FOUR PRELUDES AND A CODA — INTRODUCTION

~ 2 min reading

Contributions from Balaji Reddie

FOUR PRELUDES AND A CODA

and

SOME LESSONS FROM HISTORY

These contributions to the “12 Days to Deming” course are based on a series of 25 short newspaper articles written by

Balaji S Reddie

Founder of the Deming Forum of India

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An introduction to a System of Profound Knowledge

When Dr Deming was asked what it was that the Japanese learned from him, one of his answers was that he taught them a different way of perceiving things around them. He pointed out that, although people see the same event, they may nonetheless observe different things. In the opening paragraph of Chapter 4 in The New Economics, Dr Deming described the purpose of that chapter using these words: “The aim of this chapter is to provide an outside view—a lens—that I call a system of profound knowledge”.

The System of Profound Knowledge is the interaction of four substantial areas of thinking and understanding. Deming referred to them using titles such as

A. Appreciation for a system B. Some knowledge of theory of variation C. Theory of knowledge D. Knowledge of psychology.

Our Preludes here respectively contain some introductory thoughts and illustrations on each of those four parts:

• Prelude A: Understanding a System
• Prelude B: Understanding Statistical Thinking
• Prelude C: Understanding Learning
• Prelude D: Understanding People
• Coda