Category Archives: quote

Science and Engineering Macroeconomic Investment

I posted to the Curious Cat Science Blog on the Science and Engineering Doctoral Degrees being granted around the world. Why do I post this here as a Economic post? I believe, as do some countries that have made significant … Continue reading

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Saving Lives: US Health Care Improvement

8 part special report by US News and Word Report on improving the US Health Care system. Join IHI in an ambitious initiative called the 100K Lives Campaign. Its goal is to save 100,000 hospital patients’ lives by 9 a.m. … Continue reading

Posted in Economics, Health care, Management Articles, quote, Systems thinking | Tagged | 10 Comments

Management is Prediction

re: post on prediction [link broken, so removed] on the Deming Electronic Network, Petter Ogland wrote: …that intelligence more or less boils down to updating a predictive model of the world. As far as I can see, this is the … Continue reading

Posted in Deming, Management, Process improvement, Quality tools, quote, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , | 10 Comments

Fast Company Interview: Jeff Immelt

Fast Company Interview: Jeff Immelt, CEO, GE. What makes a growth leader today, and how does that differ from the sort of leader who was effective at GE in the past? GE has always been a believer in leadership development. … Continue reading

Posted in Innovation, Management, Process improvement, quote, Six sigma, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

Managing Fear

The post, Root Causes of Crunch Mode [the broken link was removed] from the Game Manager blog makes the good point that Fear and anxiety are known to reduce comprehension and learning ability. W. Edwards Deming made “drive out fear” … Continue reading

Posted in Deming, Management, Psychology, quote, Respect | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Who Influences Your Thinking?

Comments on Who Influences Your Thinking? [broken link removed] – Survey results [broken link removed] > 1. Are people getting most of their information > from other sources? That would be my guess. Similar to the phenomenon of “the long … Continue reading

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Operational Excellence

In, the post Is Operational Excellence Dead? the argument is made that operational excellence is dead as a differentiator of companies. “All of the emphasis on outsourcing to low labor cost countries seems to imply that organizations no longer consider … Continue reading

Posted in Management, Manufacturing, Process improvement, quote | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

USA Health Care Costs reach 15.3% of GDP – the highest percentage ever

re: Health Care Spending In The United States Slows For The First Time In Seven Years The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (part of the United States Department of Health and Human Services) issued a report (the press release … Continue reading

Posted in Economics, Health care, Popular, quote | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Dangers of Forgetting the Proxy Nature of Data

We use data to act as a proxy for some results of the system. Often people forget that the end result is not for the number to be improved but for the situation to be improved. We hope, if the measure improves the situation will have improved. But there are many reasons this may not be the case (one number improving at the expense of other parts of the system, the failure of the number to accurately serve as a proxy, distorting numbers, etc.). Continue reading

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Popular, quote, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments