The role of a manager of people

The role of a manager of people

After the transformation, a manager will:
    1. Understand the meaning of a system and convey this to the people in the system.
    2. Help people see how they must cooperate with the preceding and following stages
        as a component of the system to optimize the system.
    3. Understand that people are different and use this knowledge to develop their abilities
        to optimize the system.
    4. Be a continuous learner and encourage continuous learning for others in the system.
    5. Be a coach and counsel, not a judge.
    6. Understand a stable system and that anyone's performance will reach a stable state.
    7. Develop and mainly use knowledge, personality and persuasive power in the management
        of people,  and not rely on authority of office except to change the system for improvement.
    8. Study results to improve as a manager of people.
    9. Try to discover if anyone is outside the system in need of special help. This is an extension
        of item 6 above.
    10. Create an environment of trust to encourage freedom and innovation.
    11. Not expect perfection.
    12. Listen and learn without passing judgment.
    13. Have an unplanned and unhurried conversation with each worker at least once a year
         to understand their aims, hopes and fears.
    14. Understand the benefits of cooperation and the losses created by competition
         between people and groups.

The Shewhart PDSA Cycle

Deming discusses the Plan, Do, Study, Act continuous improvement cycle developed around 1950 he refers to as the Shewhart cycle. He provides an illustration showing a circle where a plan for a change or test of a change in the process or system is developed in the first step, the change or test of change is made below clockwise in the do step, the results are examined in the study step, and the change is either adopted or abandoned in the act step. This leads to the start step, i.e., next plan for change or test of a change in the process or system, the foundation for the whole cycle. 

The development of a new engine is used as an example. The secret to shorter development times is to put more effort into the early stages and understanding the interaction between stages. The manager's job is to manage the whole process, not to optimize any stage. Everyone involved including marketing people, suppliers, toolmakers, etc. should be included in the planning stage.  

Problems with Accounting

Current accounting practices reinforce the incorrect perception that decisions made during the development stage are independent of the future costs related to capital expenditures, maintenance, operations and the losses suffered by customers.

What should business schools teach?

Business schools should teach the theory of a system and the theory of profound knowledge for transformation, some economics, statistical theory, language and science. They should teach that un-measurable damage is created by short term thinking, ranking people, merit systems, incentive pay, management by results, and tampering. 

How should the education system change?

To achieve notable improvement, the education system should abolish grades, merit ratings for teachers, comparison of schools on the basis of scores, and gold stars for athletics. Joy in learning comes more from learning than from what is learned. A grade is a permanent label for opening doors or closing doors, a way to achieve quality by inspection, rather than building in quality, a way to produce competition between people, rather than cooperation, a way to label people as winners or losers, a way to humiliate those at the bottom, rather than to promote their desire to learn and future achievement.

In this chapter, Deming says that he does not grade students, but gives them a "P" for pass. 

Some thoughts on grades.