Psychology

Effective Communication is Explicit

By John Hunter / May 20, 2013 / 0 Comments

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 […]

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What Really Motivates Us?

By John Hunter / May 9, 2013 / 0 Comments

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 […]

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The Demands of the Enterprise on the Worker

By John Hunter / May 2, 2013 / 0 Comments

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 […]

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Tyranny of the Prevailing Style of Management

By John Hunter / April 29, 2013 / 2 Comments

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 […]

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Knowing How to Manage People Is the Single Most Important Part of Management

By John Hunter / April 8, 2013 / 0 Comments

By John Hunter, author of the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog (since 2004). The Essential Deming includes (from an interview with Dr. Deming): Knowing How to Manage People Is the Single Most Important Part of Management (page 170) If factory workers are unemployed —or anyone, for that matter— it is because of bad management, and […]

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Podcast with Clare Crawford-Mason Discussing Dr. Deming’s Ideas on Management

By John Hunter / March 12, 2013 / 0 Comments

By John Hunter, author of the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog (since 2004). Mark Graban interviewed Clare Crawford-Mason for his Lean Blog podcast. Clare produced If Japan Can… Why Can’t We?, Deming Library video series and Good News… How Hospitals Heal Themselves. She discussed quite a few important ideas including: The value of cooperation (that […]

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Where There is Fear You Do Not Get Honest Figures

By John Hunter / February 28, 2013 / 3 Comments

By John Hunter, author of the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog. Fear invites wrong figures. Bearers of bad news fare badly. To keep his job, anyone may present to his boss only good news. W. Edwards Deming, page 94, The New Economics Using data to make decisions is important to effective management. But using data […]

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Why ThoughtWorks Eliminated Sales Commissions

By John Hunter / February 21, 2013 / 0 Comments

By John Hunter, founder of CuriousCat.com. Martin Fowler offers insightful details on the problems with using sales commissions (click on the right arrow button at the very top middle to see the next slide). Some quotes from his presentation: there are serious problems with the sales commission model, problems that led ThoughtWorks to get rid […]

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Customer Delight

By John Hunter / February 4, 2013 / 1 Comment

By John Hunter, author of the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog (since 2004). Customer satisfaction is better than dissatisfaction but it is not enough. A satisfied customer will leave for another provider at the slightest provocation. They see a bit lower price – they leave. You make one minor slip up – they leave. They […]

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Deming Research Seminar Round Table Session

By Guest Post / January 28, 2013 / 0 Comments

Guest post by Dave Nave: I will lead one of the round table sessions at this year’s Deming Research Seminar (25th and 26th February 2013 in New York City). I thought I would share a little something of my topic. Two other roundtables will also be held: on Education led by Dr. Francis Petit and […]

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