RE: Confusion about Deming in Business 2.0

[Hamilton John TSgt 17TRW/MO <John.Hamilton@goodfellow.af.mil>]

After reading Del Nelson's reply, I felt I should share mine as well.  This
was directed at the publisher with a courtesy copy to the author.

Sir,

I feel the need to reply to a posted article by Steven Berglas in the
12DEC00 issue of Business 2.0 entitled To Keep Your Workers, Set Them Free.
While I understand he is on the research faculty of the Anderson School Of
Management at University of California Los Angeles, perhaps he should do
some more research.

I was concerned to learn of new developments in management where W. Edward
Deming is credited with inventing Total Quality Management (TQM) and the
Japanese system called Kaizen is predicated on the belief that workers must
be motivated to achieve predetermined performance goals. 

The term TQM, according to Bill Creech, a retired Air Force General and
author of The Five Pillars of TQM, is "so widely used that it has become the
number one buzzphrase to describe a new type of quality-oriented management.
Thus the name TQM now covers a very broad tent encompassing all sorts of
management practices."   I could not find information concerning the exact
coining of the phrase nor it's originator.

What I did find is that Dr. Deming was foremost a statistician, not a human
resource liberal. W. Edwards Deming was quoted as saying, "Export anything
to a friendly country ... except American management."  In all Dr. Deming's
teachings and publications, he advocated a change in processes toward
reducing variation and an overhaul of the system that governs work in
industry, government and education.  He also abhorred the term TQM.  

In Mary Walton's book, The Deming Management Method, she explains Dr.
Deming's "14 Points" of management philosophy.  Specifically, Point 10:
eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the workforce and Point 11:
eliminate numerical quotas seem to contradict the author's statement that
Dr. Deming's philosophy is predicated toward achieving predetermined
performance goals.  

Discussing management of people in his book, The New Economics, Dr. Deming
stated, "<diagram> shows some of the forces of destruction that comes from
the present style of reward and their effects.  What they (management
practices) do is squeeze out from an individual, over his lifetime, his
innate intrinsic motivation, self-esteem and dignity.  They build into him
fear, self-defense, extrinsic motivation.  We have been destroying our
people, from toddlers on through the university, and on the job.  We must
preserve the power of intrinsic motivation, dignity, cooperation, curiosity,
joy in learning, that people are born with."  Some of the items identified
in the diagram are forced distribution of grades, a merit system, incentive
pay and numerical goals.

Deming advocated the Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle of continuous improvement.  He
also stressed the importance of team-based problem solving and constant
interaction among different departments in order for the company to meet
customer needs.  I find it difficult to believe that college-educated
workers would find this environment a Sisyphean hell.  The difficulty for
this new workforce will be locating a company that properly applies these
principles and offers workers boundless opportunity for their competencies.
The quandary lies in management's application of these principles, not the
principles themselves.

The author also mentions the term Kaizen.  Kaizen means improvement as
defined by Mr. Masaaki Imai in his book by the same name.  When applied to
the workplace, Kaizen means continuing improving improvement involving
everyone-managers and workers alike. Think of a company that focuses on
customer requirements and satisfaction with efforts toward quality and
productivity improvement using small group activities in cooperative
labor-management relations implementing just-in-time manufacturing and zero
defects all the while encouraging innovation toward new-product development.
How can an environment such as this fail to gratify the ambitions of workers
who prefer the exhilaration of an ever-challenging web of knowledge?  

Everyone who graduates college feels their knowledge and skills are the most
valuable.  Are these plebian beliefs any more valid then the worker (without
a degree) that has performed in the workplace for the past 20 years?   Both
believe they are indispensable. Both believe their skills are invaluable.
Both are right.  Information should not be confused with knowledge. They are
synergetic.  Having all the information available but not knowing what to do
with it is just as ineffective as having the experience without the
information.  

Any good management style should incorporate aspects of customer focus in
product development and production.  A team-based, flat-organizational
approach is imperative to meet the changing needs in the market.  When you
take care of your people, they will take care of you.  It is management's
responsibility to ensure the decisions made are best for the company and the
workforce.  It is the workers responsibility to help them. 

1.	Creech, Bill - The Five Pillars of TQM: How to Make Total Quality
Management Work for You. Truman Talley Books 1994 
2.	Deming, W. Edwards - The New Economics. Massachusetts Institute of
Technology Center for Advanced Educational Services 1997 
3.	Imai, Masaaki - Kaizen: The Key to Japan's Competitive Success.
McGraw-Hill 1986 
4.	Walton, Mary - The Deming Management Method. Perigree Books 1986

TSgt John Hamilton Jr
17 TRW/MO
Goodfellow AFB, TX
john.hamilton@goodfellow.af.mil <mailto:john.hamilton@goodfellow.af.mil> 
915 654-5132