Deming: Total Continuous Learning

W. Edwards Deming (1900–1993) and his fourteen points are a mainstay in the performance improvement industry, particularly in the manufacturing sector. Although Deming is not a learning theorist, he is included here because of his enormous and lasting contribution to general process improvement and systems redesign. Deming's push after World War II for total "quality" management in manufacturing as opposed to total "quantity" management notoriously fell on deaf ears in the United States—but not in Japan, where it created an economic miracle.

It wasn't until the early 1980s, when Deming published his book Out of the Crisis, including the famous "Fourteen Points for Management," that American managers began to take note of his work. At this point TQM (total quality management) began to take off as a performance improvement movement. The fourteen points are still absolutely relevant for the twenty-first century and should reach the ears of people in learning and performance, as well as engineers interested in reducing cycle time and product errors on assembly lines.

Deming's Fourteen Points

Deming's famous fourteen points are summarized here, highlighting their application to learning and performance. Points relating directly to performance improvement are italicized. For the list of the original fourteen points, see Deming's Out of the Crisis, pp. 34–36.

1. A company's role is not to make money but to create a sense of purpose—a sense of purpose focused on the constant improvement of its products and services.

2. We are too tolerant of slipshod products and uninspired service.

3. Quality doesn't come from piecemeal inspection of products on an assembly line—but from improving the entire process itself.

4. Don't award business to vendors solely on price, but rather on quality—creativity, fit, features, benefits. Price is only one aspect of the equation. This is also true of learning and performance vendors and products.

5. Improve the system constantly and forever. Improvement is not a one-time effort. We must improve it again and again.

6. Implement proper training. Workers generally can't do their jobs because no one ever trained them properly or was clear about what they should do. Implement proper training and performance improvement—both formal and on-the-job.

7. Supervisors shouldn't punish, but lead by example.

8. Drive out fear of performance improvement: The economic losses strictly from fear (people not daring to ask or to suggest improvements) are appalling.

9. Break down the barriers between staff areas—departments and units—to eliminate redundancy and to improve communication between processes.

10. Eliminate slogans. They never helped anybody really perform any better. Have employees come up with their own slogans and post these.

11. Eliminate numerical quotas. Replace them with quality-of-content measures.

12. Remove barriers to pride of workmanship. Most people are eager to do a good job. Performance improvement is sometimes nothing more than the removal of the barriers to performance—such barriers as fear of improving the system, unclear instructions, and misguided supervision (all above). Clarity in communication is all.

13. Institute a vigorous program of education, self-improvement, and relearning.

14. Take action and accomplish the transformation. Workers can't accomplish learning and performance improvements on their own; they require the sponsorship and follow-through of middle management.

Fastpaths

1939	Walter Shewhart (with the editorial assistance of Deming): Statistical Method from the Viewpoint of Quality Control.
1950	W. Edwards Deming: Some Theory of Sampling.
1982	W. Edwards Deming: Out of the Crisis: Quality, Productivity, and Competitive Position.
1986	Mary Walton: The Deming Management Method.
1990	Mary Walton: Deming Management at Work.
1994	W. Edwards Deming: Quotations of Dr. Deming: The Little Blue Book.

See also Reengineering Total Quality Management