Podcast: Dr. Deming's ‘Wake-up Call’ for Unwilling Management

“Adopt the new philosophy. We are in a new economic age. Western management must awaken to the challenge, must learn their responsibilities, and take on leadership for change.” – Dr. W. Edwards Deming’s second point for management transformation.

“As time passes, the rules of the game change, yet people are often stuck with the old playbook,” says Dr. Mohamed Saleh at the start of this episode of Behind the Curtain: Adventures in Continuous Improvement.

With that statement, Saleh reflects on what comes to his mind when he thinks about Deming’s second point for management transformation, one of 14 points outlined in the thought leader’s 1982 book Out of the Crisis.

John Dyer describes the second point as “Dr. Deming’s wake-up call,” noting that “it should be flashing in neon lights.”

In this episode of Behind the Curtain, podcast cohosts Dyer and Saleh continue their exploration of Deming’s 14 point for management, with a focus on the second point: Adopt the new philosophy.

The old philosophy, they explain, is the traditional hierarchical management system where leaders give orders and the workforce blindly follows them. The new and improved philosophy puts worker know-how and team-based continuous improvement at the center of operational excellence.

The podcast hosts discuss the context during which Deming made the statement: It was during the 1970s, when Japanese companies had transformed their product quality from very bad to just the opposite, while U.S. firms floundered. They also discuss how its meaning remains relevant today.

Dyer and Saleh also:

• Stress the need for leadership commitment and engagement. “How you're going to adopt a new philosophy starts with you, and so if you're a CEO, or if you're a GM, or if you're a vice president, you all have to walk the walk and understand the philosophy that you're going to be changing,” Saleh says.
• Emphasize that simply copying tools is not enough. Organizational transformation is about changing the culture. Saleh describes it as the difference between a tools-based architecture versus a principles-based philosophy.
• Discuss Toyota, the standard-bearer for team-based excellence. Dyer questions whether its philosophy is faltering internally, at least in U.S. plants.

“If you don't embrace point number two, the rest of the points probably won't happen,” Dyer concludes.