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Category Archives: Management
The Best Form of Fire Fighting is None at All
The best form of problem solving is to avoid problems altogether. At the point you have a “fire” in your organizaiton you have to fight it. But it is better to create systems that avoid fires taking hold in the … Continue reading
Posted in Management, Systems thinking
Tagged long term thinking, mistake-proofing, organization as a system, problem solving, Systems thinking
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Good Project Management Practices
I find myself working as a project manager, or a program management consultant more frequently in the last few years. As would be expected by those reading the Curious Cat Management Improvement blog, my project management views are based on … Continue reading
Poorly Stratified Data Leads to Mistakes in Analysis
Stratification can help provide insight into the nature of the real world situation. Determining what is a sensible conclusion to draw and what is not is aided by an understanding of statistics and expert knowledge of the situation the data is drawn from. Continue reading
Posted in Data, Management, Statistics, Systems thinking
Tagged critical thinking, curiouscat, Data, evidence based management, management, Statistics
2 Comments
Quality of the Entire Customer Experience
There is a difference in the way many organizations are managed today and managing with an understanding of your organization as a system aligned toward customer focused continual improvement. The ability to create great customer experiences is much easier with a management system based on customer focused continual improvement principles than one without. Continue reading
Posted in Customer focus, Management, Psychology
Tagged ASQ Influential Voices, Customer focus, management, Psychology, Quality tools, respect for people, Systems thinking, usability
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The New Age of Robots and What it Means for Jobs
I believe we have reached a turning point in the usefulness and effectiveness of industrial robots. For several decades it was pretty easy to predict wholesale adoption of “the robots will save us” mantra would be followed by failure. I … Continue reading
Posted in Innovation, Management
Tagged Economics, engineering, IT, leadership, management, organization as a system, robots, technology, Toyota
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Advice for Managers Who are Just Starting Out
I was interviewed by Vidal Graupera for his Managers Club blog, excerpts from that interview: What are the biggest challenges you face? Convincing organizations to adopt better management methods. People are very attached to historical ways of managing. While it … Continue reading
Posted in Management
Tagged Career, coaching, interview, John Hunter, management, managers
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RSS feed for Management Improvement Blog Posts
I have created a RSS feed for select blog posts from the start of the Curious Cat Management Improvement blog in 2004 (as well as other posts I have made on management improvement on other blogs). Subscribe to the John Hunter management improvement RSS feed. Doing so will add a post each day to your RSS feed reader from my past blog post. Of course, the normal RSS feed for this blog will continue to provide access to the new blog posts I publish. Continue reading
Posted in curiouscat.com, Management
Tagged blogs, John Hunter, management
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Looking in the Mirror at Customer Focus
Most organizations say they are focused on meeting and exceeding customer needs. But, as a customer, this often isn’t what I experience. Delighting customers is critical to long term business success. Satisfied customers will remain your customers until they see … Continue reading
Posted in Customer focus, Innovation, Management, Systems thinking
Tagged culture, Customer focus, customer service, Innovation, Japan, management, strategy
1 Comment
Don’t Expect Short Quotes to Tell the Whole Story
When people try to use a short quote as an accurate encapsulation of a management concept they will often be disappointed. It is obvious that Dr. Deming believed that organizations failed to use data effectively to improve. He proposed that … Continue reading
Posted in Data, Management, quote, Statistics, Systems thinking
Tagged Data, Deming, quote, Statistics, Systems thinking, variation
4 Comments
The Importance of Critical Thinking and Challenging Assumptions
There are many factors that are important to effectively practice the management improvement ideas that I have discussed in this blog for over a decade. One of the most important is a culture that encourages critical thinking as well as … Continue reading
