Quantum improvement

[Rip Stauffer <rstauffer@bluefirepartners.com>]

Roger Key asks: "Do we jump from the middle to the start and then to just
before the end and then back to where
we were last Tuesday?"

I'm sure we all hope it doesn't happen that way. Unfortunately, I have seen
too many organizations willing to do just that. A lack of constancy of
purpose almost guarantees it. However, for the sake of argument, let's
assume that we have an organization that has the constancy of purpose to
pursue continuous (or continual) improvement.

Heero Haqueboord and Ed Baker convinced me that Dr. Deming looked at
improvement as continual, not continuous; as a step function. At several
points in the journey, you hold things constant so you can study them. I had
held this view as very accurate until Roger's message. I believe his
characterization of the process as "continuous, but not linear" may be a
more accurate statement of what happens. The journey is dynamic, and if we
are carefully and rationally progressing around the PDSA cycle, our
knowledge continues to grow even as we hold aspects of the process constant.


As in so many of these discussions, there is no real answer in the end; just
a different and (maybe) clearer viewpoint. Whether you end up thinking this
one is better or not is irrelevant. The important thing is what you learn by
studying problems from the new viewpoint for a while.

Rip Stauffer, Senior Consultant
BlueFire Partners
1300 Fifth St. Towers, 150 So. Fifth St.
Minneapolis, MN 55402
612-344-1027
rstauffer@bluefirepartners.com
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