Management Web Sites and Resources on the Ideas of W. Edwards Deming

• Inspector Guilfoyle by
  "I am a serving Police Inspector and systems thinker, passionate about doing the right thing in policing. I write, lecture and advise on the benefits of incorporating systems thinking principles into policing, having studied the works of W. Edwards Deming and associated authors and successfully applied their theories to operational policing."

• The W. Edwards Deming Institute Blog by John Hunter
  

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

• Curious Cat Management Comments by John Hunter
  Blog by John Hunter - currently used mainly to collect comments made on other blog posts in one place.

• 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.

• Deming From the Bottom Up by
  "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

• 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.

• 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."

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

• 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).

• Dave Nave by Dave Nave
  

• 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.

• Deming Cooperative by
  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.

• 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
  

• 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.

• El Management según Deming, por Jordi Cabré by
  Blog on Deming's management ideas by Jordi Cabré, in Spanish.

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

• 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, ...

• Rural Renegade by
  Blog discussing Deming's management ideas.

• Agile Management Blog by David Anderson
  

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

• Gemba Walkabout by Mike Stoecklein
  “Gemba walk” (lean thinking term) to go to the actual place where value is added + “walkabout” (Australian aborigine) a short period of wandering bush life engaged as an occasional interruption of regular work.

• Associates in Process Improvement by
  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.

• Thinkovate by
  Blog discussing Goldratt and systems thinking ideas.

• 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.

• in2in by Bill Bellows
  Offer an annual conference along with ongoing learning opportunities focused on the management ideas of Deming and Ackoff. I, John Hunter, think this is a good conference.

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

• 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.

• Science of Improvement by Cliff Norman
  

Articles

• 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...

• Transcript of Speech by W. Edwards Deming to Japanese Leaders in 1950 by W. Edwards Deming
  "The knowledge and brains applied to statistics by the Japanese are an essential national resource; it is important in the same way as water power, forests, and railroads. And that statistical knowledge, much like water power, is not useful at all unless it has an impact on work opportunity and work. With water power, if one were to get rid of turbines and generator machines, no power would emerge."

• What's Holding Back American Industry? Burning toast and scraping it. by W. Edwards Deming
  They might have inspectors, sorting out the good products from the bad, but that's just burning toast and scraping it, burning toast and scraping it. They plan for defects, when they could be preventing defects!"

• 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."

• 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."

• 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."

• 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."

• Small Business Guidebook to Quality Management by
  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.

• 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."

• W. Edwards Deming - The Management Thinker We Should Never Have Forgotten by
  "His main point is that leaders must build deep trust among workers and managers, which emanates from a strong purpose and shared values. It seems logical enough — and more important than ever. So how is it that more businesses don’t heed his message today?"

• 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."

• Nutrifood Indonesia: Manufacturing an Ethical Workplace by
  "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."

• Circling Back: Clearing up myths about the Deming cycle and Seeing How it Keeps Evolving by Ron Moen, Cliff Norman
  

• Analytical studies: a framework for quality improvement design and analysis by Lloyd Provost
  "An enumerative study is one in which action will be taken on the universe that was studied. An analytical study is one in which action will be taken on a cause system to improve the future performance of the system of interest. The aim of an enumerative study is estimation, while an analytical study focuses on prediction. Because of the temporal nature of improvement, the theory and methods for analytical studies are a critical component of the science of improvement."

• A Management, Leadership, and Board Road Map to Transforming Care for Patients by John Toussaint
  "This article offers an alternative approach: management by process—an operating system that engages frontline staff in decisions and imposes standards and processes on the act of managing. Organizations that have adopted management by process have seen quality improve and costs decrease because the people closest to the work are expected to identify problems and solve them. Also detailed are the leadership behaviors required for an organization to successfully implement the management-by-process operating system and the board of trustees’ role in supporting the transformation."

• Variation, Management and W. Edwards Deming by Brian Joiner
  Originally published in Quality Progress, December 1990. Excellent article.

• 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.

• 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."

• 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.

• 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..."

• Managing Fear by Gerald Suarez
  Great article on the damage of fear in organizations and what to do to improve the situation.

• 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.

• 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

• 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.

• 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."

• Performance Reviews Are Obsolete by
  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."

• 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.

• 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...

• Systems Thinking and the Three Musketeers - Deming's SoPK by
  "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."

• 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."

• Manage Better by Managing Less by John Hunter
  It can be tempting to cram your days full of activity to show how hard-working and vital you are. Finding time to think is hard enough; maxing out your capacity makes it next to impossible. Everyone agrees taking time to think is wise. But I have rarely seen managers make it a priority. Managers will say they value it, but they cram schedules so full that they can’t really spend time thinking.

• Clearing Up Myths About the Deming Cycle by Ron Moen, Cliff Norman
  "This new approach provides a basic framework for developing, testing and implementing changes to the way things are done that will lead to improvement."

• 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..."

• 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."

• 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..."

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

• Statistics and Reality by David Kerridge, Sarah Kerridge
  "W. Edwards Deming distinguished between two types of statistical study, which he called 'Enumerative' and 'Analytic'. This sounds theoretical, and it is: but it is also a very practical."

• 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.

• 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."

• On Probability As a Basis For Action by W. Edwards Deming
  "The aim here is to try to contribute something to the improvement of statistical practice. The basic supposition here is that any statistical investigation is carried out for purposes of action. New knowledge modifies existing knowledge. " Deming distinguishes between enumerative studies and analytic studies. An enumerative study has for its aim an estimate of the number of units of a frame that belong to a specified class. An analytic study has for its aim a basis for action on the cause-system or the process, in order to improve product of the future.

• Does anybody give a hoot about profit? by W. Edwards Deming, Henry R. Neave
  Dr W. Edwards Deming gave a short presentation to some 25 executives from major European companies. This document is a transcript prepared and edited by Henry Neave.

• Special Cause Signal Isn’t Proof A Special Cause Exists by John Hunter
  The control chart is a good way to keep us focused on common cause thinking for improvement. It is also very useful in flagging when it is time to immediately start using special cause thinking (since timing is key to effective special cause thinking)...

• 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."

• 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."

• Managing Fear in the Workplace by Gerald Suarez
  

• 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. "

• 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.

• 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."

• 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?'"

• Managing Complexity by David Kerridge, Sarah Kerridge
  "The Deming Philosophy shows us how to reduce complexity. The simpler something is, the easier it is to manage - other things being equal."

• 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.

• Blame the System by
  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."

• Dr. Demingʼs Camping Expedition by
  "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"

• 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."

• Understanding and Application of Deming’s System of Profound Knowledge in Healthcare by Mike Stoecklein
  "The prevailing style of management in healthcare is the same as the style described of Western management by Dr. Deming. It is based on a short-term view, where management sees their job as achieving results by any means necessary. Committees and management batch problems for solving long after the problems have occurred, and the causes are commonly traced back to people. Management spends most of their time in boardrooms or conference rooms without any real understanding of the day-to-day operations, far removed from where the value is added (by the caregivers). Healthcare managers have been led to believe that if they manage the parts of their organization well, then the parts will add up to a well-run organization. This reductionist view may work well for simple systems, but it produces poor quality, high costs, and a lack of cooperation when applied to complex systems like healthcare delivery."

• My First Trip to Japan by Peter R. Scholtes
  Report on trip to Japan to learn about how Japanese management focused on quality and productivity improvement to meet and exceed customers needs and expectations.

• 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."

• 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.

• 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."

• 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...

• 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."

• Dr. Demings 1950 Lecture to Japanese Top Management by
  "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."

• Dr W. Edwards Deming’s System of Profound Knowledge by
  "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."

• 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.

• 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."