Understanding Deming is probably not as common as “Misunderstanding Deming”. Follow this link to Scott Hassler’s excellent summary. This article impressed us for a couple of reasons. Firstly it is well written and it is summarised succinctly, which makes it easy to read. Secondly it identifies the “management approach” to managing quality that Deming espoused. One of the more common misapprehensions about Deming (especially true of people who learn he was, by trade, a statistician) was that Deming took a “quality approach” to manging quality. Not true at all. Deming understood the human factor, practical realities and the nature of systems. He was aware not only of the value of things like training and procedures, but also of the limitations of both

And also check out point “G” in his post – to achieve quality there is no substitute for knowledge – but also remember that a lot of crucial information is not only unknown, but also unknowable.

On an unrelated matter, (just because it also caught our eye) you could check out this little article on Sith Sigma. It poses an interesting conundrum. “Is it better to be right, or to be persuasive?” Now THAT’S an interesting question …

• This entry was posted on Monday, February 4th, 2008 at 1:01 pm and is filed under Deming, Leadership & Management, Quality Improvement
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