Deming says ‘adopt the new philosophy’
29th March 2007
The ASQ blogged about the first of Deming’s 14 points over at Quality in Education, and I thought I’d continue the series by blogging about the second.
Deming argues that managers must ‘adopt the new philosophy’ — in this case, his new philosophy — but the rationale is applicable whether or not we examine his approach.
His argument was thus: unless management adopt the reforms they put in place, they shouldn’t expect their workforce to do so; the same goes for management systems.
Unless they’re adopted and recognised at all levels, they’re less likely to succeed. This is reflected in the results of research conducted by LRQA last autumn, with 88% of respondents agreeing that if senior managers emphasised the value of systems, then employees and partners would be more likely to abide by it.
The moral of the story, then, is to practice what you preach.