Beyond Tools & Techniques: Awaken Your Inner Deming (Part 5)

Data represents raw numbers and information represents the what, when, where, etc. of something. Knowledge requires looking inward at how something works. Understanding requires looking outward at a bigger system for an explanation of what lies inward. Wisdom is the ability to utilize these elements. So how do we go from having data to having wisdom? Bill and Andrew talk about tools, techniques, concepts, and strategies.

TRANSCRIPT

0:00:02.8 Andrew Stotz: My name is Andrew Stotz, and I'll be your host as we continue our journey into the teachings of Dr. W. Edwards Deming. Today I'm continuing my discussion with Bill Bellows, who has spent 30 years helping people apply. Dr. Deming's idea is to become aware of how their thinking is holding them back from their biggest opportunity. The topic for today is: Tools and Techniques and Concepts and Strategies. Bills, take it away.

0:00:30.2 Bill Bellows: Thank you, Andrew. And as we get into number five, I was listening earlier to episode number four, and I just want to start off with a clarification and addition. I shared a quote, "I'd rather know a little less than to know so much that ain't so." Which is the opening quote of The New Economics. Every chapter of The New Economics has a great quote. And that quote is attributed to Josh Billings, who is an author who lived in - the author, humorist in the late 1800s. And I thought that was attributed to Will Rogers. Will Rogers is kind of the Josh Billings of the early 1900s. And Will Rogers quote, which a little similar is, "It isn't what we don't know that gives us trouble. It's what we know that ain't so."

0:01:26.8 BB: And to that end, we've been talking about black and white thinking, question number one, shades of gray thinking, question number two. And something I learned from Ed Baker who's a genius who worked at Ford, followed Dr. Deming around the world, a really sweet guy. And one of the first times I met him, he said something about having the ability to realize that the more you know something may be the less that, we're so used to thinking that I know it better and better and better. And where he was coming from my interpretation was, there's a possibility of getting to a point of questioning your understanding, which means your understanding goes backwards. And that's where I think these quotes from Billings and Rogers are so appropriate. Are we willing to let go of dogma? I mean, that's what we were talking about last time. Zero inventory, zero variation, and that's all dogma. And what these two people are talking about is that understanding is relative.

0:02:42.1 BB: It's not absolute. And also that it can go backwards. So you could look at what you're knowing and all of a sudden say, "Maybe I'm not as confident." And if I go there and say... I met a really cool guy, it was at Deming's first seminar in the UK, he worked for Ford. And I used to meet him at this annual UK Deming forum. And at the end of the days there we'd go to the pub, and I liked to hang out with him 'cause he is just, he had so much great wisdom. And one of the things he said is that he constantly challenges his understanding, and not just of Deming, but is this, is it, 'cause he found himself really passionate, but he was questioning, he had the ability to step back and question why he thought it was so important. "Am I crazy?" And, I said, "You're not the only one who does that." But I think that's really healthy, that you can step back, read other people's stuff. But the ability to keep challenging and I think in the world of continuous improvement, we use that phrase, the ability to question your understanding I think is absolutely important. So anyway, I just want to get that off first.

0:04:05.8 AS: It made me think when I teach my finance classes at university, one of the first things I say to my students, is I say, if I'm successful in this class, you'll be less confident when you leave.

0:04:18.0 BB: Yes.

0:04:19.3 AS: And they just can't understand that at that moment in time. But at the end of the course, they realize that nothing's written in stone and that it is a shifting sands, particularly the stock market. Stock market is just a, as one of my guests on my podcast on investing said, "The stock market is a predator, and it's just constantly evolving ways to take money from you." But the point is that if you think that you've got it licked, then it's your, it may be your time up next. And then the other thing I was thinking about is, does knowledge go backwards or does it just become that we have a different vantage point? And also, what's the motive of learning? In the beginning it was just to gather information. The ability to interpret that information strongly didn't come until you really start to feel better and you have more experience. But then the further you go, it's like playing a piano solo and you go far away from what you learn in the rudiments. Does that mean the rudiments are wrong? No, you're just coming at it from a very different angle now.

0:05:32.1 BB: Well, let me add, and this adds to where we're going. And I've shared my, what I've learned from Dr. Deming. I met him twice and never asked him a question. I learned a whole lot from Russ Akoff, who I asked a lot of questions, Dr. Taguchi I asked a lot of questions. And one of the things I share in all my classes that I learned from Russ, and I find... I use the word profound. It's a model he refers to as the D-I-K-U-W model. Others have used four letters. I like Russ's model, D-I-K-U-W. So what is D? "D" is data. And what is data? Data are temperatures, pressures, sales numbers. Those are, that's data. "I" is information. And as Russ would say, information is what a newspaper reporter writes. It's what, where, when, how, and a car accident occurred at this time. That's information. And what's neat is what Dr. Deming said was the dictionary is filled with information.

0:06:52.4 BB: But the "K" is knowledge. And Russ uses K the same way Deming uses knowledge - as in Theory of Knowledge - which is, what is my theory for how this thing works?

0:07:06.8 BB: If I tweak this, then this happens. So the ability to understand causes and effects, that's knowledge. I take something apart and I understand the springs and this turns this, and I would turn it clockwise and boom, boom, boom. That's knowledge. Understanding, the "U," comes from stepping back. And an example I used with my students is, a number of years ago, I took apart our washing machine, 'cause I heard the bearing is starting to hum. And I thought, well, given the experience in corporations, I can either continue to let this hum and at one point it breaks, in which case I am where I am, or I can be on top of it and get ahead of it. And that's what I decided to do. So I went online, found a couple websites, and got great instructions, took the whole thing apart, and was able to get back together. Taking it apart, putting it back together, looking at how all these things work together, is that I gained great knowledge. But what Russ would say is, understanding how the washing machine works doesn't tell me why it's sized for a family of four.

0:08:27.5 BB: Russ would say, taking an automobile apart and putting it back together doesn't tell you why it's designed for four passengers and why the driver sits on the left. So understanding is when you look outward at the greater system, and Russ also refers to that as synthesis, as opposed to analysis is when we bore in. And he said... And what's really also, we'll get into this. I mean this, these terms will come up in this conversation later, so it works out well to throw it in now. So there's data, information, knowledge. Okay, fine. Again, understanding is: we step back and say, why is the car, why does the car have four passengers? And that's also what Russ calls synthesis - which is when we look outward at the containing system. And analysis is when we go inward. So there's analysis inward, which is where the knowledge piece comes in, stepping back.

0:09:28.9 BB: And then the "W" piece is wisdom, which is, what do you do with all this stuff? So I'm sitting in a staff meeting at Rocketdyne, and they're talking about the results of the latest survey. And every director in the room has got a solution on how to improve their issues, and every solution involves some awards program. And I'm listening to one person after another, after another, after another. And this is a, I knew all these people, but I was recently assigned to this vice president, and I was all set after the 12th or 13th of them said, "and I'm gonna implement an award system." And I was all set to say, "for the record..." but I bit my tongue, and it's a good thing I did, because immediately after the meeting was the monthly awards and recognition luncheon for the buyer. But I say that that's the wisdom piece. The wisdom piece was, I was lucky. I just, but the wisdom piece is knowing, when do I use this knowledge and when do I just shut up?

0:10:45.6 AS: That's true isn't it?

0:10:47.5 BB: Yeah. And I would say I was, I was lucky. But still, with what we're sharing with people, it's one thing to be aware of it, but you have to pick your battles. You have to pick your opportunities, and you can't be a bull in a China shop. All right. So back to tools and techniques.

0:11:08.6 AS: Okay. But wait, I want to go back through this just to highlight it because I think it's a good... I teach students how to value companies, and I've been doing it for 30 years. So, I would argue I'm close to the wisdom part, further away from the data part. But when I bring students in the class, the first thing they do is, hey, I got data, I got data, I got these charts, look at this, look at this. But then I say, okay, so what, what, tell me more. And then they say, then they get into the information. Okay, what