December 20, 2021 will mark the twenty-eighth anniversary of the passing of Dr. W. Edwards Deming. As we all know, Dr. Deming is touted as the key innovator in driving top management toward improvements in design, product quality, testing, and sales through application of statistical methods.
Unfortunately, even after all these many years, so many industries are still struggling not only to understand Deming’s philosophy but teach and implement his methodologies effectively to drive significant improvement in outcome measures of safety, quality, and service.
Total Quality is a Philosophy….but somewhere in the midst of all the doing of total quality and continuous improvement in process and systems we have neglected to grasp that the very essence of process improvement is a mindset, a philosophy, of what we believe to be true about providing high quality products and excellence in service and business performance. One thing we do seem to be convinced of is that Dr. Deming was all about focusing on process and systems and not on the behaviour of people. If something is not working well – don’t look at the people look at the process.
Dr. Deming continually emphasized, however, that organizational quality is not always a function of doing things better but doing things differently. To do things differently requires the need to change what we believe, what we think, and how we behave.
In calling for a transformation of management operations, Deming was calling for a fundamental change in leader and manager behaviour. The philosophy of total quality is clear: you cannot expect organizations to change unless the people do. Individual breakthroughs drives organizational breakthroughs.
CORPORATE HARMONY is grateful to Dr. Michael E. Frisina for his contributions to this entry.
Catherine is the President and CEO of CORPORATE HARMONY, providing virtual solutions for leadership development and organizational culture change. Her leadership and coaching experience as a Project Manager in an ever-changing, fast moving technological organization with unrelenting demands drove her to the realization that a positive mindset and strength-building behaviors are essential for today’s complex and chaotic organizational systems. CORPORATE HARMONY’s virtual platform of programs, coaching and performance measurement, is an innovative online technology of tested proprietary content. The world-class content of CORPORATE HARMONY’s Positive Presence Program develops the skill of ‘Positive Presence’ and the necessary ‘Positive Presence Behaviour Competencies’ for maintaining a positive and energized mindset and increased performance in today’s complex work environment, and leading to a culture of collaboration and connection. Catherine’s vision for Corporate Harmony is to bring the skill of “Positive Presence” to the corporate world as it becomes more complex, ambiguous and chaotic. Catherine is uniquely positioned to impact organizations’ productivity and long term success, with her powerful vision of eliminating bad stress from every workplace around the globe, bringing purpose into the people equation to promote healthy, productive and meaningful work cultures and turn the tide on the neglect of mental health on a global scale. Catherine is author of the book: “CORPORATE HARMONY – The Performance Link for Today’s Modern Organization” Catherine can be reached at: Catherine.Osborne@corporateharmony.ca or go to ‘contact us’ on our website www.corporateharmony.ca. Catherine is available for consultation, and can be reached by 519-695-3407.