Category Archives: Psychology

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

Eliminate Slogans

Posted on August 13, 2006 by John Hunter

This poster may do a better job, than my posts, of showing why posters and slogan are not an effective management strategy. Text from the poster: “If a pretty poster and a cute saying are all it takes to motivate … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Deming, Management, Popular, Psychology, quote, Respect | Tagged motivation, Psychology | 3 Comments

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in IT, Management, Psychology, Software Development, Systems thinking | Tagged Management, organization as a system, Psychology, respect for people | Comments Off

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Psychology | Tagged Deming, extrinsic motivation, Joel Spolsky, Management, managing people, motivation, Psychology, Software Development | 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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged Deming, Management, organization as a system, Psychology, quota, Systems thinking | 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? … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Psychology | Tagged management, motivation, Psychology, respect for people, Systems thinking | 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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Google, Innovation, Management Articles, Psychology | Tagged Google | 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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Popular, Process improvement, Psychology, Quality tools, Systems thinking | Tagged blame, continual improvement, curiouscat, organization as a system, process thinking, respect for people, root cause | 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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Management Articles, Popular, Psychology | Tagged management, managing people, Psychology, respect for people, short term thinking | 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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged Lean thinking, organization as a system, problem solving | Comments Off