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Tag Archives: respect for people
Using Data to Improve – Quality is a Journey to Excellence
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
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Quality is a Journey to Excellence
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 There is a bit of presentation that is outdated (mainly about general economic conditions and specific business conditions from the 1980s).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 Bill Hunter, Data, Deming, Innovation, management, respect for people, Systems thinking
3 Comments
Profound Podcast with John Hunter, Part Two
John Willis interviewed me for his Profound podcast series, this posts is about part two of the interview (listen to part two of the podcast, John Hunter – Curious Cat). See my post on part one of the interview. John Hunter presenting at Deming Institute management seminar in Hong Kong This post provides links to more information on what we discussed in the podcast. Hopefully these links allow you to explore ideas that were mentioned in the podcast that you … Continue reading
Posted in Deming, Management, Psychology, Respect
Tagged Bill Hunter, Deming, interview, John Hunter, Joy in Work, podcast, Psychology, respect for people
Interview of Bill Hunter, Brian Joiner and Peter Scholtes on Better Management Practices
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
How to Lead From Any Level In the Organization
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
Interview of Bill Hunter: Improving Quality and Productivity in Organizations
Interview of William G. Hunter on Improving Quality and Productivity in Organizations by Peter Scholtes. Bill taught a course at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, Improving Quality and Productivity in Organizations, which was co-sponsored by the business school, statistics department and industrial engineering department. There were a few undergraduate students, more graduate students and even more students who were working full time (many of whom only took this course – they were not pursuing a degree at the university). … Continue reading
Posted in Management, Psychology, Respect, Systems thinking
Tagged Bill Hunter, Education, learning, Madison, Peter Scholtes, Psychology, respect for people, webcast
2 Comments
Bill Hunter and the Quality Movement
Watch this presentation by George Box at the 1st Annual Hunter Conference on Quality: Bill Hunter and the Quality Movement. In the presentation George discusses interesting student design of experiments projects; read more on those efforts in 101 Ways to Design an Experiment, or Some Ideas About Teaching Design of Experiments. To read more about the quality management efforts in Madison, Wisconsin see: Doing More With Less in the Public Sector: A Progress Report from Madison, Wisconsin and Quality In … Continue reading
Posted in Management
Tagged Bill Hunter, George Box, Madison, management webcast, quality, respect for people
1 Comment
Design the Management System with an Appreciation of Confirmation Bias
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
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
Peter Scholtes on Teams and Viewing the Organization as a System
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
Quality of the Entire Customer Experience
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
Unpacking the Components of Hard Work to Design Better Work Conditions
Effort is grossly underrated by Jamie Flinchbaugh: There is a common phrase of “work smarter, not harder.” I get the appeal of that. Effort without clarity, efficiency, and effectiveness, has severe limits. Working smart is essential. But does that mean working hard has no value? No, effort is grossly underrated. I believe we should aspire to work smarter and harder. Neither is sufficient, both are required… My father used to convince himself working smarter should be the main focus and … Continue reading
Posted in Career, Respect, Systems thinking
Tagged Career, Joy in Work, management system, managing people, Psychology, respect for people, Systems thinking
1 Comment
Change Management: Create a Culture Seeking Continual Improvement or Use Band-Aids?
Successfully shepherding change within an organization is often a challenge. Often change management strategies are mainly about how to cope with a toxic culture but exclude the option of fixing the toxic culture. Why not address the root causes instead of trying band-aids? The most effective strategy is to build an organizational culture into one that promotes continual improvement. A continual improvement culture is one that is constantly changing to improve (grounded in long term principles: respect for people, experiment, … Continue reading
Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Psychology, Respect, Systems thinking
Tagged change, culture, curiouscat, leadership, managing people, organization as a system, Psychology, respect for people, root cause, trust
3 Comments
Top 21 Executives at Toyota Getting a Raise to a Combined US$14.9 Million
The difference between Toyota and so many other companies is obvious in many ways. One of the stark differences is how executives are paid. Toyota’s belief in a strong management system contrasts with the self worship many USA executives practice. How the executives pay themselves illustrates this very well. Even with a proposed 19% pay boost the top 21 executives at Toyota would get a combined US$14.9 million in the proposal for this year. Toyota Plans 19% Boost in Director … Continue reading
Posted in Management, Psychology, Respect, Toyota Production System (TPS)
Tagged executive pay, respect for people, Toyota
2 Comments
The Aim Should be the Best Life – Not Work v. Life Balance
My father had the most job satisfaction of anyone I have known. He had no separation between work and life. We toured factories on vacation. I visited Davidson College in North Carolina because he was consulting with a client in Charlotte before we went up to Duke and North Carolina for visits and asked the CEO what school I should visit. His grad students would call the house frequently. Many of his best friends were colleagues. That is how I … Continue reading
Posted in Health care, Psychology, Respect, Systems thinking
Tagged Bill Hunter, Career, commentary, Creativity, curiouscat, John Hunter, Joy in Work, Popular, Psychology, respect for people, Systems thinking, tips
11 Comments
Giving Executives 40% of Revenue is Insane
I have previous written on my belief that excessive executive compensation had reached the level of a deadly disease of western management (building on the W. Edwards Deming’s list of 7 deadly diseases). I named excessive executive pay and a broken “intellectual property” system as new deadly diseases in 2007. Here is a graphic from, It’s Twitter’s birthday, and its executives are getting huge stock-based gifts, showing the massive executive give-away at Twitter. Twitter has given executives $2,000,000,000 in just … Continue reading →