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Post highlightsby year:202320222021...2004

Post highlightsby tag:process improvementDeminglean manufacturinglean managementquality toolsmanagementcontinual improvementrespect for peoplemore tags

Selected posts from my blogs:
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  • Society fails to invest in long-term solutions to long-term problems

    I respect John Green and his brother, Hank. Their Vlogbrothers YouTube Chanel is a regular, enjoyable and educational part of my online activity. I recommend watching a few of videos and seeing if they should also be part of your online activity. Here is a screenshot from when John liked one of my tweets :-)

    continue reading this post

  • Zero Defects

    I agree that eliminating defects that get to customers (and even those that don’t) is wise. But I think that doing so is the result of continually improving your processes. I do not believe you succeed by declaring your goal to be zero defects. You succeed by creating a culture of never ending improvement, of customer focus, of fact based decision making, of learning…

    continue reading this post

  • Managing with Control Charts

    ...if managers mistakenly tamper with a stable process, believing an occurrence is exceptional, they introduce an external cause, which destabilises it. Targets do the same thing.

    continue reading this post

  • The damage caused by "Management" by targets is much larger in dysfunctional organizations

    The damage caused by "Management" by targets is much larger in dysfunctional organizations - they are also more likely to be given more importance by dysfunctional organizations, that is a bad combination. In a great organization with an strong understanding of systems, respect for people, no pay based on "performance," an understanding of data and variation... then damage managing by targets does is much smaller.

    continue reading this post

  • How to Build a Great Software Development Team

    "Without confidence, honest debate about ideas is suppressed as people are constantly taking things personally instead of trying to find the best ideas (and if doing so means my idea is criticized that is ok).

    ...

    This is also one of many areas where the culture within the team was self reinforcing. As new people came on they understood this practice. They saw it in practice. They could see it was about finding good ideas and if their idea was attacked they didn’t take it nearly as personally as most people do in most places."

    continue reading this post

  • Expand the View of the System to Find Ways to Improve Results

    By expanding the system view and looking at the results of the entire system it is often possible to find improvements that are not possible by only looking at “your” system. These changes can sometimes be more challenging to accomplish as they may require convincing others to make changes.

    continue reading this post

  • The Growing Use of Apprenticeships in the USA

    Apprenticeships are a great option for many people. For one thing you don’t have to take on a huge debt burden (previous post: Personal Finance Considerations for Going into Debt for Education). Also for many careers and apprenticeship is what is needed, not a college degree.

    continue reading this post

  • Confusing Customer Focus (when not thinking systemically)

    ...If I buy a car from a dealer they don’t sell it to me for $100. They don’t agree to not tell the government so I can avoid sales tax. They don’t agree to sell me a car that is not legal in the state. Customer service does not mean doing what is in the interest of the customer irregardless of laws, regulations, good business practices, etc..

    I would say doctors don’t give patients anti-biotics for viral infections (but actually they do). They shouldn’t...

    continue reading this post

  • We Should Put Solar Panels Above Parking Lots

    It is more expensive to build the solar arrays and infrastructure above existing parking lots (compared to an empty field) but it is a great use to space. We should be encouraging such development.

    continue reading this post

  • Annual Performance Evaluations are a Poor Management Practice

    When you understand the challenges with evaluating a complex system it isn’t hard to know that evaluating individuals is not easy. Much of the evidence of individual “performance” is so dependent on impacts within the system that are totally out of even the individual’s influence. Yet it is easy to find numbers within a complex system that can be used to argue for or against an individual’s performance.

    The contributions any individual brings to an organization is largely dependent on the system in place (see: 94% Belongs to the System).

    continue reading this post

  • Interview of Bill Hunter by Peter Scholtes on Statistical Variability and Interactions

    For some processes it is enough to know a couple important variables and have an understanding of how they interact to impact results. Often though problems are created because the organization doesn’t learn enough about variables that can have a substantial impact on results and therefore feels blindsided by poor results. In some of those cases they were blindsided not by unforeseeable random factors but by variables they should have learned about. And then based on that knowledge designed their processes to take into account the potential impact of variations in that variable...

    continue reading this post

  • Profound Podcast with John Hunter – Curious Cat

    In this podcast I discussed a bit of my history with management improvement. My father introduced me to the ideas as I was growing up.  And that became formal during high school, when I attended a class for City of Madison employees (during the summer) on management improvement (Deming included a couple pages on those efforts in Out of Crisis).  I also discussed: Design of Experiments, Peter Scholtes, W. Edwards Deming, PDSA cycle and six sigma.  This podcast is part one of the interview.

    continue reading this post

  • Using Customer Feedback to Drive Continual Improvement

    That impact of creating systems that continually improve the value provided to customers is still very much under appreciated. The Deming Chain Reaction is such a powerful concept that allows us to create more value and reduce costs over the long term.

    ...

    Long term thinking with an appreciation for systems allows managers to focus on improving value over the long term while many of their competitors focus on reducing current costs no matter how much damage they do to their customers and the long term success of their business.

    continue reading this post

  • Find Joy and Success in Business

    ...They are not concerned with becoming large. They focus on doing what they want to do – creating great software solutions (see: Systemic Workplace Experiments). And on making money to allow them to stay in business.

    Some tidbits of advice: create great applications, charge people money, make a profit. Yes to those outside the web world this might seem obvious...

    continue reading this post

  • Profound Podcast with John Hunter, Part Two

    In this podcast I discussed my thoughts on management improvement, Deming, respect for people, systems thinking and more.

    continue reading this post

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Articles

  • Good Process Improvement Practices
  • How to Get a New Management Strategy, Tool or Concept Adopted
  • Building a Great Software Development Team
  • Using Quality to Develop an Internet Resource
  • Encouraging Curiosity in Kids
  • Purpose of an Organization
  • How to Effectively Use of the PDSA Improvement Cycle
  • Financial Market Meltdown
  • Economic Strength Through Technology Leadership
  • The Toyota Way - Two Pillars
  • Diplomacy and Science Research
  • Dangers of Forgetting the Proxy Nature of Data
  • Awesome Cat Cam
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