How early is too early to introduce quality into your everyday life? Have we missed out on improvement opportunities in our personal lives along our paths to achieving our career goals as quality professionals? These questions have me pondering how life could have been different for me growing up with a little more emphasis on data analysis for improvement.

A little knowledge of Walter A. Shewhart’s plan-do-study-act (PDSA) cycle could have been useful, for example, in helping the high school version of myself maximize test scores while minimizing the time spent agonizingly studying. Would I have spent less total time studying for that A+ grade had I reserved a small chunk of time every night reviewing notes instead of hours cramming at the last minute?

Even further back, perhaps the pre-teen version of myself would have been more understanding about my dad’s insistence on me keeping my room clean had I attended a seminar on quality hosted by the famous W. Edwards Deming. Deming’s eighth point on management reads, “Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the company.” If you had seen my room, you would have felt the fear that Dad was attempting to drive out!

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