In January 2011 I had the pleasure of meeting with Dr. Deming to explore the current state of his teachings. He was unhappy. He felt that too much of the momentum and quest for “Profound Knowledge” that began during the 1980s has been lost. Our conversation followed an evening talk at a packed meeting of the Seattle ASQ section, where not a single soul so much as left the room to answer their cell phone, let alone departed early. This was notable for a local ASQ meeting that ran later than anyone could recall.

Let me clarify a few things. I’m a big fan of Deming. He passed away in 1993, but it feels like just yesterday that I heard Lou Dobbs on CNN say, “…and one of the grand old men of management theory has left us today, Dr. W. Edwards Deming.” My conversation with Dr. Deming last month wasn’t with the man himself, of course, but with one of the Quality Digest’s popular columnists, Mike Micklewright, who does an extraordinary, almost eerie, spot-on impersonation.

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