Rick,
I want to thank you for posting the info on the Pegasus Conference. I
bought a couple of Deborah Tannen's books. Her theme on gender differences
in communications reminded me of the communication differences among
cultures, disciplines, generations, races, etc. I felt I gained a better
appreciation for recognizing specific clues in styles between the genders.
I also appreciated your summary on Senge's keynote speech. Senge
referenced Deming's statement that 97% of what matters in an organization
can't be measured. I then read H. Thomas Johnson's article on Reflections
of a Recovering Management Accountant where he offered a context for
Deming's statement. Just reading the 97% of what matter's quote can be
misleading in that some people might draw the conclusion that since what
matters can't be measured, why have measures?
Johnson went on to describe Toyota's philosophy of using numbers and his
interest in learning more about their philosophy. Johnson commented that
Toyota measures only to enhance awareness of how the work is flowing. He
also mentions the use of ratios (dividing numbers). I wonder if his
observations on how Toyota is using numbers is based in part on an
evolutionary knowledge of Deming's teachings in the 1950's. These
teachings were based on the works of Dr. Walter Shewhart who developed the
concept of the behavior- over-time or control chart in 1924. This chart
is often used to help distinguish the difference between normal and
abnormal shifts in patterns.
Deming also remarked that failure to understand the difference between
common (normal) cause and special (abnormal) cause of variation results in
a situation where 95% of changes made by management (process owners) today
result in no improvement (The New Economics, pg. 38). Developing an
appreciation for common and special causes of variation can be developed
by creating and interpreting trend/control charts. This knowledge may be a
piece of the puzzle needed to help people, in Johnson's words, actualize
potential by helping to ensure a greater percentage of changes do lead to
improvement.
I recommend Donald Wheeler's book, Understanding Variation, The Key to
Managing Chaos, for anyone that would like a quick introduction on the
concept of variation. Also, Wheeler's article titled, Lies, Damn Lies and
Teens Who Smoke also provides a good application example. Wheeler's home
page is www.spcpress.com.
Again, thanks for taking the time to post information about the topics
covered during the Pegasus conference. The information provided helped me
to stretch, reinforce, re-think and validate some of my mental models.
[Host's Note: You are very welcome! ... Rick]
--
Tim Clark ("Tim")
tjclark@aol.com
[Host's Note: In association with Amazon.com...
Donald J. Wheeler, _Understanding Variation..._
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0945320353/learningorg
...Rick]
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com>
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