Tag Archives: management

Quality is a Journey to Excellence – Improving the System

Posted on July 22, 2025 by Curiouscat

Quality is a Journey to Excellence is a 2 day management seminar that Bill Hunter (my father) recorded in 1985 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The embedded clip shows the third section of a the seminar on improving the system. Deming has this pithy way of putting a lot of the problems along those lines and what he says is: “Lets play American industry and we’ll make toast. I’ll burn and you scrape.” These links provide more details on ideas he … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Systems thinking, webcast | Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Curious Cat Management Improvement Institute

Posted on September 24, 2024 by Curiouscat

I have established the Curious Cat Management Improvement Institute as a non profit that will serve as an online resource to help those that want to improve the practice of management. Curious Cat Management Improvement Institute is dedicated to furthering the education, professional growth and development of current and future managers and the practice of management in organizations. That is quite a vast aim. We do think we can provide a useful service by connecting those interested in improving the … Continue reading →

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Design Your Organization to Serve Customers Well

Posted on June 26, 2024 by John Hunter

Quality is a Journey to Excellence is a 2 day management seminar that Bill Hunter (my father) recorded in 1985 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The embedded clip shows the second section of a the seminar discussing customers and how to organize your systems to serve customers well. See part one of the seminar, and the full seminar. Some aspects of managing an organization well are quite challenging. But some aspects really are not and yet we still often fail to … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Deming, Management, webcast | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Quality is a Journey to Excellence

Posted on May 7, 2024 by John Hunter

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 There is a bit of presentation that is outdated (mainly about general economic conditions and specific business conditions from the 1980s).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 , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Remembering Brian Joiner

Posted on October 16, 2023 by John Hunter

I knew Brian Joiner as a child growing up in Madison, Wisconsin. He and my father worked together and our families spent time together. As I grew I interacted with Brian in my professional life and that relationship made my life better. We often saw things similarly. We could see things that we thought should improved and liked to focus on actually making improvements. Doing that is quite a bit more difficult than just pointing out all the problems that … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Management, Statistics, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Interview of Bill Hunter, Brian Joiner and Peter Scholtes on Better Management Practices

Posted on October 26, 2021 by John Hunter

Interview with Bill Hunter, Brian Joiner and Peter Scholtes (listen to the interview) on a Public Affair, National Public Radio about improving management practices in the USA. The interview is over 30 years old now but the better management ideas are as true today as they were then. Sadly we have not improved management practices based on these ideas very much. There have been improvements in how many organizations are managed but those improvements are so slow that fundamental problems … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Process improvement, Public Sector, Statistics, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

How to Lead From Any Level In the Organization

Posted on June 22, 2021 by John Hunter

By successfully helping other people get better results, whether it is your manager, peers, or subordinates, you will grow trust and influence with those around you. “You grow your influence with them by showing them that allowing you to have influence is good for them.” The more you show positive outcomes from your input, the more influence you will have over time. Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , ,

Popular Posts on the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog in 2019

Posted on January 2, 2020 by John Hunter

These posts were the most popular posts on the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog in 2019 (as measured by page views recorded by my analytics application). 14 posts are repeats from the 2018 top 20 list. Of the new top 20 posts 3 were published in 2010, 1 in 2008 and 2 in 2019. The long term value of good blog content is overlooked by many people. I hope you continue to enjoy this blog, both the new content and … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival | Tagged | 1 Comment

Design the Management System with an Appreciation of Confirmation Bias

Posted on February 26, 2019 by John Hunter

To create strong organizations we must create management systems using an appreciation of psychology. We must understand that people have tendencies that must be addressed by designing a management system built to take advantage of the strength those people bring and mitigate the risks the weaknesses (such as confirmation bias) that those people also bring. One way to do this is to seek out voices in your organization that question and challenge accepted positions. Often organizations promote those that make … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Psychology | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

20 Most Popular Posts on the Curious Cat Management Blog in 2018

Posted on December 27, 2018 by John Hunter

These posts were the most popular posts on the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog in 2018 (as measured by page views, as recorded by my analytics application). The Toyota Way – Two Pillars (2010) How to Manage What You Can’t Measure (2010) 94% Belongs to the System (2013) Stated Versus Revealed Preference (2013) Keys to the Effective Use of the PDSA Improvement Cycle (2012) Good Project Management Practices (2018)* The Importance of Critical Thinking and Challenging Assumptions (2017) Peter Scholtes … Continue reading →

Posted in Management | Tagged ,

Effective Change Management Strategies and Tactics

Posted on September 18, 2018 by John Hunter

ASQ has asked their Influential Voices to respond to the question: What are some recommended strategies or tactics to help achieve successful change management? See my past blog posts as part of the ASQ Influential Voices program (I have participated since 2012). I have explored the idea of how to create a culture that promotes effective change management in several previous posts on the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog. Change Management: Create a Culture Seeking Continual Improvement or Use Band-Aids? … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Management, Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Peter Scholtes on Teams and Viewing the Organization as a System

Posted on August 7, 2018 by John Hunter

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 , , , , , , , ,

Poorly Stratified Data Leads to Mistakes in Analysis

Posted on April 18, 2018 by John Hunter

Stratification can help provide insight into the nature of the real world situation. Determining what is a sensible conclusion to draw and what is not is aided by an understanding of statistics and expert knowledge of the situation the data is drawn from. Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Management, Statistics, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Quality of the Entire Customer Experience

Posted on March 14, 2018 by John Hunter

There is a difference in the way many organizations are managed today and managing with an understanding of your organization as a system aligned toward customer focused continual improvement. The ability to create great customer experiences is much easier with a management system based on customer focused continual improvement principles than one without. Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Management, Psychology | Tagged , , , , , , ,

The New Age of Robots and What it Means for Jobs

Posted on January 23, 2018 by John Hunter

I believe we have reached a turning point in the usefulness and effectiveness of industrial robots. For several decades it was pretty easy to predict wholesale adoption of “the robots will save us” mantra would be followed by failure. I still strongly believe Toyota’s method (thoughtful use of robotics to enhance people is the best strategy). But the ease of using robots to succeed in the long term is much easier today than 10 years ago. Robot-first strategies are going … Continue reading →

Posted in Innovation, Management | Tagged , , , , , , , ,

20 Most Popular Posts on the Curious Cat Management Blog in 2017

Posted on January 9, 2018 by John Hunter

These posts were the most popular posts on the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog in 2017 (as measured by page views, as recorded by my analytics application). Keys to the Effective Use of the PDSA Improvement Cycle (2012) The Toyota Way – Two Pillars (2010) Continual Improvement (2008) * How to Manage What You Can’t Measure (2010) The Purpose of an Organization (2005) 94% Belongs to the System (2013) One factor at a time (OFAT) Versus Factorial Designs (2011) Stated … Continue reading →

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