One of the Unsung Greats of the 20th Century

   When Time Magazine put Einstein on its cover as the Man of the Century, I frankly cringed.  Don't get me wrong.  I find Einstein fascinating and there is no doubt he had a huge impact on the 20th Century...but in many ways, a negative impact.  Even though he warned about the dangers of nuclear weapons, he was their father.
   A better choice for that cover would have been W. Edwards Deming.  Deming was the father of The Quality Movement.  He was sent to Japan right after the war to begin to establish some basic metrics for what was a devastated society and economy. He had a Masters in Mathematics and a PhD in Physics. He was not only ferociously competent in those fields, having established an outstanding track record at Western Electric and doing work for our own government.  He was also a curious and compassionate man by nature.  He did not look down upon the defeated Japanese but rather befriended them.  In 1950, he was invited by the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers to address their members.  At that point in time, even the brightest members of Japanese society were still deeply traumatized by the war.  They had no clarity about how to rebuild their society and economy.  They had practically no natural resources, they thought.  Deming taught them they could import resources and create high quality products the world would run to buy.  So began The Quality Movement.  People in the States laughed at a lot of the early Japanese efforts--such as transistor radios that worked for a short time and then ended up in the trash.  But the Japanese knew Deming was onto something and they stuck with it.  Toyota, Honda and many other Japanese companies would not be what they are today were it not for Deming.  The Deming Prize is the highest civilian honor you can receive in Japanese society today. 
  It wasn't until the early 1980's that our own country was ready to embrace Deming.  Corporate leaders had rejected his teachings after the war, mistakenly believing that quality costs more.  Right after the war, it was a seller's market, huge demand.  Corporations didn't want to take the time to learn a new way, even if it was in their own best interests.  But in the early 1980's, we were in a serious recession and minds were more open.
Over the next 13 years, Deming was in high demand all over the country.  America's major corporations either called him in for consulting or sent their managers to his 4 day seminar on Quality, Productivity and Competitive Advantage.  Minds were changed at AT&T, at Nashua Paper, at Ford...and on a much more humble level, in police departments and municipalities, in small entrepreneurships and NGO's.
  I attended this seminar in 1992 in San Jose, California.  There were 550 people in attendance.  Deming was 92 and he lectured for 6 hours a day.  The other 2 hours were directed by his assistants, all of which were PhDs in related fields.  Being in that room with Deming was one of the most extraordinary experiences of my life.  The man had a deeper and broader vision of humanity than just about anyone who lived anywhere in the Century with the few exceptions of Gandhi, King and perhaps Winston Churchill. 
  The extraordinary leaps and bounds of the quality of our every day products is due directly to what Deming taught.  MIT Professor Peter Senge's work on The Learning Organization (his big book was The Fifth Discipline...Systems Thinking) was a direct outgrowth of Deming.  The ISO 9000 and its descendents, such as Six Sigma, all outgrowth of Deming's work.  When you hear the term "continuous improvement" you are in Deming's arena.
  I'll write more about Deming as I go on.  But for now, I encourage you to learn about his work yourself.  I recommend starting with Mary Walton's book, The Deming Management Method, and Rafael Aguayo's, Dr. Deming.  This was a truly extraordinary man whose child is quality, not weaponry.  For more, go to www.bobkamm.com