System of Profound Knowledge

Various charts hung on a white board.

The Insanity of Extrinsic Motivation

By Christina Dragonetti / January 20, 2023 / 0 Comments

In this post, Doug Stilwell shares the story of his friend’s annual sales competition and asks: Is everyone motivated to work harder if they might win a trip to Hawaii? Does the competition result in more overall sales for the company?

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Woman's face with medical icons next to her, including 2 pills, a heart, a pill bottle, a cross, and others.

Transforming Resident Assessment with Deming’s System of Profound Knowledge

By John Hunter / May 23, 2022 / 1 Comment

In this guest post John Hunter reviews “Transforming Resident Assessment: An Analysis Using Deming’s System of Profound Knowledge” and discusses how evaluations often lead to bad data.

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Who’s Got Profound Knowledge?

By Guest Post / September 11, 2020 / 7 Comments

Professor Doug Stilwell of Drake University discusses Dr. Deming’s System of Profound knowledge and its potential to transform our educational system.

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Exploring a World View Through the Lens of Profound Knowledge

By Matthew Moss / May 4, 2020 / 0 Comments

Barbara Lawton explains the value and necessity of using the System of Profound Knowledge to improve; and the importance of making it accessible.

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image of Deming quote: A leader is a coach not a judge

Dr. Deming on Leadership

By Matthew Moss / April 20, 2020 / 0 Comments

“For Deming, instituting leadership meant creating management systems that allowed people to take pride in their work and that were consistent with the principles he expressed (understanding the organization as a system, understanding variation, etc.).”

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Systemically Non-Systemic: COVID-19 through the Deming Lens

By Guest Post / April 3, 2020 / 3 Comments

Professor Doug Stilwell of Drake University takes a look at what we can learn from – and how we might address – the COVID-19 crisis using the Deming Philosophy.

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Leading From the Top (Part II) – Transforming Our Thinking

By Guest Post / February 10, 2020 / 0 Comments

“We’re living in prison, under the tyranny of the prevailing style of management, a style of interaction between people, between teams, between divisions, between competitors. We need to throw overboard our theories and practices of the present, and build afresh.” – W. Edwards Deming

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image with text: "A bad system will beat a good person every time" W. Edwards Deming

Deming on Management: Appreciation for a System

By Matthew Moss / December 9, 2019 / 0 Comments

The fourth post in our “Deming on Management” series, dive deeply into a wealth of resources on Appreciation for a System – one of the four aspects of Deming’s System of Profound Knowledge (SoPK).

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Life Lessons from Russell Ackoff

By Bill Bellows / November 13, 2019 / 0 Comments

Advisory Council Member Bill Bellows shares an as-yet unheard anecdote on siloed decision making from visionary Russ Ackoff.

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image of quote by Dr. Deming "Best efforts are essential. Unfortunately, best efforts, people charging this way and that way without guidance of principles, can do a lot of damage."

Purpose: To Benefit All Stakeholders

By Matthew Moss / September 16, 2019 / 0 Comments

Business Roundtable puts the many before the few.

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