If you are a younger reader, the man that I am referencing in this post is W. Edwards Deming, the late and in my opinion, great management philosopher and consultant. Dr. Deming is certainly well known in quality circles (bad pun intended), but scour today’s current management books and if you’re lucky, you might find an occasional reference. Fascinating treatment of a man that inspired and guided the rebuilding of a country (Japan) and that spent his last years trying to “keep American companies from committing suicide.”
Through no fault of their own, my recent informal polling of some really sharp university students (undergraduate and graduate), I found through the “show of hands” method that very few had ever heard of Deming, and those that knew the name didn’t really know much about him.
I refuse to let a group of talented emerging professionals run through any management course of mine without spending some time with Deming, and introduced them via a 15-minute interview that he conducted in 1984, entitled “Management’s Five Deadly Diseases.” I encourage you to do the same. It’s fifteen minutes of pure Deming in his affected, slow and hard to understand speaking-pattern, filled with wisdom for managers that transcends time. I’ve added this and a few other readings to your homework list below.
Following my Tuesday night showing of this video, I caught up with one of my favorite management thinkers, Bret Simmons at his Positive Organizational Behavior blog in a great post, “Toyota’s Quality Mess: What Would Deming Say?” Bret and I exchanged some notes reinforcing the impact that Deming’s work has had on both of us in our careers.
Homework for Your Career:
If you are curious to learn more and improve your understanding of the role of a manager and perhaps improve your performance, consider this homework list:
- Read my post: “Sixty Years of Deming and American Managers Forgot to Pay Attention,” and Bret’s post on “What Would Deming Say?”
- Visit the Deming Institute and learn more about his “Theory of Profound Knowledge” and his “14 Points for Management.”
- Watch the interview above on “Management’s 5 Deadly Diseases.”
- And if you’re really into it, find a copy of “Out of the Crisis” and shudder at the parallels and still relevant lessons.
The Bottom Line for Now:
I’m most definitely in the camp that says that the science and art of management have not moved forward much in the past 100 years and that has to change. I’m also critically concerned about learning from the past and understanding the wisdom of those that came before us. We’ve not yet moved beyond the flaws and failings that Deming saw clearly in the management practices of the industrial revolution. And in fact, the only way that we will move forward is through conscious effort, or should I say, “constancy of purpose.”
You owe it to yourself, your career and your firm to understand and learn from this great man. I’ve outlined the homework. The test results will be visible at the end of your career.
Art, very strongly concur with your bottom line. Deming clearly defined what was at stake and what needed to be done, but we are not much better off now than 28 years ago. In some ways we might be worse off because I think our ability to learn how to change is fundamentally broken. Keep up the great work teaching these very important concepts. Bret
Thanks, Bret. The “not better off” part rings painfully true. Thanks as well for your inspiration. -Art
That’s a big thumbs up from Bob and I. Deming is a hero of ours. Having worked in probably one of the most dysfunctional environments – The University, it was a sad day when one of the “hierarchicals” of the University (and he loved the hierarchical system and made sure he shared that love with all that came within ten feet of himself…need I go further? I think not) announced he needed to attend a “required” weekly Quality Circle meeting! Well okay, I was perhaps shocked, but it turned sad to know the Deming model is only as good as it is implemented. And having said that, The University is still a pitiful hierarchical system – Wow! BFO! (blinding flash of the obvious).
Food For Thought! Curious – how would you implement such a program here in our fundamentally broken and paralyzed-with-fear society?
Long live the Deming management model.
It seems that US business has no time for Deming’s management model. They are too concerned with short term gain over long term investment. I do think that this model will make a come back here at home, if US business want to make a comeback over China.
I would also offer my thoughts on Deming’s management ideas as a resource for those interested in learning more about Dr. Deming.
John, thanks for the great resource link and service that you provide.
Bob, I agree that the short term issue is one of the root causes. Pat, there are definitely many dysfunctional leaders and cultures that hide behind the veil of poorly implemented programs like quality. It starts with the leadership and flows from there.
Thanks to all for commenting! -Art
As an Industrial Engineer out of Wisconsin-Madison, I spent my college career having Deming’s 14 Points and George Box’s statistical analysis deeply ingrained in our thinking. (Box founded the statistics department and was claimed by the IE department)
I agree with you that statistical analysis and tracking have taken a back seat to the employee empowerment school of thought in general management. I believe this is because there are new realities which are not being well handled. Additionally, many people with the necessary analytical bent to use statistical controls were drawn to either Wall St or else to Silicon Valley. While it might not be popular in todays world to give these groups much credit, they funded and innovated capabilities which have changed the world.
One of the reasons I’m optimistic about the future of American business is that many of those people are coming back into the general business population and bring with them skills, analytics and attitudes that are creating a set of small businesses that will do great things.
In the next ten years, you’ll see a set of business with greater employee ownership and engagement. These businesses will forecast and track progress using financial and statistical analysis. Their direction and innovations will be determined by workplace democracy. This is the world a certain set of students need to be prepared to participate in.
I think there have been advances in management theory. Deming’s management approach had to do with compliance and control, which made perfect sense in the factories he set out to improve. However, in a world of knowledge work and innovation; engagement, direction and communication have to flow in ways Deming could not have foreseen. Interestingly, one of the ways he was a leader, was that as an individual or working with a small group of individuals, he made massive changes. I would have loved to have heard him discuss how he ran his own consulting business.
As with all things, the management approaches will not be the same for everyone. There will be people working at Jiffy Lube and Applebees who work under a management theory driven by the time clock. There will be people working construction and in factories for whom compliance and hopefully TQM will drive their management theories. There will also be people doing knowledge work where their ability to think and act independently will require an entirely different management theory.
Its a very exciting time for those involved in management. There’s a new set of requirements and parameters emerging which require different approaches. There are people experimenting with different ways to do this. As it has always been, the future is already here, its just not spread evenly.
Andrew, always great to see you jump in. I suspected this one would lure you! : )
We’ll have to disagree on at least the degree to which there have been significant advances in management theory & practice. I’m squarely in Hamel’s camp on this one. Also, my own interpretation of Deming’s philosophy doesn’t place him in my mind squarely in the compliance and control camp. His 14 points and his many, many complaints about management fly in the face of that point. The fact that I engage thousands of people per year in my own practices/workshops/practices provides a fair amount of anecdotal evidence that things are not moving quickly. Not sure how far your practice brings you, but I find too many firms hopelessly mired somewhere in a world of Taylor et. al. My interpretation of course. On the other hand, I share the optimism for the future and love some of the experiments in process.
[…] Suddenly, Deming is Relevant Again by Art Petty – “I’m also critically concerned about learning from the past and understanding the wisdom of those that came before us. We’ve not yet moved beyond the flaws and failings that Deming saw clearly in the management practices of the industrial revolution. ” [I agree, John – ] […]
Andrew Meyer says: “Deming’s management approach had to do with compliance and control, which made perfect sense in the factories he set out to improve.”
Absolutely not!
How could someone who strongly advocated the need to “Drive out Fear” be accused of supporting compliance and control??? They depend on fear. Deming was vehemently opposed to attempts to control by so-called extrinsic “motivators” (which are actually extrinsic controls) such as performance appraisals and awards, as well as management by objectives, quotas, numerical goals without a method, mass inspection, just meeting specifications, etc., all artifacts of a compliance and control methodology. It’s even wrong to describe what he preached as a management “approach.” Deming had a theory of management that was simultaneously a system of management. What he called Profound Knowledge was a system whose interacting components included appreciation of a system, understanding variation, psychology (not Skinnerian!), and a theory of knowledge. Deming’s epistemology was heavily influenced by the school of American Pragmatism (his favorite philosopher was C. I. Lewis, and his favorite philosophy book was the abstruse “Mind and the World Order”). He would say over and over: “There is no substitute for knowledge!” and “Experience without theory teaches nothing.” He was a huge advocate of the need for innovation. He provoked thinking, not compliance and control. He disliked the term Total Quality Management (TQM). Whenever it was mentioned at one of his seminars, he would feign ignorance of it. Mr. Meyer, who may be a good and smart fellow, has in this case totally not managed a quality understanding of what one can learn from Dr. Deming.
Simon, thanks for sharing your insights. And I can vouch that Mr. Meyer is indeed a good and smart fellow. -Art
I’m most definitely in the camp as well that says; “that the science and art of management have not moved forward much in the past 100 years and that has to change.” Dr Deming was truly profound in his thinking. The more knowledge I gain the more disappointed and discouraged I become on what I see and read on any system level.
Management by opinions and system tampering continues all around us. It is the system that must be managed and not the people, but many who think they appreciate Deming’s work will attack when one attempts to explain.
Again your right, Dr Deming has never been irrelevant as a management philosopher, teacher and advisor. Will they ever learn?
Thanks,
Keith
Keith, thanks so much for sharing your thoughts on Dr. Deming. There is much to still learn from this late, great man. -Art
I’ve recently come into the Deming camp, through other quality methods.
I like the cut and dried way he’s laid out the issues and how to manage people and projects around them.
I, for one, find “founding father” tales fascinating.
Claudia, thanks for sharing your new find. Great to have you here as a member of my unofficial “Deming” club! -Art
The Deming thinking is the cornerstone to the Six Sigma DMAIC process. Variation reduction is key!
I’ve been working with Six Sigma and Deming’s philosophies for over 15 years, and I can say it is definitely increasing in popularity. When I started Six Sigma and Operational Excellence were only things you worried about in manufacturing. Today, we have clients from all industries, including healthcare, retail, hospitality, service, military, government, and the list continues.