Tag Archives: Systems thinking

A Company’s Purpose is to be Useful to Society

Posted on April 2, 2006 by John Hunter

Toyota powers to the front [the broken link was removed] (Toyota President, Katsuaki Watanabe) eschews the normal management mantra of shareholder value above all. A company’s purpose, Watanabe insists, is to be useful to society. W. Edwards Deming described the purpose of an organization in New Economics, on page 51, as: The aim proposed here for any organization is for everybody to gain – stockholders, employees, suppliers, customers, community, the environment – over the long term. More from our previous … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Ackoff Podcast

Posted on January 19, 2006 by John Hunter

I found this great podcast via the post – School Architecture: Doing the Wrong Thing Right. As usually Ackoff provides great ideas, in an interesting and entertaining manner. This talk focuses on learning (and education and teaching) and doing the right things (effectiveness). In talking to educators Ackoff criticizes the educational system. Throughout the speech he does his normal excellent job of explaining system thinking. Enjoy. Russell Ackoff Talk at Great Schools By Design Summit (mp3 podcast) articles by Russell … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, webcast | Tagged , , ,

Customer Service is Important

Posted on January 10, 2006 by John Hunter

Double Trouble, Don Oldenburg, Washington Post: Digging into the details, Stevenson, a mechanical engineer, did a double take at what looked to him like a double charge. Verizon was billing his sweetie for the local plan, for the new regional plan and also for a la carte services that are included in the regional plan. Sorry, wrong numbers! He called Verizon to complain. “The customer service representative said that they knew they’ve been having an issue with their system double-billing,” … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , | 12 Comments

Excessive Executive Pay

Posted on December 4, 2005 by John Hunter

Topic: Management Improvement Via Christian Sarkar [the broken link was removed], Too Many Turkeys, The Economist: Executive compensation in America – already far ahead of the rest of the world, despite the best efforts of overseas managers to catch up – is now rising inexorably again. In fiscal year 2004 the total compensation of the median American company boss rose in every industry… according to a new report by the Conference Board, a research organisation. In the big companies that … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Psychology, Respect | Tagged , , , , , , | 18 Comments

Six Keys to Building New Markets by Unleashing Disruptive Innovation

Posted on October 16, 2005 by John Hunter

Six Keys to Building New Markets by Unleashing Disruptive Innovation by Clayton M. Christensen, Michael E. Raynor, and Scott D. Anthony in Harvard Management Update: Companies have two basic options when they seek to build new-growth businesses. They can try to take an existing market from an entrenched competitor with sustaining innovations. Or they can try to take on a competitor with disruptive innovations that either create new markets or take root among an incumbent’s worst customers. Our research overwhelmingly … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Innovation, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Seven Leadership Leverage Points

Posted on October 13, 2005 by John Hunter

Seven Leadership Leverage Points [the broken link was removed]: for Organization-Level Improvement in Health Care by James L. Reinertsen, MD; Michael D. Pugh and Maureen Bisognano. If leaders are to bring about system-level performance improvement, they must channel attention to and take action regarding several, if not all, of these leverage points. In other words, this set of leverage points is not offered as a tried-and-true method, but as a theory-one that we hope will be useful for individual leaders … Continue reading →

Posted in Health care, Management, Process improvement | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Targets Distorting the System

Posted on June 13, 2005 by John Hunter

I still remember Dr. Brian Joiner speaking about process improvement and the role of data well over a decade ago. He spoke of 3 ways to improve the figures: distort the data, distort the system and improve the system. Improving the system is the most difficult. There is an interesting article on the effects of distorting the system: Tony Blair says he will ensure NHS targets do not stop people from seeing their GPs when they want to, from BBC … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

Traffic Congestion and a Non-Solution

Posted on May 9, 2005 by John Hunter

Topic: Management Improvement, Problem Solving I read, Study: Nation’s Traffic Jams Worsening [the broken link was removed], today on CNN.com. That same headline could have appeared in newspapers every day for the last few years. For decades traffic congestion has been a problem in American cities and one that has continued to get worse. The typical proposed solution is to increase the number of roads. The theory behind this solution is not normally stated but, I believe, it amounts to: … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments

Management Improvement Books

Posted on March 21, 2005 by John Hunter

My recent post on Statistics for Experimenters: Design, Innovation, and Discovery , 2nd Edition reminds me I have not mentioned other good books that have been published recently. Three great books published last year are: Six Sigma Beyond the Factory Floor by Ronald D. Snee and Roger W. Hoerl. Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future by Peter Senge, C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski and Betty … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Management | Tagged , , , ,

Control Charts in Health Care

Posted on February 26, 2005 by John Hunter

This post is an edited version of a message I sent to the Deming Electronic Network. I find the “control charts in health care” thread quite interesting. From Mike Woolbert’s post [link broken, so I removed it] > I have read many comments about the 8 minute ambulance trip. > This doesn’t seem to be a system measure, but a result measure. It seems to me the 8 minute (90% of the time) measure is an attempt at a process … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Health care, Management, Quality tools, Statistics | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Designing a New Organization

Posted on January 22, 2005 by John Hunter

re: What about Designing New Organizations? [the broken link has been removed] Guidance for “designing a new organisation and not for analysis of an existing one?” (edited) I would add Russell Ackoff to the top of the list of those to consult. Start with his book Re-Creating the Corporation and continue to quite a few of his other books. After Ackoff, I would look to Deming and Senge. Other interesting folks would be Dee Hock, Brian Joiner, Peter Scholtes, Robert … Continue reading →

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

Operational Excellence

Posted on January 15, 2005 by John Hunter

In, the post Is Operational Excellence Dead? the argument is made that operational excellence is dead as a differentiator of companies. “All of the emphasis on outsourcing to low labor cost countries seems to imply that organizations no longer consider their operations strategic.” I would state that, in fact, the opposite is true. Leading companies, for years, have focused on continual improvement. Toyota is the best known example. They drove the adoption of just in time inventory and then other … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Manufacturing, Process improvement, quote | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Taguchi Loss Function

Posted on October 14, 2004 by John Hunter

Topic: Management Written in response to this post on the Deming Electronic Network (DEN) [broken link removed]. The responses on this topic show the strength of the DEN. 1) thoughtful responses that should help the person posting the original message 2) thoughtful responses that are of interest to many of us 3) the chance to explore concepts in some greater depth than we may otherwise Relating to the 3rd item in my list I would like to explore part of … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Quality tools | Tagged , , , , ,

Dangers of Forgetting the Proxy Nature of Data

Posted on August 29, 2004 by John Hunter

We use data to act as a proxy for some results of the system. Often people forget that the end result is not for the number to be improved but for the situation to be improved. We hope, if the measure improves the situation will have improved. But there are many reasons this may not be the case (one number improving at the expense of other parts of the system, the failure of the number to accurately serve as a proxy, distorting numbers, etc.). Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Popular, quote, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments