The healing of my forearm has been nothing short of amazing. New skin has rushed in to fill the nasty hole left by the surgery. Both surgeon and patient are very well pleased. Though I expect the wound to heal fully, it will take time.
All too often we expect the turnaround in our businesses to be instant and complete. Dr. Deming was fond of saying, ” It takes time, there is no instant pudding.” I suppose we think that $1,000 and a weekend trip to a trade show ought to do it, but my experience is that it takes longer, much longer, to first implement, and then to reap the benefits of a sustainable, quality program.

My spider bite did not respond to any of the treatments applied, so on August 31 I was sent to Dr. Snyder, purported to be the best at these types of things, to have it “I & D’d”.

This simple, in office procedure became much more when the doctor actually saw the bite. He quickly set into motion an entrance to the hospital and a surgery time for 3 p.m. that day. Three hospital stays in the last 4 months have put me on a first name basis with most of the staff, who cheerfully quipped, “What is it this time?”. Just kidding. I had little time to prepare for the surgery, just enough to have Carolyn bring me in her car to the hospital. Everything went smoothly and around 5 p.m. I was awake, groggy, but awake. Dr. Snyder decided to keep me in the hospital one night so I was able to appraise the hospital cuisine. When he came in the next morning it was to unwrap the arm and show me a hole where there once was a spider bite. It looked really bad. Now more than a week after the operation we can see the new skin starting to close the wound. Time will tell if it heals completely or will need a skin graft.

Last Thursday I received an un asked for spider bite. Since the shop behind my home has it’s share of the little eight legged critters I really should not be surprised. But like so many things that happen to me these days, the bite got me thinking about Dr. Deming, and what he was trying to teach us. I am a pretty big guy at 200 lbs., I am not likely to be incapacitated by a spider bite. But this bite hurts like no other I have ever received and every part of my body knows it is there. So I adjust. I prop my arm up so the medication does not stain furniture, I take pills for pain for the duration. My point is that this little bite is effecting my whole system. All too often we try to adjust our way around the unpleasant realities of our businesses instead of dealing with the procedures and processes that are creating the pain. I had a followup with a neurologist this am and the subject turned to my speaking and then to the subject of my speeches. Dr. Koberda was fascinated by the utter common sense of Dr. Deming’s teaching and commented that he saw many of the things I spoke of in his own office. Time to apply some more ointment to ease the pain. Maybe it is time to address the source, the spider bite that is effecting our whole system.

As Americans we just can’t seem to get past numbers. Listen to any sports broadcast and you will be swamped with numbers. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is ONLY the fourteenth time in six years that Andre Carter has hit a ground ball to second base!” “Way to go…… Andre!”
As a student of the teachings of the late W. Edwards Deming, the American that taught the Japanese quality methods after WWII, I am reminded every day of the damage the near total dependence on numbers is doing to the United States. There was a time in the past that running our companies on numbers got us by, that time is past.
Today, all over the world, business is adopting a quality first model. The Japanese, who’s country lay in ruins just 60 years ago, make some of the world’s finest products. It took just 30 years from Dr. Deming’s first visit there for NBC to declare in it’s 1980 White Paper, “If Japan Can, why Can’t We?”. This is a proud nation. Need I say, a great nation. But proud will not get you a cup of coffee in this new world economy. We must as a nation, let go of the numbers game. After setting the Japanese on a course to world class quality, Dr. Deming was all but ignored in his own country until 1980. It was then, after Deming had turned 80 years of age, and the U.S. was being beaten by Japanese quality at every turn, that Ford Motor Company, Campbell’s Soup, Harley Davidson, and a few others heeded the call to quality. Today, less, way less than 1% of U.S. companies have the knowledge that is practiced by 80% of Japanese firms. We have been in decline in the world economy for 30 years. Let’s not be so proud as to refuse to see that change is needed.

Though easily identified as conservative in my thinking, I have been scratching my head trying to figure out what happens to the new men and women we send to Washington. It really seems that there must be a problem with the water. To be fair (as if that were possible), the more liberal members change very little. All that is necessary is to let go of whatever fiscal restraint ideas they used to get elected. No, my big problem is with my side. All fired up to take back the country when they leave their home state, members on the right side of the equation are the ones that are the hardest to figure. It may be just me, but they are all over the place. Some hang in there for some time, but others say goodbye to their home state and their conservative ideas at the same time. I know how the other side thinks, and generally disagree, but my side, the ones i need to depend upon, are all over the place. I need a little less variation, please.

The oil spill in the gulf will take years to fully recover from. As a student of the management methods of the late W. Edwards Deming, I can’t help but wonder what the great doctor would have had to say about it. Dr. Deming would have been asking questions. Like what? Well, how did this happen? What steps can be taken to reduce the likelihood that it will happen again? And finally, is there a way to change the fundamental design of deep water wells so that they incorporate a shutoff valve at the ocean floor? I would have to study the current design, but I certainly think it could be done for less money than it will take to clean up this mess.
Above all the work and loss there is one thing that bothers me no end. That is the substitution of rhetoric for dialog. No one dares in this day to just be honest in their assessment or their comments. Every statement is carefully crafted for the desired response. As long as this is the prevailing stance, we cannot really make this a better world.