It’s not personal

Don’t take it personally when you hear, the problem is with management. Deming said “…management is the problem,” not managers. Too many take it personally when they hear his admonition that the problem is at the top.

Managers could hear this message and make rapid progress if they related to their work more like artists. It is the art, not the artist, being evaluated. When Deming says management is the problem, the problem is not managers, but the management system which managers have produced. Many managers fail to move beyond their apprenticeship phase. They continue to manage by mostly copying the failing management practices of their predecessors.

It is OK to want to update, to change, to modify and to improve the system of management without attacking the manager or managers who produce that system. Deming said, “I make no apologies for learning.” We should not require managers who are learning to apologize for leaving behind ineffective management systems. When they do it is not a sign of personal failings, but of growth and development. .