Tag Archives: Career

Annual Performance Evaluations are a Poor Management Practice

Posted on December 6, 2022 by John Hunter

Sports provides visible examples of the futility of accurate performance appraisal. We have athletes who thousands of people devote a huge amount of time to dissecting their strengths and weaknesses and those evaluations are constantly shown to be wrong. Teams are constantly paying free agents tens of millions that completely flop. Others hire someone no-one else wanted for the league minimum and they become a big contributor. Yes, it isn’t hard to figure out Stephen Curry is a far better … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Deming, Performance Appraisal, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , ,

How to Successfully Lead Change Efforts

Posted on June 24, 2019 by John Hunter

ASQ has asked their Influential Voices to explore the question “How can an individual become a successful Change Leader?” I have participated with the program since 2012: see my past blog posts as part of the ASQ Influential Voices program. In order to lead efforts to improve the management of an organization understanding how people will react to change is critical. For that reason I have written about change management often on this blog since I started publishing it in … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Psychology | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Advice for Managers Who are Just Starting Out

Posted on December 19, 2017 by John Hunter

I was interviewed by Vidal Graupera for his Managers Club blog, excerpts from that interview: What are the biggest challenges you face? Convincing organizations to adopt better management methods. People are very attached to historical ways of managing. While it is much harder to convince people to adopt more effective management methods than I would have predicted before attempting to do so there are strategies and tactics that help. What’s your advice for managers who are just starting out? Read … Continue reading →

Posted in Management | Tagged , , , , ,

Unpacking the Components of Hard Work to Design Better Work Conditions

Posted on December 20, 2016 by John Hunter

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 , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Interview of John Hunter by Jimena Calfa On Quality

Posted on June 16, 2015 by John Hunter

Jimena Calfa interviewed me for her blog OnQuality as part of her Quality Interview Chain. What are you doing to ensure you continue to grow and improve as a professional and/or as a person? John: I don’t do anything consciously to achieve that. I think if we retain a thirst for knowledge and curiosity and have a desire to do a good job we will do what is necessary. I follow my passion to learn largely through the internet (blogs, … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Management | Tagged , , ,

The Aim Should be the Best Life – Not Work v. Life Balance

Posted on May 13, 2015 by John Hunter

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 , , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

The Value of Professional Conferences. Also Why Has There Been So Little Innovation?

Posted on April 28, 2015 by John Hunter

In the most recent ASQ Influential Voices post, Julia McIntosh takes a look at the costs and benefits of professionals attending conferences. I still remember being in high school and George Box talking about the primary value of conferences was talking to colleagues in the hallway. This seemed very odd to me, as it seemed that the reason for going to a conference was to learn from the talks. I also didn’t really understand the value in catching up with … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Customer focus, Education | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Encouraging the Next Generation of STEM Professionals

Posted on March 23, 2015 by John Hunter

In the most recent ASQ Influential Voices post, Bill Troy, ASQ CEO, asks: how should we encourage the next generation of STEM Professionals? I addressed a similar question in: Future Engineers and Scientists, which provides many details on this question. The advantages of gaining science, technology, engineering and math skills (STEM) are fairly well known. However, even so, that is something to emphasize in order to encourage the next generation. While it is fairly well known it still helps to … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Science | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Attracting Members and Volunteers to Professional Organizations

Posted on November 4, 2014 by John Hunter

This month Bill Troy, ASQ CEO, asked ASQ Influential Voices bloggers to explore recruiting members and volunteers amid a changing landscape. In most ways the answer is the same as any large question on directing an organization. We must figure out the value we wish to offer that is in demand and provide it in a package people desire. As part of that we need to continually focus on the customer and adjust to their changing desires and the changing … Continue reading →

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The Benefits of Blogging

Posted on July 3, 2014 by John Hunter

ASQ interviewed me, and several other ASQ Influential Voices bloggers for an article published in the current issue of Quality Progress magazine: The Blog Boom [the broken link was removed, it is so disappointing how many organizations can’t manage a web site decently]. A couple of my quotes from the article: I have been blogging for 10 years, which is more than enough time to convince me it is right for me. Blogging fits my personality—I like short delivery cycles. … Continue reading →

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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. Without the proper foundation for planning for the future (contemplation and desire), our design will be incomplete. It will be like trying to build a house with no foundation. We become addicted to shallow metrics of success where more and … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Management, Systems thinking, webcast | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Your Online Presence and Social Networks for Managers

Posted on July 17, 2013 by John Hunter

This month Paul Borawski asked ASQ’s Influential Voices which

Posted in Career | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Joy in Work in the Quality Improvement Field

Posted on April 17, 2012 by John Hunter

As I mentioned previously, I will be posting on a topics raised by Paul Borawski, CEO, ASQ as part of ASQ Influential Voices. This month Paul’s post, Are Quality Professionals Happy On the Job? looks at job happiness in the quality improvement field. Paul stated he “wasn’t surprised that Forbes Magazine named software quality assurance engineer as the ‘happiest job’ in the U.S.” I was. Frankly looking at the results I question the methodology used – I just find their … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Psychology | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Motivation, Rewards, Performance Appraisals and Your Career

Posted on April 12, 2012 by John Hunter

In this interview Dan Pink again makes some great points relating to psychology, managing people and managing your career. Q. What kinds of programs can managers and companies put into place to motivate their workforce? Assuming companies are paying people fairly, they should do what they can to foster autonomy, mastery, and purpose. One of my favorite specific ideas is this: The Australian company Atlassian conducts what they call “FedEx Days” in which people work on anything they want for … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Deming, Performance Appraisal, Psychology, Respect | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

How Could They Know?

Posted on March 28, 2012 by John Hunter

I am a big fan of Dr. Deming’s ideas on management. The way I see one of the quotes of Dr. Deming used I don’t agree with. Dr. Deming said “How could they know?” to explain why people continued to follow less successful practices (for example, page 55 of Out of the Crisis). How could they know of better practices, he would say. I must say I have always thought the answer to that question was pretty easy. They could … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Learn to Code to Help Your Career

Posted on February 22, 2012 by John Hunter

I believe there are big benefits to knowing how to code (programing, software development). What is possible for your organization is often significantly impacted by understanding how to properly use software (and create it, coding, when needed). The lack of understanding of software is a significant problem not just for those wanting a job coding (that are available for those with the right skills) but also for those making decisions about what the organization should do. The profound ignorance (meant … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Creativity, IT, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments