Recently added management articles

Individually selected articles, reports, videos and blog posts on topics in management improvement including: lean thinking, Deming, leadership, six sigma, agile software development and managing people. See Curious Cat favorites and the Curious Cat Management Blog.

• Seeing Your Company as a System by Andrea Gabor "The recognition that a company is a complex social system and a living community has been an underlying theme of leading management thinkers as far back as the early 20th century. Nevertheless, the machine continues to be the dominant metaphor for business leaders, many of whom seek to solve their problems by 'pulling levers' or 'pushing buttons': making large-scale changes without a clear feeling for how those changes will affect the collective action of the company. The speed and complexity of the global business environment calls for a new appreciation of a systems-focused view of the world, one that recognizes the interrelationships of people, processes, and decisions — and designs organizational actions accordingly."
• Standardized Work is a Goal To Work Toward, Not a Tool to Implement by Jeffrey Liker Standardized work is foundational to the Toyota Production System, yet remains one of the most misunderstood principles to outsiders. It is crucial to understand the true purpose of this foundational practice. Standardized work in the context of the Toyota Way refers to the most efficient and effective combination of people, material, and equipment to perform the work that is presently possible. “Presently possible” means it is today’s best-known way, which can be improved.
• Blind Spots in Learning and Inference by Gipsie Ranney "We all face an onslaught of information daily. We use some of that information to learn and make inferences. As we do so, it helps to know about and avoid potential blind spots. In the following article, I point out some of these blind spots. I will use several examples taken from the reports and analyses of the Challenger and Columbia space shuttle disasters, not because I wish to criticize the U. S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), but because information is publicly available about those two events."
• Reconstruction of a Train Wreck: How Priming Research Went off the Rails "Small samples can be sufficient to detect large effects. However, small effects require large samples. The probability of replicating a published finding is a function of sample size and effect size. The Replicability Index (R-Index) makes it possible to use information from published results to predict how replicable published results are." ... Five years later, Kahneman’s concerns have been largely confirmed. Major studies in social priming research have failed to replicate and the replicability of results in social psychology is estimated to be only 25%" Daniel Kahneman: "The lesson I have learned, however, is that authors who review a field should be wary of using memorable results of underpowered studies as evidence for their claims."
• Foundations For Transformation: Linking Purpose, People and Process by Mike Stoecklein "Nearly all organizations have attempted some type of company-wide improvement effort, and most managers and workers in organizations have experienced attempts to introduce and implement different management approaches. The experience for most people has been a series of programs (flavors of the month1) rather than the pursuit of a philosophy of improvement. We have observed predictable patterns in companies that pursue company-wide improvement from nearly all industries and share them in this paper. The foundations for transformation can be applied to not only business, but also government and education."
• What Google Learned From Its Quest to Build the Perfect Team "Google’s intense data collection and number crunching have led it to the same conclusions that good managers have always known. In the best teams, members listen to one another and show sensitivity to feelings and needs."
• The Lean shut-down of Toyota Manufacturing in Australia by James P. Womack Toyota again showed their respect for people and commitment to principles with their shut down of manufacturing in Australia. "Toyota accepted the fact that closure of the plant required a transition to new work for most employees and that Toyota needed to take the lead. Senior management understood that its obligation before producing the last car was to manufacture 2,600 upskilled and reskilled employees equipped for new careers."
• A Method of Estimating Plane Vulnerability Based on Damage of Survivors by Abraham Wald
• A manifesto for reproducible science "Here we propose a series of measures that we believe will improve research efficiency and robustness of scientific findings by directly targeting specific threats to reproducible science. We argue for the adoption, evaluation and ongoing improvement of these measures to optimize the pace and efficiency of knowledge accumulation. The measures are organized into the following categories methods, reporting and dissemination, reproducibility, evaluation and incentives. They are not intended to be exhaustive, but provide a broad, practical and evidence-based set of actions that can be implemented by researchers, institutions, journals and funders."
• Improve the Affordable Care Act, Don’t Repeal It by John Toussaint "when patients do need care, the processes of care delivery must be redesigned to radically improve the patient experience and reduce errors; 250,000 people dying every year from medical error is unacceptable. Finally, individual hospital and provider outcomes must be made public to the consumer so patient choice can play a role in reform. Parts of the ACA are clearly on the right track to address health care reform. Other parts need to be significantly improved. The focus should be on improving the affordability of health care for every American. This should be the number one priority of the new government."
• Understanding Variation, 2016 Update by Lloyd Provost, Thomas Nolan
• Response surface methods and sequential exploration by Ron Kenett, David M. Steinberg "A typical response surface study begins with a screening experiment to identify the most important factors. Small, orthogonal experimental plans and simple regression models are usually used for screening (see our second and third blog posts in this series). Subsequent experiments will depend on the results of the screening experiment. For example, factors that had small effects might be dropped from further consideration. Other factors might be added. The team might decide to shift the levels of some of the factors to get better results for the critical quality attributes (CQA’s). If the results suggest that a first-order model is no longer a good fit to the data, the team expands the design to permit fitting a second-degree regression model."
• Lean accounting: a few key lessons from Wiremold "companies often don’t understand lean because their CFOs don’t. ... lean doesn’t need the “support” of top management, whatever that means; it needs active, hands-on “doing” leadership. At Wiremold we used to organize “President’s kaizens” in which all executives participated, together with the workers in one of our facilities. That is more than just support!"
• Robustness in the Strategy of Scientific Model Building by George E. P. Box "All models are wrong but some are useful ... The iterative building process for scientific models can take place over short or long periods of time. ... It should be remembered that just as the Declaration of Independance promises the pursuit of happiness rather than happiness itself, so the iterative scientific model building process offers only the pursuit of the perfect model."
• American Statistical Association (ASA) Statement on Statistical Significance and P-Values "Practices that reduce data analysis or scientific inference to mechanical “bright-line” rules (such as “p < 0.05”) for justifying scientific claims or conclusions can lead to erroneous beliefs and poor decision making. A conclusion does not immediately become “true” on one side of the divide and “false” on the other. Researchers should bring many contextual factors into play to derive scientific inferences"
• W. Edwards Deming - The Management Thinker We Should Never Have Forgotten "His main point is that leaders must build deep trust among workers and managers, which emanates from a strong purpose and shared values. It seems logical enough — and more important than ever. So how is it that more businesses don’t heed his message today?"
• Profound Knowledge: A New Synthesis from a Transcending Perspective to Personal Improvement by Clare Crawford Mason "We are all familiar with the systems diagram Dr. Deming put on the blackboard in l950 to show the Japanese industrial leaders that manufacturing was a system and should include the customer and supplier and be continually improved. I think of this drawing as a revolutionary artifact like Newton's falling apple and James Watt's mother's tea kettle. All involve ideas that changed the world. "
• The Serial Improver Profile of Julie McGrory, Head of Continuous Improvement, HM Courts and Tribunals Service, London, UK. "At its heart lean has respect for people and for their ability to solve problems for themselves and their customers. If your strategy allows for that to happen you will be on your way to developing the right culture for your organization."