In Their Own Words

This week's podcast, continues our "Knowledge in Variation Series" with Dr. Frony Ward , Managing and Founding Partner of Pinnacle Partners, Inc. Frony discusses the importance of Statistical Process Control (SPC) in all parts of an organization and why it's a barrier to many.   Frony was first introduced to SPC (Statistical Process Control) when she was teaching at the University of Tennessee. An...

This week's podcast features the first episode of our "Knowledge In Variation Series" with Lynda Finn , President of Statistical Insight, LLC and facilitator of The Deming Institute's 2.5 Day Seminar.  Lynda discusses the importance of moving from spreadsheets to plotting data, and the common mistakes that organizations make if they aren't charting their data. Lynda's Deming journey began when, sh...

This week's Podcast features Dr. Lisa Snyder , Superintendent of the Lakeville Public Schools. Lisa shares how the work of Dr. Deming is influencing her as a superintendent and the rewards and challenges of adopting his philosophies.   Lisa's Deming journey began 23 years ago, when in a new job, she was sent to listen to Dr. Deming via satellite. The experience had a huge impact on Lisa as she con...

Ron Moen and Cliff Norman , of Associates in Process Improvement (API), discuss their similar experiences where first introduced to Dr. Deming, their paper "Evolution of Deming's System of Profound Knowledge" and finally the "journey of learning" through the lens of SoPK, that Dr. Deming left the world. Ron and Cliff start with an introduction on their first meeting with Dr. Deming; how he challen...

This week's Podcast feature Alfie Kohn , national speaker and author of 14 books, and scores of articles, on human behavior, management, and education.   Alfie discusses the inspiration for his books including, No Contest and Punished by Rewards , the divergent thoughts surrounding the history of education in the 20th century, and his views on standardized testing and homework.   Alfie explains ho...

This week's Podcast features Jim Benson , founding partner of the Modus Institute.  Jim discusses how he was introduced to the Deming Philosophy, how his team applies it to Knowledge Work (work that can't be seen), and what he feels is the biggest fear in an organization. Though he was initially introduced accidently on an airplane, Jim shared how he was actively looking for a set of guiding princ...

Read more about Dr. Deming's work in his books, Out of the Crisis and The New Economics . This week's Podcast features Louis Altazan , President of AGCO Automotive Corporation in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Louis discusses his introduction to Dr. Deming and his philosophies, his "aha" moment, and the long-term thinking and trust that must be established to succeed.   Louis starts with a brief introduc...

This week's Podcast features Dr. Bret Champion , Superintendent of the Leander Independent School District in Leander, Texas. Bret discusses Leander ISD's journey and how they faced the challenges of a growing school district, external federal and state standards and limited resources to create a quality education system focused on the most critical component, the student.   Bret shares his early...

This week's Podcast features  Gordon McGilton , Director of a Private Equity Fund with investment in multiple industries. Gordon shares the humorous and unique way he was introduced to Dr. Deming's philosophies. He provides an example of a company that is using The Deming System of Profound Knowledge with great success, as well as how one can begin their own journey. Gordon starts with, "every bus...

This week's podcast features Dr. Doug Stilwell , Superintendent of the Urbandale Community School District. Doug shares his application of the Deming Philosophy in education - looking at education from a systems point a view and driving out fear with trust. Listen as Doug talks about how, after 35 years in education, he always felt that "something was not right." It wasn't until 2009 when he atten...

This week's podcast features David Langford , CEO and Founder of Langford International, Inc. and Deming Institute Advisory Council member. In David's third podcast he explores ways to get started in employing the Deming philosophy in education. In many instances this requires an "out of body experience"; stop playing the blame game, stop being a victim. He tells us to stop worrying about the bigg...

This week's podcast features Doug Hall , CEO and Founder of Innovation Engineering and Eureka! Ranch as he shares his approach for taking the systems thinking of Dr. Deming and applying it to the world of strategy, innovation, and growth. Doug shares the story of how his father introduced him to Dr. Deming and systems thinking in the late 70's. Doug's father worked at Nashua Corporation, which was...

This week's podcast features Dick Steele, Founder and Chairman of Peaker Services, Inc. and member of The Deming Institute Board of Trustees. Dick discusses his company's transformation and how he has kept his employees engaged throughout their Deming Journey. Dick shares his memory of how a book recommendation by his mother led to his introduction to Dr. Deming's philosophies. And how attending D...

This week's podcast features David Langford , CEO and founder of Langford International, Inc. and Deming Institute Advisory Council member. David discusses "Education as a System" and using the four parts of Deming's "System of Profound Knowledge" to make a systemic change to the current education system. He talks about the "aim" and "product" of the education system. "What are we trying to accomp...

This week's Deming Podcast features Keith Sparkjoy, Cofounder and Culture Coach of Pluralsight, a leader in professional training for developers through an online learning experience. Keith discusses his "awakening" on their journey to keep Pluralsight's healthy culture as they rapidly expanded. The Deming philosophies provided hope and as he came to understand variation and a new way to look at l...

This week's podcast features Monta Akin , Assistant Superintendent for Leander Independent School District in Leander, Texas. Monta shares her Deming journey and the compelling story of Leander Independent School District's transformation.  It begins when Monta was first introduced to Deming when she came across the PBS series "Quality or Else" featuring David Langford. What caught her attention w...

This week's podcast features Fred Warmbier , CEO of Finishing Technology and Kelly Allan , Senior Associate of Kelly Allan Associates and Chair of the Deming Institute Advisory Council . Fred and Kelly discuss their New York Times blog that documents the Deming journey of Finishing Technology, a metal finishing company in Ohio.   Fred first discovered the Deming message in September 2013 when he a...

  In this podcast Clare and Bob take us through their respective journeys that led to their groundbreaking work with Dr. Deming in the famous 1980 NBC documentary/white paper, " If Japan Can Why Can't We?"   and the subsequent powerful 32 volume "Deming Library" which is still in widespread use .   From their early memories of meeting Dr. Deming to the impact it had on their lives, we experience t...

Paula Marshall is the CEO of the Bama Companies, Inc., a company that may be best known for being the single supplier of the famous Apple dessert pies to McDonalds. They are also "...an innovator and manufacturer of bakery products to some of the most well-known restaurant chains on the planet." In this episode Paula discusses with Tripp her amazing journey as a CEO that took her company from bein...

Bill Bellows serves as president of the In2:InThinking Network, and as a Board Trustee of the W. Edwards Deming Institute®. In his podcast, Bill discusses his introduction to the Deming philosophy as a young engineer, and his "aha" moment after hearing Dr. Deming speak about the destructive nature of competition. He also shares his thoughts on the challenges of conveying the Deming message in the...

Bob Browne is the former CEO of the Great Plains Coca Cola Bottling Company and soon to be author of a new book, The Sys-Tao Way , that outlines his application of the Deming Philosophy. Bob gives a brief history of the Great Plains Coca Cola Bottling Company, his introduction to the Deming Philosophy and experiences incorporating many of the teachings into his organization. Bob states how the Fou...

In this episode of the Deming Podcast, Tripp Babbitt interviews Steven Haedrich , President of New York Label & Box Works. In his podcast, Steven talks about the rich 130-year history of New York Label & Box Works and their Deming journey which began more than 20 years ago. Steven discusses his "aha" moments around management and leadership, and quality improvements. Steven also talks about the re...

In this episode of the Deming Podcast, Tripp Babbitt interviews Andrea Gabor. Andrea Gabor  begins by discussing her book The Man Who Discovered Quality:  How W. Edwards Deming Brought the Quality Revolution to America – The Stories of Ford, Xerox, and GM.  She discusses what  Ford and GM have done since her book was published. And then she discusses how to improve the education system and the pro...

In this episode of the Deming Podcast, Tripp Babbitt interviews Dan Robertson, Deming Institute Advisory Council member and Co-author of Deming's Profound Changes. Dan discusses his Deming journey at Hewlett Packard and his experience writing Deming's Profound Changes with co-author Kenneth Delavigne, as a tribute to Dr. Perry Gluckman. Dan is the Co-chair of The 2014 Deming Institute Fall Confere...

In this third episode of The Deming Podcast , moderator Tripp Babbitt interviews David Langford. David serves on The Deming Institute's Advisory Council and is the CEO and founder of Langford International .  David shares the challenges he faced as an educator in Sitka Alaska, his introduction to the teachings Dr. W. Edwards Deming, and his work with the Leander Independent School District where t...