Hello José and others,
I would like to agree with you, but can't: as I understand Argyris'
reasoning on learning there is a central paradox: "learning in order to
control behaviour inhibits learning". When the PDCA-cycle is used to
control behaviour of others, - i'll plan your work, i'll check your
results and i'll act when expectations and reality are not in line - it
fails in acheiving continuous improvement. I feel that Dr Deming saw this
also, hence his disapprovement of the use of the term Total Quality
Management (TQM) and his insistence on driving out fear (perhaps because
fear leads to defensive reasoning and defensive reasoning leads to single
loop learning and stops change).
It is not enough to say, to stress that you do not intend to use the
PDCA-cycle in this way. You'll have to act in order to show you have a
different, a double loop learning approach to the cycle. Walk your talk.
The most powerful example i have been given, and i think i already told it
somewhere here, was when i was a consultant working with a quality manager
who had a sixth sense for problems. One day we walked talking over the
production floor and he suddenly stopped and turned to a woman soldering
some product. He asked her what it was she was making. She told us it was
a kind of transformator for electricity. Then he asked her to explain the
working of this subassembly. She started to show how the current flowed
through the apparatus. Suddenly she halted, noticed that one of her
solderings was wrong, told us so and corrected the mistake. She then
concluded her explanation. He thanked her - leadership ends with saying
thank you - and we walked on. He told me that in passing her he had seen
that she had make the mistake. He easily could have told her so and added
a mark on her quality control chart. That would have been nice for the
QC-department, as he could show how much the factory needed a quality
control department, to check, to act. He however never did this, because,
and he had convinced me, by letting somebody explain (ex-plan!) what he
or she is do(!)-ing an error would be detected, corrected (check!) and
never again made (act). Rob - that's his name - applied all the
statistical tools, knew Deming's theory by heart and insisted that the
only goals in the life of a quality manager was making his job obsolete.
Single loop learning (PDCA) means applying routines and is very useful in
98% of the cases. The other 2%, however, are 98% of the work of continuous
improvement: double loop learning is searching for the reasoning behind
the routines, questioning one-self, developing meaning and can be
understood by the same mechanism (PDCA) applied to oneself.
> IMHO the Deming (as we know PDSA) Cycle has a lot of similarities with
> Argyris' single and double-loop learning. Would any of you agree that
> "ACT" is a type of double-loop learning, meaning that once you've "DONE"
> and reviewed ("STUDIED") the results, the feedback might raise the need
> for improvements upon the previous "PLAN", which is the heart of the
> continuous improvement theory.
>
> Does it raise any thougths from you?
--With kind regards - met vriendelijke groeten,
Jan Lelie
Drs J.C. Lelie CPIM (Jan) LOGISENS - Sparring Partner in Logistical Development Mind@Work est. 1998 - Group Resolution Process Support Tel.: (+ 31) (0)70 3243475 or car: (+ 31)(0)65 4685114 http://www.mindatwork.nl and/or taoSystems: + 31 (0)30 6377973 - Mindatwork@taoNet.nl
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