Tag Archives: Management Matters

I Have Published an Update to Management Matters: Building Enterprise Capability

image of the cover of Managmenet Matters by John Hunter

Management Matters by John Hunter

I have published some edits and additional content for my book – Management Matters: Building Enterprise Capability.

One of the things I really like about how I have published the book (with Leanpub) is that anyone that has previously purchased the book gets these, and all future, updates for free. So if you have purchased it, go get your free update. If you haven’t purchased it, please consider buying a copy. Another nice feature of Leanpub publishing is that I set a minimum price and recommended price and with those constraints you can decide what you want to pay.

You may view a sample of the book (which currently is about one third of the book) for free.

Lean Blog Podcast with John Hunter

Mark Graban interviewed me for the Lean Blog podcast series: Podcast #174 – John Hunter, “Management Matters” (listen using this link). Links to more information on what we discussed in the podcast.

Madison, Wisconsin: William G. Hunter, George Box, Brian Joiner, Peter Scholtes, Joe Sensenbrener (Quality Comes to City Hall), Statistics for Experimenters, Out of the Crisis, Doing More with Less in the Public Sector: A Progress Report from Madison, Wisconsin
My online efforts: Curious Cat Management Guide, Curious Cat Management Blog (where you are now), Curious Cat Investing Blog, Curious Cat Science and Engineering blog, Living in Malaysia, more blogs, Public Sector Continuous Improvement
My book, Management Matters: Building Enterprise Capability
Long Term Thinking with Respect for People – incentive schemes to get people “motivated” backfire
What Does Respect for People Actually Mean?, Respect People by Creating a Climate for Joy in Work, the difference between respect and disrespect is not avoiding avoiding criticism
confirmation bias
The W. Edwards Deming Institute – blog

photo of John Hunter in front of reliefs on Prambanan Temple

John Hunter at Prambanan Temple, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

More podcasts with me: Software Process and Measurement Podcast With John Hunter – Business 901 Podcast: Deming’s Management Ideas Today – Process Excellence Network Podcast with John Hunter

Software Process and Measurement Podcast With John Hunter

In my podcast with Tom Cagley, Software Process and Measurement Cast: John Hunter on Management Matters, as you might expect there was a bit of a focus on software development and agile software development as related to the ideas I expressed in Management Matters: Building Enterprise Capability.

Deming: management system, continual improvement, respect for people (the 3rd point I said I would mention, but didn’t)
Why do so many management improvement efforts fail?
The proxy nature of data
Building Adoption of Management Improvement Ideas in Your Organization

photo of John Hunter at the Borobudur Temple

John Hunter at the Borobudur Buddhist Temple in Indonesia.

Continue reading →

Process Excellence Network Podcast with John Hunter

Management Matters by John Hunter

Diana Davis with the Process Excellence Network interviewed me for their podcast series, process perspective – Management Matters: Interview with author John Hunter (listen to podcast). Additional details on some of the ideas we discussed:

How could they know?
Deming’s System of Profound Knowledge: psychology, understanding variation, viewing the organization as a system, theory of knowledge
“the most important figures that one needs for management are unknown or unknowable” Lloyd Nelson as quoted by Dr. Deming in Out of the Crisis.
7 deadly diseases – CEOs Want Health-Care Reform and Finally Putting Serious Effort into Bringing it About
2 new deadly diseases: excessive executive pay and broken copyright and patent systems – new deadly diseases subreddit (links to resources and articles on these issues), Tilting at Ludicrous CEO Pay, Why Copyright Extention is a Very Bad Idea
Building enterprise capability – Building Management Improvement Success in Your Organization

Leanpub Podcast on My Book – Management Matters: Building Enterprise Capability

Management Matters by John Hunter

I recently was interviewed for a podcast by Len Epp with Leanpub: Leanpub Podcast Interview #9: John Hunter. I hope you enjoy the podcast (download the mp3 of the podcast).

In the podcast we cover quite a bit of ground quickly, so the details are limited (transcript of the interview). These links provide more details on items I mention in the podcast. They are listed below in the same order as they are raised in the podcast:

John Hunter’s professional life highlights
This blog, the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog
The W. Edwards Deming Institute Blog – to advance commerce, prosperity and peace
Posts on appropriate technology on my Curious Cat Engineering blog.
Respect for people: Practical Ways to Respect People Within an Organization – Create a Workplace That Lets People Take Pride in Their Work – Respect for Everyone – Optimize for Developer Happiness at Etsy
Executive pay: Massively Unjust Executive Compensation Damages Companies and Investments – CEOs Plundering Corporate Coffers – Too Much Leverage Killed Mervyns – Losses Covered Up to Protect Bonuses – Taking What You Don’t Deserve, CEO Style – More on Obscene CEO Pay – Turning Up the Heat on CEO Pay (Drucker Institute): “Drucker asserted that the proper ratio between a chief executive’s pay and that of the average worker was around 20-to-1. That’s a far cry from the current ratio of more than 260-to-1 found at major U.S. companies.”
Understanding data: Forgetting the Proxy Nature of Data Leads to Incorrect Conclusions – Managing to Test Result Instead of Customer Value – Seeing Patterns Where None Exists – Confirmation Bias
What to do? Building Adoption of Management Improvement Ideas in Your Organization – How to Get a New Management Strategy, Tool or Concept Adopted
Experimenting: How to Most Effectively Use of the PDSA Improvement Cycle – Encourage Improvement Action by Everyone – Google: Experiment Quickly and Often

The last 15 minutes of the podcast I talk about some details of working with Leanpub; I used Leanpub to publish Management Matters. I recommend Leanpub for other authors. They don’t just have lean in their name, they actual apply lean principles (focusing on the value chain, eliminating complexity, customer focus, etc.) to operating Leanpub. It is extremely easy to get started and publish your book.

Leanpub also offers an excellent royalty plan: authors take home 90% of the revenue minus 50 cents per book. They publish without “digital rights management” crippling purchasers use of the books. Buyers have access to pdf, kindle (mobi) and epub (iPad, nook) format books and get access to all updates to the book. All purchases include a 45 day full money back guaranty.