Re: den.list-d Digest V99 #207

[lifemap@ix.netcom.com]

Subject: Discussions ABOUT "Profound Knowledge"
From: Ed Baker (lifemap@ix.netcom.com)

A great difficulty with discussions about Dr. Deming and "profound knowledge' is to discuss it 
without having it. Deming had wisdom; he named it "profound knowledge." For most of us, the 
discussion is an academic exercise: we talk about it, but we have not experienced it. Those, 
like Dr. Deming, who have experienced this wholistic understanding, know it from the inside. 
Such experience, however, is hard to talk about, hard to communicate to others. Dr. Deming used 
the tools of language and statistics to try to communicate to the rest of the world how he saw 
the world. When Dr. Deming spoke of "profound knowledge," I believe that he was speaking about 
the wholistic way he viewed the world.

William James said that knowledge is manifested in the doing. For me, the operational definition 
of "profound knowledge" is not in the words, but in the observation of Dr. Deming in action. If 
one knew how to observe, one could learn a lot about "profound knowledge" from the way Dr. 
Deming approached life. His actions were a manifestation of the integration of his conceptual 
knowledge and values. He integrated the so-called components of profound knowledge in his 
action. Any attempt to separate them, or weight them, imposes someone else's (i.e., one's own 
idiosyncratic view) mental model on Dr. Deming. It will be an exercise in inference that will  
mislead.

Ed Baker
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