Re: Evaluating competing theories

["Bill Scherkenbach" <bill@scherkenbach.com>]

I think that you must always look in time and space to evaluate the
usefulness of theories.  I know that Dr. Deming said that a single failure
disproves a theory, but I am not so sure about what it does to the
usefulness of it.  Especially if the theories have to do with people or
their management.

In the series of lectures that he gave the Japanese in 1950, he was very
careful to say, (and in fact corrected himself several times ) that he
agreed with an answer, not that it was right or wrong.

I think one of the biggest mistakes that we, as leaders can make is to think
that what works for us, must work for everyone at everytime.  It doesn't
work for simple wheat in Rothamstead, it sure won't work for complex people.
And yet we all are guilty of it.  Even Dr. Deming was.  Wine and cheese
parties did not work for him, (actually they did some of the time)  so he
said that they shouldn't really work for anyone.  Well they are very
effective for some people, some of the time.

In my opinion, there are going to be very few management theories that will
be useful to all space and all time.  Space changes and time changes.  I
have been asked what management theories were successful in Ford and GM.
The answer is not that simple.  The companies take up considerable space
(they span continents, cultures, and classes)(and in GM's case planets)  Out
of all of that, the only management theory that has a chance of being useful
over space and time is "People need to be important, both as individuals and
as members of teams, families, motorcycle gangs."  Deming put this several
ways:  If people feel important, they won't be absent.  All people ask for
is a chance to take pride in their work.

I have also come to see that the major frequencies that resonate with
people's importance are Physical, Logical, and Emotional.  And the specifics
of that importance change over time.  Yes, there are theories in the logical
world of mathematics that have a good chance of being useful over large
space and long time.  There are also theories in the intersection of
Physical and Logical (Science) that have been extremely useful, so far.  But
I think we are in the infancy of putting all of these perspectives together.
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