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The more I read of Deming, the more I got the picture that Deming just wanted businesses to be run holistically. But - this is the critical part - the employees

The more I read of Deming, the more I got the picture that Deming just wanted businesses to be run holistically. But - this is the critical part - the employees need to not be morons. They need to be smart enough to understand how the business works, how to do their jobs well, and how their jobs relate to other people's jobs, and whatever the business is producing or servicing. Everybody from the janitor to the CEO needs to not be a moron. And obviously that's hard, because most people are not super smart, and we get dumber in groups, and businesses are groups of people.

drewcoo 3y ago
> But - this is the critical part - the employees need to not be morons. If that's the critical part, then why did Deming spend so much of his life trying to explain things in short, pithy ways to management? Hint: it's not just because they're the ones who'd pay for consultants.
RugnirViking 3y ago
My understanding is that a big part of not having performance reviews etc is essentially that you're trying to get away from this problem. "Those efforts that focus on improving the attentiveness, carefulness, speed, etc., of individual workers — without changing the systems, processes, and methods — constitute a low-yield strategy with negligible short-term results" If your buisness can be severely impacted if one guy didnt get enough sleep/is dumb, it's not the guy's fault. Make a system so someone else checks the work, or provide him with better information with which to make a decision, or any number of other potential improvements which dont rely on a specific person
kevinmchugh 3y ago
One of the grocery stores I go to recently added a low clearance warning bar to the entrance of their parking garage. Fine. The problem is, they added it so it hangs at the same level as the convex safety mirror that allows a driver heading in to see a driver heading out. So now the majority of the mirror cannot be seen or just reflects the warning bar. "What moron hung this at the same height", I thought. "I oughtta complain to that moron's boss". Because the manager is the one who's going to get the complaint, they need to be the one who is actively, clearly focused on the customer needs and the total quality of the product.
commandlinefan 3y ago
> Deming just wanted businesses to be run holistically That was the impression I got of the Agile Manifesto when I read it back in '99 or so - boy did that ever get misinterpreted.

drewcoo 3y ago

> But - this is the critical part - the employees need to not be morons. If that's the critical part, then why did Deming spend so much of his life trying to explain things in short, pithy ways to management? Hint: it's not just because they're the ones who'd pay for consultants.

RugnirViking 3y ago

My understanding is that a big part of not having performance reviews etc is essentially that you're trying to get away from this problem. "Those efforts that focus on improving the attentiveness, carefulness, speed, etc., of individual workers — without changing the systems, processes, and methods — constitute a low-yield strategy with negligible short-term results" If your buisness can be severely impacted if one guy didnt get enough sleep/is dumb, it's not the guy's fault. Make a system so someone else checks the work, or provide him with better information with which to make a decision, or any number of other potential improvements which dont rely on a specific person

kevinmchugh 3y ago

One of the grocery stores I go to recently added a low clearance warning bar to the entrance of their parking garage. Fine. The problem is, they added it so it hangs at the same level as the convex safety mirror that allows a driver heading in to see a driver heading out. So now the majority of the mirror cannot be seen or just reflects the warning bar. "What moron hung this at the same height", I thought. "I oughtta complain to that moron's boss". Because the manager is the one who's going to get the complaint, they need to be the one who is actively, clearly focused on the customer needs and the total quality of the product.

commandlinefan 3y ago

> Deming just wanted businesses to be run holistically That was the impression I got of the Agile Manifesto when I read it back in '99 or so - boy did that ever get misinterpreted.