Tag Archives: management

Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog Carnival #174

Posted on August 1, 2012 by John Hunter

The Curious Cat management blog carnival is published 3 times a month with hand picked recent management blog posts. I also collect management improvement articles for the Curious Cat Management Articles site; an RSS feed of new article additions is available. How to Identify Your Team or Organization’s Purpose by Jesse Lyn Stoner – “What is the end-result that you offer? Look at your purpose from the viewpoint of the result, not the products or services you offer.” What we … Continue reading →

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Customer Focus

Posted on July 9, 2012 by John Hunter

Customer Focus is at the core of a well managed company. Sadly many companies fail to serve their customers well. To serve customers, a thorough understanding of what problem you solve for customers is needed. The decisions at many companies, unfortunately, are far removed from this understanding. It is hard to imagine, as you are forced to wind your way through the processes many companies squeeze you through that they have paid any attention to what it is like to … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Deming, Management | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments

Management Improvement Blog Carnival #171

Posted on July 1, 2012 by John Hunter

The Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog Carnival has been published since 2006. We find great management blog posts and share them with you 3 times a month. We hope you find these post interesting and find some new blogs to start reading. Follow me online: Google+, Twitter, Reddit, and more. Ticket Grab: New Game at Caine’s Arcade + 5 lessons for entrepreneurs – 5 Lessons for Entrepreneurs Caine (shown is video above) has Learned: 1) Be nice to customers. 2) … Continue reading →

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Leading Improvement and Enjoying the Rewards

Posted on June 25, 2012 by John Hunter

The better job you do of managing the easier your job becomes. As a manager your primary responsibility is to improve the system: both the systems within your sphere of control and those outside of it. The more effectively you do so, the less firefighting you have to do. The less firefighting the less hectic and chaotic your days are. And the more time you have to focus on improving the system. The better you are at leveraging your efforts, … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, quote, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Management Improvement Blog Carnival #170

Posted on June 20, 2012 by John Hunter

The Curious Cat management blog carnival is published 3 times a month with hand picked recent management blog posts. I also collect management improvement articles for the Curious Cat Management Articles site; an RSS feed of new article additions is available. Standardized Confusion by Art Smalley – “Changing of a work standard was done very infrequently and normally an engineering activity for the types of items I just described. Maybe we wanted to improve the life of a tool, or … Continue reading →

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Moving Beyond Product Quality

Posted on June 12, 2012 by John Hunter

This month Paul Borawski (CEO of ASQ) has asked the ASQ Influential Voices to share their thoughts on moving beyond product quality. The opening paragraph of the Quality Council’s perspective is, “For some organizations, ‘quality’ remains a set of tools and techniques associated almost exclusively with quality control. For others, quality has evolved into a critical partner, closely linked with business model development and the enterprise-wide execution of long-term strategy to achieve results. The way to move beyond just the … Continue reading →

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

Management Improvement Blog Carnival #169

Posted on June 10, 2012 by John Hunter

The Curious Cat management blog carnival is published 3 times a month with some recent management blog posts. The posts generally focus on the areas I have focused on in the Curious Cat Management Guide since 1996. How Kanban visualisations and conversations enable process improvement by Benjamin Mitchell – “Reviewing the board at the daily stand up meeting provided visual feedback that lead to productive conversations about what might be stopping us and how we could improve. After we implemented … Continue reading →

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Better Management in Government

Posted on May 27, 2012 by John Hunter

This month Paul Borawski (CEO of ASQ) has asked the ASQ Influential Voices to share their thoughts on quality management in the public sector. I have been involved in quality improvement in government at the Office of Secretary of Defense Quality Management Office and the White House Military Office and elsewhere. Transformation and Redesign at the White House Communications Agency by March Laree Jacques provides a nice look at some good efforts. I also was on the board of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Public Sector | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Management Improvement Blog Carnival #167

Posted on May 20, 2012 by John Hunter

The Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog Carnival has been published since 2006. We find great management blog posts and share them with you 3 times a month. We hope you find these post interesting and find some new blogs to start reading. Follow me online: Google+, Twitter, instant management consulting, and more. Celebrate Learning, Not Success or Failure by Jurgen Appelo – “Failure and success are orthogonal to learning. What you learn from are the experiments and tests that you … Continue reading →

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Management Improvement Blog Carnival #166

Posted on May 11, 2012 by John Hunter

Tim McMahon is hosting the Management Improvement Blog Carnival #166, highlights include: Performance Organizations – Art Smalley answers why is there such a resistance to creating learning organizations and why are leaders letting the future deteriorate without doing anything about it. Trust – Cornerstone of Performance – George Rathburn explains that teams lose trust in their leaders when they fail to show trust and respect in their teams. Lean Snake Oil Cures What Ails Ya – Mike Wroblewski takes some … Continue reading →

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Management Improvement Carnival #165

Posted on May 2, 2012 by John Hunter

Matt May is hosting the 165th Management Improvement Carnival. He takes a look at the wonderful manifestos posted at ChangeThis. ChangeThis really is wonderful, if you haven’t already been looking at what they offer you are in for a treat (and have quite a bit to keep you busy for awhile). Highlights from this management carnival edition include: How Habits Work (and How They Change) by Charles Duhigg. His point: “Most of the choices we make each day may feel … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnival, Management | Tagged | 1 Comment

Management Blog Posts From November 2006

Posted on April 26, 2012 by John Hunter

I have selected a few great posts from the Curious Cat Management Blog back in November 2006. What Could we do Better? – There are many important ideas to improve management. This is one of the most important tips to aid improvement that I know of: it is easy to do, brings huge benefits and most organizations fail to do it. Ask your customers: “What one thing could we do to improve?” Ackoff’s F-laws: Common Sins of Management presents 13 … Continue reading →

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Management Improvement Carnival #164

Posted on April 20, 2012 by John Hunter

Paul Borawski is hosting 164th Management Improvement Carnival on ASQ’s View from the Q blog. Highlights from this edition include: Designing Experiments with Gummi Bears. Yes, Gummi bears. What a way to make statistics and quality fun, creative, and topical! “I am surprised at how many organizations don’t recognize the importance of sharing with others their success,” writes Quality Doc, the blogger behind Making Medical Lab Quality Relevant. Kevin Meyer of the Evolving Excellence blog writes about the purpose of … Continue reading →

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Management Improvement Blog Carnival #163

Posted on April 10, 2012 by John Hunter

Jason Yip is hosting Management Improvement Blog Carnival #163. Highlights from this edition include: Enterprise OODA by Richard Veryard – “The limitations of the OODA model appear when there is too much emphasis on speed (especially response speed) and not enough appreciation of complexity.” Why Knowledge is Superstition by Dave Trott – “When you start believing, you stop thinking.” Fall In Love With Your Business, Not Your Business Plan by Dharmesh Shah – “I don’t think business plans are completely … Continue reading →

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Management Improvement Blog Carnival #162

Posted on April 1, 2012 by John Hunter

The Curious Cat management blog carnival is published 3 times a month with hand picked recent management blog posts. I also collect management improvement articles for the Curious Cat Management Articles site; an RSS feed of new article additions is available. Stress Solutions, Not Blame by Kevin Meyer – “My organization often hears me say that 90% of problems are the result of poor processes, not people, and 9%… are probably due to poor leadership.” The Real Leadership Lessons of … Continue reading →

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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