Category Archives: Management

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Management | Tagged ASQ Influential Voices, change, communication, leadership | 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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Psychology, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged change, culture, curiouscat, leadership, managing people, organization as a system, Psychology, respect for people, root cause, trust | 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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Management | Tagged curiouscat, Data, ethics, green, leadership, Statistics | 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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Management | Tagged ASQ Influential Voices, Design of Experiments, internet, IT, learning, technology | 3 Comments

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 … Continue reading →

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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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Management | Tagged Career, interview, John Hunter, quote | Comments Off

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Management | Tagged ASQ Influential Voices, quality, usability | 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. … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Psychology, Respect, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged executive pay, respect for people, Toyota | 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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Management | Tagged curiouscat, Customer focus, design, Health care, health care system, management concepts, management system, management tools, mistake-proofing, Process improvement, process thinking, Quality tools, user experience, visual management | 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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Systems thinking | Tagged Madison, management, sports, system thinking, teams, Wisconsin | 2 Comments