systems thinking
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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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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By John Hunter, founder of CuriousCat.com. One of the criticisms against process improvement is that it requires stifling innovation. That is not accurate. Process improvement is meant to be continual. Building structure around how change is tested and adopted aids innovation, it doesn’t stifle it. The justified criticism, I have seen, is against bad processes […]
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By John Hunter, author of the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog (since 2004). Deming’s First Theorem: Nobody gives a hoot about profit People spend a great deal of time worrying about profits and claiming credit or diverting blame for profit results. So why did Dr. Deming say “Nobody gives a hoot about profit?” He looked […]
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Kelly Allan joins Joe Dager for his latest Business 901 podcast to discuss the work of Peter Scholtes, author of The Leader’s Handbook.
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By John Hunter, founder of CuriousCat.com. The title of chapter 5 of the New Economics is Leadership. From that chapter, page 116 As I use the term here, the job of a leader is to accomplish transformation of his organization. He possesses knowledge, personality, and persuasive power (chapter 6 [Management of People]). How may he […]
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By John Hunter, author of Management Matters: Building Enterprise Capability. Inspection does not improve the quality, nor guarantee quality. Inspection is too late. The quality, good or bad, is already in the product. As Harold F. Dodge said, “You can not inspect quality into a product.” Out of the Crisis, page 29 Inspection can be […]
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Guest post by John Hunter, author of the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog (since 2004). From Lean Thinking by James Womack and Daniel Jones (page 126): the management of Wiremold was soon enrolled in the Deming seminars. As Orrie Fiume notes, “Deming’s Fourteen Points were a perfect fit with our values and we loved the […]
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By John Hunter, founder of CuriousCat.com. Several speeches are mentioned in the various biographical sketches of Dr. Deming and his impact on Japanese management. In particular a talk he gave at the Mt. Hakone Conference center in 1950 seems to have been important. Attendees included the top industrial managers, representing an estimated 75% of the […]
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By John Hunter, author of the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog (since 2004). This Video with W. Edwards Deming, Russell Ackoff and David Langford discussing education. Lloyd Dobbins brings together the comments of those 3. This is part of one of the videos in the Deming Library which explores Deming’s ideas and brings in experts […]
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