Constancy of Purpose
A Commitment to Continual Improvement
1. CONSTANCY OF PURPOSE
Create constancy of purpose for continual improvement of product and service, allocating resources to provide for long-range needs rather than only short-term profitability, with a plan to become competitive, to stay in business, and to provide jobs.
- Excerpt of Dr. Deming’s 14 Points for the Transformation of Management. Neave, Dr. Henry. The Deming Dimension. (p. 39)
1. Lack of constancy of purpose to plan product and service that will have a market and keep the company in business, and provide jobs.
- Excerpt of Dr. Deming’s 7 Deadly Diseases. Orsini, Dr. Joyce. The Essential Deming. (p. 15)
With better quality and lower cost you can capture the market with better quality in lower price; help you to stay in business provide jobs more jobs, all very simple. One has to know how to produce quality, and what quality is, what’s the ultimate aim, that quality goes all the way through an organization — could be no better than the top, no better than the intent of the top, the top people.
- Dr. W.E. Deming. Excerpts from The Deming Library Collection: The 14 Points.
THE AIM of this post is to introduce and explain the first, and perhaps most important of Dr. Deming’s famous 14 Points for the Transformation of Management: Constancy of Purpose. Dr. Deming developed all of the points over time, starting with a small number and increasing them through observation, learning, and development of his philosophy of management. As such, while they appear as a sequential list they are in reality a system — no point exists independent of the others. Constancy of purpose is fittingly the first as it underpins the subsequent thirteen, and can also be seen as well-aligned with Deming’s System of Profound Knowledge.
In describing constancy of purpose, Dr. Deming notes in Out of the Crisis two types of problems that preoccupy management:
Problems of today encompass maintenance of quality of product put out today, regulation of output so as not to exceed immediate sales by too far, budget, employment, profits, sales, service, public relations, forecasting, and so forth. It is easy to stay bound up in the tangled knot of the problems of today, becoming ever more and more efficient in them, as by (e.g.) acquisition of mechanized equipment for the office.
Problems of the future command first and foremost constancy of purpose and dedication to improvement of competitive position to keep the company alive and to provide jobs for their employees. Are the board of directors and the president dedicated to quick profits, or to the institution of constancy of purpose? The next quarterly dividend is not as important as existence of the company 10, 20, or 30 years from now.
Dr. W.E. Deming. Out of the Crisis (MIT Press) (pp. 24-25).
Thus, having a constancy of purpose means being aware of and planning for the future as part of routine operations while staving off short-term views and behaviours that could derail improvements. This is the work of top-management and their teams, and it requires a clear understanding of why the organization exists, its customers, and how it serves them, and by extension society. It requires deep thinking and planning about:
The aim of the business or organization: What business are we in? What business are we not in? How do our customers benefit from interacting with us? How do we enable their success with our products and services?
Innovations in not only products and services, but how they are delivered and the way we structure our businesses. It’s no accident that we’re all getting mediocre results from nearly-identical departments, divisions, and roles - it’s by design.
Investments in research and development by educating employees and realizing that what they need isn’t always directly-related to their jobs. Inspiration and influence for breakthroughs can come from many sources.
Continual improvement in quality everywhere, from products to services, to the interactions between different areas of the organization and people.
Investments in maintenance and production aids to make people’s jobs easier, rather than an exercise in working around problems.
How to restore joy and purpose in work for everyone so that they see their commitment to the organization is enjoined with that of leadership. This would include development to retain and promote people rather than see them move around or leave for a competitor.
It is important to note here that working on defining a constancy of purpose for an organization is more than just an exercise to write a vision and mission statement. This is a commitment to changing the philosophy and theory of management: It shouldn’t be undertaken lightly or half-heartedly. It requires learning the theory of the Fourteen Points and how they fit together as a whole system of management.
What Is Not a Constancy of Purpose
Basically, an inversion of what’s been discussed above: A preoccupation with short-term horizons and reactions to interim phenomena without a view to the long-term implications of the business or organization.
A strong indication of a lack of constancy of purpose can be found in organizations that seem to exist not to create new innovations and jobs for people (thereby serving society at large) but just to build up enough equity and patents to be sold-off to the highest bidder, or seem to be rudderless, adopting new positions and takes that are poorly communicated to managers and employees. This can also be a consequence of being imposed from outside the organization through a Board of Directors or similar body. An additional indicator is another of Dr. Deming’s Seven Deadly Diseases: Mobility of management, ie. when they are promoted or moved around rapidly, every 2-3 years.
How Do We Establish a Constancy of Purpose?
As John Hunter advises in a 2012 Deming Institute blog post, “start slowly, learn as you go, and build on past successes”. There is no one-size-fits-all strategy or recipe, nor a singular entry point beyond learning the theory and taking the first small steps to identifying why your organization exists and how it will be sustained in the future. Everything emanates from and is aligned to understanding what your constancy of purpose is and could be into the future.
Consider the vision and mission statements of The Aileron Center in Tipp City, OH shown below — I took this picture while attending a Deming Institute workshop in 2017:
This clearly enunciates the purpose of the organization, why it exists, and its plans for the future. It’s apparent what business they are in, and the locus that all their services and products will align toward, and how they plan to continue into the future.
For another perspective, take a look at the Purpose Document of Hallmark Building Supplies, a wholesaler located in Waukesha, WI. They undertook a transformation toward becoming a Deming-managed organization in the 1990s, developing their document as they went. They consider it their primary strategy guide, and have it available for download on their website. You can see it here.
Reflection Questions
Consider your own organization or one that you may be familiar with: How would you define the current purpose statement? Think about the aim of the organization, what business are they in? Who are their customers? How do they accrue benefit from engaging with the organization? How well is the aim or purpose understood by everyone? In what ways is the organization aligned or misaligned with their purpose? Why? What would be required to implement corrections?
Additional References & Reading
Dr. Deming’s 14 Points for Management - The Deming Institute
Create Constancy of Purpose - The Deming Institute