Re: Straighter Talk

[Bob Mason <bob@cc-m.com>]

Rip Stauffer's remarks about the general's speech, "the power
of Deming's message," and the failure of many military and business leaders
to heed it set me to thinking about the need to consider Deming in a wider
context. 

The ethical implications of Dr. Deming's teaching are profound. They could
contribute to the vision needed by Western capitalist people to find a way
out of the awful dilemma posed by terrorists whom we may consider give voice
to screams of the deprived and miserable other people of the earth.

To date the logical path of the philosophy of continual improvement has not
been articulated.  This is a task for students of the Deming philosophy.  I
have often felt embarrassed to speak about such thoughts.  But today I think
it is legitimate to relate our thinking about management to the larger
national system in which we fortunately live and to the world system, where
we have imperfectly articulated a vision of democracy.  We must learn to do
so plainly and insistently.  I can hear Dr. Deming intoning, "Survival is
optional."    

Dr. Deming's systems solution usually threatened those who attained success
in the old system, as Rip reminds us.  That's why so few accepted it.

Dr. Deming confined himself to the context of the individual firm's
profitability and the welfare of its employees, customers, and suppliers.
He spoke from time to time about his concern for the long-term economic
welfare of the nation.  One had to read between the lines for his social and
moral direction: "Management's job is to provide jobs...."  He refused to
moralize; as you know, he couched his teaching in terms of pragmatic, self
interest:  "Survival [of the company] is optional."  "They [management
refusing to take a systems view] aren't interested in making a profit." (My
quotations are loose, from memory.)  The context of the Deming teaching
remained limited: It is good business (good government, good education...)
to lead people and their processes, and the system of the enterprise along
the path of continual improvement.

Despite its measured language, the wisdom and the ethical implications of
Deming's system of thought are clear and unmistakable.  Practice of the
principles of Profound Knowledge promotes: intellectual, emotional and
social honesty; concern for the welfare of others present; concern for the
welfare of those in the larger containing system; high levels of personal
satisfaction from participation in the enterprise;  and a sustained vision
(constancy of purpose) for the enterprise which, because of the internal
logic of this system of management, cannot violate the principle of
interdependent wellbeing.

The requirements of the philosophy of continual improvement, in other words,
take us in the direction of a compassionate systems view of our own
individual and corporate situation in the world.  And the practice of these
principles could help us to understand global interdependencies which might
inform our nation's foreign policies.

George Soros speaks of "economic fundamentalism" as the deadly affliction of
American-style capitalism.  He means our insistence on measures of economic
wealth as the primary value and the myth that unrestrained pursuit of global
markets is the the determining economic engine which will eventually lead to
wealth generation even among the world's most desparate people.  I don't
believe the world will wait.

I think there is a way through our economic-social morass that can
ultimately lead many people to agree that the practice  of continual
improvement offers a better world view with the promise of performance
beyond the limits of the old system of management.  Its insights could even
help us to understand better the plight of the those others and how to be
more effective when we engage to help them.

I would like to help expand the kernel of Deming's larger applications, and
I believe there are those among the DEN (and outside) who could lead us.

This would be a fine undertaking.

Bob Mason
-- 
Bob Mason at ManagementWisdom.com (CC-M, Inc.)
and ArmchairFitness.com
7755 16th Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20012
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