Re: Response to "Anything New Yet"

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

Raise your sights, DEN members.  Dr. Deming has continuing influence in many
places.  We recently attended a remarkable symposium at the Juran Center for
Leadership in Quality, Carlson School of Management, University of
Minnesota. There retired (Galvin and Petersen) business leaders and active
corporate heads (NcNerney of 3M, Carlson of Carlson Cos., Breen of Motorola,
and others) met with academics from several universities to consider what
went wrong with quality in the 90's and what can be done about it now.
These people, all of whom are inheritors of Deming's ideas (though his name
was not often mentioned in the presence of Dr. Juran), articulated the
problem and the ways out better than any group yet.  There was foolishness
about the Six Sigma banner and the humorous notions of Black Belts awarded
so readily, but most people take all that with a grain of salt.  It was
clear to us that the concept of systems thinking is gaining ground, along
with the implications for principles of leadership that must follow.  Deming
gave us a foundation for continued learning.  Applications of his ideas may
not be doctrinally pure, but they are clearly recognizable.

We taped interviews at the meeting and will use footage in the new series
Improving Management...By Managing Improvement.

Yesterday on the New York Times op-ed page Andrew Grove contributed the
clearest articulation yet of the business problem in America.  Read it and
you cannot miss the legacy of Dr. Deming in his thoughts.

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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