager understands and conveys to his people the meaning of a system. He explains the aim of … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival

Lean Blog Podcast with John Hunter

Posted on May 13, 2013 by John Hunter

Mark Graban interviewed me for the Lean Blog podcast series: Podcast #174 – John Hunter, “Management Matters” (listen using this link). Links to more information on what we discussed in the podcast. Madison, Wisconsin: William G. Hunter, George Box, Brian Joiner, Peter Scholtes, Joe Sensenbrener (Quality Comes to City Hall), Statistics for Experimenters, Out of the Crisis, Doing More with Less in the Public Sector: A Progress Report from Madison, Wisconsin My online efforts: Curious Cat Management Guide, Curious Cat … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Respect | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Management Improvement Blog Carnival #192

Posted on May 1, 2013 by John Hunter

The Curious Cat management blog carnival has been published since 2006. New posts are published twice a month. I also publish a collection management improvement articles on the Curious Cat management improvement articles site. Customer Service Andon Cord: Jeff Bezos and Customer Experience by Pete Abilla – “Lean principles have taken such a hold on Amazon and on Jeff Bezos that job titles now contain terms often used in Lean Manufacturing. For example, Jeff Bezos’ comment on ‘Customer Service Andon’ … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival | 2 Comments