Tag Archives: organization as a system

Using Data to Improve – Quality is a Journey to Excellence

Posted on November 3, 2026 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 fourth section of a the seminar on using data to improve. meetings can go very smoothly and directly to solutions and get a lot of things done if somebody just brings the data. And if there is no data the only basis on which you can have a discussion is everybody’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Quality tools, Statistics, webcast | Tagged Data, organization as a system, respect for people, Statistics, webcast, William Hunter | Leave a comment

Expand the View of the System to Find Ways to Improve Results

Posted on January 10, 2023 by John Hunter

Here is an example of improvement made possible by expanding the view of the system (and viewing the results from the perspective of the customer instead of just looking at internal process measures). I was working to improve the processing time for court orders of child support (in the retirement system for the USA federal government). The time to process the court orders was taking far too long (longer than legally allowed). The first process improvements took place in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Process improvement, Systems thinking | Tagged continual improvement, Customer focus, organization as a system, problem solving

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 build capability, continual improvement, interview, leadership, management, organization as a system, Psychology, respect for people

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 critical thinking, culture, management, managing people, organization as a system, Psychology, respect for people, robust | 1 Comment

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 ASQ Influential Voices, change, management, organization as a system, Psychology, quote, respect for people, Systems thinking | 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 blame, curiouscat, Customer focus, management, organization as a system, Peter Scholtes, Psychology, respect for people, teams

The Best Form of Fire Fighting is None at All

Posted on July 30, 2018 by John Hunter

The best form of problem solving is to avoid problems altogether. At the point you have a “fire” in your organizaiton you have to fight it. But it is better to create systems that avoid fires taking hold in the first place.* This is a simple idea. Still many organizations would perform better if they took this simple idea to heart. Many organizations suffer from problems, not that they should solve better, but problems they should have avoided altogether. A … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Systems thinking | Tagged long term thinking, mistake-proofing, organization as a system, problem solving, Systems thinking

Good Project Management Practices

Posted on May 2, 2018 by John Hunter

I find myself working as a project manager, or a program management consultant more frequently in the last few years. As would be expected by those reading the Curious Cat Management Improvement blog, my project management views are based on the management improvement principles I have discussed here for over 20 years. This post is in the style of my Good Process Improvement Practices and Practical Ways to Respect People posts. Good project management practices include Deliver a working solution … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged agile management, curiouscat, long term thinking, management concepts, organization as a system, prioritize, productivity, project management, Psychology, work in process | 3 Comments

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 Economics, engineering, IT, leadership, management, organization as a system, robots, technology, Toyota

Technological Innovation and Management

Posted on June 7, 2017 by John Hunter

Technological innovation brings great opportunity for improving results and our quality of life. But transforming potential benefits into real results comes with many challenges. ASQ has asked their Influential Voices to explore the idea of the fourth industrial revolution: “this new era is founded on the practical use of technological innovations like artificial intelligence, big data, robotics, and the Internet of Things (IoT).” For many years GMs huge investment in robotics in the 1980s ($billions) has been an example of … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Innovation, Systems thinking | Tagged ASQ Influential Voices, Data, Innovation, organization as a system, Systems thinking, technology | 2 Comments

Organizations as Social Systems

Posted on May 2, 2017 by John Hunter

Organizations are social systems made up of people. Social systems often amplify what happens. If good things happen, more good things often follow. When bad things happen, more bad things often follow. To improve it is wise to this into account and design elements of the management system to encourage the amplification of what is good and that seeks to stop what is bad from being amplified. Building in elements to stop the negatives from reinforcing and creating more negatives … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged leadership, organization as a system, Systems thinking | 2 Comments

Cater to Customers Desires to Achieve Customer Delight

Posted on January 10, 2017 by John Hunter

Customer delight requires understanding your customers needs and desires. Often even your customers don’t understand these well. Businesses that have a deep appreciation for what their customers, and potential customers, desire and that create systems to deliver solutions that delight those customers benefit greatly from that effort. To build a sustainable enterprise you must provide value customers will appreciate. Your customers do not have one unified set of desires. Some customers may want as good an experience as is possible … Continue reading →

Posted in Competition, Customer focus, Management, Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged Customer focus, customer service, management system, organization as a system, Psychology, Systems thinking | 3 Comments

Podcast: Building Organizational Capability

Posted on December 7, 2016 by John Hunter

The Software Process and Measurement Cast 420 features an interview with me, by Thomas Cagley, on Building Organizational Capability (download podcast). John Hunter in the podcast: Changing how organizations are managed makes a huge difference in people’s lives, not all the time and I understand most of the time it doesn’t. But when this is done well people can go from dreading going to work to enjoying going to work, not every single day – but most days, and it … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Systems thinking | Tagged build capability, change, continual improvement, culture, Data, iteration, John Hunter, Joy in Work, leadership, management, organization as a system, podcast, Psychology, transformation | 2 Comments

Continually Improving Using a Focus on Delighting Customers

Posted on December 1, 2016 by John Hunter

ASQ asked the ASQ influential voices to respond to this question: What is the best way to ensure quality and customer integration grow together? When I first got involved in the quality field that name (quality) seemed to vague for me. And different people and organizations seemed to have vastly different meanings in mind for efforts they all grouped under the heading of quality. What I came up with to capture what I was interested in was customer focused continuous … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Management, Process improvement, Systems thinking | Tagged ASQ Influential Voices, continual improvement, Customer focus, management system, organization as a system | 1 Comment

Burning Toast: American Health System Style

Posted on October 4, 2016 by John Hunter

Democrats and Republicans have created a health care system in the USA over the last 40 years that “burns toast” at an alarming rate. As the symptoms of their health care system are displayed they call in people to blame for burning toast. Their participation in the “you burn, I’ll scrape” system is even worse than the normal burning then scraping process. They create a bad system over decades and ignore the burnt toast just telling people to put up … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Health care, Management, Public Sector | Tagged blame, Economics, global, government, health care system, organization as a system

Lead by Building Organizational Capability

Posted on September 13, 2016 by John Hunter

The result of a recent interview with me has been posted: How to Lead From Any Level In the Organization [broken link replaced by new link to content hosted on this site] 2. Help people solve their problems. Similar to helping other people grow their careers is the idea of helping other people to solve their problems. Again, this starts with a clear understanding of your sphere of influence. “It determines what strategies you can pursue, and building your sphere … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management | Tagged build capability, Deming, interview, leadership, organization as a system | 1 Comment