Blog posts on Deming

Posts selected fromManagement Blog - Engineering Blog - Investing Blog and other blogs

• Deming and Software Development

  "Dr. Deming’s ideas are about finding ways to improve the effectiveness and reliability of delivering value going forward. That idea is natural for many software developers. I find that software developers understand the value of designing the process to achieve repeatable success over the long term more than others (including managers)."

  continue reading: Deming and Software Development
• 94% Belongs to the System

  I should estimate that in my experience most troubles and most possibilities for improvement add up to the proportions something like this: 94% belongs to the system (responsibility of management), 6% special.

  Page 315 of Out of the Crisis by Dr. W. Edwards Deming.

  continue reading: 94% Belongs to the System
• Knowing How to Manage People Is the Single Most Important Part of Management

  The challenge with managing people is not that good sources on what is important don’t exist it is that far too often we make superficial application of management ideas and then give up and superficially try another management idea.

  Learning from the gemba is important. But superficially visiting the gemba and doesn’t work. Without an understanding of how the components of a management system fit together and a long term commitment to create a management system that focuses on respect for people the organization fails to capture most of the gains possible with better management of people.

  continue reading: Knowing How to Manage People Is the Single Most Important Part of Management
• Individual Bonuses Are Bad Management

  The idea that bonuses are bad management is one of the more difficult management improvement ideas for people to accept. See related post links for much more on the problems with them and what to do instead...

  continue reading: Individual Bonuses Are Bad Management
• The Education System

  “I read them. Not to grade them. No, I read them to see how I am doing. Where am I failing?”

  W. Edwards Deming.

  continue reading: The Education System
• Peter Drucker Discussing The Work of Juran, Deming and Himself

  Drucker talked about the shared importance he, Deming and Juran put on the importance of valuing all employees and creating management systems that capture all the value they can offer. He spoke of all 3 of them tilted against those that believed in command and control business organizations. Sadly the lack of respect for all workers is still common today; but it is much better than is was due to the work of these 3 management experts.

  continue reading: Peter Drucker Discussing The Work of Juran, Deming and Himself
• Leadership While Viewing the Organization as a System

  Over time, I have become more and more focused on the overall system and figuring out how to look at whatever problem we're having within a larger context. And I find that usually leads me to a better solution. There are a couple of ways to see this in respect to leadership.

  The first one is when you have one of Deming's deadly diseases (or his 14 points), like the mobility of top management...

   

  continue reading: Leadership While Viewing the Organization as a System
• If Japan Can... Why Cant We? – 1980 NBC Special Report

  When this was broadcast 35 years ago there was an immediate demand by business to learn and apply Deming’s ideas. It is hard to understand how great an impact it had, from our current position.

  ...

  Throughout “If Japan Can, Why Cant We?” executives and front line workers talk about how important it is to involve workers in improvement efforts.

  continue reading: If Japan Can... Why Cant We? – 1980 NBC Special Report
• What is a Lean Program, Deming Program?

  Lean has evolved away, IMO, from just being able to say anything Toyota does is by definition lean. Lean and Deming are more about a philosophy of managing - continual improvement, respect for people, etc. than prescriptions. So you can't really have a checklist and say that if your org can check off all these things they are lean or Deming.
  
  The fact that the management systems can't be reduced to a checklist is a necessary given the long lasting power they offer.

  continue reading: What is a Lean Program, Deming Program?
• How to Start Applying Deming’s Ideas on Management

  There are many different ways to start applying W. Edwards Deming’s ideas on management. There isn’t a cookbook on what should be done first. This is helpful in that you can avoid trying things that would be very difficult given the current state of your management system. However, it is also very challenging in that you have to decide what to do yourself instead of just following a recipe.

  continue reading: How to Start Applying Deming’s Ideas on Management
• A Bad System Will Beat a Good Person Every Time

  So what was Dr. Deming trying to convey with this quote? It wasn’t an attempt to get people to give up trying because failure was certain. It was a attempt to get people to understand the importance of the system and the futility of trying to focus on blaming people for failures.

  continue reading: A Bad System Will Beat a Good Person Every Time
• Quality Comes to City Hall

  Changing to a culture that has a Deming perspective on customer focus is not easy. When you succeed though the way people think is profoundly changed. The City of Madison police department even did customer surveys for those they arrested and used the results to improve the process in ways that make sense. Obviously there are restrictions on what you can do to please those being arrested but this is really always the case – you can’t give all your products and services away for free even if that would make customers happy.

  continue reading: Quality Comes to City Hall
• Did Deming and Drucker Agree on Important Management Practices?

  There were cases where Deming and Drucker disagreed but in many ways the ideas they proposed were compatible.

  continue reading: Did Deming and Drucker Agree on Important Management Practices?
• Theory of Knowledge in the Deming Management System

  The System Of Profound Knowledge® (SoPK) is the culmination of W. Edwards Deming’s work on management. The four areas of the system are: appreciation for a system, knowledge of variation, theory of knowledge and psychology. This post explores the theory of knowledge in the context of Dr. Deming’s management philosophy.

  “The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance – it is the illusion of knowledge.” – Daniel J. Boorstin

  continue reading: Theory of Knowledge in the Deming Management System
• Creativity Inc. – Using Deming’s Ideas at Pixar

  Ed Catmull (co-founded Pixar with Steve Jobs and John Lasseter): "As we struggled to get Pixar off the ground, Deming’s work was like a beacon that lit my way.
  …
  it wasn’t until the 1980s when a few companies in Silicon Valley, such as Hewlett Packard and Apple, began to incorporate them. But Deming’s work would make a huge impression on me and help frame my approach to managing Pixar going forward."

  continue reading: Creativity Inc. – Using Deming’s Ideas at Pixar