Thanks @kazuo.todd! I’m adding that to my toread list (it sounds like exactly what I’m looking for).
As a funny aside, this article ended up on the Hacker News front page, which in turn ended up on Twitter, which in turn caught the attention of a veritable Deming scholar. Who then wrote up a response:
While all excellent books, I’d suggest a re-ordering and some additions that can help accelerate the learning (outside of reading this newsletter, of course…):
- The New Economics , Deming. Read, re-read, read again. This is one of those rare books that will change as you grow and evolve your own thinking over time.
- The Deming Dimension , Dr. Henry Neave - excellent companion that can help buttress the concepts.
- Out of the Crisis , Deming. I’d refer to this as-needed to elucidate concepts referred to in The New Economics and The Deming Dimension, diving into the 14 Points and their expansion.
- The Symphony of Profound Knowledge , Dr. Ed. Baker. This is a deep book that took Baker years to write, based on his learning of Deming’s philosophy while working with him at Ford. Not everyone’s cup of tea and I’d put it in the “Advanced” reading category.
- Four Days with Dr. Deming , William J. Latzko, David M. Saunders. This is a good book to get a feel of what a classic Deming Four Day Seminar was like, stepping you through the learnings on each day. Latzko was a long-time friend and colleague to Deming, contributing a portion of Chapter 7 of Out of the Crisis on applying Deming’s thinking in banking and financial institutions.
- The Essential Deming , Dr. Joyce Orsini. Orsini is a PhD student of Deming’s, and also contributed significantly to developing his theory. This book nets together a number of his lectures, papers, and correspondence that give some context.
I fear this rabbit hole is a lot deeper than expected …