Category Archives: Psychology

Prediction Markets with Google Employees

Posted on January 10, 2008 by John Hunter

Another interesting experiment from Google: Using Prediction Markets to Track Information Flows: Evidence from Google In Google’s terminology, a market asks a question (e.g., “how many users will Gmail have?”) that has 2”5 possible mutually exclusive and completely exhaustive answers … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Data, Economics, Google, Psychology, Statistics, Systems thinking | Comments Off

Bigger Impact: 15 to 18 mpg or 50 to 100 mpg?

Posted on December 24, 2007 by John Hunter

This is a pretty counter-intuitive statement, I believe: You save more fuel switching from a 15 to 18 mpg car than switching from a 50 to 100 mpg car. But some simple math shows it is true. If you drive … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Psychology, Science, Statistics | 3 Comments

Great Visual Instruction Example

Posted on December 14, 2007 by John Hunter

This does a great job of explaining what you need to know clearly. While this presentation for Azithromycin doesn’t prevent a mistake it sure makes it much more likely that the process can be completed successfully. We need more effort … Continue reading →

Posted in Health care, Management, Psychology, Quality tools | Tagged Health care, Lean thinking, poka yoke, usability, visual instructions | Comments Off

Performance Appraisals are Worse Than a Waste of Time

Posted on December 13, 2007 by John Hunter

Appraisals are a waste of Time Most British workers will certainly leave their appraisal fired up and motivated, but only to look for a new job, new research from workplace and HR body Investors in People has concluded. Nearly half … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Performance Appraisal, Psychology, Respect | Tagged Deming, Performance Appraisal, respect for people, system thinking, UK | 4 Comments

The Power of a Checklist

Posted on December 7, 2007 by John Hunter

Great article on The Checklist – If something so simple can transform intensive care, what else can it do? by Atul Gawande A decade ago, Israeli scientists published a study in which engineers observed patient care in I.C.U.s for twenty-four-hour … Continue reading →

Posted in Health care, Lean thinking, Management, Process improvement, Psychology, Quality tools | Tagged checklist, Deming, Health care, Lean thinking, management tools, Systems thinking | 4 Comments

Arbitrary Rules Don’t Work

Posted on November 28, 2007 by John Hunter

Procedurally Enforcing Workflow by Michael Salamon: UI gem, and a great reminder for the RIAA/MPAA: You can’t force people to follow directions they deem arbitrary. I bet if that gate spit out $100 bills people would use it. Why matters. … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Popular, Process improvement, Psychology, Respect | Tagged Lean thinking, Psychology, respect for people | 1 Comment

Joy in Work – Software Development

Posted on November 25, 2007 by John Hunter

The wonderful cartoon in this link illustrates the all too common despair in work. Software programmers are more likely to really enjoy what they do. There are many reasons for this not the least of which is that they have … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, IT, Management, Psychology, Software Development | Tagged John Hunter, Joy in Work, programming, Psychology, Ruby, Software Development | 11 Comments

The Lazy Unreasonable Man

Posted on November 5, 2007 by John Hunter

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” – George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman That quote sprang to mind … Continue reading →

Posted in Fun, Management, Psychology, quote, Systems thinking | 5 Comments

Enhancing Passion of Employees

Posted on October 13, 2007 by John Hunter

What can we do to enhance passion amongst employees? Some think you need to pay people more. If tomorrow you doubled everyone’s pay they are excited for a short time a few months later everything is the same on the … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Psychology, Respect, Systems thinking | 4 Comments

Using Capitalism to Make the World Better

Posted on October 11, 2007 by John Hunter

I have mentioned Kiva before: Microfinancing Entrepreneurs (on our Curious Cat Economics and Investing blog). In addition to being a good cause Kiva really shows some great management strategies. The use of Information Technology to connect people directly is a … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, curiouscat.com, Economics, Fun, IT, Management, Psychology | 7 Comments