Seeking Unleavened Truth

Some Post-Easter Reflections About Dr. Deming's Pursuit of Profound Knowledge

A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
- Galatians 5:9

And the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.
- Luke 3:17 as quoted at the top of Chapter 4 of The New Economics

A wise man will hold his tongue till he see opportunity: but a babbler and a fool will regard no time.
-Ecclesiasticus 20, v.7., as quoted at the top of Chapter 8 of The New Economics

To me the ideal doctor would be a man endowed with profound knowledge of life and of the soul, intuitively divining any suffering or disorder of whatever kind, and restoring peace by his mere presence.
- Henri Amiel

THE AIM for today’s post-Easter newsletter is a brief reflection about Dr. Deming’s theory of management viewed through the lens of a phrase of scripture from Galatians 5:9 that I came across that was posted on X: A little leaven leavens the whole lump. This was in reference to the symbology of why Jews do not have leavened bread during Passover and how Jesus and Paul leveraged this to explain a warning about false doctrine through the metaphor of puffing things up to be more than they are, and so get further away from hard truths.

In reflecting on this, I saw a comparison to the “unleavened truths” Dr. Deming sought to bring to management by way of what he discovered through the development of his theory, which fits with who he was and how faith shaped his life and work. Let’s consider the following…

Deming as a Spiritual Man

It becomes apparent as you read Out of the Crisis and The New Economics, that Dr. Deming was a spiritual man well-versed in the verses of the Bible and adjacent texts, as he would place selected excerpts at the top of specific chapters to set the intent and tone for what was to come. It is clear that he was concerned with uncovering latent truths that had become lost over time.

Dr. Ed Baker writes in The Symphony of Profound Knowledge:

Dr. Deming was a religious and spiritual man who appreciated what human talents can contribute to living. He was a music theorist and composer who expressed his faith through his liturgical music. In his spare time, he rearranged “The Star-Spangled Banner” to make it easier to sing. His daughter, Diana Deming Cahill, told me, “My father played our piano daily. He wrote eight compositions. One uses only the three notes that he and I heard the monks chant at a Tokyo temple.”…

He saw wisdom for living in scripture and began some chapters of his books directed to management, Out of the Crisis and The New Economics (Second Edition), with a quote from the Bible that characterized the aim of his teaching. One can see his concern with language and communication from these examples:

“Understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that hath it; but the instruction of fools is folly.” —Proverbs 16:22 (Out of the Crisis, chapter 8, “Some New Principles of Training and Leadership,” p. 248)

“Who is it that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?” —Job 38:2. (Out of the Crisis, chapter 1, “Chain Reaction,” p. 1)

“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” —Hosea 4:6 (Out of the Crisis, chapter 3, “Diseases and Obstacles,” p. 97)

“A wise man will hold his tongue till he see opportunity: but a babbler and a fool will regard no time.” —Ecclesiasticus 20, v. 7 (The New Economics, 2nd ed., chapter 8, “Shewhart and Control Charts,” p. 172)

“Prefer a slip on the pavement over a slip of the tongue.” —Ecclesiasticus 20, v. 18 (The New Economics, 2nd ed., chapter 10, “Some Lessons in Variation,” p. 207)

“For whoso despiseth wisdom and nurture, he is miserable, and his hope is in vain, his labours unfruitful, and his works unprofitable.” —The Wisdom of Solomon 3:11 (Sample Design in Business Research, p. 243)

- Edward Martin Baker. The Symphony of Profound Knowledge: W. Edwards Deming’s Score for Leading, Performing, and Living in Concert . iUniverse. Kindle Edition.

It could be surmised that Dr. Deming saw his role as a “spiritual advisor” to leadership, aiming to guide them toward new knowledge buttressed by timeless teachings that had inspired and provided edification to him. When you’re studying Deming’s theory, unlike typical quick-fix management fads, you are getting the distillation of many contributing influences into a single cohesive thread that aim to change your thinking about your thinking.

Dr. Deming’s Unleavened Truths

In the Bible, we learn in the conversation Jesus has with his disciples about the meaning of leavening in bread as the distance created from the foundational teachings by the Pharisees and Sadducees, who he sees as spiritually corrupting. In a similar way, Dr. Deming was, through his seminars and books, trying to pierce through the “leavening” of the prevailing style of management espoused by modern managers and taught at business schools that was corrupting America’s economy and the way people were choosing to interact with one another. As he notes in The New Economics:

What ought a school of business teach? Schools of business teach how business is conducted at present. In other words, they teach perpetuation of the present style of management. They teach perpetuation of our decline.

W. Edwards Deming. The New Economics for Industry, Government, Education 3rd ed. (p. 99)

Here are some of Dr. Deming’s unleavened truths I believe he was trying to communicate, as Jesus did with his followers:

Truth #1: We Are In A Prison of Our Own Design

This book is for people who are living under the tyranny of the prevailing style of management. The huge, long-range losses caused by this style of management have led us into decline. Most people imagine that the present style of management has always existed, and is a fixture. Actually, it is a modern invention-a prison created by the way in which people interact. This interaction afflicts all aspects of our lives-government, industry, education, healthcare.

W. Edwards Deming. The New Economics for Industry, Government, Education (Kindle Locations 66-68). Kindle Edition.

Truth #2: We Have Been Misled About Competition by Economists

We have grown up in a climate of competition between people, teams, departments, divisions, pupils, schools, universities. We have been taught by economists that competition will solve our problems. Actually, competition, we see now, is destructive. It would be better if everyone would work together as a system, with the aim for everybody to win. What we need is cooperation and transformation to a new style of management.

W. Edwards Deming. The New Economics for Industry, Government, Education (Kindle Locations 68-70). Kindle Edition.

Truth #3: We Have Been Living On the Pretenses of False Successes

What happened? Everyone expected the good times to continue and to wax better and better. It is easy to manage a business in an expanding market, and easy to suppose that economic conditions can only grow better and better. In contrast with expectations, we find, on looking back, that we have been on an economic decline for three decades. It is easy to date an earthquake, but not a decline.

W. Edwards Deming. The New Economics for Industry, Government, Education (Kindle Locations 113-115). Kindle Edition.

Truth #4: Hard Work and Best Efforts Will Not Improve Our Situation

We pause here to ask what is the effect of Hard work? Best efforts?

Answer: We thus only dig deeper the pit that we are in. Hard work and best efforts will not by themselves dig us out of the pit. In fact, it is only by illumination of outside knowledge that we may observe that we are in a pit.

W. Edwards Deming. The New Economics for Industry, Government, Education (Kindle Locations 238-240). Kindle Edition.

Truth #5: There Is No Instant Pudding

Hope for instant pudding: An important obstacle is the supposition that improvement of quality and productivity is accomplished suddenly by affirmation of faith. Letters and telephone calls received by this author disclose prevalence of the supposition that one or two consultations with a competent statistician will set the company on the road to quality and productivity—instant pudding. “Come, spend a day with us, and do for us what you did for Japan; we too wish to be saved.” And they hang up in sorrow. It is not so simple: it will be necessary to study and to go to work. One man actually wrote to me for my formula, and the bill therefor.

Deming, W. Edwards. Out of the Crisis, reissue (p. 107). MIT Press. Kindle Edition

Truth #6: There is NO Substitute for Knowledge

Hard work will not ensure quality. It is necessary to understand the theory of management, then put forth best efforts. A theory of management now exists.

It is obvious that experience is not the answer. The U.S. ranks highest in experience, measured in man years. Experience by itself teaches nothing unless guided and compared with theory of subject-matter and statistical theory.

Gadgets, automation, computers, information power, robotic machinery, high technology, are not the answer, nor zero defects. Much new machinery turns out to be the source of headaches and high cost. Money will not buy quality. There is no substitute for knowledge. New machinery should be planned in accordance with the theory of management. The possibility to make changes to improve processes must be built in.

Deming, W. Edwards. The Essential Deming: Leadership Principles from the Father of Quality (p. 26). McGraw Hill LLC. Kindle Edition.

Truth #6: Experience without Theory Teaches NOTHING

Knowledge is built on theory. The theory of knowledge teaches us that a statement, if it conveys knowledge, predicts dicts future outcome, with risk of being wrong, and that it fits without failure observations of the past. Rational prediction requires theory and builds knowledge edge through systematic revision and extension of theory based on comparison of prediction with observation…

It is extension of application that discloses inadequacy of a theory, and need for revision, or even new theory. Again, without theory, there is nothing to revise. Without theory, experience has no meaning. Without theory, one has no questions to ask. Hence without theory, there is no learning. Theory is a window into the world. Theory leads to prediction. diction. Without prediction, experience and examples teach nothing. To copy an example of success, without understanding standing it with the aid of theory, may lead to disaster.

W. Edwards Deming. The New Economics for Industry, Government, Education (Kindle Locations 819-829). Kindle Edition.

Truth #7: The Majority of Performance Belongs to the System, NOT the Worker

Example: Senior manager to a plant manager at eight o'clock every morning: What was your production tion yesterday? One thing sure, it was higher than it was the day before, or it was less. So what? What does the up or down mean?

In my experience, most troubles and most possibilities ties for improvement add up to proportions something like this: 94% belong to the system (the responsibility of management) 6% are attributable to special causes

W. Edwards Deming. The New Economics for Industry, Government, Education (Kindle Locations 316-319). Kindle Edition.

Summary of Lessons from the Red Beads

1. The system turned out to he stable. The variation and level of output of the Willing Workers, under continuance of the same system, was predictable. Costs were predictable.

2. All the variation-differences between Willing Workers in the production of red heads, and the variation day to day of any Willing Worker-came entirely from the process itself. There was no evidence that any one worker was better than another.

W. Edwards Deming. The New Economics for Industry, Government, Education (Kindle Locations 1276-1278). Kindle Edition.

Truth #8: Quality is Made in the Boardroom, NOT the Teamroom

Management’s new job is to accomplish the change required. Yet people fear change and ask “Where would change leave me?” When everyone has a part in the change, fear of change will vanish. It helps to paddle the canoe. Management must not only transform the system of reward, but must also take responsibility for the transformation to the new economics. There are four prongs of quality and four ways to improve quality of product and service:

1. Innovation in product and service
2. Innovation in process
3. Improvement of existing product and service
4. Improvement of existing process

The common mistake is the supposition that quality is ensured by No. 4, improvement of process, that operations going off without blemish on the factory floor, in the bank, in the hotel will ensure quality. Good operations are essential, yet they do not ensure quality. Quality is made in the boardroom.

Deming, W. Edwards. The Essential Deming: Leadership Principles from the Father of Quality (pp. 41-42). McGraw Hill LLC. Kindle Edition.

Conclusion & Reflection Questions

While the list of truths above certainly aren’t exhaustive, they do stand out to me as some of the more important ones that Dr. Deming was consistent in communicating to his followers and management clients. Through them he was championing a new theory of management that would lead to profound transformations of management and so improve the ability of people to find joy and purpose in their lives and work.

Consider the metaphor of “unleavened truths” as told in the Biblical story of Jesus and Paul in Galatians about the corrupting influence of the Pharisees and Sadducees, and compared with those Dr. Deming saw perpetuated in business schools that were perpetuating our economic decline. Consider further the truths that he uncovered and espoused, and that have become re-obscured by the “leavening” of business schools and management fads.

Do you agree with the truths? In other words, does the predictive theory that Dr. Deming developed them under still hold up today, or have they been disproven? What alternative propositions are there? What additional truths would you add or remove from the list?

What truths of Dr. Deming’s have inspired you to pursue what he sought? What did you discover in the process?

As always, let me know your thoughts in the comments below…