RE: Hillside Yellers?

["Steve Pilgrim" <spilgrim@continualimprovement.org>]

Can you make a (nice) living helping CEOs bring Deming's philosophy
into their organizations? Can they be "sold" on the idea, or must they
discover it? Are those who buy things more interested in quality, price
or speed when they buy? Is the old adage, "great, cheap or fast, pick
two," really true?

In the age of Wal-Mart where consumers as well as suppliers to that
company are encouraged to seek the lowest price, does quality still
matter? Have we become consumers so focused on "toss it and get
a new one," that no company really wants to pursue life cycle cost
and quality improvements?

In my discussions with CEO's, I'm finding many who say they don't have
the time or money to invest in deep improvement initiatives. They'll
engage in six sigma initiatives because of the "estimated benefits"
and because their competitors are "doing six sigma." All of these
questions have been on my mind and Jack Campbell's notion of
Hillside Yellers seems to answer many of those questions.

CEOs work in a new era of accountability. They want immediate
results from no cost initiatives that can be realized by the end of
the day. Is this the Wal-Mart effect on businesses? Is it the Wal-Mart
effect on Deming's philosophy?

Steve Pilgrim
Memphis, TN

-----Original Message-----
From: clauson@deming.ces.clemson.edu [mailto:clauson@deming.ces.clemson.edu]
On Behalf Of Jim Clauson, Breakthrough Systems
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2006 10:26 PM
To: DEN List
Subject: Hillside Yellers?

 From Jack Campbell ( rjackcam@comcast.net )

It seems to me that we Deming supporters are like a small, leaderless,
medieval revolutionary army standing on a distant hill yelling protests at
the castle. We're not really being heard and not gaining ground or
followers. And, like the army on the hill, the question that we haven't been
able to answer is: how do we educate others (in Deming concepts) and
steadily gain followers so that we can have a revolution ?

What are some of the barriers ? For one thing, it is way too expensive to
learn and/or educate others about Deming. For example, if a person wanted to
learn as much about Deming as most of us know, what would it cost them ? 
What is the cost to benefit ratio of them investing their time and money to
become educated? How would they even hear about Deming? For them, Deming may
be unknown and unknowable.

For those who are learning Deming philosphies, do we have a gameplan that
suggests how they can apply them in their workplace, their career, and/or
the revolution ?

How can we remove some barriers, get organized, and develop a gameplan;
rather than yelling from our hillside ?

Jack Campbell
Oak Ridge, TN.