Deming’s Chain Reaction Gives Meaning to Work

The critical link is an understanding of quality improvement

Mon, 09/28/2015 - 11:14

Last year’s Gallup poll of worker satisfaction revealed that almost 90 percent of workers were either “not engaged” with or “actively disengaged” from the work at their jobs—a shocking revelation that has apparently been repeated in many polls.

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Barry Schwarz, a professor of psychology at Swarthmore College and author of Why We Work (Simon & Schuster, 2015), suggests that “Work is structured on the assumption that we do it only because we have to,” citing examples of call center employees who are monitored to be sure they end calls quickly, or office workers whose keystrokes are monitored to guarantee productivity. During a recent visit to the nation’s most popular coffee spot, I remarked to the barista that it seemed that they served drive-up customers much faster than those who parked and came into the facility. Lines of cars were often served before the first indoor customer had been greeted. “Yes,” she said. “We’re told that we have to be as fast as we can.”

This sounds like a systems problem.

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Comments

Most people get angry when corporate systems prevent them from serving the customer.

If you can't change the job so that you enjoy it, find another job.

If you don't like your boss, find a new one.

If you don't like your employer, find a new one or create your own business.

We often complain about our job because we are too lazy to find a better one.

This is bad for you and your employer.

Deming told me in 1981 in an elevator (Crystal City Shearton), "If you are working for someone and not learning from them, you should think about getting another boss." Great advice and consistent with your post.

Thanks Barbara, great post and reminder on the importance of Deming's Chain Reaction. Systems thinking is critical as you noted. Too often people believe we have a zero sum game relative to quality, cost and schedule. Glad to see you writing. We miss Michael! Best regards, Cliff

Submitted by Dr Burns on Mon, 09/28/2015 - 13:44

It's great to see Deming's values being recognised. 

Deming stressed the importance of “breaking down barriers” that companies in recent years have gone to great lengths to build.  He stressed the importance of people working together as a team rather than being directed by an artificial hierarchy of people trained in defects nonsense (that Wheeler describes so eloquently as "a triumph of computation over common sense") and holding belts, who imagine they know better.  Companies shopuld be heading in the opposite direction to what they have been, and building equality and recognition of all workers.

It is no wonder employees are dissatisfied when "gurus" such as Mikel Harry state, “In short, numbers-oriented thinking applies to people as much as it applies to processes and products.” Treating people as numbers rather than individuals is indeed short sighted.

Submitted by emorgan15 on Tue, 09/29/2015 - 11:26

I enjoyed your article Barbara, I think it is very important that we find meaning in many areas of our lives in order to keep growing, learning and succeeding. And when we spend so much of our lives at work I think it does us such a disservice to be unhappy, diconnected, and to feel unrecognized. I wanted to add that feeling a part of a greater goal (connecting to the end result for the consumer perhaps) can also be affected by the connections of the people who work at a company. You cited "The Transformative Workplace" which is a wonderful book which speaks about the humanness that can exist in the workplace. I have noticed in many articles and books that people who work at a company are referred to as the workers and spoken about in 3rd person. I think something as simple as using inclusive terminology (We) to recognize that we are ALL a part of this system could be helfpul. This would be a small way to recognize that, no matter the role within the company, any one of us may be working to find our own meaning and connection to the work to keep us going. This could potentially add to the felt level of connection to the system as a whole which may increase a sense of found meaning as well. Just a thought. Thank you for sharing your article.

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