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Category Archives: Respect
Quality is a Journey to Excellence
I recently uncovered this 2 day management seminar that Bill Hunter (my father) recorded in 1985 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The embedded clip shows the first section of a the seminar. There is a bit of presentation that is outdated (mainly about general economic conditions and specific business conditions from the 1980s). If you don’t have the patience to sit through that (I find it useful but I can understand some people won’t want to listen to that part) just … Continue reading
Posted in Deming, Management, Respect, Systems thinking, webcast
Tagged Bill Hunter, Data, Deming, Innovation, management, respect for people, Systems thinking
3 Comments
Profound Podcast with John Hunter, Part Two
John Willis interviewed me for his Profound podcast series, this posts is about part two of the interview (listen to part two of the podcast, John Hunter – Curious Cat). See my post on part one of the interview. John Hunter presenting at Deming Institute management seminar in Hong Kong This post provides links to more information on what we discussed in the podcast. Hopefully these links allow you to explore ideas that were mentioned in the podcast that you … Continue reading
Posted in Deming, Management, Psychology, Respect
Tagged Bill Hunter, Deming, interview, John Hunter, Joy in Work, podcast, Psychology, respect for people
Interview of Bill Hunter: Improving Quality and Productivity in Organizations
Interview of William G. Hunter on Improving Quality and Productivity in Organizations by Peter Scholtes. Bill taught a course at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, Improving Quality and Productivity in Organizations, which was co-sponsored by the business school, statistics department and industrial engineering department. There were a few undergraduate students, more graduate students and even more students who were working full time (many of whom only took this course – they were not pursuing a degree at the university). … Continue reading
Posted in Management, Psychology, Respect, Systems thinking
Tagged Bill Hunter, Education, learning, Madison, Peter Scholtes, Psychology, respect for people, webcast
2 Comments
Peter Scholtes on Teams and Viewing the Organization as a System
In this presentation Peter Scholtes provides an explanation of teams within the context of understanding an organization of a system: We will not improve our ability to achieve our purpose by empowering people or holding people accountable. I know that those are fashionable words but what they have in common that I think is the wrong approach is that they still are focused on the people and not on the systems and processes. I’m sure that will trigger quite a … Continue reading
Posted in Deming, Management, Psychology, Respect, Systems thinking, webcast
Tagged blame, curiouscat, Customer focus, management, organization as a system, Peter Scholtes, Psychology, respect for people, teams
Unpacking the Components of Hard Work to Design Better Work Conditions
Effort is grossly underrated by Jamie Flinchbaugh: There is a common phrase of “work smarter, not harder.” I get the appeal of that. Effort without clarity, efficiency, and effectiveness, has severe limits. Working smart is essential. But does that mean working hard has no value? No, effort is grossly underrated. I believe we should aspire to work smarter and harder. Neither is sufficient, both are required… My father used to convince himself working smarter should be the main focus and … Continue reading
Posted in Career, Respect, Systems thinking
Tagged Career, Joy in Work, management system, managing people, Psychology, respect for people, Systems thinking
1 Comment
Change Management: Create a Culture Seeking Continual Improvement or Use Band-Aids?
Successfully shepherding change within an organization is often a challenge. Often change management strategies are mainly about how to cope with a toxic culture but exclude the option of fixing the toxic culture. Why not address the root causes instead of trying band-aids? The most effective strategy is to build an organizational culture into one that promotes continual improvement. A continual improvement culture is one that is constantly changing to improve (grounded in long term principles: respect for people, experiment, … Continue reading
Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Psychology, Respect, Systems thinking
Tagged change, culture, curiouscat, leadership, managing people, organization as a system, Psychology, respect for people, root cause, trust
3 Comments
Top 21 Executives at Toyota Getting a Raise to a Combined US$14.9 Million
The difference between Toyota and so many other companies is obvious in many ways. One of the stark differences is how executives are paid. Toyota’s belief in a strong management system contrasts with the self worship many USA executives practice. How the executives pay themselves illustrates this very well. Even with a proposed 19% pay boost the top 21 executives at Toyota would get a combined US$14.9 million in the proposal for this year. Toyota Plans 19% Boost in Director … Continue reading
Posted in Management, Psychology, Respect, Toyota Production System (TPS)
Tagged executive pay, respect for people, Toyota
2 Comments
The Aim Should be the Best Life – Not Work v. Life Balance
My father had the most job satisfaction of anyone I have known. He had no separation between work and life. We toured factories on vacation. I visited Davidson College in North Carolina because he was consulting with a client in Charlotte before we went up to Duke and North Carolina for visits and asked the CEO what school I should visit. His grad students would call the house frequently. Many of his best friends were colleagues. That is how I … Continue reading
Posted in Health care, Psychology, Respect, Systems thinking
Tagged Bill Hunter, Career, commentary, Creativity, curiouscat, John Hunter, Joy in Work, Popular, Psychology, respect for people, Systems thinking, tips
11 Comments
Transforming a Management System – A Case Study From the Madison Wisconsin Police Department
This post in an excerpt from The Quality Leadership Workbook for Police by Chief David Couper and Captain Sabine Lobitz (buy via Amazon). Transformational Steps A Case Study Madison, Wisconsin (1981-1993) Step 1: Educate and inform everyone in the organization about the vision, the goals, and Quality Leadership. This step must be passionately led by the top leader. Begin discussion with top management team and train them. Discuss and ask employees; get feedback from them. Share feedback with the chief … Continue reading
Posted in Customer focus, Data, Deming, Management, Respect, Statistics
Tagged Books, case study, change, continual improvement, Customer focus, Data, Deming, leadership, Madison, management, organization as a system, Public Sector, respect for people, TQM, transformation
6 Comments
Is Quality Ambitious Enough?
This month Bill Troy, ASQ CEO, asked ASQ Influential Voices bloggers to explore the question – Is Quality Ambitious Enough? Bill Troy suggests a vision for ASQ of To improve the function and value of goods and services worldwide, and to facilitate the development of new products and services that improve the quality of life. He also discusses the ideas of W. Edwards Deming and the value he found in attending 6 4-day Deming seminars. I find the aim Deming … Continue reading
Posted in Career, Management, Respect
Tagged aim, ASQ Influential Voices, Bill Hunter, respect for people, system thinking
2 Comments
Take Advantage of the Strengths Each Person Brings to Work
The players have weaknesses. But it is our job as coaches to find the strengths in what our guys do. They all have strengths, and that’s what we highlight. What really helps is having Russell. He is so committed to improving on the littlest things every day. I try to find a word for this sometimes, but I can’t … it’s his refusal to fail. No detail is too small, and he makes sure to stress that every day.” Darrell … Continue reading
Posted in Management, Respect, Systems thinking
Tagged blame, continual improvement, Madison, managers, managing people, organization as a system, respect for people, teams
7 Comments
Toyota Posts Record Profit: Splits $15 million in Pay and Bonus for top 21 Executives
After posting record profits of $17.9 billion Toyota proposes to increase the pay and bonus for the top 21 executives to $14.9 million. That is not as you might expect just the increase in the bonus to the CEO. That is the entire pay and bonus for the top 21 executives. That places all 21 together below the top 50 CEO paydays in the USA. Toyota’s net income for the year surged 89.5%. While the profits are partially due to … Continue reading
More Evidence of the Damage Done by Kleptocrat CEO Pay
I have been writing about the problems of overpaid executives that has lately become so bad that “overpaid executives” doesn’t capture the nature of the problem. Today I see many CEO’s are acting as kleptocrats do – taking food out of others mouths to build their castles. The damage done to everyone else involved is of no concern. Both groups love bankers that flood them with cash for new and larger castles at the expense of the futures of their … Continue reading
Posted in Management, Respect, Systems thinking
Tagged business, executive pay, hiring, Investing, management research, overpaid executives, stakeholders, stockholders
2 Comments
Innovative Thinking at Amazon: Paying Employees $5,000 to Quit
Amazon continues to be innovative not just in technology but with management thinking. Jeff Bezos has rejected the dictates espoused most vociferously by Wall Street mouthpieces and MBAs that encourage short term thinking and financial gimmicks which harm the long term success of companies. Most CEOs and executives are too fearful or foolish to ignore what they are told they must do because Wall Street demands it. CEO’s and boards often ratchet up the poor management thinking by tying big … Continue reading
Posted in Creativity, Innovation, Management, Psychology, Respect
Tagged Amazon, Bezos, Innovation, management, management system, managing people, respect for people, short term thinking, Systems thinking
1 Comment
Steve Jobs on Quality, Business and Joseph Juran
This webcast shows an interesting interview with Steve Jobs when he was with NeXT computer. He discusses quality, business and the experience of working with Dr. Juran at NeXT computer. The video is likely from around 1991. America’s in a tough spot right now, I think. I think we have forgotten the basics. We were so prosperous for so long that we took so many things for granted. And we forgot how much work it took to build and sustain … Continue reading
Giving Executives 40% of Revenue is Insane
I have previous written on my belief that excessive executive compensation had reached the level of a deadly disease of western management (building on the W. Edwards Deming’s list of 7 deadly diseases). I named excessive executive pay and a broken “intellectual property” system as new deadly diseases in 2007. Here is a graphic from, It’s Twitter’s birthday, and its executives are getting huge stock-based gifts, showing the massive executive give-away at Twitter. Twitter has given executives $2,000,000,000 in just … Continue reading →