Discovering Deming: Cultural Evolution at Pluralsight

By John Hunter, author of the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog.

Keith Sparkjoy – Discovering Deming: Cultural Evolution at Pluralsight from The W. Edwards Deming Institute 2014 Annual Conference.

Enjoy Keith Sparkjoy’s presentation at the 2014 W. Edwards Deming Institute conference – Discovering Deming: Cultural Evolution at Pluralsight using the webcast above.

Once you understand common cause variation versus special cause variation you spend less time investigating noise. We also recognize signals [of a process that needs to be examined] more quickly. [reference suggestion – Understanding Variation by Donald Wheeler]

Understanding variation taught us the danger of tampering.

They replaced the employee handbook with 2 rules:

  • Be respectful, considerate and kind even when you disagree.
  • Always act in Pluralsight’s best interest.

Keith Sparkjoy (at time 48:07 in the webcast):

I’m excited about what we do as a company, our purpose, but even more than that I am super-excited about creating an environment where so many people can come to work everyday, and go home at the end of the day with joy in work.

Joy is not a zero sum game.

Related: Deming Podcast with Keith Sparkjoy on Adopting the Deming Management System at Pluralsightcommon cause variation and
special cause variation
Knowledge, Personality, and Persuasive Power (are the sources of power for a leader)Hallmark Building Supplies: Applying Deming as a Business Strategy

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