Category Archives: Creativity

Visual Management with Brown M&Ms

Posted on August 15, 2011 by John Hunter

When you hear about rock musicians having a clause in their contract that they must have a bowl of M&Ms in their dressing room with all the brown M&Ms removed you could be excused for thinking: what will these crazy … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Quality tools | Tagged communication, Creativity, poka yoke, problem solving, Quality tools, visual communication, visual management | 3 Comments

Sometimes Micro-managing Works

Posted on April 27, 2011 by John Hunter

Sometimes micro-managing works. That doesn’t mean it is a good strategy to replicate. If you benchmark Apple you might decide that you should have a tyrannical obsessive involved CEO who is directly involved in every detail of products and services. … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Customer focus, Innovation, Management | Tagged Apple, Creativity, Customer focus, Investing, leadership, management, stockholders | 5 Comments

Toyota Kata Song – The Times They Are Changing

Posted on April 4, 2011 by John Hunter

Very well done song, Toyota Kata – Managing by Means, by Doug Hendren – to the music of “The Times They are A-changing” by Bob Dylan. Doug sounds impressively similar to Dylan and the words are actually wonderful. Managing by … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Lean thinking, webcast | Tagged Creativity, Lean thinking, webcast | 2 Comments

Customer Focus and Internet Travel Search

Posted on March 24, 2011 by John Hunter

The internet should make finding airline flight information easy. Instead it is a huge pain. Hipmunk has taken on the challenge of doing this well, and I think they have done a great job. This video provides an excellent view … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Customer focus, Innovation, IT, Management, Process improvement | Tagged Creativity, Customer focus, Innovation, internet, IT, travel, usability, webcast | 4 Comments

Learn by Seeking Knowledge – Not Just from Mistakes

Posted on March 7, 2011 by John Hunter

Being open to new ideas and new knowledge is what is needed to learn. Experimenting, seeking out new knowledge is even better. You can be successful and see an even better way to do things and learn from it. This … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Creativity, Deming, Innovation, Process improvement, Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged Career, continual improvement, Creativity, Deming, experiments, fear, Innovation, learning, Process improvement, Psychology, Systems thinking, theory of knowledge | 6 Comments

Jason Fried: Why work doesn’t happen at work

Posted on November 26, 2010 by John Hunter

In this TED talk, Jason Fried, founder of 37 signals, discusses how people get work done. When asked where do you go when you really need to get something done, almost no-one says: the office (unless it is early in … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Management, Psychology, Software Development, Systems thinking | Tagged Creativity, management webcast, managing people, meetings, project management, Psychology, respect for people, Software Development, work, workplace improvement | 3 Comments

Airport Security with Lean Management Principles

Posted on November 16, 2010 by John Hunter

The ‘Israelification’ of airports: High security, little bother We [Israel] said, ‘We’re not going to do this. You’re going to find a way that will take care of security without touching the efficiency of the airport.” … “The whole time, … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Customer focus, Deming, Lean thinking, Psychology, Respect | Tagged airlines, commentary, Creativity, evidence based management, Innovation, Lean thinking, problem solving, Quality tools, Systems thinking | 1 Comment

Annual Performance Reviews Are Obsolete

Posted on November 15, 2010 by John Hunter

Sam Goodner, the CEO of Catapult Systems, wrote about his decision to eliminate the annual performance appraisal. the most critical flaw of our old process was that the feedback itself was too infrequent and too far removed from the actual … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Innovation, IT, Management, Performance Appraisal | Tagged Data, feedback, in-process measures, managing people, Performance Appraisal | Comments Off

A Theory of a System for Educators and Managers

Posted on October 25, 2010 by John Hunter

Excerpts from The Deming Library Volume XXI, Dr. W. Edwards Deming, Dr. Russell Ackoff and David Langford demonstrate that educators can begin a quality transformation by developing an understanding of the properties and powers of systems-oriented thinking. You can order … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Deming, Education, Management, quote, Systems thinking, webcast | Tagged Ackoff, curiouscat, Data, Deming, Education, Innovation, learning, management, management webcast, quote, Systems thinking, theory of knowledge, webcast | 7 Comments

Why Don’t Football Players Just Thrown the Ball Out of Bounds to Stop the Clock

Posted on October 24, 2010 by John Hunter

I have never understood why players don’t lateral the ball out of bounds to stop the clock in pro or college football in the USA. If time is running out and the player is tackled in bounds the clock keeps … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Innovation | Tagged Creativity, Innovation, Popular, sports | 4 Comments