Tag Archives: Systems thinking

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 continual improvement, Data, Deming, management, Process improvement, Statistics, Systems thinking, webcast, William Hunter

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 There is a bit of presentation that is outdated (mainly about general economic conditions and specific business conditions from the 1980s).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 Bill Hunter, Data, Deming, Innovation, management, respect for people, Systems thinking | 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 blame, Brian Joiner, Data, Deming, John Hunter, Madison, management, Systems thinking | 1 Comment

Factfulness – The Importance of Critical Thinking

Posted on June 4, 2019 by John Hunter

Factfulness by Hans Roling (of TED talks and Gapminder charts fame) is an exceptionally good book. It provides great insight into how to think more effectively and how to understand the reality of the world we live in (versus the large distortions so common in most people’s view of the world). Today the people living in rich countries around the North Atlantic, who represent 11 percent of the world population, make up 60 percent of the Level 4* consumer market. … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Data, Systems thinking | Tagged critical thinking, curiouscat, Data, long term thinking, Psychology, Systems thinking | 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

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

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 ASQ Influential Voices, Customer focus, management, Psychology, Quality tools, respect for people, Systems thinking, usability

Don’t Expect Short Quotes to Tell the Whole Story

Posted on July 25, 2017 by John Hunter

When people try to use a short quote as an accurate encapsulation of a management concept they will often be disappointed. It is obvious that Dr. Deming believed that organizations failed to use data effectively to improve. He proposed that organizations needed to change and use data effectively in order to thrive over the long term. He believed that greatly increasing the use of data in decision making would be useful. He also believed there were specific problems with how … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Management, quote, Statistics, Systems thinking | Tagged Data, Deming, quote, Statistics, Systems thinking, variation | 4 Comments

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

Lessons on Competition from Mother Nature

Posted on May 30, 2017 by John Hunter

An interesting short article by Joel Barker with some ideas to think about, Surviving the Fittest: New Lessons on Competition from Mother Nature As a result of this emerging body of research, we now must reexamine our competitive paradigm and factor in the new information. It is now clear that ‘the fittest’ not only don’t win all the time, but are only a piece of the more complex system. This information can lead to new strategies for small companies and … Continue reading →

Posted in Competition, Systems thinking | Tagged complexity, interactions, Investing, risk, Systems thinking | 1 Comment

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

Unpacking the Components of Hard Work to Design Better Work Conditions

Posted on December 20, 2016 by John Hunter

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

Bell Labs Designing a New Phone System Using Idealized Design

Posted on October 19, 2016 by John Hunter

I remember hearing this same story when Russ Ackoff spoke at the Hunter Conference on Quality (which was named in honor of my father) in Madison, Wisconsin. If you haven’t heard this story you are in for a treat. And if you haven’t heard Russell Ackoff before you get to enjoy a great storyteller. "Tape" of Ackoff’s Bell Lab Lecture at the US Navy. If you would limit yourself to paying attention to 5 thinkers to advance your understanding of … Continue reading →

Posted in Innovation, Management, Process improvement, Systems thinking | Tagged Ackoff, case study, change, engineering, Innovation, management, Systems thinking, transformation, webcast | 3 Comments

Unintended Consequences

Posted on June 29, 2016 by John Hunter

Using data to understand your processes and improve them is very useful. But using data often results in unintended consequences. If you don’t have a good understanding on the pressures collecting data will bring to bear on the system you can create pressure for results that damage the delivery of value to customers. In this example there are requirements to take action if certain conditions are present. In this case, if the airplane is pushed back from the gate for … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Management, Process improvement, Systems thinking | Tagged airlines, Customer focus, Data, Systems thinking | 1 Comment

Publish Articles Promoting Better Management Using Open Journals

Posted on June 9, 2015 by John Hunter

William Woodall shared this wonderful article he wrote with George E. P. Box with me, Innovation, Quality Engineering, and Statistics. My thoughts on being able to read it online: Thanks Bill, it is a great article. And thanks for having it openly available. I really wish professors would stop allowing their work to be published by those seeking to close access to the ideas we are trying to promote. I realize there are pressures to publish in historically prestigious journals. … Continue reading →

Posted in Systems thinking | Tagged culture, marketing, open access, Systems thinking