Category Archives: Psychology

I Don’t Know

Posted on May 5, 2008 by John Hunter

Guest post by David Kerridge (originally posted to the Deming Electronic Network): This is part of a series in which I recall striking or thought-provoking things that W. Edwards Deming said, but did not put into his books. I remember … Continue reading →

Posted in curiouscat.com, Deming, Management, Psychology | Tagged Deming, guest post | 2 Comments

Find Joy and Success in Business

Posted on April 21, 2008 by John Hunter

David Heinemeier Hansson Talk [the broken link has been removed] at Startup School 2008 (Paul Graham‘s Y-combinator school). It is helpful to appreciate the importance of some simple ideas. Working on web focused businesses people often get carried away with … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Deming, Fun, Innovation, IT, Management, Psychology, Respect, Software Development | Tagged Customer focus, Software Development, startup, webcasts | 3 Comments

Packaging Improvement

Posted on April 9, 2008 by John Hunter

McDonald’s Branding Makes Food Tastier for Tots Researchers at Stanford University have found that children tend to rate food that is wrapped up in McDonald’s-branded paper as tasting better than the same food wrapped in plain paper — a finding … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Customer focus, Management, Psychology, Science | Tagged marketing, Psychology | 4 Comments

Losses Covered Up to Protect Bonuses

Posted on March 24, 2008 by John Hunter

Does it surprise you to learn traders would cover up losses to protect bonuses? It shouldn’t, it happens over and over. Would it surprise you that almost any bonus (or quota) scheme increases the odds that the data will be … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Investing, Management, Psychology | Tagged bonus, extrinsic motivation | 8 Comments

Pleasing Customers

Posted on March 10, 2008 by John Hunter

Why is 37signals so arrogant? by Don Norman The Brash Boys at 37signals Will Tell You: Keep it Simple, Stupid. Brash is an understatement. I was quoted in the article because of my article arguing that simplicity is highly overrated: … Continue reading →

Posted in Competition, Creativity, Customer focus, Management, Psychology, quote, Software Development, Systems thinking | Tagged complexity, Customer focus, Psychology, Software Development, usability | 2 Comments

Systemic Workplace Experiments

Posted on March 6, 2008 by John Hunter

Workplace Experiments At our company-wide get together last December we decided that 2008 was going to be a year of workplace experiments. Among other things, we discussed how we could make 37signals one of the best places in the world … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Deming, Management, Psychology, Respect, Software Development, Systems thinking | Tagged Deming, Education, experiments, management, Software Development, workplace improvement | 1 Comment

Customers Get Dissed and Tell

Posted on February 28, 2008 by John Hunter

There are those rare companies where interacting with them is not a dreaded experience: Trader Joe’s, Southwest Airlines, Ritz Carlton, Crutchfield, Cannon, Groovix. There are not many. And even just providing something that just works is seen as a treat. … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Deming, Management, Psychology | Tagged bad service, blogs, Customer focus, Deming, inspection, internet, overpaid executives, Psychology, Systems thinking | 7 Comments

Losing Consumers’ Trust

Posted on February 24, 2008 by John Hunter

Last week their was a recall of 143 million pounds of beef in the USA. Lets take a short systemic view at what is going on. The public has an interest in a safe food supply which is difficult to … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Management, Psychology, Science, Systems thinking | Tagged Customer focus, export, food, government, health, Psychology, regulation, safety, Systems thinking, trade | 5 Comments

What Motivates Programmers?

Posted on February 22, 2008 by John Hunter

A fun read on What motivates programmers? I will start with a question, if you have a spare £400 in your development budget do you A) Reward your star programmer with a £400 bonus or B) Buy him a 24 … Continue reading →

Posted in IT, Management, Psychology | Tagged Psychology, respect for people | 5 Comments

Don’t Use Performance Appraisals

Posted on February 11, 2008 by John Hunter

I like to continue to push for some things that might not seem achievable to many. It is too easy to accept that things have to stay the way they are. Several of Dr. Deming’s list of Seven Deadly Management … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Performance Appraisal, Psychology, Respect | 5 Comments