Category Archives: Management

Management Improvement Carnival #141

Posted on September 1, 2011 by John Hunter

The Curious Cat Management blog carnival highlights recent management blog posts 3 times each month. The posts generally focus on the areas I have focused on in the Curious Cat Management Guide since 1996 (Deming, leadership, lean manufacturing, customer focus, six sigma…). Kill Rats – Not Messengers by Bill Waddell – “Seems pretty clear to me that YUM’s stock price and sales should drop if there are rats running around their restaurants. The YouTube video isn’t the cause of dropping … Continue reading →

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Many Good Employees Want to Continue to Do Their Current Job Well

Posted on August 31, 2011 by John Hunter

Far too much focus on managing people is given to helping them get ahead. Yes many people want to be promoted, and it is good to help them. But I would guess a majority of people really don’t (at this time – they may want to look to promotional later) want to take on new responsibilities (even for more money). But much of the way many speak and coach is disconnected from this reality and really ends up being disrespectful … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Psychology, Respect | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

When Companies Can Treat You Like an ATM, Many Will Do So

Posted on August 29, 2011 by John Hunter

The End of Refrigeration One small custom chip, some relays, a transformer, a couple of heat sinks, and a bunch of passive parts. Maybe a build cost of $20-30 or so? But GE’s price to me was $250, plus $150 for the 20 minutes it took to pull out the old one and swap in the new one. Paying $400 for a big piece of physical gear plus a couple hours of labor didn’t bother me. Paying $400 for a … Continue reading →

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

Good Execution Can Make Management Tools Like Time and Motion Studies Useful

Posted on August 11, 2011 by John Hunter

In my experience most management concepts are applied poorly. Many of the concepts may also be bad. For example, performance appraisals are both done poorly and a bad idea. The solution is not to do performance appraisal righter: for what to do read Peter Scholtes. But, many tools and concepts that are applied with poor results, where the actual application is criticized (with good reason), can be used successfully. I would put benchmarking and time and motion studies in that … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Quality tools | Tagged ,

Management Improvement Carnival #139

Posted on August 10, 2011 by John Hunter

The Curious Cat Management Improvement Carnival has been published since 2006. We find great management blog posts and share them with you 3 times a month. We hope you find these post interesting and find some new blogs to start reading. Follow John Hunter online: Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn, more. Questioning the Value of the P-Value by Jon Miller – “Father of modern statistics Ronald A. Fisher invented the p-value as an informal measure of evidence against the null hypothesis. Although … Continue reading →

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Maslow on Dealing with Authoritarians

Posted on August 8, 2011 by John Hunter

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Management, Psychology, Respect | Tagged , , , , ,

Management Blog Posts From September 2006

Posted on August 4, 2011 by John Hunter

Find a few selected posts from the Curious Cat Management Blog back in September 2006. Going lean Brings Long-term Payoffs – “The early paybacks provide resources to invest in making large more fundamental changes to the organization… Without visible success expecting employees to believe the new management practices is unwise.” Management Improvement History and Health Care – “I think it is wise to think about what improvement methods were tried in the past and try to understand why they failed … Continue reading →

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Best Selling Books In the Curious Cat Bookstore

Posted on August 3, 2011 by John Hunter

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Deming, Management | Tagged , , , , , ,

Management Improvement Carnival #138

Posted on August 2, 2011 by John Hunter

Wally bock hosts Management Improvement Carnival #138 on the Three Star Leadership Blog, highlights include: Evidence Soup by Tracy Allison Altman. This is a blog about assessing evidence. If statistics are not your thing, you’ll pick up some tips and tricks that will help you analyze evidence to guide your decision making. If you’re a statistical whiz, you’ll find a lot here that’s just fun. Representative Recent Post: Big Ideas may not have supporting evidence, but they sell books by … Continue reading →

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Management Improvement Carnival #137

Posted on July 21, 2011 by John Hunter

The Curious Cat management blog carnival is published 3 times a month with select recent management blog posts. I also collect management improvement articles through Curious Cat Management Articles, you can subscribe via RSS to new article additions. Photo is the view I see as I post this issue of the carnival. The importance of understanding variation or how to avoid treating all contractors as thieves by Benjamin Mitchell – “The fix for common cause variation (and most variation is … Continue reading →

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Management Improvement Carnival #136

Posted on July 11, 2011 by John Hunter

The Curious Cat Management blog carnival highlights recent management blog posts 3 times each month. The posts generally focus on the areas I have focused on in the Curious Cat Management Guide since 1996 (Deming, leadership, agile software development, lean manufacturing, continual improvement…). The Purpose of a Business is not Customer Value by Jurgen Appelo – “Every business is a complex adaptive system of stakeholders working together in order to create value for everyone involved… Unfortunately, again and again, management … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Management | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Management Improvement Carnival #135

Posted on July 5, 2011 by John Hunter

The Curious Cat Management blog carnival highlights recent management blog posts 3 times each month. The posts generally focus on the areas I have focused on in the Curious Cat Management Guide since 1996 (Lean manufacturing, Deming, agile software development, systems thinking, customer focus, six sigma, leadership…). Go See, Ask Why, Show Respect by John Shook – “Go see, ask why, show respect is the way we turn the philosophy of scientific empiricism into actual behavior. We go observe what … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Management | Tagged | 1 Comment

I Will Co-Facilitate a Deming Seminar in Singapore July 25-27

Posted on June 27, 2011 by John Hunter

The W. Edwards Deming Institute is working with the NTUC LearningHub to offer management seminars in Singapore. I will be co-facilitating a Deming 2 1/2 day seminar in Singapore with Kelly Allan in July. The 2 1/2 day Seminar, Deming’s New Philosophy of Management, is open for registration to the public. In the seminar you will learn the way of thinking taught by Dr. W. Edwards Deming. Those ideas have been used by leading companies around the world and the … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Deming, Management | Tagged , , , , , ,

Management Improvement Carnival #134

Posted on June 20, 2011 by John Hunter

The Curious Cat Management Improvement Carnival has been published since 2006. We find great management blog posts and share them with you. We hope you find these post interesting and find some new blogs to start reading. You may submitted a post to the management subreddit to have it considered for the next carnival. See more photos from North Cascade National Park, Washington, USA. To Change Culture, Change the System by David Joyce – “Deming learned it’s not a problem … Continue reading →

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Avoiding Tragedy of the Commons for Software Development

Posted on June 15, 2011 by John Hunter

Kanban and Tragedy of the Commons The “Tragedy of the Commons” archetype often manifests itself through “Shared Services”, when a small number of people with specific skills, work across different teams. Each team in isolation gets benefit from the Shared Service, but when demand for the service exceeds its capacity, then nobody benefits. At a smaller scale, a team with a low “bus factor”, or a hero, can also suffer from a tragedy of the commons, when too much work … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Software Development, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

The aim of leadership is not merely to find and record failures of men

Posted on June 13, 2011 by John Hunter

The aim of leadership should be to improve the performance of man and machine, to improve quality, to increase output, and simultaneously to bring pride of workmanship to people. Put in a negative way, the aim of leadership is not merely to find and record failures of men, but to remove the causes of failure: to help people to do a better job with less effort. W. Edwards Deming, page 248, Out of the Crisis This is a great quote, … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Deming, Management | Tagged , , | 8 Comments