The Multifaceted W. Edwards Deming

The great moral teachers of humanity were, in a way, artistic geniuses in the art of living.

— Albert Einstein

The foundation of W. Edwards Deming's teaching and practice is his System of Profound Knowledge. His teaching cannot be separated from Deming the person — his genius, knowledge, values, and experiences over a long life. "I was there," he often said about how his stories and examples got into his books and teaching. Detailed discussion of his system begins in chapter 4. The first three chapters in this overture are intended to give a greater appreciation for the man and his concerns and visions for the leadership of organizations and for individuals living their lives and interacting with the various institutions of society. His teaching is relevant to all of us, in all of our roles in society.

Deming never labeled himself except for on his business card, which identified him as "Consultant in Statistical Studies." This self-description doesn't capture the breadth and depth of the man and his contributions. They were many and diverse. He was a multifaceted person who wove his many areas of expertise, experience, and knowledge into the fabric of his life. In order to know Deming and his work, the impact that it had, and its relevance to leadership in organizations and in living, I think it is worthwhile to take a look at these facets and to understand him by way of the analogies that follow.

A Doctor Fighting Deadly Diseases

Deming's aim was to diagnose and cure organizations of what he called "deadly diseases." This included bringing organizations to economic health and individuals to spiritual and psychological health by attaining dignity and joy in work. The following quote by Henri Amiel, the Swiss philosopher, poet, and critic, seems to apply to Deming: "To me the ideal doctor would be a man endowed with profound knowledge of life and of the soul, intuitively divining any suffering or disorder of whatever kind, and restoring peace by his mere presence."

This is a description that I am sure Deming would have liked to have seen applied to managers as professionals, with the diagnostic skill of a physician. The physician understands the body as a system where the health of the whole body depends on the healthy functioning of the parts and their relationships. Likewise, the health and proper functioning of the organization as a whole, especially as a social system, depends on the functioning of individuals and the quality of their interactions with each other.

In his book Out of the Crisis, Deming diagnosed the deadly diseases and the interrelated management practices that afflict most businesses, as well as other organizations in the Western world. He began that particular chapter by quoting Hosea 4:6: "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." In summary, he explains that our ills are due primarily to the following:

1. Lack of constancy of purpose, knowing what business you are in.

2. Emphasis on the short term, the immediate, rather than thinking long-term to keep the organization viable. Short-term thinking, such as focusing on maximizing this quarter's sales and profits, is promoted by the pressures produced by management by objectives (MBO), also known as management by results (MBR).

3. Management solely by use of visible figures, ignoring figures that are unknown or unknowable, also called management by numbers (MBN).

4. The annual performance review, with its reliance on rating, ranking, and grading is short-term thinking that requires visible figures and fosters internal competition for the few top ratings at the cost of cooperation and teamwork.

6. Mobility of management and other employees.

These practices create internal conditions that present obstacles to the organization's potential for success. They produce competition between individuals and units that interfere with the cooperation and sharing necessary for an organization to perform as a unified whole. They cause loss by degrading the organization's ability to optimize its resources. It was management practices such as these that caused him to say that management is living in an age of destructive mythology.

A Moral Philosopher

Deming did not label his teaching as moral philosophy, yet he followed the tradition of economists such as Adam Smith, whom Robert Heilbroner named one of the "worldly philosophers." The Adam Smith Award was given in 1990 to both Dr. Deming and Malcolm S. Forbes Jr. It is the highest honor given by the Association of Private Enterprise Education to recognize an individual who has made a sustained and lasting contribution to the perpetuation of the ideals of a free market economy as first laid out in Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations. The recipient of this award is one who through their writing, speaking, and professional life has acquired an international reputation as an eloquent scholar and advocate of free enterprise and the system of entrepreneurship that underlies it.

The following description by John Maynard Keynes, a British economist, applies to economists regardless of theoretical orientation. It surely seems to apply to Deming.

The master-economist must possess a rare combination of gifts. He must be mathematician, historian, statesman, philosopher — in some degree. He must understand symbols and speak in words. He must contemplate the particular in terms of the general, and touch abstract and concrete in the same flight of thought. He must study the present in light of the past for the purposes of the future. No part of man's nature or his institutions must lie entirely outside his regard.

His contributions and his stature are so valued in Japan that the Union of...