Category Archives: Psychology

Competition

Posted on August 11, 2006 by John Hunter

Why I hate programming competitions [the broken link was removed] by Mike Vanier Most aspects of Deming’s thinking seemed natural to me from the start. Some ideas have taken longer (it took me awhile to be won over to the harm caused by performance appraisals, for example). Competition is another area that I still struggle with. I have been moved greatly by my experience and the thoughts of people like Alfie Kohn (No Contest: The Case Against Competition). But I … Continue reading →

Posted in IT, Management, Psychology, Software Development, Systems thinking | Tagged , , ,

Dangers of Extrinsic Motivation

Posted on August 10, 2006 by John Hunter

The Econ 101 Management Method by Joel Spolsky. Once again Joel presents interesting ideas very well – past posts referencing Joel. But when you offer people money to do things that they wanted to do, anyway, they suffer from something called the Overjustification Effect. “I must be writing bug-free code because I like the money I get for it,” they think, and the extrinsic motivation displaces the intrinsic motivation. Since extrinsic motivation is a much weaker effect, the net result … Continue reading →

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

Another Quota Failure Example

Posted on July 24, 2006 by John Hunter

Innocent People Placed On ‘Watch List’ To Meet Quota You could be on a secret government database or watch list for simply taking a picture on an airplane. Some federal air marshals say they’re reporting your actions to meet a quota, even though some top officials deny it. The air marshals, whose identities are being concealed, told 7NEWS that they’re required to submit at least one report a month. If they don’t, there’s no raise, no bonus, no awards and … Continue reading →

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

Motivation

Posted on July 21, 2006 by John Hunter

From the Deming Electronic Network: Incentives [the broken link was removed]: I don’t think motivation deserves to be discarded to the archives of “Arbitrary Goals.” I have to pose this, though: was Deming explicit on best ways to handle motivation? To me the problem is in the belief of needing to motivate workers (that is theory x thinking). I think it is much more accurate to say managers need to focus on eliminating de-motivation. See page 125 of New Economics … Continue reading →

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

Innovation at Google

Posted on May 7, 2006 by John Hunter

Turning Limitations into Innovation [the broken link was removed] by Marissa Ann Mayer: people working on it have spent so much time and are so personally invested that it’s too painful to walk away. They often know the project is misguided, yet they see the effort through to the painful, unsuccessful end. That’s why it’s important to discover failure fast and abandon it quickly. A limited investment makes it easier to walk away and move on to something else that … Continue reading →

Posted in Google, Innovation, Management Articles, Psychology | Tagged | 2 Comments

Find the Root Cause Instead of the Person to Blame

Posted on May 3, 2006 by John Hunter

When encountering a problem or defect the inclination of many is to find a person to blame. W. Edwards Deming believed that the system was responsible for 93% of the problems and over time he increased that number to at least 97%. Why did he see it that way, while so many others first inclination is to blame someone? As I see it the issue has to do with what is the effective way to improve. Often if you ask … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Popular, Process improvement, Psychology, Quality tools, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Stop Demotivating Employees

Posted on April 20, 2006 by John Hunter

Why Your Employees Are Losing Motivation [broken link removed – Harvard is extremely bad about breaking links, which is an indication of how little they think about anything but the short term] by David Sirota, Louis A. Mischkind, and Michael Irwin Meltzer from the Harvard Management Update: Most companies have it all wrong. They don’t have to motivate their employees. They have to stop demotivating them. Clear, simple and right. Douglas McGregor explored this topic well in 1960. He explained … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Management Articles, Popular, Psychology | Tagged , , , , | 18 Comments

Leading Lean: Missed Opportunity

Posted on April 10, 2006 by John Hunter

Leading Lean: Missed Opportunity [the broken link was removed] by Jamie Flinchbaugh: Three elements are needed to gain the benefits from using pull production to drive problems out into the open. First, you need strong problem-solving skills. Bringing a problem to the surface is only half of the battle-you still have to correct the problem. Second, you need an infrastructure capable of solving problems. This means persuading employees at all levels to respond to problems in real time. This does … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged , ,

Problems with Bonuses

Posted on April 3, 2006 by John Hunter

What sort of bonuses should we pay? by Seth Godin: Money, it’s been shown time and time again, is a demotivator. I’m not talking about a fair or even generous salary. Being a cheapskate is no way to find a great employee. But once people have joined your team, incremental money–bonuses and the like–usually demotivate people. He is right. Why salary bonus and other incentives fail to meet their objectives by Dale Asberry. Lean Manufacturing Visionary Jim Womack On Frontiers … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Performance Appraisal, Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

Fear Remains a Toyota Motivator

Posted on March 23, 2006 by John Hunter

First, don’t let the title fool you, this is not an indication Toyota is going against Deming’s obligation of management to “Drive out fear and build trust so that everyone can work effectively”. Deming was talking about driving out the fear management creates for employees intentionally (forced ranking…) and un-intentionally (creating a climate where people are more fearful of pointing out problems than just ignoring them…). See: Deming and Toyota. This article is talking about Toyota’s never ending quest to … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles, Psychology, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , ,

Flow

Posted on March 22, 2006 by John Hunter

“Flow” and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi [the broken link was removed] by David Farmer: How does it feel to be in “the flow”? 1. Completely involved, focused, concentrating – with this either due to innate curiosity or as the result of training 2. Sense of ecstasy – of being outside everyday reality 3. Great inner clarity – knowing what needs to be done and how well it is going 4. Knowing the activity is doable – that the skills are adequate, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Management, Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Performance Appraisal Problems

Posted on February 15, 2006 by John Hunter

The Struggle To Measure Performance [the broken link was removed], Business Week: One company that recently decided to dump forced rankings altogether is Chemtura (CEM), a $3 billion specialty chemicals company formed by the July merger of Crompton in Middlebury, Conn., and Great Lakes Chemical in Indianapolis. “The system forced me to turn people who were excellent performers into people who were getting mediocre ratings,” says Eric Wisnefsky, Chemtura’s vice-president for corporate finance. “That demotivates them, and they’d follow up … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Management Articles, Performance Appraisal, Psychology | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Management Lessons from Terry Ryan

Posted on January 4, 2006 by John Hunter

Management Lessons from Terry Ryan: Humility, Stability & Personality from Management by Baseball: competitors in any endeavor figure anything easy must not be a very important differentiator (bass-ackwards of course, but the erroneous mental algebra is that if it was important and easy both, everyone could/would do it and since they’re not doing it and it’s easy it, therefore, must not be important. Goofy but widespread thinking. As long as Ryan and his team make this seem like luck or … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Innovation, Management, Psychology | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Performance of People and Appraisal

Posted on December 5, 2005 by John Hunter

The Statistical and Scientific Thinking blog, by John Dowd, has several interesting posts on the Performance of People [the broken link was removed]: Why can’t performance be numerically rated and ranked? It can’t be defined operationally, it can’t be measured with any degree of precision, it can’t be separated from other effects, and it is destined to vary over time in any case. Any one of these factors present significant (if not insurmountable) problems itself. Combined the problems create an … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Performance Appraisal, Psychology, Respect | Tagged , ,

Excessive Executive Pay

Posted on December 4, 2005 by John Hunter

Topic: Management Improvement Via Christian Sarkar [the broken link was removed], Too Many Turkeys, The Economist: Executive compensation in America – already far ahead of the rest of the world, despite the best efforts of overseas managers to catch up – is now rising inexorably again. In fiscal year 2004 the total compensation of the median American company boss rose in every industry… according to a new report by the Conference Board, a research organisation. In the big companies that … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Psychology, Respect | Tagged , , , , , , | 18 Comments

Toyota Manufacturing Powerhouse

Posted on November 28, 2005 by John Hunter

Great required reading [the broken link was removed] via Evolving Excellence, Relentless [the broken link was removed], Detroit News: As Toyota expands rapidly, it is also grappling with a shortage of skilled managers and engineers. When it decided in June to build its seventh North American assembly plant in Woodstock, Ontario, officials said one reason they chose that site was because the new factory could be overseen by the team running its nearby Cambridge plant. Last month, the normally acquisition-shy … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management Articles, Manufacturing, Psychology, Respect, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , | 3 Comments