Monthly Archives: June 2016

Unintended Consequences

Posted on June 29, 2016 by John Hunter

Using data to understand your processes and improve them is very useful. But using data often results in unintended consequences. If you don’t have a good understanding on the pressures collecting data will bring to bear on the system you can create pressure for results that damage the delivery of value to customers. In this example there are requirements to take action if certain conditions are present. In this case, if the airplane is pushed back from the gate for … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Management, Process improvement, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Support Theatre

Posted on June 21, 2016 by John Hunter

Support theatre provides the appearance of supporting customers when in fact it is just treating customers poorly based on a management system that disrespects customers. It is a similar idea to security theatre that has become so popular for government in the USA for the last 10 years. Dilbert does a good job of illustrating “support theatre” in this webcast: I have had the exact experience Dilbert does of tech support refusing to think about the actual symptoms of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Fun, Management | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog Ranking

Posted on June 1, 2016 by John Hunter

I created a ranking of top management improvement blogs for fun. There is no way to objectively rate blogs by how worthy or valuable they are. I just wanted to create a listing that ranked blogs I thought were worth reading using a collection of metrics that I think have some merit (even if that merit is fairly limited). Here are the top 10 as of now (it will change over time): The most important factor is my selection of … Continue reading →

Posted in curiouscat.com | Tagged , , | 1 Comment