RE: A question for clarification

["Prevette, Steven S" <Steven_S_Prevette@rl.gov>]

Can anyone remember (or, alternatively, point me in the direction of) Dr
Deming's original quote on this topic?

Page 101 of The New Economics:

Question in a seminar.  Please elaborate on your statement that profound
knowledge comes from outside of the system.  Aren't the people in the system
the only ones that know what is happening and why?

Answer:  The people that work in an organization know what they are doing,
but they will not by themselves learn a better way.  Their best efforts and
hard work only dig deeper the pit that they are working in.  Their best
efforts and hard work do not provide an outside view of the organization.

Again, a system can not understand itself.  One may learn a lot about ice,
yet know very little about water.

---

For me:  I just finished reading The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge.  I
attended the IN2IN conference in Canoga Park.  I participate on the DEN.
All these sources provide ideas from outside of my current system, outside
of Hanford.  Working with SOPK allows me to apply a different lens to my
work, and infect others.  I go to IN2IN and stir up others, for them, I am
from outside their current system.  It is hard to change a system from
within, but it can happen in pockets, at least pockets large enough to allow
the individual and the idea from outside to survive.  Just gave a
presentation on avoiding "near misses" to a senior decision maker.  His
response - this would have been great 5 years ago, but today, today I need
the "fix".  So we will bundle up some ideas under the sheep's clothing of
the "quick fix".  Other ideas will follow.  Will it be easy?  No.  Will it
work?  Maybe.  Will it be fun to be part of?  Yes.



Steve Prevette
Occupational Safety and Health
Fluor Hanford, A Fluor Government Group Project
ASQ Certified Quality Engineer
steven_s_prevette@rl.gov
509-373-9371