SV: Buddhism and Quality Circles

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

John Balor seems to be of the impression that most Demingites are of a Zen
Buddhist persuation.  This may well be the case, but it is not my
impression.  My impression is that Demingites are statisticians by religion
and engineers by action.  However, as Alfred North Whitehead says in
"Religion in the Making" (1929, p. 141): "whatever suggests a cosmology,
suggests a religion".

Being a statistician, I believe Deming formed a statisticians cosmology, and
this having important consequences for his Christian beliefs.  The
interesting thing, though, is how "the way of the statistician", as Howard
Gitlow calls it, corresponds to the Lean Principles in "The Toyota Way".
Gitlow writes fascinatingly about how not to use SPC but to think SPC in all
aspects of life.  Gitlow chose to give this a Zen interpretation, which
seems quite relevant for explaining Deming's astounding success in Japan,
but probably not a good interpretation when trying to explain the message
for traditional western management.

What one should do, perhaps, is to try to understand the corporate culture
already in existence, identify which words or metphores management use to
describe the processes and how they are related, and then explain the basics
of Deming in this language.  If management is thinking of the organization
as a machine, then how do we make the machine run smoothly and effciently?
If they think of the organization like a garden, then how do we make it grow
and prosper?

Apparently, Asian cultures has a natural tendency for process thinking.
Mind like water.  They probably grasped Deming's message without having to
think.  It's probably more difficult in cultures with focus on 'things'
rather than 'processes'.

Petter Ogland