Traditional Wisdom LO9086

Carol Sager (sagerent@world.std.com)
Tue, 13 Aug 1996 14:00:02 -0400

Replying to LO9055 --

Rol Fessenden wrote: "Deming was not infallible. Great man, still only a
man. Robert's position sounds right to me. Is there a logical construct
or alternatively, some data that would contradict him?"

Deming distinguished between leaders of the system and workers in the
system and placed the role of change agent squarely on leadership. The
question is, "Who are the leaders?" In my view (which aligns maybe more
with Robert and Rol), we are all leaders of something - our team, our
classroom...even if it is only ourselves. While CEO's hold the key to
resources.Individuals get the results. Individuals make up the culture
that determines how an operation runs. Continuing on this thread my
question is..not who's to blame (because it really is a non-issue), but
how can each of us exercize our leadership so that we feel pride in our
work, ourselves, and our contribution to others despite the circumstances
in which we might find ourselves? Wherever we are today, we won't be in
exactly the same place forever. How can we best position ourselves for
tomorrow while living fully in today? I am seriously compiling a list on
this and welcome your input.

My respect for Deming comes from his recognition that when the facts
change, decisions change. New knowledge is created all the time. One of
Deming's underlying principles is that people want to do the best job
possible. E.g. What manager comes to work and says, "I want to be the
worst manager I can be?" Deming also talks about not being able to know
what you don't know. So..what responsibility does that place on those of
us who think we do know what others don't know or should know? Please
visit-http://www.erinet.com/patterwc/CLIIN/

> Robert says:>
> "I agree to some extent, but the interesting thing about systems thinking
> is that we must also apply it to management. So by the same logic, there
> is also no such thing as bad managers, only managers that are working in
> bad systems, or who are, themselves asked to do the wrong things."
>
> to which Roxanne responded,
>
> "If I correctly recall, Deming said that managers are accountable for the
> bad systems. So bad systems would implicate managers."

Carol Sager, Sager Educational Enterprises
Critical Linkages II Newsletter
21 Wallis Road, Chestnut Hill, MA 02167
V(617)469-9644;Fx(617)469-9639;sagerent@world.std.com

-- 

Carol Sager <sagerent@world.std.com>

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>