Lessons from the Red Bead Experiment

Excerpts for the Lessons of the Red Beads with Dr. W. Edward Deming (from the Deming Library series). See our blog post on the ideas presented in the webcast
blog.deming.org/2014/03/lessons-from-the-red-bead-experiment-with-dr-deming/
See the companion webcast: The Red Bead Experiment with Dr. Deming
blog.deming.org/2014/02/deming-red-bead-experiment/

[@jenniferb5322]

This was a great illustration of what bad processes and bad management practices can cause.

[@KevBoy3D]

I think there's a lot of value in this, despite its (by now) age.

[@Loachie90]

Management made a huge mistake treating workers as a fungible resources by culling the “under performers” and hiring new workers to try and improve results instead of improving the system

[@kagitsune]

"I knew that the system would not allow me to meet the goal, but I still felt that I could." I still somehow fall into this trap every time. Why do we still run organizations like this? We've understood this trap since the 50s... why don't we fix it?

[@joinedupjon]

I'd guess it's a cognitive trap. Occurred to me when when watching it that it might be even easier to fall into the same trap with so much management by spreadsheet today rather than management by walking around... You can produce lots of meaningless tables and graphs much prettier than the one;s here practically effortlessly and get the feeling that you really know what's going on.

[@kagitsune]

@@joinedupjon Yeah, and the higher ups like to pretend they can trust the "data" to feel that they're somehow in control. While real data could actually get you somewhere.

[@BlueishNight]

Insightful experiment and lessons.

[@jasonpoe5360]

Great info; it’s great to see Deming teaching and discussing the red bead experience himself. But.... why the cartoon duck?

[@TheRedKing247]

The 90s were a different time man.

[@kongug6626]

Whew, I'm glad somebody else saw that thing, I thought I was the only one.

[@MasterZhao]

is that Mike Wallace?

[@alexmcgregor20]

Might be a reference to the "remove the duck" meme from the development of Battle Chess in the late 1980s which would have spread far enough by word of mouth to be known by management strategist types by the early 1990s... that or someone producing this thing had a nephew who really wanted to get into animation

[@christrombley4590]

The voice of journalist Lloyd Dobyns and the political cartoons of Pat Oliphant would have been a lot more recognizable to audiences in the 90s. People used to read newspapers, it was crazy

[@BenJehovah6969]

Chaos doesnt have a plan

[@stevenminor2936]

Contribute to making system better. Output result of a system not individual.

[@casti2g892]

The little guy though.....

[@AresGaming1967]

no offense, Deming, but i cannot understand a word you are saying for this essay im writing 😢

[@geobus3307]

Try reading a book

[@omegapointil5741]

So everyone including Deming agrees the problem isn't with the workers. Workers need protection from the idiocy of management and that's where unions are the only possibility for Justice unless you think workers are guilty right out of the gate for no fault of their own because youre simply a tyrant. Checkmate; no moves left.

[@jeromehathaway7063]

Unions are not responsible for systems or material improvement.

[@wopmf4345FxFDxdGaa20]

Yes. It would help more if people joined the union. Here in my country 90% of workers belong to the unions.

[@roypiper581]

If Deming thought unions were the answer, why did he not say so? Because it's not.

[@jameswester333]

I don't think that unions are the answer

[@hugoestrada2089]

Unions help because the power disparity between management and workers means that workers are not safe to voice their quality or safety concerns. Unions give workers that safety. So they can raise their voice to improve the system.