Deming Utopian

["Vic Forte" <vic@vicf.com>]

> I am willing to concede that Dr. Deming's philosophy was
> considered utopian
> by some.

When a person says "x is utopian" they are telling you something about
themselves and their opinion. They may believe that they are telling you
something about what x "actually is". But, of course, "utopian" is a
valuation. It's a perception.

I am not denigrating the validity of perception. It would still be worth
listening to and paying attention to. But in dealing with this valuation,
this perception, we need to take account of the valuer and their
circumstances, as well as the thing valued.

It is possible to study the work of Dr. Deming and conclude that is does
nothing to help you; that it is not practical or applicable in the real
world. But if one attempts to put into practice what one has studied, with
help and guidance, it becomes evident that it is a system for applying
intellectual rigour to the simplest and most mundane of human activities.
e.g. improving daily life and work. Not only this, there is also a lot of
wisdom in there too, the sort of stuff that it takes a life time to learn.

But it is hard to do, and requires constancy of purpose. In some cases it
takes a long time before results are manifested.

Deming does not work, nor can it be understood on its own. It is a system
which interacts with its environment. It only works in action. As a means
for transforming life and work life there is simply nothing like it.

It does not provide you with answers, but it does provide you with a means
to extract for yourself some practical and profound answers relating to your
circumstances and those of your organisation. Furthermore, it helps you to
avoid making the sorts of mistakes and wrong assumptions from which it takes
a life time to recover.

In this sense it is very practical indeed. But it is up to people to
actually try to do it, and there is a need for a mentoring process.