Category Archives: Books

I Have Published an Update to Management Matters: Building Enterprise Capability

image of the cover of Managmenet Matters by John Hunter

Management Matters by John Hunter

I have published some edits and additional content for my book – Management Matters: Building Enterprise Capability.

One of the things I really like about how I have published the book (with Leanpub) is that anyone that has previously purchased the book gets these, and all future, updates for free. So if you have purchased it, go get your free update. If you haven’t purchased it, please consider buying a copy. Another nice feature of Leanpub publishing is that I set a minimum price and recommended price and with those constraints you can decide what you want to pay.

You may view a sample of the book (which currently is about one third of the book) for free.

Factfulness – The Importance of Critical Thinking

Factfulness by Hans Roling (of TED talks and Gapminder charts fame) is an exceptionally good book. It provides great insight into how to think more effectively and how to understand the reality of the world we live in (versus the large distortions so common in most people’s view of the world).

Today the people living in rich countries around the North Atlantic, who represent 11 percent of the world population, make up 60 percent of the Level 4* consumer market. Already by 2027, if incomes keep growing worldwide as they are doing now, then that figure will have shrunk to 50 percent. By 2040, 60 percent of Level 4 consumers will live outside the West.

One of the significant focuses of the book is the need for critical thinking.

constantly test you favorite ideas for weaknesses. Be humble about the extent of you expertise. Be curious about new information that doesn’t fit, and information from other fields. And rather than talking only to people who agree with you, or collecting examples that fit your ideas, see people who contradict you, disagree with you, and put forward ideas as a great resource for understanding the world.

I have come to see a willingness to value critical thinking, even when it means forcing the organization to address tough issues, as one the differences between organizations that succeed in applying management improvement methods and those that fail. In many organizations that fail, more weight given to making things easy for your bosses versus continual improvement in providing value to customers (which often requires challenging existing processes, beliefs and power structures in the organization).

Challenging the status quo is difficult and most organizations prefer to maintain a culture that takes an easier path. Management improvement often requires a willingness to encourage challenges to the status quo. The importance of challenging the status quo in your organization and in your own thinking is under appreciated.

An example of the systems thinking and economics views Hans shares in the book:

Continue reading →

Lean Blog Podcast with 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 Management Blog (where you are now), Curious Cat Investing Blog, Curious Cat Science and Engineering blog, Living in Malaysia, more blogs, Public Sector Continuous Improvement
My book, Management Matters: Building Enterprise Capability
Long Term Thinking with Respect for People – incentive schemes to get people “motivated” backfire
What Does Respect for People Actually Mean?, Respect People by Creating a Climate for Joy in Work, the difference between respect and disrespect is not avoiding avoiding criticism
confirmation bias
The W. Edwards Deming Institute – blog

photo of John Hunter in front of reliefs on Prambanan Temple

John Hunter at Prambanan Temple, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

More podcasts with me: Software Process and Measurement Podcast With John Hunter – Business 901 Podcast: Deming’s Management Ideas Today – Process Excellence Network Podcast with John Hunter

Software Process and Measurement Podcast With John Hunter

In my podcast with Tom Cagley, Software Process and Measurement Cast: John Hunter on Management Matters, as you might expect there was a bit of a focus on software development and agile software development as related to the ideas I expressed in Management Matters: Building Enterprise Capability.

Deming: management system, continual improvement, respect for people (the 3rd point I said I would mention, but didn’t)
Why do so many management improvement efforts fail?
The proxy nature of data
Building Adoption of Management Improvement Ideas in Your Organization

photo of John Hunter at the Borobudur Temple

John Hunter at the Borobudur Buddhist Temple in Indonesia.

Continue reading →

Podcast Discussion on Management Matters

I continue to record podcasts as I promote my new book – Management Matters: Building Enterprise Capability. This the second part, of 2, of my podcast with Joe Dager, Business 901: Management Matters to a Curious Cat. The first part featured a discussion of 2 new deadly diseases facing companies.

Management Matters by John Hunter

Listen to this podcast.

Links to more information on some of the topics I mention in the podcast:

Appreciation for a System
Using the PDSA improvement cycle
Dangers of Targets Distorting the System
Clayton Christensen and others
Influencing your organization: Building Adoption of Management Improvement Ideas in Your Organization – Grow Your Circle of Influence – How to Get a New Management Strategies, Tools and Concepts Adopted
Psychology: Respect for Everyone – Managing people – confirmation bias – Fooled by Randomness

More podcasts: Process Excellence Network Podcast with John Hunter – Business 901 Podcast with John Hunter: Deming’s Management Ideas Today (2012) – Leanpub Podcast on Management Matters: Building Enterprise Capability

Process Excellence Network Podcast with John Hunter

Management Matters by John Hunter

Diana Davis with the Process Excellence Network interviewed me for their podcast series, process perspective – Management Matters: Interview with author John Hunter (listen to podcast). Additional details on some of the ideas we discussed:

How could they know?
Deming’s System of Profound Knowledge: psychology, understanding variation, viewing the organization as a system, theory of knowledge
“the most important figures that one needs for management are unknown or unknowable” Lloyd Nelson as quoted by Dr. Deming in Out of the Crisis.
7 deadly diseases – CEOs Want Health-Care Reform and Finally Putting Serious Effort into Bringing it About
2 new deadly diseases: excessive executive pay and broken copyright and patent systems – new deadly diseases subreddit (links to resources and articles on these issues), Tilting at Ludicrous CEO Pay, Why Copyright Extention is a Very Bad Idea
Building enterprise capability – Building Management Improvement Success in Your Organization

Leanpub Podcast on My Book – Management Matters: Building Enterprise Capability

Management Matters by John Hunter

I recently was interviewed for a podcast by Len Epp with Leanpub: Leanpub Podcast Interview #9: John Hunter. I hope you enjoy the podcast (download the mp3 of the podcast).

In the podcast we cover quite a bit of ground quickly, so the details are limited (transcript of the interview). These links provide more details on items I mention in the podcast. They are listed below in the same order as they are raised in the podcast:

John Hunter’s professional life highlights
This blog, the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog
The W. Edwards Deming Institute Blog – to advance commerce, prosperity and peace
Posts on appropriate technology on my Curious Cat Engineering blog.
Respect for people: Practical Ways to Respect People Within an Organization – Create a Workplace That Lets People Take Pride in Their Work – Respect for Everyone – Optimize for Developer Happiness at Etsy
Executive pay: Massively Unjust Executive Compensation Damages Companies and Investments – CEOs Plundering Corporate Coffers – Too Much Leverage Killed Mervyns – Losses Covered Up to Protect Bonuses – Taking What You Don’t Deserve, CEO Style – More on Obscene CEO Pay – Turning Up the Heat on CEO Pay (Drucker Institute): “Drucker asserted that the proper ratio between a chief executive’s pay and that of the average worker was around 20-to-1. That’s a far cry from the current ratio of more than 260-to-1 found at major U.S. companies.”
Understanding data: Forgetting the Proxy Nature of Data Leads to Incorrect Conclusions – Managing to Test Result Instead of Customer Value – Seeing Patterns Where None Exists – Confirmation Bias
What to do? Building Adoption of Management Improvement Ideas in Your Organization – How to Get a New Management Strategy, Tool or Concept Adopted
Experimenting: How to Most Effectively Use of the PDSA Improvement Cycle – Encourage Improvement Action by Everyone – Google: Experiment Quickly and Often

The last 15 minutes of the podcast I talk about some details of working with Leanpub; I used Leanpub to publish Management Matters. I recommend Leanpub for other authors. They don’t just have lean in their name, they actual apply lean principles (focusing on the value chain, eliminating complexity, customer focus, etc.) to operating Leanpub. It is extremely easy to get started and publish your book.

Leanpub also offers an excellent royalty plan: authors take home 90% of the revenue minus 50 cents per book. They publish without “digital rights management” crippling purchasers use of the books. Buyers have access to pdf, kindle (mobi) and epub (iPad, nook) format books and get access to all updates to the book. All purchases include a 45 day full money back guaranty.

My New Book: Management Matters

Image of the book cover of Management Matters by John Hunter

Management Matters by John Hunter is now available.

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 incorporate ideas based on feedback from the early readers of the book.

There are several other interesting aspects to publishing in this way. Leanpub allows a suggested retail price, and a minimum price. So I can set a suggested price and a minimum price and the purchaser gets to decide what price to pay (they can even pay over suggested retail price – which does happen). The leanpub model provides nearly all the revenue to the author (unlike traditional models) – the author gets 90% of the price paid, less 50 cents per book (so $8.50 of a $10 purchase).

They provide the book in pdf, mobi (Kindle) and epub (iPad, Nook, etc.) formats. And the books do not have any Digital Rights Management (DRM) entanglements.

Management Matters covers topics familiar to those who have been reading this blog for years. It is an attempt to put in one place the overall management system that is most valuable (which as you know, based on the blog, is largely based upon Dr. Deming’s ideas – which means lean manufacturing are widely covered too).

I hope the book is now in a state where those who are interested would find it useful, but it is in what I consider draft format. I still have much editing to do and content to add.

Leanpub also provides a sample book (where a portion of the content can be downloaded to decide if you want to buy). If you are interested please give it a try and let me know your thoughts.

Maslow on Dealing with Authoritarians

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is well known as a fundamental principle of human psychology. Maslow also said: “It is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.” Maslow on Management is a great book I was referred to by Kelly Allan. The following quote, from page 92, is quite dramatic and showed an understanding that some people (many CEOs) will just take what isn’t theirs, if others don’t stand up to them.

The correct thing to do with authoritarians is to take them realistically for the bastards that they are and then behave toward them as if they are bastards. That is the only realistic way to treat bastards. If one smiles and assumes that trusting them and giving them the key to the pantry is going to reform them suddenly, then all that will happen is the silver will get stolen, and, also, they will become contemptuous of the “weak” Americans whom they see as spineless, stupid, unmasculine sheep to be taken advantage of… only then… could I teach them… that it is possible for a boss, a strong man, a man with a fist, to be kind, gentle, permissive, trusting, and so on.

Strong language, but what those authoritarians do when they rip apart companies and people lives to serve their own vanity deserves strong words. And unfortunately we have far too few people willing to stand up to the bullies ripping apart our companies. Respect for people, doesn’t mean letting people get away with bad behavior.

Best Selling Books In the Curious Cat Bookstore

The most popular books in July at Curious Cat Books were, Statistics for Experiments (1st edition), followed by Statistics for Experiments (2nd edition) and the Leader’s Handbook by Peter Scholtes. These books are great, I am happy others have been finding them and reading them. Statistics for Experimenters is co-authored by my father.

Top sellers so far this year (adding together all editions, including Kindle):
1) The Leader’s Handbook
2) Statistics for Experimenters
3) New Economics
4) Abolishing Performance Appraisals
5) The Team Handbook
6) Out of the Crisis

The Leader’s Handbook is far away in the lead. The order of popularity on Amazon overall: 1) Out of the Crisis, 2) New Economics, 3) The Team Handbook, 4) Abolishing Performance Appraisals, 5) Statistics for Experimenters and 6) The Leader’s Handbook. The only thing that surprises me with the overall numbers is the Leader’s Handbook. The Amazon rankings are hugely biased by recent activity (it isn’t close to a ranking of sales this year). Still I expected the Leader’s Handbook would rank very well. It is the first book I recommend for almost any situation (the only exceptions are if there is a very specific need – for example Statistics for Experimenters for multi-factorial designed experiments or The Improvement Guide for working on the process of improvement.

My guess is Curious Cat site users (and I am sure a fair number of people sent by search engines) are much more likely to buy those books I recommend over and over. Still many books I don’t promote are bought and some books I recommend consistently don’t rack up many sales through Curious Cat.

I started this as a simple Google+ update but then found it interesting enough to expand to a full post. Hopefully others find it interesting also.