12/17/10…At a Forum for manufacturing last week, someone gave me some valuable insight. Deming was someone whom I philosophically modeled my leadership style after. I would say reading the book The Deming Dimension by Henry R. Neave was one of the top 5 business books I ever read that actually affected my behavior.
At my second job, I remember leading a book study of The Deming Dimension with the management group. We would read a chapter a week, discuss it, and then develop plans on how to implement changes in the organization that would bring us more in line with Deming’s vision. During that time I worked closely with an associate who also believed in a similar style. We were thirsty for knowledge and immersed ourselves in many deep conversations regarding how to apply Deming’s 14 points. The problem was this. Deming did not give a lot of how’s. Therefore, while we were thirsty for knowledge, we were left with a lot of unanswered questions. Deming seemed to present more of the culture transformation versus the tools needed to help impact the transformation. In many of his forums, it was not uncommon for participants to ask questions trying to understand the how, and in turn Deming giving back to them a circular response. However, this was part of the lure of Deming, at least to me. It seemed to fuel my desire to seek more versus having a nice tidy package of answers. The funny thing is, if you watch a youtube clip of him, Deming is a dry, boring speaker who presents everything in a monotone voice. There is nothing engaging about him other than the content of what he speaks. With that said, for anyone to say anything negative about Deming would cause quite a protective reaction by me. How dare they!?
But last week someone did a how dare they. The person said Deming did not quite get what happened in Japan. What!? I thought when I heard this person attack my mentor. How dare he!? But dare he did. Deming was a catalyst in helping Japan recover from WWII with his philosophies, but he never quite caught on to the Toyoda way. The Toyoda way, which back then had no label, is what eventually became known as Lean. Lean is a methodology for improving and staying in business. Nowadays, if a company, especially in the manufacturing sector, is not actively engaging in a Lean or Six Sigma approach, then they are behind the bell curve.
Now to Deming’s credit, he was someone who was always refining his thoughts and philosophies. He was very astute at seeing cultural change and then updating his thoughts on the matter. Deming never seemed to be static and was not afraid to wipe out previous thoughts on a matter. Born in 1900, he passed away in 1993. Lean, or the Toyota Production System, had been around for a number of years in Deming’s time. However, Six Sigma, developed by Motorola in 1986, was a toolset for improvement that Deming probably never became aware of. What I wonder is this? Who’s to say that eventually Deming would not have made this connection? The connection being this…
Deming + Lean + Six Sigma = An Impactful Leadership Style
I believe the Lean and Six Sigma methodologies are the toolset answers to Deming’s Cultural Transformation. In the future, I want to spend some time revisiting his 14 points and seeing how they tie in to today’s world.
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