By John Hunter, author of the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog (since 2004).
In this Deming Institute podcast (download the podcast) Kevin Cahill and David Langford share how The Deming in Education Initiative was conceived, the impact of the Deming Philosophy on education, and where the Initiative is going in the future.
The initiative first began many years ago when David joined the Deming Institute Advisory Board to help with their efforts to apply the Deming philosophy in education. But the roots of Deming in Education go even further back. As David explains, improving education was “a great love” of Dr. Deming, as an educator who taught at NY University for 40 years. Many of Dr. Deming’s theories and teachings are directly focused on the education system. After working with Dr. Deming from 1986 to 1993, David began implementing the concepts in his own education system, finding that students easily took to the new approach.
Over the last 25 years, David has seen the Deming teachings make a profound and lasting impact on improving school culture and the learning process in the US and around the world. It is the only philosophy that improves all aspects of the education system. That impact has inspired Kevin, David and The Deming Institute to commit a deeper focus on developing a long term, sustainable, systems approach to improving education for all students, through The Deming in Education Initiative.
The Institute is trying to create a critical mass in regions by focusing the efforts on a specific region of the USA each year (with multiple seminars and a conference). David alludes to the problem of short term thinking and the common failure of a conference to actually result in change. It takes a long term commitment (constancy of purpose) and something beyond occasional conferences are needed.
There is also international interest and the Deming Institute is considering how to address the international interest.
Upcoming Deming Education Initiative events:
- Deming in Education Seminar, July 19-22, 2016 in Seattle, Washington
- 2nd Annual Deming in Education Conference, November 4 – 6, 2016 in Atlanta, Georgia
Seminars will be scheduled in the Atlanta region in 2017.
Related: Deming Inspired Innovation in Education (David Langford’s presentation at our 2014 annual conference) – Deming in Education: Education as a System – The W. Edward Deming Institute Launches a New Podcast Series (with Kevin Cahill in the 1st episode)
For more information about David’s current work, with Ingenium Schools, please visit ingeniumfoundation.org