quotes
By John Hunter, author of Management Matters: Building Enterprise Capability. It is wrong to suppose that if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it – a costly myth.” – W. Edwards Deming, The New Economics. One of the quotes you will see quite frequently “incorrectly” attributed to Dr. Deming is, “If you can’t measure […]
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By John Hunter, author of Management Matters: Building Enterprise Capability. The common objection to seniority pay is, “It’s rewarding dead wood!” My response is, “Why do you hire dead wood? Or why do you hire live wood and kill it?” Peter Scholtes, The Leader’s Handbook, page 331. Peter worked with Dr. Deming and presented at […]
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By John Hunter, author of the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog. our system of make-and-inspect, which if applied to making toast would be expressed: “You burn, I’ll scrape.” Joe Sensennbrer quoting Dr. Deming in his article, Quality Comes to City Hall This wonderful quote highlights Dr. Deming’s ability to use humor and create a simple […]
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By John Hunter, author of the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog (since 2004). Motivation – nonsense. All that people need to know is why their work is important. W. Edwards Deming, From a speech at General Motors in 1992: Introduction to a System. The Essential Deming We do a great disservice to our organizations when […]
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By John Hunter, founder of CuriousCat.com. We have added a new web application for quotes by W. Edwards Deming. We hope this will be of use to people searching for quotes by Dr. Deming. The quotes are viewable by category, such as: leadership, managing people, systems thinking and data. We provide the source for the […]
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By John Hunter, founder of CuriousCat.com. Quote by W. Edwards Deming at a February 1993 Deming Four Day seminar in Phoenix, Arizona (via the notes of Mike Stoecklein). So what was Dr. Deming trying to convey with this quote? It wasn’t an attempt to get people to give up trying because failure was certain. It […]
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By John Hunter, author of the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog. As I use the term here, the job of a leader is to accomplish transformation of his organization. He possesses knowledge, personality, and persuasive power. W. Edwards Deming, The New Economics, page 116 This is a wonderful, succinct quote on the sources of influence […]
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By John Hunter, founder of CuriousCat.com. The following quote was provided by Eric Budd During the meeting, our division president asked Dr. Deming, “Is there hope for GM?” Dr. Deming’s reply: “Sometimes you have to wait for people to die. Eric Budd‘s comment In attempting to understand why he might say something like this, I […]
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By John Hunter, founder of CuriousCat.com. The supposition is prevalent the world over that there would be no problems in production or service if only our production workers would do their jobs in the way that they were taught. Pleasant dreams. The workers are handicapped by the system, and the system belongs to the management. […]
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By John Hunter, founder of CuriousCat.com. Best efforts are essential. Unfortunately, best efforts, people charging this way and that way without guidance of principles, can do a lot of damage. W. Edwards Deming, Out of the Crisis, page 19 There are many great quotes from Dr. Deming, and this is one of my favorite. To […]
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