Category Archives: quote

Building on Successful Improvement

Posted on July 13, 2010 by John Hunter

Do ‘Quick Wins’ Hurt Lean Initiatives? This becomes very difficult, since in many organizations these executives have the strategic attention span equivalent to the life-cycle of a mayfly. When the ‘quick win’ approach is taken, the savings / impact becomes like a drug to the executives. They see the benefit and they want more – NOW. Usually they are able to get this for a while, since they are very interested in the program at the beginning and show their … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Psychology, quote, Systems thinking | Tagged build capacity, coaching, leadership, management, managing people, Psychology, quote, tips | 3 Comments

Involve IT Staff in Business Process Improvement

Posted on July 6, 2010 by John Hunter

I started out basically working on management improvement from the start of my career. My makeup (I am never satisfied and figure things should always be better) along with a few traits, experiences and probably even genes made this a natural fit for me. I tend to take the long view and find fire fighting a waste of time. Why fix some symptom, I want to fix the system so that problem doesn’t happen again. My father worked in statistics, … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Deming, IT, Management, Popular, Process improvement, quote, Software Development, Systems thinking | Tagged agile management, Career, commentary, curiouscat, IT, John Hunter, management, Popular, Process improvement, quote, Software Development, Systems thinking | 5 Comments

Frugal Innovation

Posted on June 9, 2010 by John Hunter

First break all the rules The device is a masterpiece of simplification. The multiple buttons on conventional ECGs have been reduced to just four. The bulky printer has been replaced by one of those tiny gadgets used in portable ticket machines. The whole thing is small enough to fit into a small backpack and can run on batteries as well as on the mains. This miracle of compression sells for $800, instead of $2,000 for a conventional ECG … Frugal … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, India, Innovation, quote | Tagged Creativity, disruptive innovation, Economics, Innovation, purpose, quote, simplicity | 1 Comment

Classic Management Theories Are Still Relevant

Posted on June 7, 2010 by John Hunter

Good management is good management: it doesn’t matter if someone figured out the good idea 100 years ago or last week. Are “Classic” Management Theories Still Relevant? It did make me wonder about the staying power of management models, processes, skills, and conventional wisdom… There are way too many people in our field that are not true professionals – they don’t do their homework, and rely too much on their own personal experience. They’re the ones who tend to jump … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, quote, Systems thinking | Tagged commentary, management, management experts, management history, Systems thinking, tips | 6 Comments

Incentivizing Behavior Doesn’t Improve Results

Posted on May 28, 2010 by John Hunter

In the webcast Dan Pink shares research results exploring human motivation and ideas on how to manage organization given the scientific research on motivation. “once a task called for even rudimentary cognitive skill a larger reward led to poorer performance” “Pay people enough to take the issue of money off the table. Pay people enough so they are not thinking about money they are thinking about the work.” “3 factors lead to better performance: autonomy, mastery and purpose” [not additional … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Data, Deming, Management, Psychology, quote, Respect, Science | Tagged extrinsic motivation, management research, management webcast, managing people, motivation, Psychology, purpose | 3 Comments

Interruptions Can Severely Damage Performance

Posted on May 12, 2010 by John Hunter

Interruptions can severely degrade your performance. The type of work you are doing impacts the cost greatly. I have spent some of my time programming web applications. When I am doing that interruptions are a huge drain on my performance (for me the costs of interruptions while programming are far higher than any other type of work I have done – many times higher). If the interruption disrupts my flow (an interruption needn’t necessarily disrupt it I found, instant messages … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Management, Psychology, quote, Respect, Software Development, Systems thinking | Tagged Creativity, curiouscat, John Hunter, management, managing people, Paul Graham, Psychology, quote, respect for people, Software Development, Systems thinking, tips | 7 Comments

Ignoring Unpleasant Truths is Often Encouraged

Posted on May 4, 2010 by John Hunter

We can’t Handle the Truth Unfortunately, the proverbial “kill the messenger” is alive and well in American business. People who speak the truth are often labeled as a non-team player, a disrupter, a trouble maker or the current tag of being “not a good fit”. … It doesn’t take much to see that the truth can get watered down, altered or hidden entirely inside a company, especially as it moves vertically up the ladder. We may believe, at least in … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Process improvement, Psychology, quote, Systems thinking | Tagged management, Process improvement, Psychology, quote, respect for people, Systems thinking | 6 Comments

The Toyota Way – Two Pillars

Posted on April 15, 2010 by John Hunter

Toyota is receiving plenty of criticism now, much of it for good reason. There is also a large amount of psychology involved. From what I have seen, the insurance companies still see better claims history (fewer and lower cost claims) against Toyota than other manufacturers. And there is another strain that seems to enjoy criticizing what has been praised. Toyota does need to improve. But that is improvement of the existing management system, not a need to radically change the … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Manufacturing, Popular, Process improvement, quote, Respect, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged continual improvement, curiouscat, lean management, lean manufacturing, Lean thinking, management, managing people, Popular, quote, respect for people, Toyota, Toyota Production System (TPS) | 18 Comments

Aligning Marketing Vision and Management

Posted on March 23, 2010 by John Hunter

Why do so many companies market one thing and provide something else? I know it might be easier to sell something different than what you offer your customer today. But if you decide to market one vision, why don’t you change your organization to actually offer that? I suspect this is substantially due to the outsourced nature of large marketing efforts. It makes sense to me that when you outsource your marketing message creation it isn’t tied to your management … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Management, Popular, quote, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged Customer focus, customer service, John Hunter, management, marketing, Popular, quote, respect for people, Systems thinking | 6 Comments

Circle of Influence

Posted on February 9, 2010 by John Hunter

In, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Steven Covey discusses the circle of control, circle of influence and circle of concern. This provides a good framework from which to view issues as you look for improvement strategies. Within your circle of control you have much more autonomy and have less need to win others over to your plan. However, in practice, even here, you benefit from winning over those who are involved (for example you are their boss). Our … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Creativity, Deming, Management, Popular, Psychology, quote, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged curiouscat, John Hunter, Management, managing people, organization as a system, Popular, Psychology, quote, respect for people, tips | 9 Comments

Understanding Psychology: Slogans – Risky Tools

Posted on February 3, 2010 by John Hunter

Slogans mainly are bad. But like most things they can be used in ways that help or hurt. The main problem is when they substitute for a method to achieve the aim (most of the time). If the slogan serves like a mission statement to focus people on something useful to focus on and it is one minor part of a system to achieve a result it can be fine and even useful. The issue, to me, is not so … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Psychology, Quality tools, quote, Respect | Tagged curiouscat, Deming, John Hunter, management, management tools, motivation, Psychology, quote, respect for people | 2 Comments

Undercover Boss – Will They Really Change?

Posted on January 11, 2010 by John Hunter

[removed video that is no longer available] I am skeptical that this reality show (Undercover Boss) will actually do any good but the webclip looks fun. It will premier right after the Super Bowl on CBS. The concept, if done right, could actually be interesting. But even in that case, I would be skeptical it would do much good. I may be wrong, but I would think we will get a whole bunch of thoughts based on one single data … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Management, Psychology, quote, Respect | Tagged management, quote, respect for people, webcast | 7 Comments

Habits

Posted on December 10, 2009 by John Hunter

Some things about what people do also have their roots in psychology. Deming had an understanding of psychology as one of 4 areas in his system of management. A huge factor in what people do is based on what they are used to doing – habits. It is often difficult for people to change – not necessarily because they don’t want to, or the alternative is more difficult or they think it is unwise. It is difficult just because they … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Process improvement, Psychology, quote, Systems thinking | Tagged curiouscat, Deming, extrinsic motivation, John Hunter, managing people, motivation, Psychology, quote | 7 Comments

Making Better Decisions

Posted on November 24, 2009 by John Hunter

I think the most important thing you can do to make better decisions is to learn from the decisions you make. It sounds easy, but very few people do so effectively. The best strategy to learn from decisions is to: predict the results of your decisions write down those predictions Then analyze the results Then adjust future predictions and decisions based on what you learn Failing to do this leads most people to fail to learn from there decisions. It … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Process improvement, quote, Systems thinking | Tagged Career, continual improvement, Data, John Hunter, learning, management, Process improvement, Quality tools, quote, Systems thinking, tips | 4 Comments

Extrinsic Incentives Kill Creativity

Posted on September 21, 2009 by John Hunter

If you read this blog, you know I believe extrinsic motivation is a poor strategy. This TED webcast Dan Pink discusses studies showing extrinsic rewards failing. This is a great webcast, definitely worth 20 minutes of your time. “you’ve got an incentive designed to sharpen thinking and accelerate creativity and it does just the opposite. It dulls thinking and blocks creativity… This has been replicated over and over and over again for nearly 40 years. These contingent motivators, if you … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Deming, Management, Performance Appraisal, Psychology, quote, Science | Tagged Creativity, curiouscat, experiments, extrinsic motivation, management, management research, management webcast, Performance Appraisal, Popular, Psychology, Science, TED | 5 Comments

An Introduction to Deming’s Management Ideas by Peter Scholtes (webcast)

Posted on September 14, 2009 by John Hunter

An Introduction to Deming’s Management Teaching and Philosophy by Peter Scholtes – webcast from the Annual W. Edwards Deming Institute conference in Madison, Wisconsin, November 9th, 2008. My previous post on this speech: 6 Leadership Competencies. Next month, the Annual Deming Institute conference will be held at Purdue on Oct 10th, 2009. Related: Peter Scholtes’ Life – Curious Cat’s Deming on Management – The Leader’s Handbook – Performance without Appraisal

Posted in Creativity, curiouscat.com, Deming, Education, Innovation, Lean thinking, Management, Performance Appraisal, Popular, Process improvement, Psychology, quote, Respect, Science, Systems thinking, webcast | Tagged curiouscat, Deming, Innovation, management, management webcast, Performance Appraisal, Peter Scholtes, Popular, quote, respect for people, Systems thinking, webcast | 4 Comments