Social Sharing block
During the early 1990s, I was president of the Twin Cities Deming Forum. I had a wonderful board whose members were full of great ideas. One member, Doug Augustine, was a 71-year-old retired Lutheran minister and our respected, self-appointed provocateur. He never missed an opportunity to appropriately pull us right back to reality with his bluntly truthful observations and guaranteed follow through on every commitment he made.
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After W. Edwards Deming’s death in 1993, we tried to keep the forum alive, but monthly meeting attendance started to drop off significantly. We were offering innovative meetings to grow in practice of Deming’s philosophy, but our members wanted static rehashing and worship of “the gospel according to Dr. Deming.”
The last straw was a meeting where a self-appointed Deming expert/consultant went too far: He lobbed one too many of his predictable, pedantic “gotcha! grenades” at the speaker for alleged deviations from “the gospel.” His persistence blindsided and visibly upset our wonderful guest speaker. I was furious and publicly told him to stop. It did not go over well—except with my board.
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Comments
Why Deming / Why Now
Davis, it was a pleasure to speak with you recently and gain clarification of your comments on my QD article. We are kindred spirits with regard to how Dr. Deming's advice on improving organizational performance, as guided by his System of Profound Knowledge, could be misinterpreted. As one of his former student's shared with me on several occasions, Dr. Deming was well aware of the difference, often dramatic, between what he labored tirelessly to express and what attendees of his seminars often heard, with the best of intentions. Let us continue to work together, with others, to offer explanations of the distinctions of Dr. Deming's Philosophy and share examples of its widespread applicability.
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