Deming Devotional #5: Troubles and Possibilities for Improvement
Where Do We Begin to Look?
In my experience, most troubles and possibilities for improvement add up to proportions something like this:
94% belong to the system (the responsibility of management)
6% are attributable to special causes
We shall understand these proportions after we do the experiment on the Red Beads (Ch. 7).
No amount of skill in workmanship can overcome fundamental faults of the the system.
- Dr. W.E. Deming. The New Economics. (2nd Ed, pp. 33-34 , 3rd Ed. p. 24 )
THE AIM for today’s post is to continue our experiment of breaking Dr. Deming’s theory of management into discrete pieces to challenge and shift our thinking about everyday phenomena in the workplace, and through sharing them do the same with others. Think of them as ways to begin provoking curiosity and a desire to learn more.
Today’s curated selection is perhaps the most-known and provactive for those new to a Deming view of management because it is an inversion of what we have been taught to expect: that people cannot through sheer dint of will do better than management will allow. We cannot overcome the rules of the game we’ve been assigned to play unless and until the designers allow for it.
Consider playing a boardgame like Monopoly, that classic destroyer of friendships and families alike. Why does it have this reputation? When American inventor and activist, Lizzie Magie, created the game, she wanted to demonstrate how rent-seeking and industrial monopolies hurt people, trapping them in an unfair system. To do this, she engineered the rules to promote an aggressive winner-take-all outcome where one player, through sheer luck, can dominate with an ever-widening advantage. In other words, much like the Red Bead Experiment, it has a pre-ordained outcome where the players come to believe they can “win” over the House if they just try harder.
The system, as defined by the rules, has an overwhelming influence on the outcomes. If we want to change the outcome to promote more fairness, we’d need to change the components and rules of the game that govern how everyone interacts. As Deming contemporary Peter Scholtes observed: “Changing the system will change what people do. Changing what people do will not change the system.”
Your Turn
As with prior Devotionals, the aim is to think about the excerpted passage in your own context, and then share it with a friend or colleague to improve your own understanding and perhaps shift their thinking in the process — if they’re not already aligned with you.
Some questions to get you started:
What reaction did you have to the passage? What prior experiences informed that reaction? What words or phrases stood out? Why?
Do you agree with the proportions Dr. Deming assigns fault toward? Why? What proportions would you assign to the system (management) and special causes? Are people responsible for special causes?
What routine faults have you observed in your own organization? How are they treated? Where is most effort put toward changing or improving?
Do you agree that no amount of skill in workmanship can overcome the faults of the system? Are there examples where employees actually do? How?
How do our current systems of managment promote “fairness” ? Do any of the solutions change outcomes for everyone? Why? What could be done instead?
