Category Archives: Systems thinking

Gerald Suarez on Creating the Future

Posted on June 25, 2014 by John Hunter

I was lucky enough to be hired by Gerald Suarez to work for him at the White House Military Office. The webcast below is speech he gave at TedX Loyola Marymount. The illusion of knowledge is more dangerous than ignorance. … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Management, Systems thinking, webcast | Tagged Books, Career, change, management webcast, planning, Psychology, system thinking, TED | 3 Comments

Root Cause, Interactions, Robustness and Design of Experiments

Posted on June 18, 2014 by John Hunter

Eric Budd asked on The W. Edwards Deming Institute group (LinkedIn broke the link with a register wall so I removed the link): If observed performance/behavior in a system is a result of the interactions between components–and variation exists in … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Process improvement, Systems thinking | Tagged continual improvement, problem solving, Process improvement, process thinking, Quality tools, root cause, Software Development, Systems thinking | 4 Comments

Building a Great Software Development Team

Posted on May 29, 2014 by John Hunter

Elliot: I worked with some of the best programmers I’ve ever known at the tiny, obscure ASEE Adam Solove: Why do you think that happened? They hired for passion, rather than experience? If I had to pick one thing, passion … Continue reading →

Posted in IT, Management, Popular, Software Development, Systems thinking | Tagged curiouscat, hiring, John Hunter, managing people, organization as a system, Popular, Psychology, Software Development, teams | 4 Comments

A Good Management System is Robust and Continually Improving

Posted on May 22, 2014 by John Hunter

Imagine a big clock, the big and little and sweeping second hands moving with absolute accuracy for years and years. Then, imagine various people working within it, somehow swapping out gears and cogs without the clock stopping or slowing down … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Systems thinking | Tagged continual improvement, long term thinking, management system, managing people, organization as a system, robust, Software Development, sports, Systems thinking, teams | 5 Comments

Your Purpose Must Be About You

Posted on May 19, 2014 by John Hunter

Guest post by Jurgen Appelo I’m a writer. It’s the one thing that I intend to do for the rest of my life. That means, when I focus on writing, I cannot focus on knitting. Somebody else will have to … Continue reading →

Posted in Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged aim, guest post, intrinsic motivation, motivation, Psychology, purpose, Systems thinking | 1 Comment

More Evidence of the Damage Done by Kleptocrat CEO Pay

Posted on April 21, 2014 by John Hunter

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged business, executive pay, hiring, Investing, management research, overpaid executives, stakeholders, stockholders | 2 Comments

Poor Results Should be Addressed by Improving the System Not Blaming Individuals

Posted on February 6, 2014 by John Hunter

My response to: Where is the Deming study that asserts most errors are in organization or process? There is no such study, it is based on Dr. Deming’s experience as I discuss in 94% Belongs to the System (improve the … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Process improvement, Systems thinking | Tagged coaching, continual improvement, Deming, gemba, process thinking, quote, respect for people, Systems thinking | 5 Comments

Bad Weather is Part of the Transportation System

Posted on January 6, 2014 by John Hunter

The job of managers is to create a robust system that delivers value to customers. A system that fails constantly (fails during the continual variation the system faces) is a failed system. Bad weather is part of the variation airlines … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged airlines, bad customer service, Customer focus, engineering, leadership, poka yoke, process thinking, respect for people, robust, Systems thinking, travel, USA | 8 Comments

How to Sustain Long Term Enterprise Excellence

Posted on October 3, 2013 by John Hunter

This month Paul Borawski asked ASQ’s Influential Voices to explore sustaining excellence for the long term. There are several keys to pulling sustained long term excellence. Unfortunately, experience shows that it is much easier to explain what is needed than … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Process improvement, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged ASQ Influential Voices, build capability, continual improvement, curiouscat, in-process measures, long term thinking, Process improvement, respect for people, Systems thinking | 2 Comments

What is the Explanation Going to be if This Attempt Fails?

Posted on June 25, 2013 by John Hunter

Occasionally during my career I have been surprised by new insights. One of the things I found remarkable was how quickly I thought up a new explanation for what could have caused a problem when the previously expressed explanation was … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Innovation, Management, Process improvement, quote, Software Development, Systems thinking | Tagged Creativity, curiouscat, experiments, John Hunter, problem solving, Psychology, Software Development, tips