Principles not Rules Making Sense of the Deming Philosophy David and Sarah Kerridge The Deming Philosophy, unlike all other approaches to quality, is not based on recipes, but on fundamental principles, grouped under four headings, which apply to *any human organisation whatever* from a small team to a whole country. This is only possible because the principles are so basic, and so "obvious". In spite of this, the consequences which follow from them are far from obvious. Why do we need these principles? Mainly because most of the knowledge that we have is highly specialised. Knowledge of many different kinds is essential in every business organisation. In one way this causes no great problem, because we can always find a specialist. But in another way this adds to the managers problems, because it becomes harder and harder to make these separate parts of specialised knowledge work as a whole. 1 Systems. We are not good at thinking in terms of whole systems. This leads to three common problems: a) We make one part work well at the expense of other parts. Usually the parts we can see most clearly are the parts we manage best: but "Out of sight, out of mind". Few organisations have really thought what the long term aim of the organisation should be: all the thinking is short-term. b) We forget that the connections between parts of a system are at least as important as the parts themselves. Because the parts of an organisation are so closely interconnected, the good, or bad, effects of an action on one part will spread will spread through all the rest. c) We forget the time dimension. Especially in large organisations, with strong central control, the time to make decisions is far too long. So the organisation as a whole cannot cope with rapid change. 2 Variation. Everything varies. Never leave variation out of account. Variation means uncertainty, and uncertainty means waste. There are two different sorts of variation, "common cause" variation, which has a predictable pattern, and "special cause" variation, which is completely chaotic. We must learn to manage these in completely different ways. Many management practices increase variation: others hide it from view, which looks good, but makes it do more harm. 3 Knowledge. Management depends on prediction. We can predict in two ways: using experience, or using theory. Both are dangerous. In a world which changed slowly, experience of the past was a good guide. Even so, appearances are deceptive, and wrong ideas take a long time to die. How many ideas now in use still work? Blind trust in any particular theory is also fatal. We always think we know more than we do. Check every plausible explanation by using it to make predictions. Do they work? Do things that work on the small scale still work in the complete system? Do they go on working over time? A manager must in some ways be a better scientist than the laboratory worker, who can create a simple, unreal, world. This answers the question often raised "will the Deming philosophy work in my organisation?". It shows a complete misunderstanding of the nature of the Deming philosophy: a vital part of it is that you must not do anything unless it does work. You must check, and go on checking. 4 Psychology. Everything depends on people. People are different, and the differences must be respected. They can be led much more easily than they can be driven. If you rely on the carrot and stick, people start behaving like donkeys. People have enormous hidden potential, which they themselves often do not recognise, because they lack confidence. All this store of knowledge and talent can benefit the organis- ation if it is supported instead of frustrated. All these are are obvious in the sense that once stated, there is no way they can be anything but true. They are also obvious in the sense that each principle, on its own (apart from the section on variation), is well known and widely accepted, though not often applied. The Deming approach is new in two ways: 1 All these principles must be applied together. They lead to simple and powerful conclusions about organisations in general. Many other writers have taken just one or two of the principles (often expressed in other words), and studied them in great depth, or looked at special kinds of applic- ation in detail. This has produced useful, but incomplete, and therefore far less powerful, systems. But of course, incomplete systems are easier to understand, and more like what we are used to, so they are popular. 2 In individual cases, they do not provide the answers, but help us find the answers. Even better, they help us ask the right questions. This is an important change of view. Most people want the impossible: answers that can be applied without thinking. The Deming approach does not replace existing knowledge of any kind, but shows how to use it more effectively. "Out of the Crisis" does not state all the above principles explicitly, but contains many examples of the general conclusions which result. These are summed up in the "14 Points" or oblig- ations for managers, the "Deadly Diseases", and the "Obstacles to Transformation". Deming's new book, "The New Economics", has all this in much greater detail. An early version appears in "The Deming Dimen- sion" by Henry Neave: this is recommended as an introduction.