Category Archives: Management

Transform the Management System by Experimenting, Iterating and Adopting Standard Work

Posted on January 19, 2016 by John Hunter

In this short video, Dr. John Toussaint describes how ThedaCare applied leadership standard work to create a successful management transformation. The changes to the management system were tested by applying standard work for all positions in 2 parts of the organization (including all senior management positions) and learning and adapting and then spreading the new methods to the rest of the organization. Changes to the management system require the same testing and piloting of changes on a small scale as … Continue reading →

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

Most Popular Management and Leadership Quotes on Our Site in 2015

Posted on January 12, 2016 by John Hunter

These were the most popular quotes on the Curious Cat Management and Leadership Quotes web site in 2015 (based on page views). Follow the link on the quote text for the source and more information on the quote. Having no problems is the biggest problem of all. – Taiichi Ohno Managers who don’t know how to measure what they want settle for wanting what they can measure. – Russell Ackoff Don’t look with your eyes, look with your feet. Don’t … Continue reading →

Posted in Management | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

20 Most Popular Posts on the Curious Cat Management Blog in 2015

Posted on January 5, 2016 by John Hunter

This is a list of the 20 most popular posts on the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog last year (as measured by page views, as recorded by my analytics application). The Toyota Way – Two Pillars (2010) Stated Versus Revealed Preference (2013) The Purpose of an Organization (2005) 94% Belongs to the System (2013) How to Get a New Management Strategy, Tool or Concept Adopted (2010) One factor at a time (OFAT) Versus Factorial Designs (2011) The Aim Should be … Continue reading →

Posted in curiouscat.com, Management, Popular | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Culture Change Requires That Leaders Change Their Behavior

Posted on December 28, 2015 by John Hunter

This month The ASQ Influential Voices are reacting to Luciana Paulise’s post: Facing Cultural Barriers by Leaders to Strengthen a Culture of Quality [the broken link was removed]. As Luciana stated: leaders need to change their behavior first if they want to change the entire company culture W. Edwards Deming wrote in The New Economics: The first step is transformation of the individual. This transformation is discontinuous. It comes from understanding of the system of profound knowledge. The individual, transformed, … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Most Popular Links on Management Sub-Reddit in 2015

Posted on December 15, 2015 by John Hunter

I created the management sub-reddit many years ago. The management sub-reddit provides links to worthwhile management content and the members indicate those links they liked. Here is a list of the most popular links added in the last year. People Don’t Fail, Processes Do by Terry Smith on The Lean Post The common objection to seniority pay is, “It’s rewarding dead wood!” My response is, “Why do you hire dead wood? Or why do you hire live wood and kill … Continue reading →

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Making Your Case to Senior Executives

Posted on November 24, 2015 by John Hunter

This month Dr. Suresh Gettala writes about the Talking To the C-Suite About Quality in the monthly ASQ Influential Voices post. My take is a bit different than Dr. Gettala (and most others) in that I believe CEOs are so wedded to short term financial measures that if you are speaking to them you need to both appeal to this bias while also fighting to move the organization away from being led by such a bias. That task isn’t easy, … Continue reading →

Posted in Management | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Change Management: Create a Culture Seeking Continual Improvement or Use Band-Aids?

Posted on November 17, 2015 by John Hunter

Successfully shepherding change within an organization is often a challenge. Often change management strategies are mainly about how to cope with a toxic culture but exclude the option of fixing the toxic culture. Why not address the root causes instead of trying band-aids? The most effective strategy is to build an organizational culture into one that promotes continual improvement. A continual improvement culture is one that is constantly changing to improve (grounded in long term principles: respect for people, experiment, … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Psychology, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

All Data is Wrong, Some is Useful

Posted on September 22, 2015 by John Hunter

From my first blog post on this blog – Dangers of Forgetting the Proxy Nature of Data we often fail to explore whether changes in the numbers (which we call results) are representative of the “true results” of the system or if the data is misleading. Data is meant to provide us insight into a more complex reality. We need to understand the limitations when we look at “results” and understand data isn’t really the results but a representation we … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Management | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Using Technology to Improve The Sharing of Knowledge

Posted on August 4, 2015 by John Hunter

This month the ASQ is asking Influential Voices to discuss methods to aid in sharing knowledge. Manu Vora kicked the discussion off with his post on The Gift of Knowledge Transfer Through Technology. My career has been largely shaped by the pursuit of better ways to communicate. I grew up surrounded by those seeking to improve management (Bill Hunter, George Box, Brian Joiner, Peter Scholtes…). When I was in grade school that focus was largely on statistics and the value … Continue reading →

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Look at All the Data and Be Wary of Unjustified Confidence

Posted on July 20, 2015 by John Hunter

Interesting interview with Richard Feynman about the NASA’s space shuttle Challenge disaster. He discusses very well the problem of not thinking of all of the data and how systems produce results with variation. “Results” are not enough to judge whether the current process is wise. He describes a child running into the street without looking that is warned by his parent and counters with the evidence that nothing happened. A child repeating this several times can think they have evidence … Continue reading →

Posted in Management

Interview of John Hunter by Jimena Calfa On Quality

Posted on June 16, 2015 by John Hunter

Jimena Calfa interviewed me for her blog OnQuality as part of her Quality Interview Chain. What are you doing to ensure you continue to grow and improve as a professional and/or as a person? John: I don’t do anything consciously to achieve that. I think if we retain a thirst for knowledge and curiosity and have a desire to do a good job we will do what is necessary. I follow my passion to learn largely through the internet (blogs, … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Management | Tagged , , ,

The Future of Quality is to Actually Do What People Talked About Decades Ago

Posted on June 3, 2015 by John Hunter

In the current ASQ Influential Voices post, Laurel Nelson-Rowe, ASQ managing director, asks: What’s the Future of Quality? The report they link to is hidden behind a register-wall. Hopefully in the future ASQ will have better User Experience (Ux) practices in place on the web site. But it is a good example of the failures to adopt well known, decades old recommended practices. This failure to just do what the best experts have suggested for a long time is an … Continue reading →

Posted in Management | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Top 21 Executives at Toyota Getting a Raise to a Combined US$14.9 Million

Posted on May 20, 2015 by John Hunter

The difference between Toyota and so many other companies is obvious in many ways. One of the stark differences is how executives are paid. Toyota’s belief in a strong management system contrasts with the self worship many USA executives practice. How the executives pay themselves illustrates this very well. Even with a proposed 19% pay boost the top 21 executives at Toyota would get a combined US$14.9 million in the proposal for this year. Toyota Plans 19% Boost in Director … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Psychology, Respect, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Visual Management and Mistake-Proofing for Prescription Pills

Posted on May 5, 2015 by John Hunter

Good ideas often just require some sensible thought to think of an improved approach. Management concepts can help guide such thinking, such as mistake-proofing and visual management. To apply visual management requires giving a bit of thought to how to make visually obvious what is important for people to know. Mistake proofing is often really mistake-making-more-difficult (for some reason this term of mine hasn’t caught on). I believe mistake-proofing should put barriers in the process that make a mistake hard. … Continue reading →

Posted in Management | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Lessons for Managers from Wisconsin and Duke Basketball

Posted on April 6, 2015 by John Hunter

What can managers learn from Duke and Wisconsin’s basketball teams? Duke and Wisconsin are in the college basketball championship game tonight. They reached this stage through a great deal of hard work, skill, training and coaching. Raw talent matters to mangers and even more to college basketball coaches. But raw talent alone won’t succeed (for college basketball teams a great system starved of raw talent would also fail). The lesson many people miss is that college teams are mostly about … Continue reading →

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

Transforming a Management System – A Case Study From the Madison Wisconsin Police Department

Posted on March 10, 2015 by John Hunter

This post in an excerpt from The Quality Leadership Workbook for Police by Chief David Couper and Captain Sabine Lobitz (buy via Amazon). Transformational Steps A Case Study Madison, Wisconsin (1981-1993) Step 1: Educate and inform everyone in the organization about the vision, the goals, and Quality Leadership. This step must be passionately led by the top leader. Begin discussion with top management team and train them. Discuss and ask employees; get feedback from them. Share feedback with the chief … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Data, Deming, Management, Respect, Statistics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments