By John Hunter, founder of CuriousCat.com. Jan 24 1989 – first presentation of Deming’s “System of Profound Knowledge” Knowledge of variation; statistical theory Knowledge of the distinction between common causes and special causes Knowledge about the loss from tampering Knowledge about the interaction of forces Knowledge of operational definitions Knowledge psychology Knowledge of cooperation and […]

By John Hunter, author of the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog (since 2004). An enumerative study is focused on judgment of results. These studies are meant to enumerate (explain, evaluate, describe) the condition that exists with the existing population. On the other hand, an analytic study is focused on improvement of the process which created […]

By John Hunter, founder of CuriousCat.com. Dr. Deming’s included the the theory of knowledge (how do we know that what we “know” is so) as one of the four inter-related components of his management system. How to apply an understanding of the theory of knowledge within the management system for their organization often gives people […]

By John Hunter, author of the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog (since 2004). Incomplete communication often creates problems. You often don’t have to ask why 5 times to figure out the weaknesses in communication that lead to trouble. Over and over again, most organizations find problems were created, or grew, because someone that could have […]

By John Hunter, author of the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog (since 2004). The photo gallery on the new website for The W. Edwards Deming Institute includes quite a few photos looking back at Dr. Deming’s life. Seeing the photos from when he was younger is interesting since so many of the images (and videos) […]

Guest post by John Hunter, founder of CuriousCat.com. In Fourth Generation Management (I highly recommend this book, by the way), Brian Joiner provided an excellent summary of the options to get better “results” (as measured by the data used). The options are to: distort the system distort the data improve the system Obviously we hope […]

By John Hunter, author of the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog. The quotes of Dan Pink from the webcast are backed by decades of research and support W. Edwards Deming’s views on managing people. “We are not as endlessly manipulatable and predictable as you would think.” “Once a task called for even rudimentary cognitive skill […]

By John Hunter, founder of CuriousCat.com. Our new website is now live. The site has a completely new design and lots of new content, photos and videos. We hope you like the new site. Please share your thoughts on the new site by adding a comment here. Some of my favorite content on the new […]

By John Hunter, author of the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog (since 2004). From The Practice of Management by Peter Drucker, The Demands of the Enterprise on the Worker (page 268): The enterprise must expect of the worker not the passive acceptance of a physical chore, but the active assumption of responsibility for the enterprise’s […]

By John Hunter, author of Management Matters: Building Enterprise Capability. The Essential Deming, includes material from Dr. Deming’s letters, speeches and articles. Several are from his lectures at Fordham University, including: Tyranny of the Prevailing Style of Management (page 184-5): We’re living in prison. Under the tyranny of the prevailing style of management. A style […]