Category Archives: Management

Learning from Customers

Posted on March 2, 2021 by John Hunter

Don’t make it hard for customers to be heard. Provide training and tools to employees to document customers voices. Train employees to learn as much as possible from customers. Value the time employees spend listening to customers and learning from … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Management | Tagged critical thinking, culture, Customer focus, customer service, Data, feedback, learning | 1 Comment

Interview of Bill Hunter: Improving Quality and Productivity in Organizations

Posted on September 29, 2020 by John Hunter

Interview of William G. Hunter on Improving Quality and Productivity in Organizations by Peter Scholtes. Bill taught a course at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, Improving Quality and Productivity in Organizations, which was co-sponsored by the business school, statistics … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Psychology, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged Bill Hunter, Education, learning, Madison, Peter Scholtes, Psychology, respect for people, webcast | 2 Comments

Management Improvement System Flavors

Posted on September 27, 2019 by John Hunter

ASQ has asked their Influential Voices to explore the question “Is Agile the new Lean?” I have participated with the program since 2012: see my past blog posts as part of the ASQ Influential Voices program. No Agile is not … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management | Tagged agile management, ASQ Influential Voices, Lean thinking, management system | 4 Comments

Bill Hunter and the Quality Movement

Posted on August 26, 2019 by John Hunter

Watch this presentation by George Box at the 1st Annual Hunter Conference on Quality: Bill Hunter and the Quality Movement. In the presentation George discusses interesting student design of experiments projects; read more on those efforts in 101 Ways to … Continue reading →

Posted in Management | Tagged Bill Hunter, George Box, Madison, management webcast, quality, respect for people | 1 Comment

How to Successfully Lead Change Efforts

Posted on June 24, 2019 by John Hunter

ASQ has asked their Influential Voices to explore the question “How can an individual become a successful Change Leader?” I have participated with the program since 2012: see my past blog posts as part of the ASQ Influential Voices program. … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Psychology | Tagged ASQ Influential Voices, Career, change, leadership | 2 Comments

Design the Management System with an Appreciation of Confirmation Bias

Posted on February 26, 2019 by John Hunter

To create strong organizations we must create management systems using an appreciation of psychology. We must understand that people have tendencies that must be addressed by designing a management system built to take advantage of the strength those people bring … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Psychology | Tagged critical thinking, culture, management, managing people, organization as a system, Psychology, respect for people, robust | 1 Comment

My Willing Worker Award

Posted on January 22, 2019 by John Hunter

Here is an image of the employee of the quarter award I received from Bill Scherkenbach. I have received other awards and I don’t think those awards were given with any more understanding of the contributions to results due to … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Management, Performance Appraisal, Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged awards, blame, Data, Performance Appraisal, Psychology | Comments Off

20 Most Popular Posts on the Curious Cat Management Blog in 2018

Posted on December 27, 2018 by John Hunter

These posts were the most popular posts on the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog in 2018 (as measured by page views, as recorded by my analytics application). The Toyota Way – Two Pillars (2010) How to Manage What You Can’t … Continue reading →

Posted in Management | Tagged blogs, management | Comments Off

Effective Change Management Strategies and Tactics

Posted on September 18, 2018 by John Hunter

ASQ has asked their Influential Voices to respond to the question: What are some recommended strategies or tactics to help achieve successful change management? See my past blog posts as part of the ASQ Influential Voices program (I have participated … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Management, Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged ASQ Influential Voices, change, management, organization as a system, Psychology, quote, respect for people, Systems thinking | 3 Comments

Peter Scholtes on Teams and Viewing the Organization as a System

Posted on August 7, 2018 by John Hunter

In this presentation Peter Scholtes provides an explanation of teams within the context of understanding an organization of a system: We will not improve our ability to achieve our purpose by empowering people or holding people accountable. I know that … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Psychology, Respect, Systems thinking, webcast | Tagged blame, curiouscat, Customer focus, management, organization as a system, Peter Scholtes, Psychology, respect for people, teams | Comments Off