Life Beyond the Short Term

Life Beyond the Short Term by Simon Caulkin, The Observer.

Last week's column - 'Adrift in a parallel universe' - about the perversion of management provoked an eloquent, sometimes passionate, response.
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In the spirit of a positive alternative, a prime text is W Edwards Deming's 14-point programme for transforming management, drawn up in the 1980s.

Once again Simon Caulkin has penned an excellent article. In this article he gives an overview of Deming's 14 points. I am glad to have found another positive source for improving management - see our directory of management improvement blogs for some additional sources I find valuable.

I have been following management improvement resources online since 1994,when I started writing a column in the ASQ Public Sector Network newsletter. At that time it was taking months between when I wrote an article and it was finally received by subscribers. Early on the resources I shared were not web sites (they were email lists, bulletin Boards and gopher sites). And details would change even before the article was published (and no Google existed to find the new location). I soon figured out I needed a way to provide updates to the details listed in my articles. And in 1994 I started maintaining the Online Quality Resource Guide at Clemson University (where I still maintain it).

There were some great resources early on (like the Deming Electronic Network, Center for Quality and Productivity Improvement) and maybe once a year a new great resource came along (like the Center for Quality Management and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement). And I think our Curious Cat Management Improvement Site is excellent, but then I am biased.

It seems to me, in the last year, we have seen an explosion of useful sites (with content that actual provides value to the visitor) and excellent online articles. I hope this trend continues.

I have also noticed an amazing focus on Toyota. It is not amazing that Toyota gets a good share of attention, as it is very well run large company. And the increasing popularity of lean thinking (which is essentially the Toyota Production System) obviously leads to more focus on Toyota. But even so, I am amazed how many of the good articles I find these days focus on Toyota or a company trying to apply Toyota's methods. The excellent Toyota Way book by Jeffrey Liker certainly is another factor.