Free for the Asking
Why did TQM Fail?
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Employees take their cues from mgmt. more
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Executive & middle mgmt. oversights more
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Didn't integrate quality into organizational structure more
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Why do major change initiatives fail?
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Part 1: The eight major reasons for failure.
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Part 2: Consequences of these errors?
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Confessions of a shot messenger
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Data "Sanity": Statistical Thinking Applied to Everyday Data
People generally do not perceive that they need statistics - the need is to solve their problems.
Current Realities of the Quality Improvement World
Given the current rapid pace of change in the economic environment along with the "benchmarking," "re-engineering," and "total customer satisfaction" crazes, there seems to be a new tendency for performance goals to be imposed from external sources, making improvement efforts flounder when
- Results are presented in aggregated row and column formats complete with variances and rankings,
- 3-D colored bar graphs, stacked bar graphs, pie charts, and "trend analyses" predominate as alleged analysis "tools" to make strategic decisions, reward, and punish,
- Labels such as "above average" and "below average" get attached to individuals/institutions,
- People are "outraged" by certain results and impose even "tougher" standards.
These are very well-meaning strategies that are simple, obvious...
and wrong! They also reek of several common statistical traps that
will mislead analysis and interpretation... and insidiously
cloud decisions every day in virtually every work environment.
Realities:
- Taking action to improve a situation is tantamount to using statistics,
- "Traditional" statistics have severely limited value in real world settings,
- Understanding of variation is more important than using techniques,
- Statistical thinking gives a knowledge base from which to ask the right questions,
- Unforeseen problems are caused by the exclusive use of arbitrary numerical goals, "stretch" goals, and "tougher" standards for driving improvement,
- Using heavily aggregated tables of numbers, variances from budgets, or bar graph formats as vehicles for taking meaningful management action are many times futile and inappropriate,
- There is poor awareness of the true meaning of "trends," "above average," and "below average."
This presentation can be a keynote, 1-1/2 or 2 hour conference
breakout session, or 1/2-day seminar. Its primary goal is to create awareness
but give some simple skills that can be immediately applied.
Participants will learn:
- Most of what they have been taught in past "Statistics from Hell 101" courses is useless,
- The deceptive power of data plotted over time via a run chart,
- How to deal properly with percentages,
- How to perform a "data inventory" on current, everyday data collections,
- The futility of arbitrary numerical goals to motivate improvement.
Back to Keynote Speeches & Conference Presentations
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