WELCOME BACK weary weekly travellers to our open Q&A series we call “Doctor’s Orders” where you pose questions about the Deming management theory, or anything adjacent, and I do my best to find you the answers!
For today’s entry, I’m rummaging through my proverbial mailbag and pulling out a question that I’m asked by many of my customers who want to get started learning the Deming management method, but aren’t sure where to begin. What follows are some suggestions: as always, your mileage may vary…
Q5: Newbie, here: where do you recommend I begin learning about the Deming management philosophy? What resources can you point me to?
Another good question and there are many ways to begin depending on how you prefer to learn. Irrespective of the path you choose, be sure to cement what you learn either by teaching it to others or enacting a small change to test it for yourself. This makes the theory come alive and helps you to accrue knowledge and build confidence.
Shameless Self-Promotion
This list wouldn’t be complete without a plug for this newsletter which has a similar aim to DemingNEXT and IQI’s Virtual Academy in breaking down Deming’s theory into discrete, easily learned lessons. However, it has a flaw in that I’ve not put together a set of proposed “paths” through the material to guide you along. That’s in the works! For now, the search feature is robust so you can find articles by keywords - I suggest starting simply with “management” and seeing where it takes you.
Classroom Style Learning - Online
If you like instructor-led learning, and can spare 45m a day for 16 weeks, consider the Institute for Quality and Innovation’s Virtual Academy. Led by skilled Deming practitioner Eric Budd, this program breaks Deming’s management method down into short, daily lectures that are followed up with “on the court” learning exercises where you apply what you’ve learned by teaching it to others in your organization, and by designing weekly changes (PDSAs) to introduce improvements to your system. At the end of the program, students prepare capstone presentations to share the results of their improvement efforts and personal learning accomplishments. Highly recommended!
Self-Paced Solo Learning - Online
Now in its first year of operation, The Deming Institute’s DemingNEXT learning platform features hundreds of hours of high-quality instruction provided in short modules complemented with quizzes to help track your progress and mastery. In addition there are scores of case studies and over 43h of archival footage of Dr. Deming lecturing or explaining his theory.
The modules are assembled into pre-programmed learning paths that you can follow at your own pace, or choose your own based on where your curiosity leads you.
Annual subscriptions for the entire course catalog are $499 USD, and you can try it out with a 14 day free trial. I think it will appeal to more modern learners who are experienced with online corporate training programs they may use at work or even in some university programs. The core training modules are developed in conjunction with The Deming Institute by a professional production firm to a high standard of quality that helps make the material interesting and engaging.
Added Bonus: The platform can be accessed on mobile devices and tablets for learning-on-the-go.
Podcasts
The Deming Institute has scores of videos and podcasts, some of which I’ve featured here. You can find videos of sessions from their annual fall conferences and interviews via their YouTube channel here, and podcasts here. The podcasts are fantastic learning resources that feature interviews with a range of guests who explore topics around the Deming management philosophy, how they became exposed to it and applied it, with some taking deep dives into the finer points not covered in any book. You’ll quickly become familiar with household names in the Deming community like David Langford, Kelly Allan, Dr. Bill Bellows, Cliff Norman, Ron Moen, John Dues, Andrew Stotz, and Kevin Cahill (Dr. Deming’s grandson and steward of the Deming legacy) among many, many others.
Documentaries
This is one that ignited Dr. Deming’s re-discovery, the NBC White Paper Documentary, If Japan Can, Why Can’t We. As you get into Deming, you’ll come across a number of references to it, and for all the hype you might be surprised to learn Deming gets about nine minutes of exposure - but they are good. This won’t teach you his philosophy, per se, but it will whet the appetite.
I’ve cued the vid below to where Deming’s part begins:
Books
Of Deming’s two books, Out of the Crisis and The New Economics, I’d recommend the latter. Younger readers (ie. born after 1990) will find Deming’s writing style and references archaic and perhaps unapproachable without the help of a study group or resources to help decode some of the concepts, in which case Four Days with Dr. Deming (see below) might be a better choice. This is a book that has transformative powers, but not after one reading: it’s like climbing Everest. Not in difficulty per se, but that you will need to read it at least twice to reach the “summit”, maybe three times.
Regular readers will know that I refer to Peter Scholtes’ excellent 1998 book, The Leader’s Handbook frequently, and for good reason. I liken it to operationalizing Deming’s thinking and making it easy to learn and apply. Each chapter teaches you the theory and how to use it, followed by a series of exercises so you can put your learning into practice. If you can find a hardcopy via Amazon or at a second-hand shop, snap it up: it’s getting harder to find these days. Caveat: I’d still pair this with reading The New Economics or Four Days with Dr. Deming to round out your education.
Want to experience what one of Deming’s famous Four-Day Seminars was like? Look for a copy of William Latzko & David Saunders’ charming Four Days with Dr. Deming. It presents a blend of topics you’d typically cover at the seminar, drawing from Deming’s entire body of knowledge. Each “day’s” topics are narrated by three personas: the authors, Deming himself, and that of a fictionalized executive who shares his inner-thoughts about learning the material and how it comports with his past experiences, what changes it’s influencing, and how it is affecting him personally. This is a really approachable read for new students to become quickly immersed in the theory - strong recommendation!
Maybe you’re more visually-oriented and enjoy working with data and charts. Is there path into learning Deming for you? Absolutely! It’s called variation and you can learn about it and how to visualize it with Measures of Success by long-time friend and colleague, Mark Graban. Within you will learn the art and science of analyzing system data to reveal the secrets they contain behind why they vary using Process Behaviour Charts. Mark is a long-time student of Deming, and was prepared for writing this book by studying under the guidance of Dr. Donald Wheeler, Ph.D., a statistician par excellence who was a colleague of Dr. Deming’s and has published many of his own books on improving quality using Deming’s statistical methods. Mark has taken what he learned from Dr. Wheeler, combined it with his experience and made it accessible to a wide audience without compromising on quality. If you’re looking for a way into learning Deming through data, you can’t go wrong with this book. Pair with The New Economics or Four Days with Dr. Deming or even posts in this newsletter.
Personal Note: I use the methods Mark taught me in my own PBCs every day.
What do you think? Old Hands: Have I left anything out that you would recommend to newbies? Let me know in the comments below or on our Chat thread. As always, keep an eye out next week for a new Chat thread where you can post your questions for Doctor’s Orders #5!
Hello, I like the blog and I have a questions. My experience is that I actually got fired from a company as a manager because I tried to implement Deming, just as he predicted would happen haha.
My question is: How come Deming-style run companies haven't overtaken the market like the old car companies? Maybe it's that literally 0 companies run like Deming's style, which was certainly true of US car companies, but have we seen any major ones even try since? If so, are Deming companies failing or are they just non existant?