First contact with Deming

According to Charles Kenney in his book, "The Best Practice" Dr. Paul Batalden first became aware of Deming and his work when he read an article about him in the New York Times. As far as I can ascertain, the article is here, well worth a read. From Batalden, it appears the Deming gospel was spread to Dr. Berwick. From small acorns, great oaks grow. By the way, The Best practice is well worth a read for all you healthcare quality junkies out there.

Deming, why now?

A piece worth reading, published by the Deming Collaboration, and authored by Rafael Agauyo, who studied with Deming and subsequently published a book about Deming and his methods, (which is an excellent overview). Although there is a danger of assuming that one persons hero is the answer to all the worlds problems, Deming has outlined a systematic approach; contrast this with the toolbox approach, i.e. lets introduce lean or TQM or some other method de jour,  stand back and watch our performance improve.  Although Deming is probably best known for his PDSA, or PDCA cycle, his more profound contribution was the System of Profound Knowledge.

Variation

Those who have become followers of Deming realise the significance of variation, and the need to reduce  unnecessary or harmful variation. I came across a great quote today,

" the only variation we see should be that due to the patient- there is no other reasons for care to vary"