PERSPECTIVES

Kevin McManus

Performance by Kevin McManus

Watching my measurement madness
I have been measuring processes of all types for years, but this is the first time I had decent "real time" analytics on the back end of a personal process data collection effort. In spite of knowing this data mattered little to anyone other than myself, I was still quite shocked by how the daily measurement effort affected my behavior.

Paul Engle

Management by Paul Engle

Contrasting leaders and managers
Many team members confuse management with leadership. Our definition agrees with many experts: Management achieves short-term goals and solves tactical problems; leadership charts a course for the future and enables team members to achieve the organization's long-term goals through strategic initiatives.

Peter Woodbridge

Health Systems by Peter Woodbridge

Addressing wicked problems in patient care
Systems improvement tools that work well for tame problems do not work for wicked problems. Incomplete information, atypical patient presentations, coexisting conditions, patient variability and their spontaneous decline or recovery contribute to the complexity of a diagnosis. These factors, as well as side-effect trade-offs, confound treatment choices. A drug appropriate for one patient may not work for another.

Ricardo Valerdi

Systems Engineering by Ricardo Valerdi

Takeaways from a systems thinking colloquium
A few months ago, I was fortunate to receive an invitation to attend the Systems Thinking Colloquium at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts. The objective of the event was to bring together thought leaders in systems thinking to provide "perspectives in systems thinking" to further our understanding of this transdisciplinary field.

Caitlin Kenney

Career Enhancement by Caitlin Kenney

A PE can set your resume apart
When chatting with folks about the professional engineer's license, I often hear, "I'm getting my Ph.D. instead" or "I'm in academia. I don't need a PE." This makes me cringe because becoming a professional engineer is not competing with your Ph.D. or academia. The PE enhances your academic prowess by demonstrating you have applied professional experience and knowledge.