During the early 1990s, I was president of the Twin Cities Deming Forum. I had a wonderful board to work with, one of whom was Doug Augustine, our self-appointed provocateur. Doug was a 71-year-old retired Lutheran minister, and we all loved him because he always pulled us right back to earth with his bluntly truthful observations and followed through on every commitment he made.

After W. Edwards Deming’s death in 1993, we tried to keep things alive, but attendance started to drop off significantly. We offered innovative meetings to grow in practice of Deming’s philosophy, but our members wanted static and, for lack of a better term, traditional “Deming Sunday School,” chapter and verse.

After a year of this, we were all frustrated, and Doug finally “named” it during one board meeting: “Are we in the ‘entertainment’ business, or are we in the ‘changing the world’ business? I want the latter; our members want the former. I say we pull the plug on the forum.”

He was right. Exactly one year after Deming’s death, we did. I have often used his quote to challenge groups and even myself as I’ve considered potential consulting work.

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