SV: Buddhism and Quality Circles

[Øgland - Petter <petter.ogland@skatteetaten.no>]

Will Pollard says that one might not have to be a Buddhist, in order to
understand Deming, but maybe it would help.  The more I consider this, the
more convinced I become that Will is saying something vitally important
here, although I get the impression that it is the Zen-aspect (Taoist
aspect) of Zen Buddhism that is the most important aspect in Deming's way of
thinking (rather than the Buddhist aspect).

In his book "Against ISO 9000", John Seddon says that the most important
aspect of SPC is not the operational use of the charts, but the way the
charts are being used for understanding the organisation as a system of
processes.  In Zen literature, I often find people talking about "mind like
water".  To which extent was Deming influenced by process thinkers like
Henri Bergson and Alfred North Whitehead?

Perhaps the key to a prober understanding of Deming lies in Christian
Process Theology?  Did Deming talk a lot about water and flow in his
seminars?  There is something about his system model on page 4 in "Out of
the Crisis" that makes it more dynamic than most system model.  The model is
almost drawn as a vector field model.

Petter