Category Archives: Psychology

Maslow on Dealing with Authoritarians

Posted on August 8, 2011 by John Hunter

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is well known as a fundamental principle of human psychology. Maslow also said: “It is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.” Maslow on … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Management, Psychology, Respect | Tagged Books, management, managing people, Psychology, quote, respect for people | Comments Off

Respect People by Creating a Climate for Joy in Work

Posted on May 9, 2011 by John Hunter

Respect for people sure sounds great. And most of us have plenty of experience with organizations that dis-respect people continuously (both employees and customers). So what does respect for people mean at the core? For me: A system that lets … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Psychology, Respect | Tagged Deming, Joy in Work, managing people, Psychology, respect for people | 8 Comments

Engage in Improving the Management System

Posted on April 14, 2011 by John Hunter

To actually improve management you need to engage in continual improvement of your management systems. This requires doing the hard work of challenging complacency. The job of those improving the practice of management is not to make everyone happy and … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Psychology, quote, Systems thinking | Tagged business, commentary, continual improvement, Deming, John Hunter, lean manufacturing, management, management history, Psychology, quality, quote, Six sigma, Systems thinking, workplace improvement | 4 Comments

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. … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Process improvement, Psychology, Quality tools, Respect, webcast | Tagged continual improvement, gemba, Lean thinking, management webcast, Process improvement, Psychology, respect for people, standardization, teams | 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. … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Psychology, Respect | Tagged Deming, lean management, management, managing people, Psychology, respect for people | 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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Creativity, Deming, Innovation, Process improvement, Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged Career, continual improvement, Creativity, Deming, experiments, fear, Innovation, learning, Process improvement, Psychology, Systems thinking, theory of knowledge | 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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged problem solving, Psychology, Systems thinking | Comments Off

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, … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Psychology | Tagged Education, learning, respect for people | 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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Popular, Psychology, quote, Respect, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged curiouscat, lean manufacturing, Lean thinking, management, managing people, Popular, Psychology, Respect, respect for people, Taiichi Ohno, Toyota Production System (TPS) | 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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, IT, Lean thinking, Management, Psychology, Respect, Software Development, Systems thinking | Tagged agile management, Books, guest post, management, Psychology, research, respect for people, Software Development, Systems thinking | 4 Comments