The Digestible Deming

An Almost-Daily Journal for Learning Dr. W.E. Deming's Philosophy on Transformation of Management

Welcome to The Digestible Deming, a series of short, inspirational posts designed to make the core philosophy and methods of Dr. W.E. Deming, the man who taught the post-war Japanese about quality, more accessible to modern audiences with the aim to encourage thinking and asking questions about everyday life that are often unchallenged and taken for granted. Using excerpts drawn from his books, writing, seminars, and speeches, along with a cartoon or illustration, I will reveal a world that has been hidden under the one pulled over your eyes since you were very young.

Some of the lessons we’ll uncover will come as sudden epiphanies, lightning bolts from the blue; others will take time to “blossom” in the mind as a function of the right experiences and observations aligning over time. As Dr. Deming observed, “Knowledge has temporal spread. Knowledge comes from theory. Without theory, there is no way to use information that comes to us on the instant.”

Thus, it’s ultimately my aim to challenge your innate theories or predictions of how the world works and how you comport yourself within the organizations that you manage, work, or volunteer.

Through these counterpoints I hope to provoke in you a much deeper yearning to learn more about the Deming philosophy and approach to management which is broadly applicable, from industry to government to education. It is my sincere belief that many of the keys to our successful renewal as a nation, post-pandemic, lie with transformation toward a Deming view of our organizations, which ultimately begins with each of us, individually.

Let’s not delay - there’s much work to do.

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