Psychology
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 […]
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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 […]
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By John Hunter, author of the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog (since 2004). It is very common for people to see their situation as special and so different that they can only learn about management from some situation identical to the one they face. But this is a misunderstanding of what learning about better management […]
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It is easy for me to imagine the power of focusing on meaning in education. We are naturally curious and interested in learning. The education system often beats that out of us, but if you switched the aim from grading to providing meaningful learning experiences you harness the natural desires we have to learn.
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By John Hunter, author of the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog. Presentation by Bill Bellows at our 2014 annual conference – The End of Perfection: Reflections from Dr. Deming on a Foundation for Leading improvement efforts could be advanced by acknowledging self imposed restrictions on our thinking Bill discussed how seeking to eliminate defects (zero […]
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By John Hunter, founder of CuriousCat.com. Scott Dalgleish is the CEO at Phase IV Engineering Scott first encountered Deming’s ideas while an engineer at Proctor & Gamble in 1986. Deming training was rolled out to us. I thought it was a really wonderful thing. It provided some very innovative and realistic solutions to solve a […]
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By John Hunter, founder of CuriousCat.com. This webcast shows the presentation at our 2015 annual conference, Driving Out Fear: Why and How, by Doug Stilwell and Mark Lane. Doug Stilwell provides an overview on some of the theory and science and behind stress and fear. And then Mark talked about what can be done to […]
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By John Hunter, founder of CuriousCat.com. Lean Blog Podcast #238 – Kevin Cahill, on his Grandfather, W. Edwards Deming (download). Quote from Kevin in the podcast: Somebody at any level does have some sphere of influence that they can impact… by just thinking from a systems standpoint, by looking at the organization differently than some […]
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By John Hunter, author of the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog (since 2004). Eric Budd’s presentation, Is There Hope…?, at our 2015 annual conference. In Eric’s presentation he frequently asked the attendees to think and discuss or write down their ideas related to the ideas he was presenting. It is very valuable to have those […]
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By John Hunter, founder of CuriousCat.com. We recently announced the availability of the 1980 NBC News special report, “If Japan Can, Why Can’t We,” that introduced Dr. Deming to the USA business community. Many people have enjoyed viewing that program. Here we collect some of the reactions that have been posted online. If Japan Can, […]
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