Category Archives: Management

Management Improvement Carnival #133

Posted on June 10, 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. Why I can’t convince executives to invest in UX (and neither can you) by Jared Spool “Neither I, you, nor anybody else can convince an executive to invest in user experience… You’ll need to do something custom. Something specific to their current … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Management | Tagged change, management, productivity

Management Blog Posts From August 2006

Posted on June 8, 2011 by John Hunter

Here are a few posts from the Curious Cat Management Blog back in 2006. Distort the System by focusing on data improperly – “When people mistake the data proxy for the thing to improve… they focus on improvement of how the data looks not of the system. That is the wrong strategy.” Eliminate Slogans – Text from the poster: “If a pretty poster and a cute saying are all it takes to motivate you, you probably have a very easy … Continue reading →

Posted in Management | Tagged management, previous posts

Management Improvement Carnival #132

Posted on June 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, agile software development, systems thinking, lean manufacturing, customer focus…). If management stopped demotivating their employees… by Mark Graban – “Think of a person in your workplace who is considered to have a “bad attitude.” Do you think they started their career or their job at … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Lean thinking, Management | Tagged Lean thinking, management, respect for people | 1 Comment

Management Improvement Carnival #131

Posted on May 21, 2011 by John Hunter

The management improvement blog carnival is published 3 times a month (though not this month – May 10th was missed) with select recent management blog posts. Curious Cat also collects articles on improving management practices, you can subscribe via RSS to new article additions. See more photos from my trip to Utah, including Antelope Island State Park in the Great Salt Lake. Drive out Fear by Wally Bock – “Fear corrodes morale and team spirit. Fight or flight rules the … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Management | Tagged management | 2 Comments

Respect People by Creating a Climate for Joy in Work

Posted on May 9, 2011 by John Hunter

Respect for people sure sounds great. And most of us have plenty of experience with organizations that dis-respect people continuously (both employees and customers). So what does respect for people mean at the core? For me: A system that lets people take joy in work and fixes root causes instead of finding people to blame. A huge part of the disrespect shown by companies to employees is through direct action. But another huge part is forcing people to deal with … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Psychology, Respect | Tagged Deming, Joy in Work, managing people, Psychology, respect for people | 8 Comments

Management Improvement Carnival #130

Posted on May 1, 2011 by John Hunter

The 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 Improvement guide since 1996 (Deming, lean thinking, agile software development, respect for people, leadership…). Autonomy: condition for continuous improvement by Rob van Stekelenborg – “Teams that should take the responsibility over a (part of a) process should at the same time also be given the opportunity to actually improve something within … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Management | Tagged management | 1 Comment

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. After all Apple is now the second most valuable company in the world with a market capitalization of $324 billion (Exxon Mobil is the top at $433 billion) and a huge part of that is Steve Jobs. Nice quote from … Continue reading →

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

Factorial Designed Experiment Aim

Posted on April 25, 2011 by John Hunter

Multivariate experiments are a very powerful management tool to learn and improve performance. Experiments in general, and designed factorial experiments in particular, are dramatically underused by managers. A question on LinkedIn asks? When doing a DOE we select factors with levels to induce purposely changes in the response variable. Do we want the response variable to move within the specs of the customers? Or it doesn’t matter since we are learning about the process? The aim needs to consider what … Continue reading →

Posted in Design of Experiments, Management, Manufacturing, Process improvement, Quality tools, quote, Science, Six sigma, Statistics | Tagged Design of Experiments, engineering, experiments, management, Manufacturing, Process improvement, Quality tools, quote, Six sigma, Statistics | 4 Comments

Management Improvement Carnival #129

Posted on April 20, 2011 by John Hunter

The Curious Cat Management Blog Carnival selects recent management blog posts 3 times each month. You may submit a link to the management Reddit to have it considered for inclusion in our carnival Let’s Dance by Ron Pereira – “I am supremely confident injecting a little fun with all the seriousness of life and business will do nothing but help.” How To Hold A Lean Meeting by Matt May – “In one to three sentences, define the overall purpose of … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Management | Tagged management

Problems with Management and Business Books

Posted on April 18, 2011 by John Hunter

We really need to change how we improve the practice of management. Far too often management strategies are just the latest fad from some new book that successfully marketed an idea. The marketing effectiveness of a book, or consultant, has very limited correlation to their ability to improve management, in my experience. It is often true that they make very good keynote speakers, however. So if you want an entertaining keynote speaker looking at the authors of the best selling … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Six sigma | Tagged Books, commentary, Deming, Lean thinking, management, management history, open access, Six sigma | 12 Comments

Engage in Improving the Management System

Posted on April 14, 2011 by John Hunter

To actually improve management you need to engage in continual improvement of your management systems. This requires doing the hard work of challenging complacency. The job of those improving the practice of management is not to make everyone happy and just ignore that the words about improvement are not actually carrying through to changes in behavior. Do Executives “Get It?” So many times executives spout the importance of new initiatives like wellness programs, safety programs, or improvement projects like Lean, … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Psychology, quote, Systems thinking | Tagged business, commentary, continual improvement, Deming, John Hunter, lean manufacturing, management, management history, Psychology, quality, quote, Six sigma, Systems thinking, workplace improvement | 4 Comments

Why Lean is Different

Posted on April 12, 2011 by John Hunter

[the broken link to the embedded video was removed] Short webcast by Michael Ballé discusses what makes lean manufacturing different: going to where the work is done, standardize processes (from the gemba view), practice respect for people and continually improve. Lean thinking focuses on achieving better results and through that process improves trust and teamwork internally, as well as better supplier and customer relationships. Related: Non-technical Control Chart Webcast – Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Creativity, Fulfillment and Flow – lean management, books, … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Process improvement, Psychology, Quality tools, Respect, webcast | Tagged continual improvement, gemba, Lean thinking, management webcast, Process improvement, Psychology, respect for people, standardization, teams | 2 Comments

Management Improvement Carnival #128

Posted on April 10, 2011 by John Hunter

The 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. Resist your machine thinking! [the broken link was removed] by Jeff Liker – “To maintain consistent output, one must continually adjust the system to changing environmental conditions. This is called dynamic homeostasis in systems thinking, or running to stay in place. … Maintenance comes … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Management | Tagged blogs, Lean thinking, management | 2 Comments

Quality is Made in the Board Room

Posted on April 8, 2011 by John Hunter

Dr. Deming stated “Quality is made in the board room,” page 202 Dr. Deming: the American who taught the Japanese about quality. I believe, once the board and executive leadership has put in place the right management system (one that respects people, continual improves using a standardized improvement process (that itself is being improved), practices evidence based management, focuses on customer value, improves processes rather than blames people, builds the capacity of the organization over time…) then quality is everyone’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged continual improvement, Deming, leadership, management, Process improvement, quality, respect for people | 3 Comments

Finding, and Keeping, Good IT People

Posted on April 6, 2011 by John Hunter

Finding good IT people, wherever you located globally, is hard. Waiting for the good IT people to apply for positions, is not likely to gain enough good candidates. To get really good IT people you need to actually manage your current IT staff properly. Then word will get out that your organization is not run by pointy haired bosses (phb) and good IT people will be open to joining. This obviously is not a quick fix. But this practice is … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, IT, Management, Software Development | Tagged Career, hiring, jobs, Software Development | 3 Comments

Management Improvement Carnival #127

Posted on April 2, 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, agile software development, systems thinking, lean manufacturing, customer focus…). Jim Womack, lean blog podcast #116 – Great, as you would expect. Includes a great explanation of the problems that have made adopting lean ideas in medicine, which somewhat counter-intuitively includes the reluctance to use the … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Google, Management | Tagged Google, management, Software Development | 1 Comment