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Posts selected fromManagement Blog - Engineering Blog - Investing Blog and other blogs

• A Wise Way to Subsidize Electricity Rates

  When I lived in Malaysia I learned that the residential electricity rates were very low for the low levels of use and climbed fairly rapidly as you used a lot of electricity (say running your air conditioner a lot). I think this is a very good idea (especially for the not yet rich countries).

  Effectively the rich end up subsidizing the low rates for the poor, which is a very sensible setup it seems to me. The market functions fairly well even though it is distorted a bit to let the poor (or anyone that uses very little electricity) to pay low rates.

  In a country like Malaysia as people become rich they may well decide to use a great deal of electricity for air conditioning.

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• Ikea Business Model; and Growth and Society

  all you have to do is look at all the extremely highly paid executives in USA charities to see that charities often take on the form of corporations being run 1st to make executives happy and 2nd for other reasons (charitable in the instance of charities, education in the instance of large universities, profits of shareholders and all the other stakeholders in the instance of companies).

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• Process Behavior Charts are the Secret to Understanding the Organization as a System

  the power to improving performance is understanding if the problems are due to common causes or special causes. For common causes we need to explore the entire system, and all the data, and seek to improve the overall system. For special causes we need to seek what is special about the bad result and seek to eliminate that problem from causing problems in the future. Unfortunately most problems are system based and we most often jump to special cause thinking (so we often take the wrong approaches to improvement).

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• Deming’s Management Ideas Evolved Into the System of Profound Knowledge

  W. Edwards Deming spent decades refining his thoughts on management and refining how to present those thoughts. That thinking culminated in what he call the System of Profound Knowledge (SoPK).

  Over time his ideas remained grounded to what he expressed in the 1950’s. The expression of those ideas became richer and he raised the emphasis on understanding the critical interactions between the elements. He never saw the individual items (for example, individual points in the 14 points) as discrete items. They work together as a system. The SoPK provides a view that emphasizes the importance of the interdependence within the entire system of management.

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• Backyard Wildlife: Fox

  I have seen this (or another fox) several times recently but this was the first time it stayed visible long enough for me to get a photo. It is fun having backyard wildlife to connect us to nature.

  A few years ago another fox enjoyed laying out in the sun in my backyard for a few weeks.

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• Singapore Zoo

  The Singapore Zoo has a great reputation, and for good reason. It isn’t cheap to get in, but for that money you do get a very nicely designed zoo. The zoo also supports various conservation efforts and research projects.

  See photos on my visit to the zoo in the post.

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• Economics: Digital Nomads, Visas, Foreign Currency

  The prohibition against work on tourist visas makes sense when work is defined as it was historically (being hired by a company in the country that otherwise would have hired a citizen)...

  Few laws say what is legal they normally say what is not. I would imagine few countries specifically say it is legal to do work from another country (as a digital nomad, as a employee answering an email on your vacation, as a private investor reading the news and using the internet to buy or sell a stock using your broker at home, as a writer writing your book that will be published back home or whatever).  It seems pretty obvious you are not blocked from answering a work email while on vacation but exactly at what point a country wants to draw a line on acceptable work on a tourist visa and unacceptable work is not easy.

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• Culture Change Requires That Leaders Change Their Behavior

  ...Real gains can be made by applying a few tools and concepts effectively; without transformation. But changes to the culture come from significant changes in how people think...

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• Data is Important and You Must Confirm What the Data Actually Says

  If you do not have operational definitions for data provided in your organization, as you often will not, you need to figure out if the data is worth trusting (possibly by visiting the gemba) or whether you need to establish operational definitions and make sure new data is collected using the operational definitions.

  Often the variation in the collection of data will hamper your ability to use PDSA. If you practiced PDSA as you should, this wouldn’t be a problem, because you would make sure data had operational definitions.

  Without reliable data, the conclusions that will be drawn from results ads a great deal of potential for error to your effort.

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• Data is Important and You Must Confirm What the Data Actually Says

  Without an appreciation for the gemba, where the data was collected, it is easy to be mislead by the data.

  The most common waste of effort in examining data is reacting to the expected variation of a system as if it is something special. We have discussed this in many previous posts, for example, We Need to Understand Variation to Manage Effectively. After that, I think there is a good chance of failure to appreciate what the data is, and is not, telling us based on mistaken assumptions about what the operational definitions were...

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• Leper King Terrace, Angkor Thom, Siem Reap, Cambodia

  The Leper King Terrace is founds on the North end of the Terrace of the Elephants in the Angkor Thom complex, north of Bayon temple (Siem Reap, Cambodia). There is a narrow pathway that winds between the wall of the terrace.

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• Don’t Hide Important Content Using Coding Gimmicks

  The hidden text here is due to hiden content that only becomes visible once the user clicks something (and instead of going to a page that highlights that content, some content is unhidden and other content is added to the hidden content on the page). It is just a bad Ux practice in general (as with many Ux issues there are odd cases where it can make sense).

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• Podcast with Lynda Finn: The Value of the Simple Run Chart

  Looking closely at a specific result is helpful if the result is “special”; has an identifiable special cause for that result. But in most cases the result is do to common causes of the system and the most effective strategy to improve is to look at all the data and seek to find improvement to the overall system that will change the overall performance of the system.

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• Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE) and Location Independent Working

  Combining FIRE and location independent work provides some valuable benefits. If you have some investments saved up that can be tapped as you travel that can meet some of your living costs, this aids on of the bigger challenges – how to earn money while you travel. And if you travel frugally you can reduce your costs (below what you speed where you used to live).

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• The Importance of a Work Culture That Values and Supports Critical Thinking

  Critical thinking is tremendously important. I have come to think it might be the most important precursor to management improvement (evidence based management, continual improvement...).

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