By John Hunter, author of the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog (since 2004). Silos to Systems: Our Journey to World Class – presentation by Lisa Snyder at the First Annual Deming in Education conference. In one of the videos included in the presentation we hear this quote In this model you really are a team […]

Guest post by John Hunter, author of Management Matters: Building Enterprise Capability. At the core of W. Edwards Deming’s philosophy is a focus on delighting customers, allowing everyone to contribute what they have to offer and continually improving. In order to bring about great results certain knowledge and strategies are useful. So things like learning […]

By John Hunter, founder of CuriousCat.com. Alfie Kohn starts with an excellent discussion his fear of applying business improvement ideas in the education setting. …And yet, Dr. Deming’s work offered some principles at an abstract level that, when pulled out of a workplace context, turn out to be equally revolutionary, powerful, and constructive in virtually […]

By John Hunter, author of the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog. One of the four areas of Deming’s management system is “understanding variation.” The core principle underlying that concept is using data to improve while understanding what data is and is not telling you. The mistakes in interpreting data are very often related to mistaking […]

Guest post by Victoria Morgan The quality of maternity services in England is in the spotlight. National audits have shown that whilst outcomes have improved significantly over the last decade there is marked variation in outcomes that cannot be explained by clinical and social risk factors (Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential […]

By John Hunter, founder of CuriousCat.com. 2016 Deming Institute Annual Conference September 16 – 18, 2016 Michigan State University East Lansing, Michigan Find more information and the registration form. Facilitators Eric Budd, Improvement Coordinator at Peaker Services Dennis Sergent, President & Principal Consultant – Sergent Results Group Jim Benson and Tonianne DeMaria Barry, Founding Partners […]

By John Hunter, author of the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog. Presentation by Christine Simpson and Sarah Ambrus at the 2015 Deming in Education conference: Empowering Students to Lead Change. In discussing the use of the 5 why’s Sarah made an important point that people would benefit from remembering. Focus on what we can control. […]

By John Hunter, founder of CuriousCat.com. Dr. Ravi Roy is the inaugural W. Edwards Deming Fellow with The W. Edwards Deming Institute. He also serves as Director of the Public Administration program at Southern Utah University. We received this adorable photo from proud papa Ravi Roy of his older daughter Nicole, reading The New Economics […]

By John Hunter, author of the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog. Presentation by Jake Rodgers and Phyllis Tubbs: Dr. Deming’s Influence on One Elementary School Principal at the 1st annual Deming in Education Conference: Jake asks a good question (as he learned from David Langford who learned it from W. Edwards Deming). What’s your theory? […]

By John Hunter, author of Management Matters: Building Enterprise Capability. Cliff Norman and Ron Moen, of Associates in Process Improvement (API) discuss the history of the Plan Do Study Act (PDSA) Cycle and their research on the subject in the latest Deming Institute podcast (download the podcast). This is the second Deming podcast with Ron […]