Organizations put up slogans because they want to inspire better performance. The intent usually isn’t the problem. The problem is that slogans assume the issue is with workers’ effort or attitude rather than with the system they’re forced to work…
Earlier this month, for the College Football Playoff championship game, I wrote about “Lessons from the Football Coaching and Leadership Styles of the Oregon Ducks and Ohio State Buckeyes.” I had found articles about both teams in the name of…
I had planned on chilling out over the holidays by reading some books that aren’t related to Lean, Kaizen, etc. Novels are not normally my thing and I started reading How Doctors Think, which had been on my Kindle to-read list…
tl;dr: Red-green charts push leaders to react to every up and down, turning normal variation into false drama. Process behavior charts provide the context needed to see signal vs. noise–so leaders improve the system instead of chasing each data point.…
Many healthcare organizations are non-profits. They provide some “community benefit” in terms of charity care (as do for-profit healthcare organizations). Then, there are healthcare organizations that are very charity focused, where providing free care and social services is their primary…
Since moving to San Antonio two years ago, I’ve become a big fan of the San Antonio Spurs. For one, it’s essentially a civic responsibility to cheer for them, with the Spurs being the only major pro team in town.…
I’ve really enjoyed reading the book The Essential Deming: Leadership Principles from the Father of Quality, which was published last year. I think this link will work… You can view my public Kindle notes and profile online. If you haven’t read Dr. Deming’s…
I was fortunate to be exposed to the writings of W. Edwards Deming before I even learned about Lean. While I sometimes get tired of reading new books on Lean and Toyota, I never tire of revisiting books by or…
Again, I’m very happy to host the Carnival for John Hunter and his Curious Cat management improvement blog. My job here is to share some noteworthy and thought provoking posts from the past few weeks from the blogs I try…
Listen My guest for podcast #175 is Mike Taubitz of the firm Sustainable Lean and FDR Safety. Mike is a retired GM employee (including a stint as Global Safety Director) and we met at the Michigan Lean Consortium conference in 2011.…
TL;DR: Deming argued that the role of a manager of people is not judging performance, ranking employees, or enforcing authority–but creating trust, understanding systems, coaching for learning, and improving conditions so people can succeed. Dr. W. Edwards Deming‘s last book…
Listen My guest for podcast #174 is John Hunter, a long-time friend and fellow blogger – at his Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog and, more recently, as a blogger for the W. Edwards Deming Institute. John has recently published a…
