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Tag: Deming

Management Books

• Fourth Generation Management: The New Business Consciousness by Brian Joiner
  An excellent book for those who wish to begin the transformation to "Fourth Generation Management" and for the experienced as well. We give this well written and easy to follow book this book our highest recommendation.

• Quality Improvement Through Planned Experimentation: 2nd Edition by Ronald D. Moen, Thomas Nolan, Lloyd P. Provost
  An excellent handbook on how to use experiments to learn about your organization and how to use that knowledge to improve your organization. The book integrates Dr. Deming's ideas and design of experiments thinking. Forward by W. Edwards Deming. 3rd edition is on the way.

• Human Side of Enterprise: 25th Anniversary Printing by Douglas McGregor
  Originally published in 1960. Great book. A classic that is still very worthwhile.

• The Leader's Handbook: Making Things Happen, Getting Things Done by Peter R. Scholtes
  Absolutely wonderful book - we give it our highest recommendation.

• Deming Management Method: by Mary Walton
  

• Emotional Intelligence: by Daniel Goleman
  Sets forth the proposition that emotional intelligence plays a more important role in success than IQ. The book provides insight into the theory of psychology portion of Deming's philosophy.

• Dr. Deming: The American Who Taught the Japanese About Quality by Rafael Aguayo
  

• The Improvement Guide: A Practical Approach to Enhancing Organizational Performance by Gerald J. Langley, Thomas Nolan, Lloyd P. Provost, Cliff Norman
  Great handbook for process improvement. The best resource for applying the plan-do-study-act cycle to improvement.

• Scoring a Whole in One: by Ed Baker
  A short book that is very easy to read and more importantly packed with valuable insight. Dr. Baker does a great job of tying systems thinking to real life examples. Dr. Baker was a long time associate of Dr. Deming.

• Scoring a Whole in One: by Ed Baker
  A short book that is very easy to read and more importantly packed with valuable insight. Dr. Baker does a great job of tying systems thinking to real life examples. Dr. Baker was a long time associate of Dr. Deming.

• Breakthrough Performance: by William Scherkenbach
  Deming's Road to Continual Improvement is brought to life on this CD-ROM with audio and video illustrations.

• The Deming Dimension: by Henry R. Neave
  An excellent overview of the Deming philosphy that is easier to follow that Deming's own books. Provides a valuable historical perspective. Does a good job of explaining the underlining principles of Deming's philosophy.

• Abolishing Performance Appraisals: Why They Backfire and What to Do Instead by Tom Coens, Mary Jenkins
  They take on this difficult topic well. Scholtes, Kohn and others strongly recommend this book.

• The New Economics: : For Industry, Government, Education by W. Edwards Deming
  Second Edition (reprint). The best of Deming's books for learning about his system for management. Packed with great thoughts but not as easy to read as the best books. This is a great book, but often it is best for managers already committed to finding new ideas.

• Out of the Crisis: by W. Edwards Deming
  A classic but not an easy book to read. Packed with good ideas that still have great merit. New paperback printing (2000).

• Team Handbook: Third Edition by Peter R. Scholtes, Brian Joiner, Barbara J. Streibel
  Most recent update to the management classic.

• Improving Almost Anything: by George E. P. Box
  

• The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande
  

• Get Rid of the Performance Review!: How Companies Can Stop Intimidating, Start Managing--and Focus on What Really Matters by Samuel Culbert
  "The performance review. It is one of the most insidious, most damaging, and yet most ubiquitous of corporate activities. We all hate it. And yet nobody does anything about it. Until now... Straight-talking Sam Culbert, management guru and UCLA professor, minces no words as he puts managers on notice that -- with the performance review as their weapon of choice -- they have built a corporate culture based on intimidation and fear. Teaming up with Wall Street Journal Senior Editor Lawrence Rout, he shows us why performance reviews are bogus and how they undermine both creativity and productivity. And he puts a good deal of the blame squarely on human resources professionals, who perpetuate the very practice that they should be trying to eliminate. But Culbert does more than merely tear down. He also offers a substitute"

• Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink
  Research based exploration of motivation and no surprise it supports Douglas McGregor's The Human Side of Enterprise written 50 years ago. Managers should treat employees as intrinsically motivated and seek to eliminate the barriers to that intrinsic motivation - not seek to increase extrinsic motivation.

• Understanding A3 Thinking: A Critical Component of Toyota's PDCA Management System by Art Smalley, Durward K. Sobek
  Winner of a 2009 Shingo Research and Professional Publication Prize. The A3 report has proven to be a key tool In Toyota’s successful move toward organizational efficiency, effectiveness, and improvement, especially within its engineering and R&D organizations. The power of the A3 report, however, derives not from the report itself, but rather from the development of the culture and mindset required for the implementation of the A3 system. In other words, A3 reports are not just an end product but are evidence of a powerful set of dynamics that is referred to as A3 Thinking.

Management Articles

• Small Business Guidebook to Quality Management
  The aim of this guidebook is to help small businesses make the transition to a quality culture. While the focus of the guidebook is small businesses the information is helpful to anyone transforming and continually improving their organization.

• Leaders of People: Some are Wonderful, Some are Clueless. The Rest are Somewhere In Between. by Peter R. Scholtes
  Excellent short article by the author of the Leader's Handbook and the Team Handbook.

• Quality in the Community: One City's Experience by George E. P. Box, Laurel W. Joiner, Sue Rohan
  Highlights the evolution of the Quality movement in Madison, Wisconsin and the role of the Madison Area Quality Improvement Network during the 1980's.

• Total Quality Leadership vs. Management by Results by Brian Joiner, Peter R. Scholtes
  Excellent article for those interested in improving management. It begins with a very short early 90's view on the increasing Asian economic clout. Those who are not interested in management improvement would likely be tempted to ignore the important...

• So What's System[s] Thinking by Ian Bradbury
  Brief article introducing two key ideas in systems thinking: interdependence and the separation of cause and effect in space and time.

• In the Beginning, There Were Deming and Juran by Phil Landesberg
  Originally published in the Journal of Quality and Participation. A nice (very short) look back on the lives and ideas of Deming and Juran with the aim of encouraging us to learn from their work.

• A Champion for Quality by Arlie Hall
  "I would argue that Deming's teaching about quality, avidly absorbed by key Japanese industries after WW II, makes him one of the most influential persons of this century and possibly, the next one as well."

• William G. Hunter: An Innovator and Catalyst for Quality Improvement by George E. P. Box
  This is the text of a talk given at the Speakers' Dinner at the Sixth Annual William G. Hunter Conference on Quality in Madison, Wisconsin, on June 2, 1993. In it, George Box recalls Bill Hunter's pivotal role in the birth of the quality movement in the c

• A Study of Statistical Process Control by Henry R. Neave
  

• Dr. Demings 1950 Lecture to Japanese Top Management
  "In 1950, Dr. Deming gave a lecture to 80% of the top management people in Japan. What follows is a English translation of the original Japanese transcript. John Dowd made this happen a few years back and has agreed to share it with the Deming Community."

• A Systemic Approach for Improving An Organization - That Makes a Difference to the Customer by Dave Nave
  "Management's job in the area of improvement is to create and facilitate an environment for learning and cooperation. One area to start is to remove policies and barriers that inhibit people from doing a good job. At the same time, encourage communication...

• Improving Problem Solving by Ian Bradbury
  A good overview of common problem solving practices. The report also includes advice on how to improve results in you organization though problem solving and system improvement.

• Managing Our Way to Economic Success: Two Untapped Resources by William G. Hunter
  "American organizations could compete much better at home and abroad if they would learn to tap the potential information inherent in all processes and the creativity inherent in all employees."

• Doing More With Less in the Public Sector: A Progress Report from Madison, Wisconsin by William G. Hunter, Jan O'Neill, Carol Wallen
  "The new quality improvement ideas can help public officials combat the effects of decreasing budgets just as they help private businesses increase productivity." Published in Quality Progress, July 1987.

• Teaching Quality Improvement by Quality Improvement in Teaching by Ian Hau
  This paper describes how students and the instructor worked as a team to improve the quality of teaching in a class. The defect rate dropped from 78% to 22% for computer instruction, 56% to 8% for blackboard presentation and 82% to 20% for overhead presentation.

• Evolution of the PDSA Cycle by Ron Moen, Cliff Norman
  "Deming has always given credit to Shewhart for the idea of the cycle, but Deming has fostered the expansion of the idea to all areas for learning and improvement."

• A Little Book of F-laws: 13 common sins of management by Russell L. Ackoff
  Laws include: The more time managers spend trying to get rid of what they don.t want, the less likely they are to get what they do want; Managers who don.t know how to measure what they want settle for wanting what they can measure. Great, highly recommended.

• Statistics as a Catalyst to Learning by Scientific Method by George E. P. Box
  Explores the implications raised when Response Surface Methodology (RSM) is considered, as was originally intended as a statistical technique for the catalysis of iterative learning.

• The Trouble with Incentives: They Work by Gipsie Ranney
  "There may be cases in which incentives work only as intended, but I suspect they are relatively rare. The trouble is that we are usually dealing with complex systems (people and organizations) that may behave not at all like our myths would predict...

• Yes, Everyone Really Does Hate Performance Reviews by Samuel Culbert
  "It's time to finally put the performance review out of its misery. This corporate sham is one of the most insidious, most damaging, and yet most ubiquitous of corporate activities. Everybody does it, and almost everyone who's evaluated hates it. It's a pretentious, bogus practice that produces absolutely nothing that any thinking executive should call a corporate plus."

• Metrics and Software Development by John Hunter
  "I find looking at outcome measures (to measure overall effectiveness) and process measures (for viewing specific parts of the system 'big picture') the most useful strategy. The reason for process measures is not to improve those results alone. But those process measures can be selected to measure key processes within the system..."

• An Introduction to Deming’s Management Ideas by Peter R. Scholtes
  An Introduction to Deming's Management Teaching and Philosophy by Peter Scholtes – webcast from the Annual W. Edwards Deming Institute conference in Madison, Wisconsin, November 9th, 2008.

• Thoughts on how Kanban Differs from Scrum by David Anderson
  "Kanban uses the WIP limit as its control mechanism to provoke conversations about change. Failure to respect the WIP limits and discuss problems will lead to stagnation and a failure to improve. Improvement discussions are objective as the visualization, measurement, explicitness of policies and the models from Lean, Theory of Constraints and the teachings of W. Edwards Deming, allow a team to scientifically analyze their problems and propose solutions."

• Deming Management Philosophy and So-Called Six Sigma Quality by David Wayne
  "This paper will compare and contrast Dr. Deming’s philosophy with that of the Six Sigma approach by describing the commonalities, differences, and the effectiveness of each."

• Nutrifood Indonesia: Manufacturing an Ethical Workplace
  "we reviewed a set of 22 video tapes about the Deming Management method. My daughter, Yul (Julianti Darmawan Swecker), who was working at Nutrifood at the time as corporate secretary and HRD manager, translated and summarized the content of this series and produced leadership training material for our managers."

• Blame the System
  by Steve LeBlanc - "Once we are free to look at and address where the system has failed us, we can let go of our blame and resentment for our co-workers. I propose that we need blame. We are meaning-seeking creatures and as such, we need to blame someone or something for what went wrong. Blame people and you demoralize them and make them afraid. When you blame the system, no one gets hurt and things gently improve. ... Our job is to improve the system while honoring those who work in and around it. Let’s all just blame the system."

• Create a System That Lets People Take Pride in Their Work by John Hunter
  "Using the term implies that it one person empowers another person. This is not the correct view. Instead we each play a role within a system. Yes there are constraints on your actions based on the role you are playing. Does a security guard empower the CEO to enter the building? ... You don't need to think about empowering people if you have a system that lets people take pride in what they do. If you think you need to empower staff, instead fix the system that requires you to think they are in need of empowerment."

• The Equally Important “Respect for People” Principle by Bob Emiliani
  "The 'Respect for People' principle encompasses all key stakeholders: employees, suppliers, customers, investors, and communities. Thus, rather than representing a single dyad, the 'Respect for People' principle is a multilateral expression of the need for balanced, mutually respectful relationships, cooperation, and co-prosperity with these key stakeholders."

• Performance Reviews Are Obsolete
  The CEO of Catapult Systems explains their elimination of the annual performance appraisal. "the most critical flaw of our old process was that the feedback itself was too infrequent and too far removed from the actual behavior to have any measurable impact on employee performance. ... I decided to completely eliminate of our annual performance review process and replace it with a real-time performance feedback dashboard."

• Respect for People by Art Smalley
  "The fifth item of my list pertains to development of employee talent over time. Respect for people means developing their latent skills in both on the job and off the job training. It is easy to invest money in new technology, software, or equipment. It takes time, effort, and planning to invest in employee skills development. Canned training programs and Powerpoint slide presentations do not do the job."

• Actionable Metrics by John Hunter
  "Metrics are valuable when they are actionable. Think about what will be done if certain results are shown by the data. If you can't think of actions you would take, it may be that metric is not worth tracking."

• Interview of and by Dr. Ackoff and Dr. Deming by Russell L. Ackoff, Clare Crawford-Mason, W. Edwards Deming
  Great stuff. The transcript spells Dr. Ackoff's name wrong (Akoff). They discuss the important of viewing organizations as systems and a fair amount of time on the problems with business school education in the USA. And they touch on a huge number of management topics. Dr. Deming "When one understands who depends on me, then I may take joy in my work." Dr. Ackoff "If there isn't join in work, you won't get productivity, and you won't get quality."

• What Did Deming Really Say? by Davis Balestracci
  "People don’t need statistics; they need to know how to solve their problems. All that’s needed is a few simple tools and a working knowledge of variation to be able to distinguish between common and special causes. Only 1–2 percent of people need advanced statistical knowledge... 'Prediction is the problem, whether we are talking about applied science, research and development, engineering, or management in industry, education, or government,' [Deming] says. 'The question is, 'What do the data tell us? How do they help us to predict?'"

• An Interview with Donald Wheeler by Donald J. Wheeler
  "All profound ideas are timeless. While the details may change, the underlying principles remain the same. Deming’s fundamental ideas came, in part, from his association with Shewhart and his concept of an operational definition... For years I observed managers telling Deming all the good things that they were going to do and heard him respond with one of two questions: 'By what method?' or 'How will you know?' It is just that basic. Until you can answer these two questions, all you have is wishful thinking."

• Deming's14 points are not a menu you can pick and choose from. by David Joyce
  "Everyone should search continually for problems in order to improve every activity in the company, to improve quality and productivity and thus to constantly decrease costs. Finding what’s wrong is not improvement. Plugging leaks is not improvement. Don’t look at outcomes or defects, instead look at what produces the defects."

• Dr. Demingʼs Camping Expedition
  "Asking why all the time is the most effect route to overcoming problems. "The only drawback to it Iʼve found is when youʼve needed only three whys to get to the root cause, some determined people still go on to ask two more. Or else they stop at the fifth, even if they havenʼt gotten to the root cause... Blinded by the quality tools and techniques, you have missed the completely obvious"

• Systems Thinking and the Three Musketeers - Deming's SoPK
  "So too will organizations move successfully into the future, through the use of Systems Thinking, by providing a clear aim that is not merely limited to profitability but to optimizing the entire organization, removing the forces that destroy a system, and promoting the positive interactions that create the “All for one, one for all” camaraderie found in the most successful organizations."

• Jobs made Apple great by ignoring profit by Clayton Christensen
  "When the pressure is on and the CEO of a big public company has to choose between doing what’s best for the customer or making the quarter’s numbers… most CEOs will choose the numbers. Apple never has... Profitability isn’t at the center of every decision. Apple's focus is on making truly great products — products so great that its own employees want to use them. That philosophy has made Apple one of the most innovative companies in the world."

• Variation, So Meaningful Yet So Misunderstood by Lynda Finn
  "assuming an issue is the result of a special cause will send you on a hunt for the special cause. Walter Shewhart and Deming proved that special cause thinking will lead you astray most of the time. So, if in your company there is often a search for whom or what is to blame before questioning whether the problem is built into the current processes and systems, then you too are likely wasting time and misidentifying causes."

• How Do We Know What We Know? - Deming’s SoPK Part IV by John Hunter
  "If we can break from such beliefs that are not useful in modern organizations, we can improve our decisions. Having a Deming-based theory of knowledge will help us break from those beliefs and it will help us be more thoughtful as we learn to question other management beliefs we hold –many of which simply are not useful –or cause harm. Understanding the theory of knowledge within the context of the Deming’s System for Managing helps us more effectively and consistently learn and improve the processes and systems we work with. "

• Ten Questions with Jeffrey Pfeffer by Guy Kawasaki, Jeffrey Pfeffer
  Interview by Guy Kawaasaki. "companies often ignore the interdependence or connections between actions in one part and those in another. So, even as some departments are trying to cut the costs of benefits, others are worried about recruiting and retaining enough qualified people. Maybe the parts should work together. Third, many companies presume that incentives are the answer to everything, and have a very mechanistic model of human behavior. That is also incorrect."

• How to Get a New Management Strategy, Tool or Concept Adopted by John Hunter
  "Often when learning about Deming’s ideas on management, lean manufacturing, design of experiments, PDSA… people become excited. They discover new ideas that show great promise to alleviate the troubles they have in their workplace and lead them to better results. But how to actually get their organization to adopt the ideas often confounds them..."

• Eight guidelines for closing the knowing-doing gap by Jason Yip
  "Why before How: philosophy is important. Focus on Why (philosophy, general guidance) before How (detailed practices, behaviours, techniques) ... Action counts more than elegant plans and concepts. Ready, fire, aim. Act even if you haven't had the time to fully plan the action..."

• Dr W. Edwards Deming’s System of Profound Knowledge
  "Improvement requires change. Change requires a plan. Such a plan is a prediction – if we follow this plan, we believe that certain benefits will accrue. Learning comes from observing the implementation, and modifying further iterations of the plan accordingly. Managers in an improving organisation will see themselves as experimenters and as leader of the learning cycle."

• How an automotive secret can make for better software by David Anderson
  "Kanban is a way of visualizing invisible knowledge work activities such as software development, and limiting the quantity of work in progress. Limiting work-in-progress has several benefits: by avoiding over-burdening, quality is often significantly higher, while workers are happier and better motivated; delivery times are usually significantly shorter and far more predictable; priorities are often clear and prioritization decisions are simplified... Deming’s work is core to everything we do. I think his book, The New Economics, is a seminal work in management thinking... If I could have coffee with just one of these process and management science pioneers it would be Deming."

• Why I dislike the name Six Sigma by Rafael Aguayo
  "Lack of management appreciation of the need for participation. Deming emphasized joy in work, teamwork and listening to your people. This seems to be totally lacking in Six Sigma. In fact major SS practitioners emphasize practices that will destroy teamwork, company cohesiveness and pride. ... Failure to appreciate the company as a system. Making improvements to one variable, such as material costs, can lead to higher labor costs. Lowering costs in one department can lead to higher costs overall for the company. These mistakes can be avoided if one understands the systemic nature of a company."

• Keys to the Effective Use of the PDSA Improvement Cycle by John Hunter
  "The PDSA cycle is a learning cycle based on experiments. When using the PDSA cycle prediction of the results are important... The plan stage may well take 80% (or even more) of the effort on the first turn of the PDSA cycle in a new series. The Do stage may well take 80% of of the time – it usually doesn’t take much effort (to just collect a bit of extra data) but it may take time for that data to be ready to collect."

Management Web Sites and Resources

• W. Edwards Deming Institute by W. Edwards Deming
  Founded by W. Edwards Deming the institute carries forward his philosophy. The site includes information on the institutes annual conferences and offers newsletters online.

• Curious Cat Management Improvement Articles by John Hunter
  Hundreds of useful management articles hand selected to help managers improve the performance of their organization. Sorted by topic including: Deming, lean manufacturing, six sigma, continual improvement, innovation, leadership, managing people, software development, psychology and systems thinking.

• Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog by John Hunter
  Blog by John Hunter on many topics to to improve the management of organizations, including: Deming, lean manufacturing, agile software development, evidence based decision making, customer focus, innovation, six sigma, systems thinking, leadership, psychology, ...

• John Grout's Mistake-Proofing Center
  Many examples of mistake-proofing.

• Deming Cooperative
  The Deming Scholars MBA Program at Fordham University, New York City, aims to build a foundation for leadership in the new economic age. It provides a small group of highly motivated students with a unique opportunity to develop expertise in Dr. Deming's teachings and to build leadership skills.

• Associates in Process Improvement
  Consulting firm with Provost, Langley, Norman, Moen and Nolan. Authors of the excellent: Improvement Guide. Several very good articles on variation available on the site.

• Peter Scholtes by Peter R. Scholtes
  Web site of Peter Scholtes, author of The Leader's Handbook (an excellent book) and The Team Handbook. The site offers several excellent management articles. He taught with Deming. Peter was a good friend and his management ideas are well worth studying.

• Work Matters by Bob Sutton
  

• French Deming Association
  "Our purpose is to help our members and to coordinate their studies, in order to promote a way of management which respects human dignity."

• Management Wisdom by Clare Crawford-Mason, W. Edwards Deming, Robert Mason
  Home of the Deming Library tapes and Better Management for a Changing World (with Ackoff and Suarez).

• Management Improvement by John Hunter
  Small management improvement site with lean six sigma and Deming management focus.

• Lean is Good
  Reflections on Deming, lean and learning by Bruce Baker and Bryan Zeigler.

• Langford for Learning by David P. Langford
  Quality learning achieved through continual improvement of systems which aim to produce the optimum state of personal, social, physical, and intellectual development within each individual. It is a commitment to excellence by each individual and is achieved through teamwork and a process of continual improvement and/or redesign. The site includes worthwhile articles.

• Life and Legacy of William G. Hunter by John Hunter, William G. Hunter
  George Box, Stuart Hunter and Bill wrote what has become a classic text for experimenters in scientific and business circles, Statistics for Experimenters. Bill also was a leader in the emergence of the management improvement movement. George Box and Bill co-founded the Center for Quality and Productivity Improvement at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Bill Hunter was also the founding chair of the ASQ statistics division.

• Agile Management Blog by David Anderson
  

• Curious Cat Management Improvement Connections by John Hunter
  The aim of Curious Cat Management Improvement Connections is to contribute to the successful adoption of management improvement to advance joy in work and joy in life. The site provides connections to resources on a wide variety of management topics to help managers improve the performance of their organization. The site was started in 1996 by John Hunter.

• Benjamin Mitchell's Blog by Benjamin Mitchell
  "I'm a London-based independent consulting focussed on Systems Thinking, Intervention Theory and Lean / Kanban applied to IT businesses. I am a follower of Ohno, Deming, Seddon and Argyris."

• Deming From the Bottom Up
  "What would happen if a front-line worker 'accidentally stumbled upon the writings of Dr W. Edward Deming, and became convinced that Dr Deming's basic tenants if pursued would result in a quality organization from top to bottom. This blog will demonstrate the effect of DMM on that individual." By Dan Lang

• Dave Nave by Dave Nave
  

• Effective Innovation by Bill Kappele
  Blog by Bill Kappele on design of experiments and statistics.

• in2in by Bill Bellows
  Offer an annual conference along with ongoing learning opportunities focused on the management ideas of Deming and Ackoff. Recommended

• Rural Renegade
  Blog discussing Deming's management ideas.

• Thinkovate
  Blog discussing Goldratt and systems thinking ideas.

• Sabu Sense by Lew Rhodes
  Web site of Lew Rhodes with numerous articles in addition to blog posts. Lew has a long history in education so much of the material focuses in that area.