Quotes in respect for people

the system that people work in and the interaction with people may account for 90 or 95 percent of performance.

It is a testament to our naïveté about culture that we think that we can change it by simply declaring new values. Such declarations usually produce only cynicism.

The key factor you can use to make employees miserable on the job is to simply keep them from making progress in meaningful work.

Standards should not be forced down from above but rather set by the production workers themselves.

The idea of a merit rating is alluring. The sound of the words captivates the imagination: pay for what you get; get what you pay for; motivate people to do their best, for their own good.

The effect is exactly the opposite of what the words promise.

Leaders don't create followers, they create more leaders.

Take time to appreciate employees and they will reciprocate in a thousand ways.

Why did the system allow that mistake to be made?

What? You can’t expect us to design systems that prevent mistakes from being made.

Yes I can. That is much more sensible than expecting people never to make a mistake.

What you are as a person is far more important that what you are as a basketball player.

Less than 5 percent result from people committing errors. Human error is a negligible source of our problems. Yet because we don't understand systems, we act as though human error were the primary cause of our problems.