John Hunter's blog posts (all time)

Bring Me Solutions Not Problems

Sun, 8 Mar 2026

What they are saying is: if you know of a problem but don’t know of a solution I would rather we continue to have that problem than admit some of my staff don’t know how to fix it (and then have to deal with it myself – maybe then having to accept responsibility for results instead of just blaming you if I am never told and there is a problem later…). I think that is setting exactly the wrong expectations.

Employees should fix things. They should bring solutions to managers to improve things that might be out of their ability to fix. But if they know of a problem and not a solution and a manager tells the employee they don’t want to be brought problems then I don’t want that manager.

Cool Workspaces

Sun, 8 Mar 2026

Beautiful work spaces acknowledge the people that work in those spaces and show a respect for employees as people.

Psychology Often Drives Decisions Rather Than Rational Thought

Sat, 7 Mar 2026

I think that the primary thing to remember is that often people's actions and decisions are guided by psychology rather than thoughtful deliberation and choosing the most sensible option (given that person's desires). What this means is you can't expect rational decision making to guide others decisions and actions. You are often better understanding common psychology and how that impacts decision making.

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There are 2 reasons this is important: first you are likely making decisions this way and can improve your decision making by understanding how you are making decisions. And second if you are trying to influence others understanding how they make decisions is important.

Science Explained: Wind Powered Vehicle Traveling Faster Than the Wind

Sat, 7 Mar 2026

This is an interesting explanation of a the physics involved with vehicle propulsion. And it is a great video showing the scientific method at work.

They only touch on it a little bit but the need for creating 4 versions of the small treadmill device to illustrate the principles in action is a great example of how science inquiry and engineering work. There are often many failed attempts before an engineering solution to the issue involved can be properly created...

How to Lead From Any Level In the Organization

Fri, 6 Mar 2026

Similar to helping other people grow their careers is the idea of helping other people to solve their problems. Again, this starts with a clear understanding of your sphere of influence. It determines what strategies you can pursue, and building your sphere of influence should be part of your decision making process.

What it comes down to is proving yourself in this way—and doing so consistently. “It isn’t some secret sauce. Prove yourself to be valuable and you will gain influence. Help people solve their problems. They will be inclined to listen to your ideas. And helping people to solve their problems doesn't mean you are giving them the answer. It may mean you asking empowering questions.

CEO’s Given Lottery Sized Payouts

Fri, 6 Mar 2026

Today, in the USA, CEOs are basically win the lottery when they start and then either win some more and stay or don’t win and are let go. The lottery performance appraisal aspect Deming talked about (rewarding whoever random variation or macro economic and micro economic trends smiled upon during the period). So if a market (housing, oil, steel, investment banking, microchip, hotel…) is booming why give all the CEO’s in that market huge payoffs?

Creating an Integrated Life Where Work Adds to Life

Thu, 5 Mar 2026

... I realize doing this to the extent he did is very difficult. But growing up with it I learned that the idea that you could design the whole life (including everything) to maximize life. And that it may well be that extra effort at work rather than detracting from the rest of life enhances it. For me the key is to focus on maximizing the whole and within that realizing sometimes there are tradeoff (essentially a zero sum game) but there may well be times when you can design the system of your life to find win win solutions.

Keeping Older Workers

Thu, 5 Mar 2026

Finland, Japan and a few others may lead the way but the western industrialized world is quickly aging. It seems pretty straight forward that the aging workforce is going to be needed. And companies are going to have to adapt (that is my prediction anyway). I have always thought it is crazy that we work full time and then stop all together. It makes much more sense to me for there to be a gradual easing of the workload.

Business 901 Podcast with John Hunter: Two New Deadly Diseases for Business

Wed, 4 Mar 2026

I recorded a series of podcasts when promoting my new book – Management Matters: Building Enterprise Capability.

In this podcast I discuss the 2 new deadly diseases facing companies: excessive executive pay and systemic "intellectual property" related problems.

Deming on being Destroyed by Best Efforts

Wed, 4 Mar 2026

Best efforts are essential. Unfortunately, best efforts, people charging this way and that way without guidance of principles, can do a lot of damage. Think of the chaos that would come if everyone did his best, not knowing what to do.

W. Edwards Deming

Benefits of a Mediterranean Diet May Include Reduced Risk of Cognitive Impairment As We Age

Tue, 3 Mar 2026

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I have been taking this into account in my eating. I try to eat much more green leafy vegetable (though more is from my very low levels before). I try to reduce the amount of meat and increase the amount of fish and nuts. I try to eat enough fiber and I eat yogurt. I try to eat more fruits and vegetables in general. I try to reduce the amount of processed foods and sugar. My diet is far from great but it is much better than is was 20 years ago. I have probably been focused on doing better for over 10 years (post from 9 years ago: Healthy Diet, Healthy Living, Healthy Weight).

Decorated House in Nigeria

Tue, 3 Mar 2026

Photo of this decorated house in Nigeria by Bill Hunter (see more photos by Bill Hunter).

Taken during our holiday trip; see more photos from our time in Africa.

Don’t Empower

Mon, 2 Mar 2026

Using the term, "empower", implies that it one person empowers another person. This is not the correct view. Instead we each play a role within a system. Yes there are constraints on your actions based on the role you are playing. Does a security guard empower the CEO to enter the building?

Don’t Empower

Mon, 2 Mar 2026

I believe I learned this from Peter Scholtes, though maybe I am remembering it wrong or explaining it wrong (so give him the credit and if I mess it up it is my fault). I believe there is a problem with using the term empowered. Using the term implies that it one person empowers another person. This is not the correct view. Instead we each play a role within a system. Yes there are constraints on your actions based on the role you are playing. Does a security guard empower the CEO to enter the building?

Huge Proposed Increases in USA Government Science and Engineering Support

Mon, 2 Mar 2026

The Biden administration has proposed greatly increasing USA government spending on science and engineering. They are proposing levels last seen in the 1960s when the USA was most committed to science and engineering spending (as most visibly seen in support for NASA).

Data Based Blathering

Sun, 1 Mar 2026

I am tired of seeing the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) promoted as if it were some encouragement for better management when all it seems to do to me is encourage superficial, non data based claims. And since it my blog I can rant if I feel like it.

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They think a flat American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) reading is going to lead to weak consumer spending? I doubt it. I really doubt it. What data, or theory is that based on? Jeez this whole thing just makes me crazy. Trying to use a index to promote the “importance of quality principles” (ASQ is one of the “sponsors” of this effort) and customer focus in this way – ARGH. It does the opposite – showing people how to misuse numbers. How to overreact to variation. How to compare one dot to another dot and make claims from those 2 dots. I am sure I will make mistakes in my statements but the ACSI has bugged me since it was started with the way it ignores sound quality practices and promotes the opposite of what people like Dr. Deming taught.

The Importance of Management Improvement

Sun, 1 Mar 2026

If organizations just adopt management improvement practices I firmly believe customer service, financial performance and employee satisfaction could be improved. This was a big part of the reason I started to use the internet to share management improvement ideas back in 1996 (plus I find management improvement interesting).

On the note of making a difference in people’s lives. I have had far more people tell me how my father (Bill Hunter) made a huge difference in their lives than ever tell me anything like that about myself...

New Health Care Insurance Subsidies in the USA

Sat, 28 Feb 2026

Under the new law, nobody will have to pay more than 8.5% of their income on health insurance. The government will also pick up 100% of COBRA premiums through September. COBRA is health insurance for people who’ve lost their jobs.

The Kaiser Family Foundation calculator lets you get a quick idea of what your approximate subsidy benefit. A 55 year old earning $55,000 would be entitled to a subsidy of $4,700 about 50% of their health insurance costs (based on the USA average). For a 50 year old the subsidy would be $2,900 or 38%. For a 60 year old the subsidy would be $6,800 or 59%. For a couple of 35 year olds and 2 children the subsidy would be $12,100 per year or 72%.

Learning from Customers

Sat, 28 Feb 2026

Create a management system focused on continual improvement that is engaged in seeking out customer feedback and continually improving the value provided to customers.

Most organizations do the opposite of this. They make put many barriers in the way of customers speaking to anyone that will listen. They put systems in place to discourage feedback from customers.

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Individual Stock Portfolio Investment Planning

Fri, 27 Feb 2026

Early last year when studying my portfolio I decided my two biggest positions (Apple and Google – those ready the blog won’t be surprised due to my 10 stocks for 10 years posts) continued to warrant the large portion of the portfolio they held. I also decided that I would systemically sell say 1% of Apple and 2% of Alphabet a year (the Apple dividend was also paying about 1% – actually it was more then but is much less now).

That was just a long term plan that helped me think about the long term portfolio management. But that, like all investment decision, was subject to revision. As both continued to soar I decided it made sense to sell more but maintain a similar plan, just maybe selling 2% and 4% a year...

Stop Demotivating Me!

Fri, 27 Feb 2026

...What should a manager do? Eliminate the de-motivators. Provide coaching (building the capacity or employees and the organization). And manage a system to allow people to take pride in what they do. Holding pizza parties, pep talks, displaying posters and annual performance reviews are not what is needed. But those actions are really easy so that is what some people do – instead of what is needed. How sad.

Creating Low-cost Construction Materials Using Recycled Plastic Waste

Thu, 26 Feb 2026

Nzambi Matee is a materials engineer and head of Gjenge Makers (in Kenya), which produces sustainable low-cost construction materials made of recycled plastic waste and sand. For her work, Nzambi Matee was recently named a Young Champions of the Earth by the United Nations Environment Programme.

Marissa Mayer Webcast on Google Innovation

Thu, 26 Feb 2026

Ideas come from anywhere (engineers, customers, managers, executives, external companies – that Google acquires)
Share everything you can (very open culture)
You’re Brilliant. We’re Hiring [Google Hiring]
A license to pursue dreams (Google 20% time)
Innovation not instant perfection (iteration – experiment quickly and often)
Data is apolitical [Data Based Decision Making – this is true but as an operating principle requires people that really understand data. See: Data can’t lie.
Creativity loves Constraints [process improvement and innovation]
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Data Can’t Lie

Thu, 26 Feb 2026

Many people don’t understand the difference between being manipulated because they can’t understand what the data really says and data itself “lying” (which, of course, doesn’t even make sense). The same confusion can come in when someone just draws the wrong conclusion from the data that exists (and them blames the data for “lying” instead of themselves for drawing a faulty conclusion).

The data can be wrong (and the data can even be made faulty intentionally by someone). Or someone can draw the wrong conclusion from data that is correct. But in neither case is the data lying. It is also common to believe the data means something other than what it does (therefore leading to a faulty conclusion).

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If all those involved understand how to draw conclusions from data it is not easy to mislead them.

Workplace Management by Taiichi Ohno

Wed, 25 Feb 2026

Ohno focused a great deal on the faulty perceptions derived from cost accounting thinking. He discussed the importance of not letting your understanding be clouded by thinking with the accounting mindset.

If you insist on blindly calculating individual costs and waste time insisting that this is profitable of that is not profitable, you will just increase the cost of your low volume products. For this reason there are many cases in this world where companies will discontinue car models that are actually profitable, but are money losers according to their calculations. Likewise, there are cases where companies sell a lot of model that they think is profitable but in fact are only increasing their loses.

New York City in 2007

Wed, 25 Feb 2026

Photos from my trip to New York City in 2007, photos include: The Cloisters (part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art – though located far uptown) art and architecture of medieval Europe, the remodeled Museum of Modern Art, Rockefeller Center, Empire State Building and Flatiron Building.

Interview of Bill Hunter: Improving Quality and Productivity in Organizations

Tue, 24 Feb 2026

Bill discusses the parallels to how a manager applying management improvement principles is very similar to an educator facilitating adult learning. Rather than an authoritarian approach where the boss tells subordinates what to do a manager helps employees achieve better results by supporting their efforts.

Photos of China in 1982

Tue, 24 Feb 2026

My father, Bill Hunter, taught summer courses on statistics and industrial engineering in China when China was still mostly closed to foreigners. After the courses he took a week or two vacation to visit a China few foreigners had seen to that point. See photos of China in 1982.

Finding Great Investments Keeps Getting Harder

Mon, 23 Feb 2026

In some ways investing recently has been pretty easy, anything you have bought (almost) goes up – and usually goes up a lot. But when looking for bargains to invest in, it just keeps getting more and more difficult in my opinion.

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Overall I am going much more into cash as a safe haven than I have before. Normally I am extremely overweight stocks. Even today I am still overweight stocks compared to the conventional wisdom

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While the markets are giving investors great returns finding good buys is becoming more and more difficult (at least for me). For example, my 10 Stocks for 10 Years (2018 version) has done very well. But several of those stocks are much less a bargain today that they were. Apple is up from $225 to $450. Danaher from $103 to $206. Amazon from $2,000 to $3,150. Tencent from $43 to $68...

US Savings Bonds – Actually a Good Investment Option

Mon, 23 Feb 2026

I will admit I have only recently looked at US Savings Bonds as an investment option. Series I USA savings bonds are based on the inflation rate and given how strongly the Fed has been surpassing interest rates this offers an option to get a higher rate of interest. The rate is calculated as follows:

Composite rate = [fixed rate + (2 x semiannual inflation rate) + (fixed rate x semiannual inflation rate)]

2.22% = [0.0020 + (2 x 0.0101) + (0.0020 x 0.0101)]

This is calculated based on a fixed rate of .2% (showing how depressed interest rates are) and 1.01% inflation rate for a 6 month period (which also is low but compared to interest rates pretty high).

You may buy series I US savings bonds online via TreasuryDirect. In a calendar year, you can acquire up to $10,000 in electronic I bonds.

Privacy Invasion as a Business Plan

Sun, 22 Feb 2026

One of the worst behaviors by internet companies is to collect phone numbers in order to facilitate selling and integration of private information while pretending it is somehow a security issue. Though security experts all say using phone numbers for security adds security risks instead of using much more secure methods such as a security key. Companies that use deceptive security methods to collect phone numbers in order to sell the private information of their users make it very hard to trust what else they are doing.

Twitter has long claimed a security reason to collect phone numbers [Twitter faces $250 million fine from the US FCC for these practices abusing the private information of users].

I Have Published an Update to Management Matters: Building Enterprise Capability

Sun, 22 Feb 2026

I have published some edits and additional content for my book – Management Matters: Building Enterprise Capability.

One of the things I really like about how I have published the book (with Leanpub) is that anyone that has previously purchased the book gets these, and all future, updates for free. So if you have purchased it, go get your free update. If you haven’t purchased it, please consider buying a copy...

Huge Growth in USA Corporate Debt from 2005 to 2020

Sat, 21 Feb 2026

There are many problems with the extremely low interest rates available in decade since the too-big-to-fail financial crisis. The interest rates seem to me to be artificially sustained by massive central bank actions for 12 years now.

Extraordinarily low rates encourage businesses to borrow money, after all how hard is it to invest in something that will return the business more than a few percent a year (that they can borrow at). Along with the continued efforts by the central banks to flood the economy with money any time there is even a slowdown in growth teaches companies to not worry about building a business that can survive bad times. Just borrow and if necessary borrow more if you are having trouble then just borrow more.

Retirement Portfolio Allocation for 2020

Sat, 21 Feb 2026

The markets continue to provide difficult options to investors. In the typical market conditions of the last 50 years I think a sensible portfolio allocation was not that challenging to pick. I would choose a bit more in stocks than bonds than the commonly accepted strategy. And I would choose to put a bit more overseas and in real estate.

But if that wasn’t done and even something like 60% stocks and 40% bonds were chosen it would seem reasonable (or 60% stocks 25% bonds and 15% money market – I really prefer a substantial cushion in cash in retirement). Retirement planning is fairly complex and many adjustments are wise for an individual’s particular situation (so keep in mind this post is meant to discuss general conditions today and not suggest what is right for any specific person).

This post was written before #covid19 became the enormous economic clamity it has become. Based on the poor preparation to fight Covid19 by the USA and Europe I sold some stocks and reduced global exposure and emeriging market exposure. I didn't reduce it to zero or anything close to that, but as I say I am usually overweight stocks and I had reduced how much I was overweight due to high stock valuations and with the likely Covid 19 problems I further reduced stocks to make my portfolio probably even a little bit underweight stocks (but still over 50% stocks).

I am more active than most people should be with their investments (I think it works for me but maybe I should be less active too, I just pay much more attention than most people and feel I can make some adjustments that are sensible.).

Using Incentives to Guide Social System Improvements

Fri, 20 Feb 2026

... In Stockholm people were against congestion pricing (70% to 30%). This isn’t surprising they see a new tax that only is a cost. They don’t understand that the system performance is going to improve – the cost will provide a benefit. Leadership is required to push forward when the benefits are not obvious to everyone. Once people saw that congestion was greatly decreased 70% supported congestion pricing.

Tencent Gaming

Fri, 20 Feb 2026

Tencent is one of the stocks in my 10 stocks for 10 years portfolio. In fact it is my largest holding (when you consider that Tencent shares owned by Naspers. Some others have performed better since my reboot of the portfolio in August of 2018: Apple (from 225 to 318) and Danaher (from 103 to 162) and Naspers (33 to 34, which might not seem so great but 2 spinoffs provide another 15) but I still like Tencent a great deal for the next 8 to 10 years.

Tencent has quite a few huge global businesses. One of the most promising areas is Tencent Gaming. Tencent has ownership in many of the largest computer gaming companies globally...

Hey Siri, You Can Do Better

Thu, 19 Feb 2026

Software testing is more than just automated testing. While checking that specific details work as expected in specific situations with automated testing is very useful it is far from sufficient way to test if software will delight users.

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software testing also requires thoughtful analysis of the experience of the user and how that is at risk with the current iteration of the software (Software Testers Are Test Pilots). Automated testing is critical as you can create checks for thousands of situations to run extremely quickly each time any changes are made to the software. But it is not sufficient. Many situations can only be explored and experienced by a thinking software tester that uses the software and thinks about how a user might react and how that user could be confused or disappointed by the existing user experience.

Business 901 Podcast with Me: Deming’s Management Ideas Today

Thu, 19 Feb 2026

Here are some links related to items I mention in the podcast:

The W. Edwards Deming Institute Blog
William Hunter, my father. Link to paper with Easaw Chacko on Building a Quality Movement within a developing nation, 1972. Developing Children’s Numeracy Using Dice
Shoichiro Toyoda, Honorary Chairman and director of Toyota: “There is not a day I don’t think about what Dr. Deming meant to us. Deming is the core of our management.”
Statistics for Experimenters by George Box, Bill Hunter and Stu Hunter.
City of Madison applying Deming’s management ideas...

The World’s Smallest Mobile Color Printer

Wed, 18 Feb 2026

Cool gadget: PrinCube is a tiny handheld, portable printer: it fits in the palm of your hand. It works over wifi with your phone to easily upload any text, image, or design and instantly print onto virtually any object or surface at the touch of a button.

It makes precise prints on virtually any materials including paper, metal, textiles, plastics, wood, leather and other building and artistic materials.

Management Improvement System Flavors

Tue, 17 Feb 2026

There are many useful concepts, tools and practices within what people refer to as agile software development. And the same can be said for lean. But they are distinct approaches (the links in this post flush out this idea more for those interested in learning more on that topic). That isn’t to say an organization cannot design their own solution that adopts ideas found in each approach. In fact doing so for software development makes sense in my opinion.

Bill Hunter and the Quality Movement

Tue, 17 Feb 2026

In the presentation George Box discusses interesting student design of experiments projects; read more on those efforts in 101 Ways to Design an Experiment, or Some Ideas About Teaching Design of Experiments.

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George's closing statement:

We carry in our hearts the inspiring memory of not only a scholar but a man that was resourceful, warm, skillful, courageous, optimistic, helpful, enterprising and generous. His career was whole and balanced in a way that is rare and as we grieve his death we also celebrate the life of a remarkable man.

Deming on Management: Psychology

Mon, 16 Feb 2026

Within Deming’s SoPK the psychology component includes an appreciation of:

how will people are influenced by management policies (for example, targets or a culture of blaming individuals)
the innate desire people have to take pride in their work
how people resist change (and how to reduce that resistance)
confirmation bias (one way our brains can lead us astray)
what drives people to behave as they do
and much more - continue reading the rest of the post to learn more...

Management by Walking Around

Mon, 16 Feb 2026

Management by walking around (MBWA) is based on the concept that a manager needs to actually understand what is really going on – not just view reports in an office. By seeing the actual state of affairs they can better understand what management improvements are actually doing where work is being done. Lean thinking includes a great deal on the importance of going to the gemba to make decisions. Anyone interested in MBWA should look at some of that material (as often MBWA is too superficial to do much good).

How to Successfully Lead Change Efforts

Sun, 15 Feb 2026

In order to lead efforts to improve the management of an organization understanding how people will react to change is critical. For that reason I have written about change management often on this blog since I started publishing it in 2004.

In, Why Do People Fail to Adopt Better Management Methods?, I wrote:

It seems that if there were better ways to manage, people would adopt those methods. But this just isn’t the case; sometimes better methods will be adopted but often they won’t. People can be very attached to the way things have always been done. Or they can just be uncomfortable with the prospect of trying something new.

Leading change efforts requires paying attention to the existing conditions: the culture, the motivation to adopt this change and/or the motivation to resist it, the history of change where the change is being attempted and the reasons the change is desired (by at least you and hopefully others). And then you need to build a case for the change and manage the process.

Human Resources in the Post Deming Era

Sun, 15 Feb 2026

There are many ways in which the management of our organizations needs to improve (understanding how to use data effectively, systems thinking…) and one of those important areas is in managing people. Managers spend far too little time learning about the existing conditions the people in the organization face, coaching those employees and working on improving the management system to help employees do great work.

The Joy of Work

Sat, 14 Feb 2026

We spend much of our life at work: we deserve to have pride in what we do and even enjoy it (shocking I know). Read the respect for people posts for some ideas on how to make your workplace better.

Alley Spring Mill Trail, Missouri

Sat, 14 Feb 2026

The Alley Spring Mill is in the Ozark National Scenic Riverway (part of the National Park system). The mill itself looks wonderful next to the pond and also has some interesting details inside.

Corn and wheat was loaded at the ground level of the building and moved up to the top via the tiny buckets driven by the water wheel. Then the grain was filtered and ground using the water wheel as the source of power (moving up via the mini bucket elevators and down shoots to the machines on the ground level in sequence)...

Respect for People – Understanding Psychology

Fri, 13 Feb 2026

I see building improvement capacity of the organization, which largely means building the capacity of the people, as an extremely important focus of improvement efforts. It is, at times, important to slow down the pace of change to ensure that people can adopt and incorporate the new concepts fully. If not, the improvements tend to only take effect on the surface.

Improvements in results are important but it is also critical to have management improvement concepts adopted as the natural way of doing business.

Focus on Customers and Employees

Fri, 13 Feb 2026

I believe it is the purpose of organization to serve many stakeholders(customer, employees, stockholders, community…). Thankfully some companies agree: Compensation at Whole Foods – Starbucks: Respect for Workers... Here is another example – How Costco Became the Anti-Wal-Mart...

I am happy to invest in companies where all stakeholders are winning – I think that is a great long term strategy...

Deming on Management: PDSA Cycle

Thu, 12 Feb 2026

Blog posts

What are We Trying to Accomplish?“In The Improvement Guide, the authors add 3 questions to the PDSA cycle: What are we trying to accomplish? – How will we know that a change is an improvement? – What change can we make that will result in improvement?”
Keys to the Effective Use of the PDSA Improvement Cycle
Do the experiment

...

Process Improvement and Innovation

Thu, 12 Feb 2026

Every so often an article appears discussing the need to change focus from process improvement to innovation... I disagree on several grounds. First you have needed to focus on both all the time. Second, it is not an either or choice. Third, the process of innovation should be improved.

Failure to Address Systemic SWAT Raid Failures

Wed, 11 Feb 2026

The systemic failure of police raids continues to cause deaths of innocent people...

There is a need to fix this system – not just making excuses every time yet another mistake is made. The mistakes are not special causes unique to the individual case but the common cause errors resulting from the current management practices.

Leading The Transformation Process

Wed, 11 Feb 2026

Transformation starts with the individual but as they change they can run into organizational barriers and resistance to change. Similarly if the organization institutes changes without helping people change their own understanding and views those people resist the changes in the organization.

Deming’s management system provides a view of the organization as a system, including the people in that organization, and ideas for how to manage the transformation as an integrated system. The interactions between the components of the system and people must be considered and managed to transform. And those interactions continually change as the overall system evolves.

Factfulness – The Importance of Critical Thinking

Tue, 10 Feb 2026

I have come to see a willingness to value critical thinking, even when it means forcing the organization to address tough issues, as one the differences between organizations that succeed in applying management improvement methods and those that fail. In many organizations that fail, more weight given to making things easy for your bosses versus continual improvement in providing value to customers (which often requires challenging existing processes, beliefs and power structures in the organization).

Challenging the status quo is difficult and most organizations prefer to maintain a culture that takes an easier path. Management improvement often requires a willingness to encourage challenges to the status quo. The importance of challenging the status quo in your organization and in your own thinking is under appreciated.

Why Isn’t Work Standard?

Tue, 10 Feb 2026

When standard work is not followed by one person then it might be that intervention with that one person is needed (or in some cases it might be that person found a better way and you need to update the standard and figure out why the standard wasn’t updated before – probably a system problem, annoying to follow procedure to get improvement adopted…). Much more often “policy” (which might be similar to standard work – but I think standard work really requires a system that is missing in places where “standard work” is not standard at all) is not followed in general – everyone does their own thing.

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What needs to be worked on is the failure of the management to create a system where standard work is the way work is done, not blaming everyone for not following the standard in various ways.

Leading Quality: Some Practical Approaches to the Managers New Job

Mon, 9 Feb 2026

Throughout the talk Peter emphasis the importance of viewing the organization as a system and using the knowledge from that view to inform how the organization is lead, managed and how people are able to work. With a systems view it is possible to appreciate how many individual factors interact to impact how successful an organization can be and how those factors interact with each other.

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Peter Scholtes:

We need to define what our customers get from us, not in terms of the product that we sell or the service that we offer, but in terms of capability that they acquire from us.

How to Get Ahead

Mon, 9 Feb 2026

I find that who says something is usually more important in predicting how people will react than what is said. As I have tested this myself I have learned how biased people are by who is talking; and I have tried to correct the judgments I reach (I know I don’t do it all the time but I try to especially for important things).

No Excessive Senior Executive Pay at Toyota

Sun, 8 Feb 2026

Toyota’s 32 top executives received just over $12 million in salary. Toyota made something like $13,000,000,000 in profits. With the top 32 executives getting about $20,000,000 that is .15% of earnings. Even if there are some other benefits not included in the total that .15% figure for the top 32 executives doesn’t really compare to ludicrous pay of many CEOs in the USA. Toyota has a different paradigm than the others (they believe in the organization as a system not hero worship practiced by USA companies to justify ludicras executive salaries).

Parfrey’s Glen, Wisconsin

Sun, 8 Feb 2026

Parfrey’s Glen is about an hour outside of Madison next to the Ice Age National Scenic Trail. The trail covers over 1,200 miles throughout Wisconsin.

John Hunter's blog posts (all time)

Bring Me Solutions Not Problems

Cool Workspaces

Psychology Often Drives Decisions Rather Than Rational Thought

Science Explained: Wind Powered Vehicle Traveling Faster Than the Wind

How to Lead From Any Level In the Organization

CEO’s Given Lottery Sized Payouts

Creating an Integrated Life Where Work Adds to Life

Keeping Older Workers

Business 901 Podcast with John Hunter: Two New Deadly Diseases for Business

Deming on being Destroyed by Best Efforts

Benefits of a Mediterranean Diet May Include Reduced Risk of Cognitive Impairment As We Age

Decorated House in Nigeria

Don’t Empower

Don’t Empower

Huge Proposed Increases in USA Government Science and Engineering Support

Data Based Blathering

The Importance of Management Improvement

New Health Care Insurance Subsidies in the USA

Learning from Customers

Individual Stock Portfolio Investment Planning

Stop Demotivating Me!

Creating Low-cost Construction Materials Using Recycled Plastic Waste

Marissa Mayer Webcast on Google Innovation

Data Can’t Lie

Workplace Management by Taiichi Ohno

New York City in 2007

Interview of Bill Hunter: Improving Quality and Productivity in Organizations

Photos of China in 1982

Finding Great Investments Keeps Getting Harder

US Savings Bonds – Actually a Good Investment Option

Privacy Invasion as a Business Plan

I Have Published an Update to Management Matters: Building Enterprise Capability

Huge Growth in USA Corporate Debt from 2005 to 2020

Retirement Portfolio Allocation for 2020

Using Incentives to Guide Social System Improvements

Tencent Gaming

Hey Siri, You Can Do Better

Business 901 Podcast with Me: Deming’s Management Ideas Today

Popular Posts on the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog in 2019

The World’s Smallest Mobile Color Printer

Management Improvement System Flavors

Bill Hunter and the Quality Movement

Deming on Management: Psychology

Management by Walking Around

How to Successfully Lead Change Efforts

Human Resources in the Post Deming Era

The Joy of Work

Alley Spring Mill Trail, Missouri

Respect for People – Understanding Psychology

Focus on Customers and Employees

Deming on Management: PDSA Cycle

Process Improvement and Innovation

Failure to Address Systemic SWAT Raid Failures

Leading The Transformation Process

Factfulness – The Importance of Critical Thinking

Why Isn’t Work Standard?

Leading Quality: Some Practical Approaches to the Managers New Job

How to Get Ahead

No Excessive Senior Executive Pay at Toyota

Parfrey’s Glen, Wisconsin