problem solving
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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In this guest post, John Hunter revisits a 2004 video of Russell Ackoff, and the lessons we can still learn from him.
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Guest post by John Hunter, founder of CuriousCat.com. Often when problems occur, we seek to figure out who is to blame for the problem. This is not an effective management strategy as Dr. Deming made clear, and I have discussed before: Attributing Fault to the Person Without Considering the System, Distorting the System, Distorting the […]
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Guest post by John Hunter, founder of CuriousCat.com. It is wonderful to listen to Ackoff discuss how to tackle challenging problems. We could create so much value by following the guidance of Dr. Ackoff and Dr. Deming in our organizations and by applying that thinking to the larger problems our societies face. We need to […]
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Guest post by John Hunter, author of Management Matters: Building Enterprise Capability. The idea of looking beyond the most visible problem when seeking to improve is important. If you just address the most visible issue, you often fail to improve the system and instead just add some work to smooth things over if that problem […]
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Guest post by John Hunter, founder of the CuriousCat.com. Have you ever tried running through water? You don’t get very far very fast. If you have water up to your waist, and you try to run, your progress is very slow. Sure, you could put in more effort and maybe try to improve your technique […]
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This video shows part 2 of a Russell Ackoff presentation from 2003 (see our previous post on part 1: Ackoff on Systems Thinking and Management).
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Are you using analysis to solve problems at your company? Try synthesis instead! For help, John Hunter directs us to this still-mind-blowing talk from Dr. Russell Ackoff, author of The Art of Problem Solving.
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By John Hunter, author of the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog. Cornell Policy Review published a special issue exploring the application of systems thinking to public policy problems. Graduate students were given an introduction to systems thinking and then applied the concepts to address issues their field. Students applied systems thinking to a wide array […]
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By John Hunter, author of the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog. Lynda Finn, President of Statistical Insight and facilitator for The Deming Institute. Download the podcast with Linda: A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Data Points. This podcast is the first episode of our “Knowledge In Variation Series.” Lynda discusses the importance of moving from […]
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