Category Archives: Psychology

Epidemic of Diagnoses

Posted on January 3, 2007 by John Hunter

What’s Making Us Sick Is an Epidemic of Diagnoses by Dr. Welch, Dr. Schwartz and Dr. Woloshin: For most Americans, the biggest health threat is not avian flu, West Nile or mad cow disease. It’s our health-care system. True, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Health care, Management, Process improvement, Psychology, Quality tools | Tagged control chart, Deming, process thinking, Quality tools, tampering, variation | 4 Comments

Why Extrinsic Motivation Fails

Posted on December 20, 2006 by John Hunter

Why Motivation by Pizza Doesn’t Work This completely changes the role of the manager as motivator. Rather than being the source of motivation (kind of a ludicrous idea in itself), the manager must help employees to find their own intrinsic … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Psychology, Respect | Tagged extrinsic motivation, management, managing people, motivation, Psychology | 5 Comments

The Illusion of Understanding

Posted on November 25, 2006 by John Hunter

The “Illusion of Explanatory Depth”: How Much Do We Know About What We Know? (broken link 🙁 was removed) is an interesting post that touches on psychology and theory of knowledge. Often (more often than I’d like to admit), my … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Psychology | Tagged critical thinking, Psychology, theory of knowledge | 6 Comments

Righter Performance Appraisal

Posted on October 9, 2006 by John Hunter

Speaking of “doing the wrong things righter” Microsoft has eliminated forced rankings in performance appraisal: to do performance appraisals righter. Microsoft exec puts her stamp on human resources: The forced curve was company policy. And it climbed up a list … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Management, Performance Appraisal, Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged Deming, managing people, organization as a system, Performance Appraisal, respect for people | 1 Comment

Why Pay Taxes or be Honest

Posted on October 1, 2006 by John Hunter

This kind of stuff makes me mad. I was taught about robber barons in school (or actually I think by my uncle but…). And what I was taught was that business used to be seen as an amoral area. But … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Management, Psychology | Tagged business, ethics, government, leadership, Psychology, society | 2 Comments

Excessive CEO Pay

Posted on September 28, 2006 by John Hunter

Overpaid CEOs and Underpaid Managers: Fairness and Executive Compensation by James B. Wade, Charles A. O’Reilly, III and Timothy G. Pollock: We also find evidence suggesting that CEOs serve as a key referent for employees in determining whether their own … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Psychology, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged deadly diseases, leadership, Management, organization as a system, overpaid executives, respect for people | Comments Off

Incentive Programs are Ineffective

Posted on September 19, 2006 by John Hunter

Reward and Incentive Programs are Ineffective — Even Harmful by Peter Scholtes The greatest management conceit is that we can “motivate” people. We can’t. Motivation is there, inside people. Our people were motivated when we hired them and everyday, when … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Psychology, Respect | Tagged Management, organization as a system, Performance Appraisal, Peter Scholtes, respect for people | 1 Comment

Lean Thinking at United

Posted on September 17, 2006 by John Hunter

Mark Graban gives a nice review of some material on web site of a United labor union in: An Encouraging Lean Example at United Airlines. From the union web site, he quotes: “Once fully implemented, the 5S+1 process can increase … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Psychology | Comments Off

Senge and Deming

Posted on August 29, 2006 by John Hunter

Jeff Sutherland quoting Dr. Deming‘s response to Peter Senge request for a comment on his book, The Fifth Discipline: “Our prevailing system of management has destroyed our people. People are born with intrinsic motivation, self-respect, dignity, curiosity to learn, joy … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Psychology, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged Deming, Psychology, respect for people, Systems thinking | Comments Off

Lean Leaders

Posted on August 28, 2006 by John Hunter

Lean leaders [the broken link was removed] by April Terreri: Tim Corcoran, vice president of ZF Sales & Services, NA, LLC, that re-manufactures automotive transmissions and steering systems in Vernon Hills, IL. “We had a number of false starts by … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles, Psychology, Quality tools | Tagged continual improvement, fear, Lean thinking, Psychology | Comments Off