IMPORTANT STUFF: DEMING'S FOURTEEN PRINCIPLES!

I have been reading some of William Deming's work. Deming was an American statistician, professor, author, lecturer and consultant. He is perhaps best known for the "Plan-Do-Check-Act" cycle popularly named after him which we know better as plan-do-review. In Japan, from 1950 onwards, he taught top management how to improve design, product quality, testing, and sales. Importantly, Deming offered fourteen key principles to managers for transforming business effectiveness. The principles apply as much to schools as to any other organisations.

They were first presented in his book 'Out of the Crisis' and although Deming does not use the term in his book, he is credited with launching the Total Quality Management movement. The principles are:

PRINCIPLE 1 : "Create a constancy of purpose"

PRINCIPLE 2 : "Adopt the new philosophy"

PRINCIPLE 3 : "Cease dependence on inspection"

PRINCIPLE 4 : "Do not award business based on price tag alone"

PRINCIPLE 5 : "Improve constantly the system of production and service"

PRINCIPLE 6 : "Institute training"

PRINCIPLE 7: "Adopt and institute leadership"

PRINCIPLE 8 : "Drive out fear"

PRINCIPLE 9 : "Break barriers among staff areas"

PRINCIPLE 10 : "Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets'

PRINCIPLE 11 :"Eliminate numerical quotas"

PRINCIPLE 12 : "Remove barriers"

PRINCIPLE 13 :"Institute a program of education and self-improvement"

PRINCIPLE 14 : "Take action to accomplish the transformation"


It is simply incredible to apply that to how we run our schools, our hospitals, our care homes and our businesses.