Appreciation for a System

Green crops in rows with a sunrise sky above them.

Bees, Ants, Elephants, and Crops: Systemic Thinking for Innovation

By John Hunter / September 27, 2022 / 0 Comments

In this guest post by John Hunter, he explores how using Deming systemic thinking leads to innovation, when the urge to “just do what we’ve always done” is strong.

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Dr. Deming holding a bouquet of flowers shaking hands with factory workers in Japan.

W. Edwards Deming is Not a Method or Program

By Christina Dragonetti / September 6, 2022 / 2 Comments

In this guest post, Ed Baker describes how the Deming philosophy is a unique and all-encompassing way of thinking. Unlike TQM, Six Sigma, Lean Manufacturing, and other programs promoted to improve quality and productivity, Deming is not simply a checklist, program, or set of methods for managers.

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Young children sitting on a carpet in front of a teacher who is reading a book to them.

Joy in Learning: Deming in Education (part 1)

By Christina Dragonetti / August 12, 2022 / 0 Comments

Dr. Deming believed everyone is entitled to joy in work, and extended that to education as well. David P. Langford has worked to implement Deming in schools and education systems around the world, and in this first of two posts about his work, Christina Dragonetti relates how he got started and the impact of introducing the Deming philosophy – based on joy in learning – into classrooms.

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Series of wooden gears in a horizontal line, each held by a person's fingers.

Why Did the Management System Allow the Failure?

By John Hunter / August 8, 2022 / 0 Comments

In this guest post, John Hunter explores the questions management should ask when there’s a failure or problem, rather than blaming an individual.

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Systems Thinking for Civil Servants

By John Hunter / June 21, 2022 / 0 Comments

In this guest post, John Hunter reviews the Systems Thinking for Civil Servants resource from the UK Government Office for Science and connects it to the Deming philosophy.

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Woman's face with medical icons next to her, including 2 pills, a heart, a pill bottle, a cross, and others.

Transforming Resident Assessment with Deming’s System of Profound Knowledge

By John Hunter / May 23, 2022 / 1 Comment

In this guest post John Hunter reviews “Transforming Resident Assessment: An Analysis Using Deming’s System of Profound Knowledge” and discusses how evaluations often lead to bad data.

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Russ Ackoff Lecture on the Age of Systems

By John Hunter / May 12, 2022 / 0 Comments

This Russ Ackoff lecture, from the late 1970s, focuses on the age of systems. The nearly 2-hour lecture spans the development of science and scientific thinking while exploring topics such as philosophy, psychology, our ways of thinking, religion, history, physics, linguistics, and more.

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A white piece of paper crumpled with a paper airplane to the right, indicating one is transformed into the other.

Deming on Management: Innovation

By John Hunter / April 8, 2022 / 0 Comments

This guest post by John Hunter, author of the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog, is part of our Deming on Management series that aims to provide resources to help those transforming their management system to one based on Deming’s management ideas.

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Using a Deming Lens to Investigate and Solve Managerial Challenges

By Guest Post / March 7, 2022 / 1 Comment

In most organizations, managers’ challenges range from doing more with less to motivating employees. This is causing managers to report “burnout” on a massive scale. To solve such challenges effectively, means identifying their underlying causes which, the authors find, are seldom addressed.

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Understanding Data and Appreciating the Implications for the System

By John Hunter / January 31, 2022 / 0 Comments

Guest post by John Hunter, founder of CuriousCat.com. Working with data is something that doesn’t come naturally to many people. But it is important to develop your understanding of data to manage well within an organization, applying the Deming management system. In this post, I take a look at how understanding data is important with […]

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