In the last issue I talked about managers and leaders, etc, needing to 'get out more': a common theme of mine, some may have noticed (MSJ articles passim), from many earlier references to 'GOYA', 'MBWA', 'GeYoHaDi' and the like (Chamberlin, 2012, 2013, 2016 & 2018). The journal issue before that had an article entitled, 'It's the System, Stupid', largely influenced by W E Deming's attempt to clarify the 'costly confusion' between what he defined as 'common-cause variation' - ie the normal variation occurring within a stable system - and 'special causes': 'I should estimate that in my experience most troubles and most possibilities for improvement add up to proportions something like this: 94% belong to the system (responsibility of management) 6% special' (Deming, 1986: 315).
展开▼
