Category Archives: Management

Motivate or Eliminate De-Motivation

Posted on October 7, 2008 by John Hunter

A huge failure I still see is managers thinking in a theory x way, 50 years after McGregor’s The Human Side of Enterprise. Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Psychology, Respect | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Performance Appraisal Problems

Posted on October 6, 2008 by John Hunter

More and more people are willing to state the frustration with the performance appraisal process. Some have been willing to take the logical step of eliminating that which causes problems but many still don’t think elimination of performance appraisals is … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Performance Appraisal | Tagged , ,

Management Improvement Carnival #44

Posted on October 1, 2008 by John Hunter

Kevin Meyer is hosting the Management Improvement Carnival #44 on the Evolving Excellence blog, highlights include: What would Taiichi Ohno do? at TimeBack Management. I do think there’s tremendous value in applying 5S to the information you manage. But. . … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Management | Tagged

Making Life Difficult for Customers

Posted on September 27, 2008 by John Hunter

Companies seem to think technology is an excuse to provide bad service. Or maybe they don’t need any excuse at all to do so, based on how often they provide bad service. My latest experience with lame pointy haired boss … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, IT, Management, Software Development | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

Management Blog Posts From September 2005

Posted on September 25, 2008 by John Hunter

Here are some posts from the blog 3 years ago, this month. I took the photo on my visit to North Cascades National Park. Measurement and Data Collection – I have found it helpful to ask: what will you do … Continue reading →

Posted in Management | Tagged , ,

Dr. Deming’s 15th Point

Posted on September 24, 2008 by John Hunter

Guest post from John McConnell, Wysowl Pty Ltd Dr. Deming opened his first Australian seminar in 1986 with the question, “What are we here to do”? After some discussion he answered his own question with, “To learn”, and “To have … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Fun, Management, Psychology, Respect | Tagged , , ,

Conference Calls with Scholtes and Joiner

Posted on September 23, 2008 by John Hunter

Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne’s Enterprise Thinking Network Ongoing Discussion series this month features conference calls with Peter Scholtes (Thursday, September 25th, Noon to 2pm Pacific Time – USA) and Brian Joiner (Friday the 26th, Noon to 2pm Pacific Time – … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Deming, Management | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

The Ergonomics of Innovation

Posted on September 22, 2008 by John Hunter

The Ergonomics of Innovation by Hayagreeva Rao and Robert Sutton the IHI case teaches us that innovations spread quickly when organizations focus relentlessly on selecting and spreading ideas in ways that ease the burden of thought and action for everyone … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Health care, Innovation, Management, Process improvement, Systems thinking | Tagged , ,

Guess What? Manufacturing in the USA is a Good Idea

Posted on September 20, 2008 by John Hunter

More people learning about manufacturing truths lean thinkers have known for a long time. Made (again) in America Thomasville Furniture and Exxel Outdoors, a maker of camping gear, have both said they now are making products in the U.S. that … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Manufacturing | Tagged

Webcast on the Toyota Development Process

Posted on September 18, 2008 by John Hunter

Kenji Hiranabe talks about Toyota’s development process (webcast). Kenji shares a presentation he attended earlier this year by Nobuaki Katayama, a former Chief Engineer at Toyota, and the lessons he learned from him. Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Toyota Production System (TPS), webcast | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments