What Would Deming Do?

Upcoming, New Book Release for March 2023

THE AIM for this post is to bring to your attention another new book on Dr. Deming’s philosophy and thinking, What Would Deming Do? Nurture Great Organizations and Societies Guided by W. Edwards Deming’s Best Quotes, by Niels Pflaeging. It is available for pre-order for March 1, 2023 release on Amazon (Kindle or paperback) as well as direct via the publisher. I’ve ordered my copy and will share my thoughts in March after I read it over.

Those in the systems and complexity world of coaching and adjacent fields like agile software development may recognize Niels from his earlier 2014 book, Organize for Complexity: How to Get Life Back Into Work to Build the High-Performance Organization.

At first glance, the previews suggest it is as advertised: a collection of inspirational quotes that Niels has arranged into nine chapters by theme:

Within each chapter are selected quotes by Deming drawn from various sources, eg.

Of course, I find affinity with the overall theme of this book as it is close to what inspired me when I started this newsletter in 2021. What’s missing, at least in the previews, are the interpretations or context for each quote, which in fairness could be provided in the full text. Nevertheless, I think having a reference guide that gathers a selection of Dr. Deming’s “greatest hits” in one place is useful for the student who wants to refresh their understanding, find inspiration for a study session, or frame a group conversation.