Guest post by John Hunter, author of the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog (since 2004). One of the challenges adopting Deming’s management ideas is that it doesn’t provide a simple process to follow. There is no recipe – no first do x, then do y, then do z. Instead the ideas must be learned and […]

Guest post by John Hunter, author of Management Matters: Building Enterprise Capability. When using Dr. Deming’s management ideas in your organization, the principles must be considered and applied to your organization. Those principles help create an organization that is adaptable – continually responding to changes in the outside world, continually experimenting and improving with an […]

Guest Post by Amy Ripperger, Instructional Coach, Indianola CSD, Educational Leadership Graduate Student, Drake University. If we want our students to reach their fullest potential, then we, the educators, must work to reach ours. But we have to be careful here, for at the heart of continual improvement lies an acceptance that we won’t ever “arrive.” We must be okay with this. Perfection isn’t the goal, continual improvement is.

Guest post by John Hunter, founder of CuriousCat.com. When a company’s culture rots, eventually everyone pays: customers, employees, stockholders, and suppliers. Yet, when the focus is on the short term, the long-term consequences are easy to ignore, even though everyone eventually suffers. Once those consequences are realized, there is interest in addressing the consequences of […]

Guest post by John Hunter, founder of CuriousCat.com. Dr. Deming encouraged organizations to respect the whole person; he recommended encouraging education even if it was not directly related to the employee’s job or potential jobs with the organization. In his own life, he pursued interests beyond those he is well known for, one of those […]

Guest post by Doug Stilwell, Drake University. There are indeed many reasons change efforts fail. But we can avoid one of those reasons by taking “small jumps;” breaking down important change/improvement efforts into manageable and measurable steps so that the daunting size and complexity of initiatives are not the cause of failure.

Guest post by John Hunter, author of the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog (since 2004). The start of a new year is a good excuse to take stock of how things are going and think about what improvements you could work on. Those reading this blog could frame that in relation to how things are […]

Guest post by John Hunter, author of Management Matters: Building Enterprise Capability. We created The W. Edwards Deming Institute You Tube channel over 11 years ago. Since then, tens of thousands of people have enjoyed and learned from the videos we have posted. Unsurprisingly, those with W. Edwards Deming in them are the most viewed. […]

Guest post by John Hunter, founder of the CuriousCat.com. This interview on NPR, How To Harness The Power Of Emotions In The Workplace, provides some good thoughts on psychology in the workplace. There is often much more focus on the data part of W. Edwards Deming’s ideas, and while using data to understand and improve […]

Guest Post by Dr. Doug Stilwell, Drake University. During this time of COVID-driven isolation and loneliness, and the accompanying challenges to mental health, finding and operationalizing systematic methods to help people belong and recognize their sense of belonging - even after COVID is over - may be more important than ever for leaders to address.