Re: Shewhart, Deming and Juran .... please advise*

[David Kerridge <dfkerridge@mac.com>]

John Dowd truly says:


>It's one thing to disagree with some one about what they say, but
>another thing altogether to deny that they said it.  I don't get it.
>All it does is confuse people when there is no need for confusion. 

But doesn't this tell us something about the Deming Management
Philosophy, and Profound Knowledge in particular?

Profound Knowledge is about "seeing". This seeing does not come
naturally, in fact without considerable effort. Even then it takes time.
If you really can't see, you are unaware that there is anything there to
see, and so cannot make the effort required. That's why "Profound
Knowledge comes from outside".

In its absence you naturally interpret everything in terms of the things
you "know" without Profound Knowledge. If the words you hear don't fit,
you think "WED must have meant...." and soon become convinced that that
was what he said. I have seen this many times. Gipsie Ranney has
collected examples of journal articles in which writers have quoted Dr
Deming as saying things that are the exact opposite of what he did say -
all writing in good faith.

To me this simply illustrates the profound nature of the concepts
involved. No one can be blamed for not seeing. And all of us, as John
reminds us, have blind spots.

I have often been puzzled by what WED meant by saying that
transformation of the individual is instantaneous. I am sure that we
will all agree that understanding, or "seeing" as I have described it
above, takes time. But there is a point at which you suddenly say to
yourself "There is something here that I must understand."

David Kerridge