Post of remarks on Deming’s book, 1st edition. The New Economics, by
Angela Montgomery PhD.
My Reply: This first edition was copyrighted in 1993. Subsequent editions published after Deming’s death were changed. The most significant change, which provided insight into Deming’s thinking, included the reference that the term “Metanoia” was a more suitable term than “Transformation” (TNE, 1st edition, pg 95). This reference was deleted in subsequent editions. The “So what?” If you are looking for buried treasure, it helps to have the map developed by the person who buried it.
Additional Context:
“Another half-century may pass before the full spectrum of Dr. Shewhart’s contributions
has been revealed in liberal education, science, and industry.” (Walter Shewhart, Statistical Method from the Viewpoint of Quality Control (New York, NY: Dover Publications, 1986), p. ii.).
Deming estimated in 1986 that it would take another half-century (2036) for the awareness and understanding of variability to be considered more common knowledge. The reason? Reasons would include ignorance of the humanities. The engineers, mathematicians, scientists, and business majors do not get it – their perspective may be limited to the technical. The Japanese (Toyota) “got it” in a manufacturing context because it aligned with their philosophy.
- A Bull Market in the Humanities, by Luke Burgess
- “I believe we are about to experience a massive renaissance in the humanities, inside and outside of universities—but especially outside of them.”
- ….. “Of course, I don’t mean ‘humanities’ in the way that they’ve been hijacked as ideological programs of cultural change by many elite universities. … He means the humanities broadly understood as the study of history, philosophy, religion, language, and arts that explores “what it truly means to be human.”
Quality Leadership Matters 