Category Archives: Psychology

Why Lean is Different

Posted on April 12, 2011 by John Hunter

[the broken link to the embedded video was removed] Short webcast by Michael Ballé discusses what makes lean manufacturing different: going to where the work is done, standardize processes (from the gemba view), practice respect for people and continually improve. Lean thinking focuses on achieving better results and through that process improves trust and teamwork internally, as well as better supplier and customer relationships. Related: Non-technical Control Chart Webcast – Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Creativity, Fulfillment and Flow – lean management, books, … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Process improvement, Psychology, Quality tools, Respect, webcast | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Is Using the Words Resources or Assets When Talking About People the Problem?

Posted on March 17, 2011 by John Hunter

I don’t have any problem with the words resource or assets when discussing people (I know lots of people seem to get excited about those words). What I care about is behavior and organizational systems that embody respect for people. I have never seen much correlation between those and the use of the words resource and asset for discussing the role of people in organizations. Maybe others do see the correlation between the use of those words and bad behavior. … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Psychology, Respect | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Learn by Seeking Knowledge – Not Just from Mistakes

Posted on March 7, 2011 by John Hunter

Being open to new ideas and new knowledge is what is needed to learn. Experimenting, seeking out new knowledge is even better. You can be successful and see an even better way to do things and learn from it. This seems the best way to learn to me – not to just learn from mistakes. Of course this means your goal has to be improvement not just avoiding more mistakes than before. Your actions are based on theories (often unconsciously): … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Creativity, Deming, Innovation, Process improvement, Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Nigel Marsh: How to Make Work-Life Balance Work

Posted on February 25, 2011 by John Hunter

“I want you to pause for a minute, you wretched weaklings, and take stock of your miserable existence.” Nigel Marsh paraphrasing (or quoting, I can’t find the source though) the advice that Saint Benedict gave his startled followers. I wrote some about focusing on your whole life recently: Work and Life. Related: Medieval Peasants had More Vacation Time – Positivity and Joy in Work – We don’t Have to Accept Despair – The Importance of Management Improvement

Posted in Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged , ,

Continual Learning

Posted on January 17, 2011 by John Hunter

There are several things that destroy your ability to be effective. Thinking you have all the answers (which leads to stopping learning) is probably at the top, along with any other reason for stopping learning (more interested in other things, etc.). How you are taken by people is also very important. If people see you as talking down to them, it is very difficult to have them listen and care about what you say. At the same time I find … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Psychology | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Respect for People Doesn’t Mean Avoiding Any Hint of Criticism

Posted on January 14, 2011 by John Hunter

As I said in a post a few years ago on respect for people and Taiichi Ohno‘s sometimes very aggressive style: The difference between respect and disrespect is not avoiding avoiding criticism. In fact often if you respect someone you can be much more direct and critical than you can with someone you treat as though they don’t have the ability to listen to hard truths and improve. I think we often have so little respect for people we just … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Popular, Psychology, quote, Respect, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

The Achilles’ Heel of Agile

Posted on December 14, 2010 by John Hunter

Guest post by Jurgen Appelo When I wrote this, I was working in a big open office space in the Van Nelle Factory in Rotterdam (see photo). About 100 people work in an office that was the first of its kind in Europe, when it was built in 1929. And more than 80 years later, architecture lovers from all over the world still come to admire it, take pictures, and make drawings. I sometimes waved at them. Van Nelle office, … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, IT, Lean thinking, Management, Psychology, Respect, Software Development, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

How to Get a New Management Strategy, Tool or Concept Adopted

Posted on December 6, 2010 by John Hunter

Often when learning about Deming’s ideas on management, lean manufacturing, design of experiments, PDSA… people become excited. They discover new ideas that show great promise to alleviate the troubles they have in their workplace and lead them to better results. But how to actually get their organization to adopt the ideas often confounds them. In fact, I believe most potential improvements efforts may well fail even before they start because people can’t get past this problem. I believe the way … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Innovation, Lean thinking, Management, Popular, Process improvement, Psychology, Quality tools, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

Don’t Treat People Like You Want to be Treated

Posted on December 2, 2010 by John Hunter

I have never understood the logic behind the idea that you should treat people like you want to be treated. I know I am different; I don’t want what lots of other people seem to want. If I treat them how I want to be treated, they are not happy. I understand the sentiment behind the statement. I think it is much more effectively stated as: treat people how they want to be treated. An understanding of psychology will provide … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Psychology | Tagged , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

Jason Fried: Why work doesn’t happen at work

Posted on November 26, 2010 by John Hunter

In this TED talk, Jason Fried, founder of 37 signals, discusses how people get work done. When asked where do you go when you really need to get something done, almost no-one says: the office (unless it is early in the morning or late at night)? This is especially for creative people and knowledge workers. They need long stretches of uninterrupted time to concentrate. “The real problems in the office are the managers and the meetings.” The main theme is … Continue reading →

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

Airport Security with Lean Management Principles

Posted on November 16, 2010 by John Hunter

The ‘Israelification’ of airports: High security, little bother [the broken link was removed] We [Israel] said, ‘We’re not going to do this. You’re going to find a way that will take care of security without touching the efficiency of the airport.” … “The whole time, they are looking into your eyes — which is very embarrassing. But this is one of the ways they figure out if you are suspicious or not. It takes 20, 25 seconds,” said Sela. Lines … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Customer focus, Deming, Lean thinking, Psychology, Respect | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Worth Does Not Equal Wealth

Posted on November 11, 2010 by John Hunter

Warren Buffet often says he happens to be very good at something that is very financially rewarding – effectively allocating capital. He says this while making the point that plenty of other people are exceptionally gifted in ways that are not as financially rewarding (teachers, grandparents, nurses, Peace Corps assignment…) but are important to society. He understands that his worth as a person is not tied to this bank account. It might be one reason he and Bill Gates have … Continue reading →

Posted in Psychology, Respect | Tagged , , , , , ,

Work and Life

Posted on November 4, 2010 by John Hunter

I believe in efficiency a great deal (it is a big part of the reason I took to Deming and lean manufacturing – I find waste annoying). Vacation sure can seem inefficient. All these people that could be working, not working. But people are not the same as machines. Time away from work can reinvigorate people. Time away from the day to day work can lead to better performance when people are actually at work. Time to enjoy life is … Continue reading →

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

Positivity and Joy in Work

Posted on October 14, 2010 by John Hunter

After my father died, for years (at least 10), people I never had met before would emotionally share what a positive influence he had on their lives. He did great stuff helping organizations improve. But the majority of people were not telling me how much he helped the organization improve [there were also a bunch of engineers and statisticians 🙂 that were more impressed with his insights and expertise]. But most people talked about was how much happier they were … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Deming, Management, Psychology, quote, Respect | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Create a System That Lets People Take Pride in Their Work

Posted on October 7, 2010 by John Hunter

I believe I learned this from Peter Scholtes, though maybe I am remembering it wrong or explaining it wrong (so give him the credit and if I mess it up it is my fault). I believe there is a problem with using the term empowered. Using the term implies that it one person empowers another person. This is not the correct view. Instead we each play a role within a system. Yes there are constraints on your actions based on … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Psychology, Respect | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

Build an Environment Where Intrinsic Motivation Flourishes

Posted on August 8, 2010 by John Hunter

50 years after Douglas McGregor’s classic, The Human Side of Enterprise, too many managers still have not learned that using extrinsic motivation is not an effective way to manage complex human systems (organizations). The issue is important to me because their is a huge amount of poor management based on this thinking (focused on how people need to be fixed/motivated) instead of fixing what management really needs to fix. You can succeed as a manager, and progress in your career, … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Deming, Management, Process improvement, Psychology, quote, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments