Tag Archives: John Hunter

Mount Timpanogos Trail, Utah Photos

In 2007, I kept failing to plan for a vacation, finally I just booked some tickets to Utah without much of a plan. And still had done little to plan as I departed. So I bought some travel books and … Continue reading

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Federal Government Chief Performance Officer

A Quality Manager for Obama President-Elect Obama has hired a quality manager, and her name is Nancy Killefer. She is the newly appointed “Chief Performance Officer” whose mandate is to manage budget reforms while eliminating waste in government processes, ultimately … Continue reading

Posted in Management, Public Sector | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

What to Wear to an Interview

Response to What to Wear for an IT Job Interview?. Is this just a huge bit stereotypical? Who can blame them for not wanting to bother with their wardrobes? Fashion is fickle. Fashion is expensive. Fashion requires imagination and inspiration, … Continue reading

Posted in Career, IT, Psychology, Software Development | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Managing Passionate Employees

Passion vs. Productive There are actually few organizations that can support passionate employees – even if they say they want them. That’s because the original industrial revolution was designed to support productivity. Productivity means you produce. That’s how you’re measured. … Continue reading

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Online Management Resources

Since long before I started this blog I have maintained the Curious Cat Management Improvement web site. In fact, that web site has been online since 1996; the blog started in 2004. I feel the web site has tremendous resources … Continue reading

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Information Technology and Business Process Support

I moved from management improvement work into information technology work (where I continue to practice management improvement). Many IT practices follow quality management guidelines well (agile software development for one). I have found it far easier to design and provide … Continue reading

Posted in IT, Management, Process improvement, Quality tools, quote, Software Development, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

6 Leadership Competencies

At the recent Annual W. Edwards Deming Institute Annual conference (this year held in Madison, Wisconsin) Peter Scholtes gave an excellent speech on the 6 Leadership Competencies from his book: The Leader’s Handbook. Those competencies are: The ability to think … Continue reading

Posted in Deming, Management, Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Righter Incentivization

Incentive schemes to get people “motivated” often backfire. Why can’t we figure out how to incentivize the behavior we desire and have it not backfire on us? What is the righter way to dangle incentives in front of our employees … Continue reading

Posted in Deming, Management, Psychology, quote, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Flaws in Understanding Psychology Lead to Flawed Management

I people are self interested and somewhat rational. However, self interest, is complex. People want to be liked, people want to be part of something good, people want to feel they are appreciated… Continue reading

Posted in Management, Psychology, Respect | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Six Sigma v. Common Sense

Response to LinkedIn question [the broken link was removed]: “Whether Six Sigma as a quality tool really delivers the benefits ? How does it makes difference from a common sense approach ? (Where the process wastes and the required solution … Continue reading

Posted in Management, Quality tools, quote, Six sigma | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments