Podcasts about ASQ

Tash R. Baksh is a seasoned expert with 20-plus years of international experience in operational management across various fields, including medical devices and responsible care. He's a member of the ASQ inspection division and holds three ASQ certifications. He recently wrote an article for Quality about training and workforce development in which he stated, “Pursuing entry-level training programs is not just an alternative—it's a strategic move to secure stable, well-paying careers in high-demand fields.”

Are your specification limits holding you back from improving your products and services? Should you throw out specifications? What does Stephen Hawking have to do with it? In this episode, Bill Bellows and host Andrew Stotz discuss specifications and variation. TRANSCRIPT 0:00:02.5 Andrew Stotz: My name is Andrew Stotz, and I'll be your host as we dive deeper into the teachings of Dr. W Edwards Deming. Today, I'm continuing my discussion with Bill Bellows, who has spent 31 years helping people apply Dr. Deming's ideas to become aware of how their thinking is holding them back from their biggest opportunities. Today is episode 12, and the title is Do Specification Limits Limit Improvement. Bill, take it away.   0:00:31.4 Bill Bellows: Hey, Andrew. How's it going? All right.   0:00:33.8 Andrew Stotz: Great. Great to have you back and great to see you. For those that are just listening, you can watch the video on DemingNEXT. But for those listening, Bill looks handsome, full of energy, ready to go, and it's my 8:30 in the morning in Bangkok, Thailand. So let's rock Bill.   0:00:56.3 Bill Bellows: So. I spoke recently to one of the folks I'd met on LinkedIn that have listened to our podcast and took the offer to reach out and we now talk regularly. And I just wanna say I've gotta, before we get to some, the story behind the title, I wanted to share, a heads up. And if anyone would like a copy of this article that I wanna, take some excerpts from, then just reach out to me on LinkedIn and ask for a copy of the article. The article's entitled 'A Brief History of Quality,' and there's three parts. So it's about 10 pages overall, and it was published in 2015 in the Lean Management Journal, which I don't believe still exists. I was writing articles at the end once a month for this journal, I think based out of the UK.   0:02:04.3 Bill Bellows: I think there was a manufacturing magazine that still exists and had this as a special topic and my interest was bringing Dr. Deming's ideas, to the Lean community, which is why it was a Lean Management Journal, so the article was entitled 'Brief History Equality.' And so I wanna get to those topics, but when I was reading the article, reminding myself of it, I thought, oh, I'll just share this story online with Andrew and our audience. And so here I'm just gonna read the opening paragraph. It says, "several years ago, I had the opportunity to attend an hour-long lecture by Stephen Hawking," right? So the article was written in 2015. So the presentation by Hawking would've been maybe 2012, 2013. And back to the article, it says, "he, Hawking, returns to Pasadena every summer for a one-month retreat, a ritual he started in the 1970s, several thousand attendees sitting in both a lecture hall and outdoors on a lawn area complete with a giant screen were treated to an evening of reflection of the legendary Cambridge physicist."   0:03:14.3 Bill Bellows: And I'll just pause. I have friends who work at JPL and they got me seats, and they got me an inside seat in the balcony, front row of the balcony, but they had big screens outside. I mean, it was like a rock concert for Stephen Hawking, right?   0:03:34.3 Andrew Stotz: That's amazing.   0:03:34.9 Bill Bellows: Oh, it was so cool. Oh, it was so cool. So anyway, "his focus was my brief history offering us a glimpse of his life through a twist on his treatise, A Brief History of Time. His introspective presentation revealed his genius, his humility, his search for black holes, his passion for life, not to mention his dry sense of humor. It ended with questions from three Caltech students, the last of which came from a postdoc student, an inquiry Hawking had likely tackled many times before."   0:04:06.6 Bill Bellows: So realize he's answering the questions through a voice activated thing. And it appeared that the questions were, his answers were prerecorded, but they're still coming through a device that is a synthesized voice. But I get the impression that he knew the questions were coming, so we in the audience were hearing the questions for the first time. But he had already answered the questions. So anyway, it ended with questions. There was an undergraduate student, a graduate student, then a postdoc, and I said, "the last of which came from a postdoc student, an inquiry Hawking had likely tackled many times before. And the student relayed the story of an unnamed physicist who once compared himself to both Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein." So this unnamed physicist compared himself to Einstein and Newton each placed on a scale of 1 lowest to 10 highest. "With this context, Hawking was asked where he would rank himself."   0:05:22.0 Bill Bellows: So this physicist said, oh, you know, Andrew, I see myself as this. And so the guy relays the story, and he says to Hawking, so given this other physicist said this, where would you rank yourself? "Well, I do not recall the relative rankings posed in the query. I'll never forget Hawking's abrupt reply. He says, “anyone who compares themselves to others is a loser." And I found online that he was, that commentary, this was not the first time he said that.   0:06:04.9 Andrew Stotz: Right.   0:06:06.5 Bill Bellows: And I just thought, oh, anyone who compares himself to others is a loser. And then the end of the paragraph is "in reference to Dr. Deming," Andrew, "variation, there will always be. So can't we just get used to variation?" So the title, are you in favor? No, no, no, no. That was last time. Are you in favor of improving the quality was number 10. Number 11 was to improve quality, don't measure quality. For 12, the specification limits limit improvement.   0:06:46.9 Andrew Stotz: Now, if that was true, first of all, that would be a little scary, 'cause we spend a lot of time working on specification limits. There's a lot of people working on that.   0:06:55.4 Bill Bellows: But here's what's behind the title. In 1995, I was invited to speak, not for the first time, but for the first time I ever spoke to an audience of the American Society of Quality. It was a San Fernando Valley chapter. I forget the number. I've spoken there many, many times over the years, but this is the first time I ever spoke to quality professionals as opposed to project managers or Society of Manufacturing Engineers. I was there with my wife. There's dinner, then after dinner in the next room, and the chairs were set up, theater style, that'd be 70, 80 people. And I was talking about what I would, I mean, things I still talk about, I talk about new things, to have new things done. But the big thing I was trying to get across the audience is, the difference between meeting requirements, which in this series, we call it acceptability versus desirability, which is, I want this value, I want this professor, I want to date this person. And so I was relaying that concept to that audience. And the question I asked that night was do specification limits limit improvement?   0:08:31.0 Bill Bellows: And there was a guy about seven rows back, and I built up to that. That wasn't the opening thing, but what I was really pushing on was a focus on Phil Crosby's goal of striving for zero defects. And, then what? Once you achieve that, then what? And we've talked about the doorway and that's like the door is closed, we get up to the doorway and we've achieved zero defects. And, what we've talked about is going through the doorway and the attitude is, well, why open the door? I mean, don't open the door, Andrew. There's a wall on the other side of that door, Andrew. So it might be a door, but everybody knows there's a wall behind it, and I was poking at that with this audience, and prepared to show them the value proposition of going through that.   0:09:34.0 Bill Bellows: So anyway, I remember I got to the point of asking, do specification limits limit thinking about improvement or something like that. And a more senior gentleman, about seven or eight rows back, and fortunately, he was seven or eight rows back, fortunately, because he stood up and he says, "Are you saying we don't need specification limits?" There's a lot more anger in his voice. And I said, "No," I said, "I'm saying I think they limit our thinking about improvement." And, but he was really upset with me, and I was deliberately provoking because again, you and I have talked about, how can we inspire through this podcast and other podcasts that you do with the others, to get people to think about the possibilities that Dr. Deming shared with us. And it's not believing that there's a door that you can't walk through. You open the door and there's an opening and you can go through. There's a lot more going on there. So anyway, so I had prepared them. The whole reason for being there was to share what we were doing at Rocketdyne, and not just talk about the possibilities, but show them the possibilities. But he got very upset with me. But if he was in the front row, he might've hit me.   0:11:08.9 Andrew Stotz: May have thrown a book at you.   0:11:11.5 Bill Bellows: Oh, he...   0:11:12.2 Andrew Stotz: May have thrown a Specification Limit at you.   0:11:17.0 Bill Bellows: Twice I've had people get, well, I've gotten a number of people upset with me over the years, but that night was, I'll never forget, and I'll never forget, because my wife was sitting in the front row and she asked me never to be that provocative again. It might be dangerous to my health. But I was doing another class, also for the American Society of Quality, I was a member of the local chapter, and there was a big movement within Rocketdyne that all Quality Engineers within Rocketdyne be Certified Quality Engineers. And so two or three of us from Rocketdyne got involved in helping the local chapter train people to prepare to take this one day exam. Very, very, very rigorous. And it's a valuable credential for quality professionals.   0:12:20.1 Bill Bellows: And so the company was pushing that every single quality engineer was certified. So we did the classes on site. So instead of going to the nearby Cal State Northridge and doing it over there, we wanted to do it onsite, make it easy for our employees to attend. And so I would do one and a half sessions. So a given session was three hours long, and then there'd be a half session. And my topics were Design of Experiments and Dr. Taguchi's work. And so as I got this group this one night for the very first time, I was the second half of that three-hour session, and there's 30 some people in the room at Rocketdyne. And the question I wanted to raise is, why run experiments? What would provoke you to run an experiments either, planned experimentation, Design of Experiments or Dr. Taguchi's approach to it.   0:13:15.1 Bill Bellows: So I was throwing that out and I said, in my experience, we're either applying it to make something better - that's improvement, Andrew, - or we're applying it to find out why something doesn't work, which is rearward looking. And I was saying that in my experience, I spend like a whole lot of time running experiments to solve a problem, to fix something that was broken, to get it back to where it was before the fire alarm, not as much time focusing on good to make it better. And so I was just playing in that space of, you know, I guess I was asking the audience are we running experiments to go from bad to good and stop, or from good to better? And I was playing with that 30 people in the room, and all of a sudden, four or five feet in front of me, this guy stands up, says this is BS, but he didn't use the initials, he actually said the word and walked out of the room. And all of us are looking at him like, and there was no provocation. Now, I admit for the ASQ meeting, I was poking to make sure they were paying attention. Here, I was just plain just, why do we run experiments? So, he stands up, he lets out that word, pretty high volume, storms out of the room.   0:14:42.1 Bill Bellows: Well, at Rocketdyne, you can't... You need a... You have to walk around with someone who works there. You just can't go walk around the place, so I had to quickly get one of my coworkers who was in the room to go escort him to the lobby or else, we're all gonna get fired for having somebody unescorted. So the specification limits limit thinking about improvement, I think they do. I am constantly working with university courses or in my consulting work and acceptability in terms of the quality goal, that this is acceptable, it meets requirements is alive and well and thriving, thriving. And, I think what goes on in organizations, I think there's such a focus on getting things done, that to be done is to be good and is to stop that I could pass my work on to you.   0:15:45.2 Bill Bellows: And, the challenge becomes, even if you're aware that you can walk through the doorway and move from acceptability to desirability, how do you sell that to an organization, which you, what I see in organizations, there's a lot of kicking the can down the road. There's a lot of, and even worse than that, there's a lot of toast scraping going on because there's not a lot of understanding that the person toasting it is over toasting it because all they do is put the toast into the oven. Somebody else takes it out, somebody else scrapes it, somebody else sends it back to a different toaster. And I see a lack of understanding of this because the heads are down. That's part of what I see. What I also see in organizations is, with students is this is their first drop.   0:16:51.0 Bill Bellows: Wherever they are, engineering, manufacturing, quality, they're new, they're excited, they're excited to be on their own, to have an income. And they're taking what they learned in universities, and now, they get to apply it. And I remember what that was like. I worked the summer after getting my bachelor's degree, my last semester, I took a class at heat transfer, the prior semester, took a class in jet engines, and I just fell in love with heat transfer and I fell in love with jet engines. And that summer, I was coming back in the fall to go to graduate school for my master's degree. That summer, I worked for a jet engine company as a heat transfer engineer, I was in heaven.   0:17:37.6 Andrew Stotz: Yeah. That's gotta be the coolest thing.   0:17:40.1 Bill Bellows: Just incredible. So I can imagine people coming out of college, going to work, and you get to apply what you learned. You get to use computers, you get to work with some really cool people, and you're doing what you're doing, and it's a blast. And I think it takes a few years before you start to listen to what the veterans are talking about. And you might hear that they're challenging how decisions are made, they're challenging how the company is run. I think prior to that, your heads are down and you're just the subject matter expert. It could be, you know, engineering and manufacturing, finance, and you're doing what you're doing. Their head is down, you're receiving, you're delivering. I still remember when I went to work with my Ph.D. at the same jet engine company, they hired me back. And, I remember walking down the hallway with a colleague and somebody says, that's the VP of Engineering.   0:18:42.7 Bill Bellows: And I thought, we have a VP of Engineering? I mean, I know we have a Vice President of the United States, but I didn't know anything about titles like that. And I think... And I don't think I'm the only one. I've shared those with some younger folks recently, and they agree, you come in, it's heads down, we don't know management, all I get to work on this great stuff. I go and I, and so what we're, but I think what happens is, I think at some point of time you start to look up and you're hearing what the more senior people that are there are saying you've had some experience. And, I know when people join Rocketdyne, and they would come to my class and I would share these stories that had some things that were, if your experience would be questionable, some other things that are pretty cool.   0:19:34.6 Bill Bellows: And, I just had the feeling and I found out people would walk outta there thinking what you mean that, I mean the things, the use of incentives, like why do we need incentives? But, and what I found was it took a couple of years and I would bump into these same people and they'd say, now I'm beginning to understand what you were talking about and what Dr. Deming was talking about. So I throw that out. For those listeners that are trying to, that are at that phase where you're starting to wonder how are decisions being made? You're wondering what you wanna do in your profession. You're wondering what this Deming stuff is about. A whole lot of this entire series has been targeted at people that are new to Deming's ideas. Or maybe they have some experience, they're getting some exposure through these podcasts either with me and the ones you're doing with John and the others. And so, but the other thing I wanna get into today is this quality thing. I go back to this article. And then I was thinking about this article, things I didn't know when I started researching this article is, this term quality, where does that come from? And the term quality comes from, I got to pull it, I have to scroll through the article. Let me get it, let me get it.   0:21:06.4 Bill Bellows: All right. Here we go. "The word quality," Andrew "has Latin roots, beginning with qualitas coined by Roman philosopher and statesman, Marcus Tullius Cicero, who later became an adversary of Mark Antony." You know, what happened to Cicero? Wasn't pretty.   0:21:32.8 Andrew Stotz: Yeah.   0:21:33.9 Bill Bellows: "Feared by Antony," I wrote, "his power of speech led to his eventual beheading. But long after he introduces fellow Romans to the vocabulary of qualitas, that's quality; quantitas, that's quantity; humanitas, that's humanity; and essentia, which is essential. He's also credited with an extensive list of expressions that translate into English, including difference, infinity, science, and morale. When Plato invented the phrase poiotes for use by his peers." So Plato would've been Greek, "Cicero spoke of qualitas with his peers when focusing on the property of an object, not its quantity." And, what I had in mind there is counting how many things we have, so you come in and you want five apples, five suits, whatever it is, there's the quantity thing. And then what Cicero was trying to do is say, quality is not the number, but quality is a differentiation of not just any suit, not just any...   0:22:53.1 Bill Bellows: And I think that becomes the challenge is, is that still important? So when Dr. Deming came on board in 1980, at the age of 79, when the NBC white paper was written, and people got excited by quality because quality was something that people identified with Japanese products, not with American products.   0:23:19.9 Andrew Stotz: Well, not in 1980.   0:23:21.1 Bill Bellows: Not in 1980...   [laughter]   0:23:22.2 Bill Bellows: I mean, at that time, the auto companies were making a lot of money in repair businesses. And Toyota comes along and says, and the words on the street, our products don't require all that repair. And I thought, yeah. And what was neat about that is when I thought, when you think about differentiation and like how do you sell quality? Because, again, I find it, for the longest time, beginning in 1980, quality was hot. Quality improvement. I mean, the American Society of Quality membership skyrocketed. Their membership has dropped like a rock since then because they don't have this Deming guy around that got them going.   0:24:12.1 Bill Bellows: Now, they're still big in the Six Sigma, but I don't believe their membership is anything like it was, but what I was thinking and getting ready for tonight is the economics of quality is from a consumer, what, at least, when my wife and I buy Toyota, it's a value proposition. It's the idea that if we buy Toyota, in our experience, we're getting a car that doesn't break down as often, is far more reliable. That becomes the differentiation. Also in the first... In the second series, second podcast of this series, we talked about the eight dimensions of quality and David Garvin's work.   0:25:03.2 Bill Bellows: And one of them was features, that a car with cup holders is quality 'cause... And there was a time, and the more cup holders, the better. And that was... And Garvin was saying lots of features is quality. He said, reliability could perceived it as a dimension of quality. Conformance was one of the dimensions, and he attributed that to the traditional thinking of Crosby. Reliability is a thing. And so when it comes to, how do you sell quality today? How do you get people within your organizations to go beyond, 'cause what I see right now is it's almost as if quality has gone back to quantity, that it's gone, that it's lost its appeal. Now, quantity doesn't lose its appeal 'cause we're selling, five of them, 20 of them, 30 of them.   0:26:09.2 Bill Bellows: But I don't get the impression from students and others that I interact with, that quality has big appeal. But, if we convert quality to the ability to do more with less, I mean the, when I'm delivering a higher quality item to you within the organization, that it's easier for you to integrate, to do something with, that's money, that's savings of time. And the question is, well, I guess how can we help make people more aware that when you go through the door of good and go beyond looking good and start to think about opportunities for desirable? And again, what we've said in the past is there's nothing wrong with tools, nothing wrong with the techniques to use them, there's nothing wrong with acceptability, but desirability is a differentiator.   0:27:15.2 Bill Bellows: And then the challenge becomes, if everyone's focused on acceptability, where it makes sense, then within your organization going beyond that, as we've explained, and this is where Dr. Taguchi's work is very critical. Dr. Deming learned about desirability from Dr. Taguchi in 1960. And that's what I think is, for all this interest in Toyota, I guess my question is, why is everybody excited by Toyota? Is it because they do single-minute exchange of dies? I don't think so. Is it because they do mixed model production? They can have, in one production line have a red car followed by a blue car, followed by a green car as opposed to mass production? Or is it because of the incredible reliability of the product? That's my answer, and I'm sticking to it. So...   0:28:14.3 Andrew Stotz: Yeah.   0:28:14.7 Bill Bellows: So what do you think Andrew?   0:28:17.2 Andrew Stotz: Yeah. There's two things that I was thinking about. One of the things I was thinking about is the idea if we're doing good with quality, and maybe we're satisfied with good, I was thinking about the book 'Good to Great,' and like how do you make this breakthrough? And then I was maybe it's good to groundbreaking or good to amazing or whatever. But like, when you really go beyond specification limits and take it to the next level, it's like you're moving from good to great. And one of the things that I see a lot is that, and I talk a lot in my corporate strategy courses with my clients and with my students is this idea that Deming really hit home about, about focusing on your customer, not your competitor.   0:29:06.6 Andrew Stotz: And I just feel like humans have a need to classify everything, to name everything, to label everything. And once they've got that label, that's the specification. That's what we want, they will fixate on that. And whether, I think, you think about all the kids that come out of the out of some meeting with a doctor and say, oh, I'm ADHD. Okay, we got a label now that's good and bad. And so that's where I think it, when I thought about the specification limits limit improvement, I think that, specification to me, when I think about quality, I think about setting a standard, moving to a, a new standard, and then maintaining that standard. And I can see the purpose of limits and controls and trying to understand how do we maintain that. But if we only stay on maintaining that and never move beyond that, then are we really, are we really in pursuit of quality?   0:30:12.0 Andrew Stotz: Now, on the other hand, when I think about the customers of my coffee factory, CoffeeWORKS and they want the exact same experience every single morning. Now, if we can make tests and do PDSAs to improve how we're doing that, less resources, better inputs and all that, great, but they do not want a difference. And I was just thinking about it also in relation to my evaluation masterclass bootcamp, where I still have a lot of variation coming out at the end of the bootcamp. Now, in the beginning, this is bootcamp number 19. So I've done this a lot. In the beginning, man, I would have, someone really terrible and someone really great, and I wasn't satisfied. So I kept trying to improve the content, the process, the feedback to make sure that by the time they get to the end, but I was just frustrated yesterday thinking there's still a lot of variation that, and I'm not talking about, the variation of a personality or something.   0:31:15.2 Andrew Stotz: I'm just talking about the variation of understanding and implementing what they're learning. And then I was thinking as I was at the park running this morning, I was thinking like, what makes Toyota so great is that there is very little variation of the 10 million cars that they've produced last year. And how impressive that is when all I'm trying to do is do it in a small little course. So I don't know, those are some things that were coming into my head when I thought about what you're talking about.   0:31:44.6 Bill Bellows: But no, you're right, in terms of the coffee, and I think you brought up a couple of good points. One is when the customer wants that flavor, whatever that level is, now, but that, I don't know how, anything about measuring taste, but there could be, within the range, within that, when they say they want that flavor, I mean, that could still have, could be a pretty broad spectrum. So maybe there's the ability to make it more consistent within that, if that's possible.   0:32:27.8 Andrew Stotz: Yeah, I think that, I think, like we have a blend we call Hunter's Brew, and I drink that every single morning and I can say, yeah, there's a variation, but it's a small enough variation that it doesn't bother me at all. And I think it doesn't bother our customer. Could we get more conformity to that? Yes, I think we could reduce that. Is it worth it? That's another question. We're looking at some automated equipment, some automated roasting equipment that would bring automation that would allow us to reduce that variation a bit. Will the customer notice that or not? Maybe. But the customer will definitely notice if we're outside of specification limits or if it's burnt...   0:33:12.7 Bill Bellows: Yes.   0:33:13.5 Andrew Stotz: As an example, and we're still shipping it, you know, they'll definitely notice that. And we have our mechanisms to try to measure that so that we are within those limits. So I do see, I see that the function of that to me is like, okay, in fact, in any business, you're constantly chasing and putting out fires. I mean, there's always things going on in every business owner's situation.   0:33:38.6 Bill Bellows: Right.   0:33:39.9 Andrew Stotz: And so there's at points where it's like, okay, can you just keep that in specification limit for right now while I get over to here and fix how we're gonna make sure that this is at another level where that is, I would consider it kind of an improvement versus maintaining. But I don't know, I'm just, I'm riffing here, but those are some things in my head.   0:34:00.0 Bill Bellows: No, what I hear you talking about is if we shift from quality management to, I mean, what desirability is about is looking at things as a system. Acceptability is about looking at things in isolation and saying, this is good, this is good, this is good, this is good. Not necessarily with a lot of focus of how is that used. So if we move away from quality and really what we're talking about is a better way to run an organization with a sense of connectedness that we're, we can talk about working together. Well, it's hard to work together if the fundamental mindset is: here, Andrew, my part is good and I wash my hands of it. When you come back and say, well, Bill, I'm having trouble integrating it, that's more like working separately.   0:35:07.2 Bill Bellows: So if we shift the focus from quality, which could be really narrow, it could be an entry point, but I think if we step back, I mean the title of Dr. Deming's last book was 'The New Economics,' the idea which has to be, which to me, which is about a resource. The better we manage the organization as a system, the more we can do with less. And relative to the quality of the taste and yeah, the customers want this and maybe we can make that even more consistent simultaneously. Can we use control charts to see special causes before they get too far downstream that allows us to maintain that consistency? That'd be nice. Then can we figure out ways to expand our capacity as we gain more? So there's a whole lot to do. So the organization is not static. And simultaneously the challenge becomes how do we stay ahead of others who might be trying to do the same thing? Dr. Deming would say, be thankful for a good competitor. Are we just gonna sit there and say, oh, we're the only coffee... We're the only ones in house that know how to do this. What is our differentiator? And I think having a workforce that thinks in terms of how the activities are connected, that are constantly involved in improvement activities.   0:36:45.1 Bill Bellows: Short of that, what you're hoping is that no one comes along in... Remember the book, it was required reading within Boeing, sadly, 'Who Moved My Cheese?'   0:36:58.2 Andrew Stotz: It was required reading at Pepsi when I was there, and I hated that book. We had another one called 'The Game of Work,' which I just was so annoyed with, but that 'Who Moved My Cheese?' I never, never really enjoyed that at all.   0:37:07.0 Bill Bellows: We used to laugh about, within Rocketdyne 'cause, and for those who aren't aware of the book, the storyline is that there's a bunch of mice and they're living in their little cubby holes and every day they go through the mouse hole, try to avoid the cat, find the cheese, bring the cheese back into their cubby hole, and that life is good. And then one day, somebody steals the cheese, moves the cheese and one's kind of frantic and the other's like, oh, not to worry, Andrew, I'm sure it was taken by a nice person and I'm sure they'll return it. So I wouldn't lose sleep over that. That's okay. That's okay. And then kind of the moral was another company is stealing your cheese and you're sitting there thinking everything's okay, and next thing you know, you're outta business because you weren't paying attention. And so the, and it was, this is written for adults with cartoons of cheese. That's how you appeal... That's how...   0:38:15.9 Andrew Stotz: Yeah. So that's what got me annoyed about it because it felt like, just tell me what you're trying to tell me, okay. Instead of telling me this story. But yeah, it was a used to create the burning platform concept that was used... I know at Pepsi when I was there, they talked about the burning platform, the level of urgency, we're gonna get, and, and there's, I kind of understand where they were coming from with it, but yeah.   0:38:44.7 Bill Bellows: But what is interesting is nowhere in the book was a strategy to be the ones moving the cheese. What it was more like is don't be in an environment where somebody else moves the cheese. Don't be that company. And I thought, no, you wanna be the company that's moving the cheese. But that was, maybe that's an advanced book that hasn't come out yet.   [laughter]   0:39:08.6 Bill Bellows: But really...   0:39:10.5 Andrew Stotz: There's some work for you, Bill.   0:39:12.6 Bill Bellows: But, but that's what... I mean what Dr. Deming is talking about is having an environment where you have that capacity on an ongoing basis. First of all, you're not sitting back stopping at good, thinking that what you're doing is always acceptable. It's trying to do more with that. Anyway, that's what I wanted to explore today. Again, there's nothing wrong with specification limits. I told the gentleman that night, specification limits are provided to allow for variation, to allow for commerce, to allow for suppliers to provide things that meet requirements. Then the question becomes, is there value in doing something with a variation within the specification limits? Is there value in moving that variation around? And that's the desirability focus. That is what Ford realized Toyota was doing a lot, is that then improves the functionality of the resulting product, it improves its reliability. All of that is the possibility of going beyond meeting requirements. So it's not that we shouldn't have, we need specifications. Why? Because there's variation. And if we didn't allow for variation, we couldn't have commerce because we can't deliver exactly anything. So I just want, just for some...   0:40:34.9 Andrew Stotz: Okay, all right. That's a good one.   0:40:37.4 Bill Bellows: All right.   0:40:38.2 Andrew Stotz: And I'll wrap it up with a little humor.   0:40:40.4 Bill Bellows: Go ahead.   0:40:40.5 Andrew Stotz: There were some parody books that came out, in relation to 'Who Moved My Cheese.' In 2002, the book 'Who Cut the Cheese' by Stilton Jarlsberg, which was good. And in 2011 was, 'I Moved Your Cheese' by Deepak Malhotra. So there you go. A little humor for the day. Bill, on behalf of everybody at The Deming Institute, I want to thank you again for this discussion. And for listeners, remember to go to deming.org to continue your journey. And if you want to keep in touch with Bill, just find him on LinkedIn. He responds. This is your host, Andrew Stotz, and I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes from Dr. Deming. I just love this quote. I think about it all the time. "People are entitled to joy in work."  

Many of the concepts of lean manufacturing are deceptively simple. It's easy to read or hear about them without understanding how big of an impact they can have. Eric Hayler will be presenting a workshop called The Power of Lean at The Quality Show in Nashville on April 15. His hands-on workshop will include a manufacturing simulation and allow attendees to practice using lean skills right away. Hayler is the Principal of the Hayler Group, Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, and Adjunct Professor of Business Analytics at the University of South Carolina Upstate in Spartanburg, South Carolina. He has led Continuous Improvement efforts at BMW Manufacturing and Amazon. He is a long time member of ASQ and has served in a variety of roles including Chair of the Board of Directors in 2017. Eric's workshop will take place on Tuesday, April 15, from 10:30 to 12:30. ⮞ The Assembly Show South Agenda Image courtesy of Eric Hayler

Join host Andrew Stotz for a lively conversation with Cliff Norman and Dave Williams, two of the authors of "Quality as an Organizational Strategy." They share stories of Dr. Deming, insights from working with businesses over the years, and the five activities the book is based on. TRANSCRIPT 0:00:02.2 Andrew Stotz: My name is Andrew Stotz, and I'll be your host as we dive deeper into the teachings of Dr. W. Edwards Deming. Today, we have a fantastic opportunity to learn more about a recent book that's been published called "Quality as an Organizational Strategy". And I'd like to welcome Cliff Norman and Dave Williams on the show, two of the three authors. Welcome, guys.   0:00:27.1 Cliff Norman: Thank you. Glad to be here.   0:00:29.4 Dave Williams: Yeah, thanks for having us.   0:00:31.9 Andrew Stotz: Yeah, I've been looking forward to this for a while. I was on LinkedIn originally, and somebody posted it. I don't remember who, the book came out. And I immediately ordered it because I thought to myself, wait, wait, wait a minute. This plugs a gap. And I just wanna start off by going back to Dr. Deming's first Point, which was create constancy of purpose towards improvement of product and service with the aim to become competitive and stay in business and to provide jobs. And all along, as anybody that learned the 14 Points, they knew that this was the concept of the strategy is to continue to improve the product and service in the eyes of the client and in your business. But there was a lot missing. And I felt like your book has started really to fill that gap. So maybe I'll ask Cliff, if you could just explain kind of where does this book come from and why are you bringing it out now?   0:01:34.5 Cliff Norman: That's a really good question, Andrew. The book was originally for the use of both our clients only. So it came into being, the ideas came out of the Deming four day seminar where Dr. Tom Nolan, Ron Moen and Lloyd Provost, Jerry Langley would be working with Dr. Deming. And then at the end of four days, the people who some of who are our clients would come up to us and said, he gave us the theory, but we don't have any methods. And so they took it very seriously and took Dr. Deming's idea of production viewed as a system. And from that, they developed the methods that we're going to discuss called the five activities. And all of our work with this was completely behind the wall of our clients. We didn't advertise. So the only people who became clients were people who would seek us out. So this has been behind the stage since about 1990. And the reason to bring it out now is to make it available beyond our client base. And Dave, I want you to go ahead and add to that because you're the ones that insisted that this get done. So add to that if you would.   [laughter]   0:02:53.0 Dave Williams: Well, thanks, Cliff. Actually, I often joke at Cliff. So one thing to know, Cliff and Lloyd and I all had a home base of Austin, Texas. And I met them about 15 years ago when I was in my own journey of, I had been a chief quality officer of an ambulance system and was interested in much of the work that API, Associates of Process Improvement, had been doing with folks in the healthcare sector. And I reached out to Cliff and Lloyd because they were in Austin and they were kind enough, as they have been over many years, to welcome me to have coffee and talk about what I was trying to learn and where my interests were and to learn from their work. And over the last 15 years, I've had a great benefit of learning from the experience and methods that API has been using with organizations around the world, built on the shoulders of the theories from Dr. Deming. And one of those that was in the Improvement Guide, one of the foundational texts that we use a lot in improvement project work that API wrote was, if you go into the back, there is a chapter, and Cliff, correct me if I'm wrong, I think it's chapter 13 in this current edition on creating value.   0:04:34.3 Dave Williams: In there, there was some description of kind of a structure or a system of activities that would be used to pursue qualities and organizational strategy. I later learned that this was built on a guide that was used that had been sort of semi self-published to be able to use with clients. And the more that I dove into it, the more that I really valued the way in which it had been framed, but also how, as you mentioned at the start, it provided methods in a place where I felt like there was a gap in what I saw in organizations that I was working with or that I had been involved in. And so back in 2020, when things were shut down initially during the beginning of the pandemic, I approached Lloyd and Cliff and I said, I'd love to help in any way that I can to try to bring this work forward and modernize it. And I say modernize it, not necessarily in terms of changing it, but updating the material from its last update into today's context and examples and make it available for folks through traditional bookstores and other venues.   0:05:58.9 Andrew Stotz: And I have that The Improvement Guide, which is also a very impressive book that helps us to think about how are we improving. And as you said, the, that chapter that you were talking about, 13, I believe it was, yeah, making the improvement of value a business strategy and talking about that. So, Cliff, could you just go back in time for those people that don't know you in the Deming world, I'm sure most people do, but for those people that don't know, maybe you could just talk about your first interactions with Dr. Deming and the teachings of that and what sparked your interest and also what made you think, okay, I wanna keep expanding on this.   0:06:40.0 Cliff Norman: Yeah. So I was raised in Southern California and of course, like many others, I'm rather horrified by what's going on out there right now with fires. That's an area I was raised in. And so I moved to Texas in '79, went to work for Halliburton. And they had an NBC White Paper called, "If Japan Can, Why Can't We?", and our CEO, Mr. Purvis Thrash, he saw that. And I was working in the quality area at that time. And he asked me to go to one of Deming's seminars that was held in Crystal City, actually February of 1982. And I got down there early and got a place up front. And they sent along with me an RD manager to keep an eye on me, 'cause I was newly from California into Texas. And so anyway, we're both sitting there. And so I forgot something. So I ran up stairs in the Sheraton Crystal City Hotel there. And I was coming down and lo and behold, next floor down, Dr. Deming gets on and two ladies are holding him up. And they get in the elevator there and he sees this George Washington University badge and he kind of comes over, even while the elevator was going down and picks it up and looks it up real close to his face. And then he just backs up and leans, holds onto the railing and he says, Mr. Norman, what I'm getting ready to tell you today will haunt you for the rest of your life.   0:08:11.8 Cliff Norman: And that came true. And of course, I was 29 at the time and was a certified quality engineer and knew all things about the science of quality. And I couldn't imagine what he would tell me that would haunt me for the rest of my life, but it did. And then the next thing he told me, he said, as young as you are, if you're not learning from somebody that you're working for, you ought to think about getting a new boss. And that's some of the best advice I've ever gotten. I mean, the hanging around smart people is a great thing to do. And I've been gifted with that with API. And so that's how I met him. And then, of course, when I joined API, I ended up going to several seminars to support Lloyd Provost and Tom Nolan and Ron Moen and Jerry as the various seminars were given. And Ron Moen, who unfortunately passed away about three years ago, he did 88 of those four day seminars, and he was just like a walking encyclopedia for me. So anytime I had questions on Deming, I could just, he's a phone call away, and I truly miss that right now.   0:09:20.5 Cliff Norman: So when Dave has questions or where this reference come from or whatever, and I got to go do a lot of work, where Ron, he could just recall that for me. So I miss that desperately, but we were busy at that time, by the time I joined API was in '88. And right away, I was introduced to what they had drafted out in terms of the five activities, which is the foundation of the book, along with understanding the science of improvement and the chain reaction that Dr. Deming introduced us to. So the science of improvement is what Dr. Deming called the System of Profound Knowledge. So I was already introduced to all that and was applying that within Halliburton. But QBS, as we called it then, Qualities of Business Strategy was brand new. I mean, it was hot off the press. And right away, I took it and started working with my clients with it. And we were literally walking on the bridge as we were building it. And the lady I'm married to right now, Jane Norman, she was working at Conagra, which is like a $15 billion poultry company that's part of Conagra overall, which is most of the food in your grocery store, about 75% of it. And she did one of the first system linkages that we ever did.   0:10:44.5 Cliff Norman: And since then, she's worked at like four other companies as a VP or COO, and has always applied these ideas. And so a lot of this in the book examples and so forth, comes from her actual application work. And when we'd worked together, she had often introduced me, this is my husband, Cliff, he and his partners, they write books, but some of us actually have to go to work. And then eventually she wrote a book with me with Dr. Maccabee, who is also very closely associated with Dr. Deming. So now she's a co-author. So I was hoping that would stop that, but again, we depend on her for a lot of the examples and contributions and the rest of it that show up in the book. So I hope that answers your question.   0:11:28.2 Andrew Stotz: Yeah, and for people like myself and some of our listeners who have heard Dr. Deming speak and really gotten into his teachings, it makes sense, this is going to haunt you because I always say that, what I read originally... I was 24 when I went to my first Deming seminar. And I went to two two-day seminars and it... My brain was open, I was ready, I didn't have anything really in it about, any fixed methods or anything. So, for me, it just blew my mind, some of the things that he was talking about, like thinking about things in a system I didn't think about that I thought that the way we got to do is narrow things down and get this really tight focus and many other things that I heard. And also as a young, young guy, I was in this room with, I don't know, 500 older gentlemen and ladies, and I sat in the front row and so I would see him kind of call them on the carpet and I would be looking back like, oh, wow, I never saw anybody talk to senior management like that and I was kind of surprised. But for those people that really haven't had any of that experience they're new to Deming, what is it that haunts you? What is... Can you describe what he meant when he was saying that?   0:12:42.9 Cliff Norman: I gotta just add to what you just said because it's such a profound experience. And when you're 29, if most of us, we think we're pretty good shape by that time, the brain's fully developed by age 25, judgment being the last function that develops. And so you're pretty well on your way and then to walk in and have somebody who's 81 years old, start introducing you to things you've never even thought about. The idea of the Chain Reaction that what I was taught as a certified quality engineer through ASQ is I need to do enough inspection, but I didn't need to do too much 'cause I didn't want to raise costs too much. And Dr. Deming brought me up on stage and he said, well, show me that card again. So I had a 105D card, it's up to G now or something. And he said, "well, how does this work?" And I said, "well, it tells me how many samples I got to get." And he says, "you know who invented that." And I said, "no, sir, I thought God did." He said, "no, I know the people that did it. They did it to put people like you out of business. Sit down, young man, you've got a lot to learn." And I thought, wow, and here you are in front of 500 people and this is a public flogging by any stretch.   0:13:56.1 Cliff Norman: And it just went on from there. And so a few years later, I'm up in Valley Forge and I'm working at a class with Lloyd and Tom Nolan and a guy named, I never met before named Jim Imboden. And he's just knock-down brilliant, but they're all working at General Motors at that time. And a lot of the book "Planned Experimentation" came out of their work at Ford and GM and Pontiac and the rest of it. And I mean, it's just an amazing contribution, but I go to dinner with Jim that night. And Jim looks at me across the table and he says, Cliff, how did you feel the day you found out you didn't know anything about business economics or anything else? I said, "you mean the first day of the Deming seminar?" He said, "that's what I'm talking about." And that just... That's how profound that experience is. Because all of a sudden you find out you can improve quality and lower costs at the same time. I'm sorry, most people weren't taught that. They certainly weren't taught that in business school. And so it was a whole transformation in thinking and just the idea of a system. Most of what's going on in the system is related to the system and the way it's constructed. And unfortunately, for most organizations, it's hidden.   0:15:04.2 Cliff Norman: They don't even see it. So when things happen, the first thing that happens is the blame flame. I had a VP I worked for and he'd pulled out his org chart when something went bad and he'd circle. He said, this is old Earl's bailiwick right here. So Cliff, go over and see Earl and I want you to straighten him out. Well, that's how most of it runs. And so the blame flame just takes off. And if you pull the systems map out there and if he had to circle where it showed up, he'd see there were a lot of friends around that that were contributing. And we start to understand the complexity of the issue. But without that view, and Deming insisted on, then you're back to the blame flame.   0:15:45.1 Andrew Stotz: Yeah. And Dave, I see a lot of books on the back on your shelf there about quality and productivity and team and many different things. But maybe you could give us a little background on kind of how how you, besides how you got onto this project and all that. But just where did you come from originally and how did you stumble into the Deming world?   0:16:08.9 Dave Williams: Sure. Well, sadly, I didn't have the pleasure of getting to sit in on a four-day workshop. Deming died in 1993. And at that time, I was working on an ambulance as a street paramedic and going to college to study ambulance system design and how to manage ambulance systems, which was a part of public safety that had sort of grown, especially in the United States in the '60s. And by the time I was joining, it was about 30 years into becoming more of a formalized profession. And I found my way to Austin, Texas, trying to find one of the more professionalized systems to work in and was, worked here as a paramedic for a few years. And then decided I wanted to learn more and started a graduate program. And one of the courses that was taught in the graduate program, this is a graduate program on ambulance management, was on quality. And it was taught by a gentleman who had written a, a guide for ambulance leaders in the United States that was based on the principles and methods of quality that was happening at this time. And it pieced together a number of different common tools and methods like Pareto charts and cause-and-effect diagrams and things like that.   0:17:33.1 Dave Williams: And it mentioned the different leaders like Deming and Juran and Crosby and others. And so that was my first exposure to many of these ideas. And because I was studying a particular type of healthcare delivery system and I was a person who was practicing within it and I was learning about these ideas that the way that you improve a system or make improvement is by changing the system. I was really intrigued and it just worked out at the time. One of the first roles, leadership roles that emerged in my organization was to be the Chief Quality Officer for the organization. And at the time, there were 20 applicants within my organization, but I was the only one that knew anything about any of the foundations of quality improvements. Everybody else applied and showed their understanding of quality from a lived experience perspective or what their own personal definitions of quality were, which was mostly around inspection and quality assurance. I had, and this won't surprise Cliff, but I had a nerdy response that was loaded with references and came from all these different things that I had been exposed to. And they took a chance on me because I was the only one that seemed to have some sense of the background. And I started working and doing...   0:19:10.1 Dave Williams: Improvement within this ambulance system as the kind of the dedicated leader who was supposed to make these changes. And I think one of the things that I learned really quickly is that frequently how improvement efforts were brought to my attention was because there was a problem that I, had been identified, a failure or an error usually attributed to an individual as Cliff pointed out, somebody did something and they were the unfortunate person who happened to kind of raise this issue to others. And if I investigated it all, I often found that there were 20 other people that made the same error, but he was, he or she was the only one that got caught. And so therefore they were called to my office to confess. And when I started to study and look at these different issues, every time I looked at something even though I might be able to attribute the, first instance to a person, I found 20 or more instances where the system would've allowed or did allow somebody else to make a similar error.   0:20:12.6 Dave Williams: We just didn't find it. And it got... And it became somewhat fascinating to me because my colleagues were very much from a, if you work hard and just do your job and just follow the policy then good quality will occur. And nobody seemed to spend any time trying to figure out how to create systems that produce good results or figure out how to look at a system and change it and get better results. And so most of my experience was coming from these, when something bubbled up, I would then get it, and then I'd use some systems thinking and some methods and all of a sudden unpack that there was a lot of variation going on and a lot of errors that could happen, and that the system was built to get results worse than we even knew.   0:21:00.7 Dave Williams: And it was through that journey that I ended up actually becoming involved with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and learning about what was being done in the healthcare sector, which API at the time were the key advisors to Dr. Don Berwick and the leadership at IHI. And so much of the methodology was there. And actually, that's how I found my way to Cliff. I happened to be at a conference for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, and there was an advertisement for a program called the Improvement Advisor Professional Development Program, which was an improvement like practitioner project level program that had been developed by API that had been adapted to IHI, and I noticed that Cliff and Lloyd were the faculty, and that they were in my hometown. And that's how I reached out to them and said, hey can we have coffee? And Cliff said, yes. And so...   0:21:53.1 Andrew Stotz: And what was that, what year was that roughly?   0:22:00.3 Dave Williams: That would've been back in 2002 or 2003, somewhere in that vicinity.   0:22:02.0 Andrew Stotz: Hmm. Okay.   0:22:06.8 Dave Williams: Maybe a little bit later.   0:22:06.9 Andrew Stotz: I just for those people that are new to the topic and listening in I always give an example. When I worked at Pepsi... I graduated in 1989 from university with a degree in finance. And I went to work at Pepsi in manufacturing and warehouse in Los Angeles at the Torrance Factory originally, and then in Buena Park. But I remember that my boss told me, he saw that I could work computers at that time, and so I was making charts and graphs just for fun to look at stuff. And he said, yeah, you should go to a one of these Deming seminars. And so he sent me to the one in... At George Washington University back in 1990, I think it was. And but what was happening is we had about a hundred trucks we wanted to get out through a particular gate that we had every single morning. And the longer it took to get those trucks out the longer they're gonna be on LA traffic and on LA roads, so if we can get 'em out at 5:00 AM, fantastic. If we get 'em out at 7:00, we're in trouble. And so they asked me to look at this and I did a lot of studying of it and I was coming for like 4:00 in the morning I'd go up to the roof of the building and I'd look down and watch what was happening. And then finally I'd interview everybody. And then finally the truck drivers just said, look, the loaders mess it up so I gotta open my truck every morning and count everything on it. And I thought, oh, okay.   0:23:23.7 Andrew Stotz: So I'll go to the loaders. And I go, why are you guys messing this up? And then the loaders was like, I didn't mess it up. We didn't have the production run because the production people changed the schedule, and so we didn't have what the guy needed. And so, and oh, yeah, there was a mistake because the production people put the product in the wrong spot, and therefore, I got confused and I put the wrong stuff on by accident. And then I went to the production people and they said, well, no, it's not us. It's the salespeople. They keep putting all this pressure on us to put this through right now, and it's messing up our whole system. And that was the first time in my life where I realized, okay, it's a system. There's interconnected parts here that are interacting, and I had to go back into the system to fix, but the end result was I was able to get a hundred trucks through this gate in about 45 minutes instead of two hours, what we had done before.   0:24:18.8 Andrew Stotz: But it required a huge amount of work of going back and looking at the whole system. So the idea of looking at the science of improvement, as you mentioned, and the System of Profound Knowledge, it's... There's a whole process. Now, I wanna ask the question for the person who gets this book and they dig into it, it's not a small book. I've written some books, but all of 'em are small because I'm just, maybe I just can't get to this point. But this book is a big book, and it's got about 300... More than 300 pages. What's the promise? What are they gonna get from digging into this book? What are they gonna take away? What are they gonna be able to bring to their life and their business that they couldn't have done without really going deeper into this material?   0:24:57.7 Cliff Norman: Dave, go ahead.   0:25:01.4 Dave Williams: Well, I was gonna joke by saying they're gonna get hard work and only half because this is just the theory in the book and many of the... And sort of examples of the method. But we're in the process of preparing a field guide which is a much deeper companion guide loaded with exercises and examples of and more of the methods. So the original guide that that API had developed was actually about an eight... Well, I don't know how many pages it was, but it was a thick three inch binder. This, what you have there is us refining the content part that explains the theory and kind of gets you going. And then we moved all of the exercises and things to the field guide for people that really wanna get serious about it.   0:26:00.3 Dave Williams: And the reason I say hard work is that the one thing that you won't get, and you should probably pass it if this book if you're on Amazon, is you're not gonna get an easy answer. This is, as a matter of fact, one of the things that emerged in our early conversations about was this project worth it? Is to say that this is hard work. It's work that a very few number of leaders who or leadership teams that really want to learn and work hard and get results are gonna embark on. But for those, and many of our clients, I think are representative of that, of those people that say, gosh, I've been working really hard, and I feel like we could do better. I feel like I could make a bigger impact, or I could serve more customers or clients.   0:26:44.0 Dave Williams: And but I am... And I'm in intrigued or inspired or gotten to a certain point with improvement science on my own, but I want to figure out how to be more systematic and more global and holistic at that approach. Then that's what QOS is about. It builds on the shoulders of the other books that you mentioned, like The Improvement Guide which we talked about as being a great book about improvement, and improvement specifically in the context of a project. And other books like The Healthcare Data Guide and the Planned Experimentation, which are also about methods, healthcare Data Guide being about Shewhart charts, and Planned Experimentation being about factorial design. This book is about taking what Cliff described earlier as that... I always say it's that that diagram that people put on a slide and never talk about from Deming of production views as a system and saying, well, how would we do this if this is the model for adopting quality as strategy, what are the methods that help us to do this?   0:28:01.3 Dave Williams: And this book breaks that down into five activities that are built on the shoulders of profound knowledge, built on the shoulders of the science of improvement and provide a structure to be able to initially develop a system, a systems view of your organization, and then build on that by using that system to continually operate and improve that organization over time. So the book describes the activities. The book describes some of the things that go into getting started, including being becoming good at doing results-driven improvement, building a learning system, focusing in on the things that matter to your organization. And then working towards building the structure that you can improve upon. The book creates that foundation. It provides examples from clients and from people that we've worked with so that you can see what the theory looks like in practice get, kind of get a flavor for that. And we hope it builds on the shoulders of other work that I mentioned in the other books that compliment it and provides a starting point for teams that are interested in taking that journey.   0:29:26.5 Andrew Stotz: And Cliff, from your perspective, if somebody had no, I mean, I think, I think the Deming community's gonna really dive in and they're gonna know a lot of this stuff, but is gonna help them take it to the next level. But for someone who never had any real experience with Deming or anything like that, and they stumble upon this interview, this discussion, they hear about this book, can they get started right away with what's in this book? Or do they have to go back to foundations?   0:29:49.6 Cliff Norman: No, I think that can definitely get started. There's a lot of learning as you know, Andrew, from going through the four-day to understand things. And I think we've done a pretty good job of integrating what Dr. Deming taught us, as well as going with the methods. And one of the things people would tell him in his four-day seminars is, Dr. Deming, you've given us the theory, but we have no method here. And he said, well, if I have to give you the method, then you'll have to send me your check too. So he expected us to be smart enough to develop the methods. And the API folks did a really good job of translating that into what we call the five activities. So those five activities are to understand the purpose of the organization.   0:30:35.6 Cliff Norman: And a lot of people when they write a purpose, they'll put something up there but it's usually we love all our people. We love our customers even more. If only they didn't spend so much, and we'll come out with something like that and there'll be some pablum that they'll throw up on the wall. Well, this actually has some structure to it to get to Deming's ideas. And the first thing is let's try to understand what business we're in and what need we're serving in society that drives customers to us. So that word is used not need coming from customers, but what is it that drives them to us so we can understand that? And then the second part of that purpose needs to define the mainstay, the core processes, the delivery systems that relate directly to customers. And just those two ideas alone, just in the first activity of purpose, most people haven't thought about those ideas.   0:31:27.8 Cliff Norman: And can somebody pick up this book and do that? Yes. And that will answer a big challenge from Dr. Deming. Most people don't even know what business they're in, haven't even thought about it. And so that we... That question gets answered here, I think, very thoroughly. In this second activity, which is viewing the organization as a system contains two components that's viewing the organization as a system. And that's difficult to do, and a lot of people really don't see the need for it. Jane Norman reminded Dave and I on a call we did last week, that when you talk about a systems map with people, just ask 'em how do they know what's going on inside other organizations, other departments within their organization? How do they know that? And most of us are so siloed.   0:32:11.2 Cliff Norman: Somebody over here is doing the best job they can in department X, and meanwhile, department Y doesn't know anything about it. And then three months later the improvement shows up and all of a sudden there's problems now in department Y. Well, somebody who's focused on the organization as a system and sees how those processes are related when somebody comes to a management meeting said, well, we've just made a change here, and this is gonna show up over here in about three months, and you need to be prepared for that. Andrew, that conversation never takes place. So the idea of having the systems map and this book can help you get started on that. The second book that Dave was just talking about, there are more replete examples in there. I mean, we've got six case studies from clients in there than the practitioners and people who actually are gonna be doing this work.   0:33:01.7 Cliff Norman: That's gonna be absolutely... They're gonna need that field guide. And I think that's where Dave was coming from. The third activity is the information activity, how are we learning from outside the organization and how do we get feedback and research into the development of new products and services and the rest of it? And so we provided a system there. In fact, Dave took a lead on that chapter, and we've got several inputs there that have to be defined. And people just thinking through that and understanding that is huge. When Dr. Deming went to Japan in 1950, he was there to do the census to see how many Japanese were left after World War II. And then he got an invitation to come and talk to the top 50 industrialists. And he started asking questions and people from the Bank of Tokyo over there and all the rest of it.   0:33:52.4 Cliff Norman: And Dr. Deming says, well, do you have any problems? And they said, what do you mean? He says, well, do customers call up and complain? And he said, yes. And he says, well, do you have any data? And he said, no. He says, but if they complain, we give them a Geisha calendar. And then Dr. Deming says, well, how many Geisha calendars have you given out? So it's like, in 1991, I'm sitting here talking to a food company and I asked him, I said, well, you get customer complaints? Oh yeah. Do you have any data on it? No, but we give 'em a cookbook. I said, well, how many cookbooks are you giving out? So I was right back to where Deming was in 1950, so having the information activity, that third activity critical so that we're being proactive with it and not just reactive.   0:34:43.7 Cliff Norman: And so I think people can read through that and say, well, what are we doing right now? Well, I guess we're not doing this and move on. Then the fourth activity is absolutely critical. This is where you know that you've arrived, because now you're going to integrate not only the plan to operate, but a plan to improve. That becomes the business plan. For most people in business plan they do a strategy, and then they have a bunch of sub strategies, and they vote on what's important, and they do some other things, and then a year later they come back and revisit it. Well, what happens here is there's some strategic objectives that are laid out, and then immediately it comes down to, okay, what's gonna be designed and redesigned in this system? Which processes, products and services are gonna be designed? 'Cause we can all see it now, Andrew.   0:35:31.6 Andrew Stotz: Mm.   0:35:31.6 Cliff Norman: We can, it's right in front of us. So it's really easy to see at this point, and now we can start to prioritize and make that happen on purpose. As an example when Jane was a vice president at Conagra, they came up with five strategic objectives. Then they made a bunch of promises to corporate about what they were gonna do and when they were going to achieve it. When she laid out the systems map for them, they were horrified that over 30% of the processes that they needed to be having precooked meat didn't even exist. They were gonna have to be designed. And so Jane and I sat there and looking at 'em and said, well, if you'd had this map before you made the promises, would you have made those promises? No, no, we're in trouble right now. I gotta go back to the CEO of the holding company and tell 'em we're not gonna make it.   0:36:22.4 Cliff Norman: But there's a whole bunch of people that sit around in goal settings. We're gonna do this by when and have no idea about what they're talking about. So that's a little bit dangerous here. And then the fifth activity, it's probably the most important. And where I want people to start, I actually want 'em to start on the fifth activity, which is managing individual improvement activities, team activities. And what I mean by that is, nothing can hold you up from starting today on making an improvement and use the model for improvement. The three basic questions, you can write that on an envelope and apply it to a project and start right away. Because learning the habit of improvement, and when you identify, and this is typical in the planning process, again, a chapter that Dave took a lead on in the planning chapter.   0:37:03.8 Cliff Norman: When you lay that out, you're gonna come up with three to five strategic objectives, but that's gonna produce anywhere between 15 and 20 improvement efforts. And when people start three improvement efforts, and they see how difficult that is to traffic through an organization, particularly if you have a systems map, makes it a lot easier. If you don't have that, then there's all sorts of things that happen to you.   0:37:21.3 Andrew Stotz: Hmm.   0:37:22.8 Cliff Norman: But the, the idea of that all coming together is critical. And where you... Where that really shows up for the reader here is in chapter one. So Lloyd Provost took a lead on chapter one. If you read chapter one, you got a pretty good idea of what's gonna happen in the rest of the book. But more importantly, in that book, in chapter one, there's a survey at the end. And every time we give this out to people, they feel real bad.   0:37:48.1 Cliff Norman: And well, Cliff, any, on a scale of one to 10, we only came up with a four. Well, what I would tell 'em is, if you can come up with a four, you're pretty good. And those fundamentals have to be in place. In other words, the management needs to trust each other. There are certain things that have to be in place before you can even think about skating backwards here. And quality as an organizational strategy is all about skating backwards. The people who don't have the fundamentals can't even start to think about that.   0:38:15.0 Cliff Norman: So that survey and the gap between where they are at a four and where they're going to be at a 10, we've integrated throughout the whole book. So as you're reading through the whole book, you're seeing that gap, and then you have a good plan forward as to what do I need to do to get to be a six, an eight, and what do I need to do to finally arrive at a 10? Dave, why don't you add to what I just said there, and I gotta turn on a light here, I think.   0:38:39.2 Dave Williams: Well, I think one of the things that, and Cliff has probably been the one that has helped me appreciate this to the biggest degree is the role in which improvement plays in quality as an organizational strategy. So, I mean, I think in general, in our world, improvement is seen as kind of like a given, but in our case, what we've found is that many times people are not working on the things right in front of them or the problems in which they have, that they are on the hook... I like to say, are on the hook to get accomplished right now. And like Cliff mentioned, many of my clients when I engage with them, I say, well, what have you promised this year? And they'll give me a list and I'll say, well, okay, what are you working on to improve? And they'll be working on projects that are not related to that list of things that they've got to affect. And so usually that's a first pivot is to say, well, let's think about what are the things that you're working on or should be working on that are either designing or redesigning your system to achieve these strategic objectives.   0:39:48.8 Dave Williams: And the reason to put the attention on that fifth activity and get people working on improvement, there's a good chance that the improvement capability within the organization currently isn't to the level that you need it, where you can get results-driven projects happening at a clip that will enable you to chip away at 20 projects versus four in a year. And that it's not well integrated into the leadership, into the support structures that you have. In addition, if you're trying to use improvement on things that you're on the hook for, and Cliff noted, especially if you've got a system map while you're on that journey, you're gonna start to pick up on where the disconnects are. Similar to your example, Andrew, where you were describing your experience working backwards in the process, you're going to start to recognize, oh, I'm working on this, but it's linked to these other things. Or in order for me to do this, I need that. Or... And so that amplifies the project to be kind of just a vehicle to appreciate other things that are interconnected, that are important in improving our work together.   0:41:05.1 Dave Williams: And so I think that that's a critical piece. I mean, I sometimes describe it as the disappointment that people have when they open QOS because they want to have a new method or a new thing to work on. I said, well, there's a lot new in here. And at the same time, we want to build on the shoulders of the fundamentals. We want to build it because it's the fundamentals that are going to be able for you to activate the things that are necessary in order for you to skate backwards, like Cliff was describing earlier.   0:41:36.2 Cliff Norman: I got to add to what Dave was saying because this actually happened to me with a... I'm not going to mention the name of the company, but it's a high-tech companies worldwide. And we got up, a good friend of mine, Bruce Bowles, and we were introducing the idea of quality as an organizational strategy. And one of the guys in the front row, he says, Cliff, this just sounds like common sense, why aren't we all doing this? I said, that's a real good question. Let me put that in the parking lot here. So I put it up on a flip chart. And so we went through the idea of... We were working on Shewhart control charts. And so we showed him one of those. And at the end of all that, he raised his hand and I said, yeah, he says, Cliff, this is hard. I said, well, let me put that up here. This is hard. Then we went through the systems map and he says, look, this is hard. By the end of the two days, it was, this is hard, this is hard, this is hard, this is hard. This goes back to what Dave was saying earlier about once you open this page, there's some work that takes off, but more importantly, there's something new to learn here.   0:42:40.3 Cliff Norman: And that's frustrating to people, especially when they've got to quit doing what they've done in the past. It's what Deming says, you got to give up on the guilt and you got to move forward and transform your own thinking. So there's something here for the management to do. And if they're not willing to do that work, then this is probably not a good thing for them. Just go back to the blame flame and circling org charts and that kind of stuff and then wonder why we're losing money.   0:43:11.8 Andrew Stotz: Yeah, and I think that that's one of the things that we see in the Deming community is that, why are people doing it the way they are, dividing things up and doing KPIs and saying, you take care of that. And we're gonna optimize by focusing on each... We see how that all kind of falls apart.   0:43:27.9 Cliff Norman: It all falls through reductionism.   0:43:29.8 Andrew Stotz: [laughter] Yeah.   0:43:32.5 Cliff Norman: It doesn't understand the system, yeah.   0:43:32.5 Andrew Stotz: Yeah, so what I want to do now is I was just thinking about a book on my shelf called "Competitive Strategy" by Michael Porter. And there's a whole field of study in the area of strategy for businesses. Now you guys use, and you explain a little bit about the way you come up with... Why you come up with organization rather than let's say company as an example. But let's just talk about strategy for a moment. Generally we're taught in business school that there's two main strategies. One is a differentiation strategy. I like to teach my students like Starbucks. It's very differentiated from the old model. And you can have a low cost strategy, which is like McDonald's, where it's all about operational efficiency.   0:44:18.4 Andrew Stotz: And those are two different strategies that can get to the same goal, which is to build a strong and sustainable business that's making a good profit for the employees to get paid well and for shareholders. And so for somebody that understands some of the foundations of typical strategy, it's hard for them to think, wait, wait, wait, what? You're just talking about just better quality is the strategy? How should they frame this concept of quality as a strategy in relation to what we've been taught about low cost and differentiation and other types of strategy? How do we think about this book in relation to that?   0:45:03.2 Cliff Norman: When Deming wrote his book, his very first one of the four "Out of the Crisis", which was the whole idea about quality and competitive position. But he was kind of answering that. And at that time, what we had is we had three companies in the United States that were going at each other, Ford, GM, and Chrysler. And they'd call each other up, well, what are you doing this year? Oh, we're making cars that don't work. Sometimes they break down. That's why we have Mr. Goodwrench to repair them. That's an extra revenue source for us. As one of the executives that are challenged, a colleague of mine, he said, you don't realize how much money we're gonna lose here taking the repair business out because we make a lot of money out of repair. So making cars that don't work has been a good revenue stream for us. Well, all that works out great, until somebody shows up like Toyota that has a car that works and doesn't need to be repaired by Mr. Goodwrench all the time.   0:45:58.8 Cliff Norman: So the mind shift there, and what Dr. Deming was saying is that he was focused on the competition's already licked. And I don't think Porter's thought about that very much, not to be overly critical, because I'm an admirer of his, but the idea of focusing on the need and why is that customer coming to us so that we make a journey, and the Japanese call that being in the Gemba, being in the presence with the customers as they use the product or service and doing the research and the rest of it. And then coming back and then redesign that product or service so that it not only grabs the current customer, but we start thinking about customers that are not even our customers and innovate and actually come up with a design that actually brings new customers to us through products and services that we haven't thought about yet. So if I show you three products just to make a picture of it, we often show like an abacus, which was a hand calculating machine about BC. Then there's a slide rule that came out about the same year that Columbus discovered America. And that was good till about 1968.   0:47:06.0 Cliff Norman: And then the calculator, the handheld calculator came out. Well the need for all three of those products is to do handheld calculations. So we've had that need since BC. Now in 1967, K&E Calculator was making that slide rule, which I used in junior high school. If you'd have come up to me and said, Cliff, what do you need in the way of a better slide rule? I said, well can you get me a holster for it? 'Cause I don't like having to stick me in the face. I put it in my pocket and it sticks me in the face. And if you can give me a holster for that, that would be my view of that. I wasn't about to come up with the TI calculator. That wasn't gonna happen. Not from Cliff. It's gonna come from an engineer at TI. Now, K&E Calculator, if they'd been doing research in the marketplace and saying, is there something that can totally disrupt us going on here? Rather than just looking at figuring out a way to make the K&E slide rule better, they might've discovered that.   0:48:07.0 Cliff Norman: Most people don't do that. They just go back. They just lose their business. And it was interesting in '67, their annual report put out, what's the world gonna look like 100 years from now? So they had dome cities, they had cars flying, they had all sorts of things going on that were great innovations, but they didn't have the TI calculator in there, along with the HP calculator. And that wiped out their business. And so if people understand the need, and that's what Dr. Deming is getting at, he says, they really haven't thought about what business they're in. So why are the customers coming to us? He says, no customer ever asked for pneumatic tire. No customer ever asked for a microwave oven. That came from people with knowledge that were looking at how the customers are using the current products and services and say, now, is there technology innovation going on that we can actually do a better job of providing a better match in the future?   0:48:56.9 Andrew Stotz: And can you explain why you use the word need as opposed to want?   0:49:06.5 Cliff Norman: That's a good question. The idea is that there's a need that's constant in society. So that need of having to do handheld calculations or needing healthcare or to pay bills, that need is constant throughout civilization. And so if I want something that's interesting, that might be the match. That might be something to do with some features what I'm offering and so forth. I'd like to have this, I'd like to have that. But the need and the way we're using that is it doesn't come from customers. It's what drives customers to us. And it's always been there. It's always been there. Need for transportation, for example. Whether you're walking or driving a bicycle or a car or a plane.   0:49:53.6 Andrew Stotz: And Dave, how would you answer the same question when you think about a person running a business and they've had many strategy meetings in their business, they've set their corporate strategy of what we're doing, where we're going and that type of thing. And maybe they've picked, we're gonna be a low cost producer. Thailand's an interesting one because Thailand had a ability to be low cost producers in the past. And then China came along and became the ultimate low cost producer. And all of a sudden, Thai companies had a harder time getting the economies of scale and the like. And now the Chinese manufacturers are just really coming into Thailand, into the Thai market. And now it's like, for a Thai company to become a low cost leader is almost impossible given the scale that China and the skills that they have in that. And so therefore, they're looking at things like I've got to figure out how to get a better brand. I've got to figure out how to differentiate and that type of thing. How does this... How could this help a place like that and a management team that is struggling and stuck and is looking for answers?   0:51:07.0 Dave Williams: Well, I go back to what Cliff said about that many organizations don't pause to ask, why do they exist? What is the need of which they are trying to fulfill? Much of my background involved working in the service industry, initially with public safety and ambulance systems and fire systems, and then later in healthcare and in education. And in many of those environments, especially in places where in public systems where they've been built and they may have existed for a long time, when you ask them about what are they trying to accomplish as an organization or what is it that they... The need that they're trying to fulfill? Typically, they're gonna come back to you with requests or desires or wants or sort of characteristics or outcomes that people say they expect, but they don't pause to ask, like, well, what is the actual thing of which I'm trying to tackle? And Cliff mentioned like, and we actually, I should mention in the book, we have a list of different strategies, different types of strategies, all the different ones that you mentioned, like price and raw material or distribution style or platform or technology.   0:52:30.9 Dave Williams: There's different types of strategies, and the one that we are focusing in on is quality. But I think it's important for people to ask the question. Cliff mentioned transportation. There's a number of different great examples, actually, I think in transportation, where you could look at that as being an ongoing need as Cliff mentioned from the days when there was no technology and we were all on foot to our current day. Transportation has been a need that existed and many different things over time have been created from bicycles, probably one of the most efficient technologies to transport somebody, wheels and carts. And now, and you were referencing, we've made reference to the car industry. It's a fascinating experience going on of the car world and gas versus electric, high technology versus not, autonomous vehicles. There's, and all of them are trying to ask the question of, are there different ways in which I might be able to leverage technology to achieve this need of getting from point A to point B and be more useful and potentially disrupt in the marketplace? And so I think the critical thing initially is to go back and ask and learn and appreciate what is that need?   0:53:58.6 Dave Williams: And then think about your own products and services in relation to that. And I think we include four questions in the book to be able to kind of think about the need. And one of those questions is also, what are other ways in which you could fulfill that need? What are other ways that somebody could get transportation or do learning or to help sort of break you away from just thinking about your own product as well? And that's useful because it's super tied to the system question, right? Of, well, this is the need that we're trying to fulfill and these are the products and services that are matching that need. Then the system that we have is about, we need to build that and design that in order to produce, not only produce the products and services that match that need, but also continually improve that system to either improve those products and services or add or subtract products and services to keep matching the need and keep being competitive or keep being relevant. And maybe if it's not in a competitive environment where you're gonna go out of business, at least be relevant in terms of the city service or community service, government service that continues to be there to match the need of the constituents. So I think it's a really important piece.   0:55:17.0 Dave Williams: It's that North star of saying, providing a direction for everything else. And going back to your original comment or question about strategy, and many times people jump to a strategy or strategies or, and those might be more around particular objectives or outcomes that they're trying to get to. It may not actually be about the method or the approach like cost or technology that they may not even think that way. They may be more thinking about a plan. And I really encourage people to be clear about what they're trying to accomplish and then start to ask, well, how's the system built for that? And later we can bring a process that'll help us learn about our system and learn about closing that gap.   0:56:05.1 Cliff Norman: Yeah. Just what I'd add to that, Andrew, because you mentioned China, a few other countries, but I think the days are coming to an end fairly quickly where somebody can say, oh, we can go to this country. They have low wages, we'll put our plant there and all that. There's a lot of pushback on that, particularly in the United States. And if that's your strategy, that hadn't required a lot of thinking to say the least. But in 1966, over 50% of the countries in the world were, let me rephrase that, over 50% of the population of the world lived in extreme poverty. So there were a lot of targets to pick out where you want to put your manufacturing. And in 2017, and you and Dave were probably like myself, I didn't see this hit the news, but that figure had been reduced from over 50% down to 9%. And all you have to do is just, and I worked in China a lot, they're becoming very affluent. And as they become very affluent, that means wages are going up and all the things that we want to see throughout the world. And I think that's happening on a grand scale right now, but you're also getting a lot of pushback from people when they see the middle class in their own country, like here in the United States, destroyed, and say, I think we've had enough of this. And I think you're gonna see that after January. You're gonna see that take off on steroids.   0:57:31.7 Cliff Norman: And that's gonna happen, and I think throughout the world, people are demanding more, there's gonna have to be more energy, every time a baby is born, the footprints gets bigger for more energy and all the rest of it. So it's gonna be interesting, and I think we are going into an age for the planet where people as Dr. Deming promised that they'd be able to live materially better, and the whole essence of this book is to focus on the quality of the organization and the design and redesign of a system to a better job of matching the need and cause that chain reaction to go off. When Jane and I went over to work in Sweden, Sven Oloff who ran three hospitals and 62 dental clinics there and also managed the cultural activities and young shipping. He said, Cliff, I report to 81 politicians. I don't wanna have to go to them to put a bond on an election to get more money for my healthcare system, I wanna use Dr. Deming's chain reaction here to improve care to the patients in my county and also reduce our costs. A whole bunch of people that don't even believe that's possible in healthcare.   0:58:39.9 Cliff Norman: But that's what Sven Oloff said that's what you're here for. And that's what we proceeded to do, they launched about 350 projects to do just that, and one of their doctors, Dr. Motz [?], he's amazing. We taught him a systems map, I came back two months later, and he had them in his hospital on display. And I said, Motz, how did you do this? He said well Cliff, I'm an endocrinologist by education as a doctor, of course, that's a person who understands internal systems in the body. So he said the systems approach was a natural for me. But I'd like to say it was that easy for everybody else, that systems map idea and as you know, being in the Deming seminar, that's quite a challenge to move from viewing the organization as an org chart, which has been around since Moses father-in-law told him, you need to break up the work here a little bit, and the tens of tens reporting to each other, and then of course, the Romans took that to a grander scale, and so a centurion soldier had 100 other soldiers reporting to him. So we've had org charts long and our federal government took that to a whole new level.   0:59:46.1 Cliff Norman: But the idea is switching off the org chart from biblical times to actually getting it up to Burt [?] about 1935 and understanding a system that's kind of a nose bleed in terms of how much we're traveling there to get us into the 21st century here.   1:00:04.0 Andrew Stotz: And I left Ohio, I grew up outside of Cleveland, and I left Ohio in about 1985, roughly. And it was still a working class, Cleveland had a huge number of jobs and there was factories and all that, and then I went to California, and then I moved to Thailand in 1992. So when I go back to Ohio now, many years later, decades later, it's like a hollowed out place, and I think about what you're saying is... And what's going on in the world right now is that I think there's a desire in America to bring back manufacturing to bring back production and all of that, and that's a very, very hard challenge, particularly if it's gone for a while and the skill sets aren't there, maybe the education system isn't there, I talk a lot with John Dues here on the show about the what's happening in education and it's terrifying.   1:01:05.9 Andrew Stotz: So how could this be... Book be a guide for helping people that are saying, we've got to revitalize American production and manufacturing and some of these foundational businesses and not just services, which are great. How can this book be a guide?   1:01:25.8 Dave Williams: One thing I would say that I think is interesting about our times, many times when I reflect on some of the examples that you just provided, I think about how changes were made in systems without thinking about the whole system together. And there may have been changes at various times that we're pursuing particular strategies or particular approaches, so it may have been the low-cost strategy, it may have been to disrupt a marketplace. And oftentimes, they don't think about... When somebody's pursuing one particular view, they may miss other views that are important to have an holistic perspective. One of the things that I appreciate about QoS in the methods and overall as a holistic view of looking at organizations that it's asking us to really think initially about that North Star, what we're trying to do, our purpose, and what are the tenants. What are the things that are important us, the values...   1:02:38.7 Dave Williams: That are important to us in pursuing that particular purpose? And in doing that, really thinking about how does the system work as it is today, and if we make changes, how does it move in alignment with the values that we have and in the direction that we wanna go? And appreciating, I would say, part of the value of the scientific thinking that is in the Science of Improvement is that it encourages you to try to see what happens and appreciate not only what happens in relation to the direction you're trying to go, but also the... Have a balanced view of looking at the collateral effects of things that you do, and I think that systems do is really important there. So I think from that perspective, the quality as an organizational strategy brings a holistic picture into these organizations, or at least...   1:03:45.1 Dave Williams: To be paying attention to the system that you have, maybe the direction you wanna go, and what happens as you... What are your predictions and what do you see when you study the results of making changes in the direction of the vision that you have. And I think that's at a high level that is one of the ways that I think about it. Cliff, how would you add on there?   1:04:09.1 Cliff Norman: Your question made me think of something that happened about two years ago, Jane and I got a call from a lady that worked for her in one of the chicken plants, and she said, Jane, I had to call you because I need to order some of those Shewhart charts. But what happened today, you should have been here and Jane said, what... She said, Remember that 10 year thing we buried in the ground that we're gonna open up in 10 years, and she said, yeah, said, well, we opened it up today, and the new plant manager was here, and those Shewhart charts came out, and he looked at the costs on them. He said, you were operating at this level? She said, yeah, routinely. And he said what happened? He said, well, they had new management come in and they got rid of the charts, that's the first thing they did, and then gradually they try to manage things like they normally did, and then they forgot everything that we had learned. And that's kind of where we are right now.   1:05:11.0 Cliff Norman: So just think of that a decade goes by, and it just as Dr. Deming said, there's nothing worse than the mobility of management, it's like getting AIDS in the system. And they basically destroyed their ability to run a low-cost operation in an industry that runs on 1 or 2%. And when you watch that happen and understand that we still have food companies in this country, and we have to start there and start looking at the system anew and start thinking about how it can actually cause that chain reaction to take off, and that comes from focusing on quality of the system. And then as Dr. Deming says, anybody that's ever worked for a living knows why costs go down with two words less rework, but instead of people will put in extra departments to handle the rework. Next thing they start building departments to handle...   1:06:01.8 Cliff Norman: The stuff that's not working because the system they don't understand. So that was a... What do they call those things, Dave, where they put them in the ground and pull him out?   1:06:11.0 Dave Williams: Time capsule.   1:06:13.4 Andrew Stotz: Time capsule yeah.   1:06:13.5 Cliff Norman: Yeah. Time capsule. The a 10-year time capsule.   1:06:19.2 Andrew Stotz: It's a great, great story. And a great idea. We had a company in Thailand a very large company that the CEO of it came upon the idea of the teachings of Dr. Deming and over time, as he implemented it in his company, the Japanese Union of Scientists have their prize and his company won that prize and then he had about 10 subsidiary companies that also were doing it and they also won over time. And so Thailand is actually is the second largest recipient of the Japanese Deming Award outside of India. But he left and he retired and another guy took over, a very bright guy and all that, but he threw most of that out and focused on newer methods like KPIs and things like that. And just at the end of last year, maybe six months ago, they reported a pretty significant loss, and I was kind of made me think how we can spend all this time getting the Deming teachings into our business, and then one little change in management and it's done.   1:07:26.9 Andrew Stotz: And that made me think, oh, well, that's the value of the book, in the sense that it's about building the concept of quality as a core part of strategy as opposed to just a tool or a way of thinking that could go out of the company as soon as someone else comes in. Go ahead, Dave.   1:07:41.9 Dave Williams: I was gonna say, Andrew, you raise a point, I think it's really, really important and Cliff mentioned this in terms of the problem of mobility of management. One thing that I don't know that we outline probably in dark enough ink in the book is the critically important piece of leadership, building the structures and the capability. I know we talk a little bit about it, but doing it in a way that both builds up the people that you have... So Cliff emphasiz

Everyone is in favor of improving quality, but what does that mean? In this episode Bill Bellows and Andrew Stotz discuss stories of meeting requirements, missing the mark, and what Dr. Deming said about how to do better. TRANSCRIPT 0:00:02.2 Andrew Stotz: My name is Andrew Stotz, and I'll be your host as we dive deeper into the teachings of Dr. W. Edwards Deming. Today, I'm continuing my discussions with Bill Bellows, who has spent 31 years helping people apply Dr. Deming's ideas to become aware of how their thinking is holding them back from their biggest opportunities. And I guess now that we're into 2025, it's gonna be 32 years pretty soon. The episode for today is episode 10, are you in favor of quality? Bill, take it away.   0:00:33.5 Bill Bellows: Thank you, Andrew, and Happy New Year.   0:00:35.1 Andrew Stotz: Happy New Year.   0:00:36.4 Bill Bellows: Happy New Year to our listeners. And yeah, so here we are episode 10 of Misunderstanding Quality. We got up to 22 episodes in our first series and then we'll have a follow-on series. One is I would like to thank those who took the invite to reach out to me on LinkedIn. And I've just started connecting with a few new people who are doing some interesting things involved in types of work that I'm not familiar with, it's just fascinating to listen to the types of issues they deal with. And they each come to me with an interest in Dr. Deming's work. So they're following the podcast series, this one, the others that you're doing, and they listen to all of them. And I'm not sure if they've contacted the others, but they've reached out to me. So I wanna once again say for those of you that are enjoying this conversation, my conversation with you, Andrew, then please reach out to me.   0:01:50.0 Bill Bellows: If you'd like to know more, that's one thing. The last episode was called Worse Than a Thief. And one thing I wanna mention, there's a bunch of meanings relative to being worse than a thief. One distinctly from Dr. Taguchi was... And I don't... He gave examples of manufacturers that made plastic sheeting for crops to protect the crops and his complaint was that they made it to the minimum side of the requirement. So there was a requirement on the thickness, so again, even if you have a 1mil thick here, we have in the States, there's you can buy plastic 1mil, which is 0.001 inch or something heavier. And so, and obviously, in the world of manufacturing, you're not gonna get exactly 0.001, it's gonna be a little low, a little high. So what Dr. Taguchi was referencing is companies in Japan that were making plastic sheeting that would be used for a number of things. But in particular, he talked about it, what if it's being used to protect crops?   0:03:19.8 Bill Bellows: And what if the manufacturers, to save money because they're buying the plastic by the pound, selling it by the yard, so they're gonna make it as thin as possible. And his concern was, so how much are you saving to make it as thin as possible? And what is the impact of being on the thin side when a crop is lost? And that was his reference to being worse than a thief, that you're saving a few pennies but costing the farmer the... Right? And so that could be... So that's a situation where there's a requirement, the requirement is met minimally. You and I reference that as leaving the bowling ball in the doorway, delivering to the absolute minimum, or I mean delivering to the minimum, the maximum of the requirement, whatever best suits me. So if I'm delivering to you a term paper and you as the professor say, "It must be between five and 10 pages," and I say, "Well, I'm gonna make it five pages."   0:04:23.9 Bill Bellows: If in another situation, [chuckle] an example, I guess is if when our daughter was in high school and we said, "Allison, make sure you're home between 10:00 and midnight," then she may move that to the high side of the tolerance and come home at 10:00 or 11:59. But in either case, what Taguchi is referencing is in the world of acceptability, the requirements have been met. But the worse than a thief aspect is, is what is the personal gain versus the impact to others in the system. So that could be picking up the nail in the parking lot or deciding not to do it. So I just wanna point out that I see that as a very broad statement, not just in terms of meeting requirements, but within your organization are you... To what degree are you focusing on your department at the detriment of the organization? That's another way of being worse than a thief.   0:05:28.7 Bill Bellows: It could be you're spending all of your budget just before the end of the year. 'Cause you know what happens, Andrew, if you don't spend all of your budget.   0:05:38.0 Andrew Stotz: Gonna get taken away.   0:05:38.9 Bill Bellows: So if you're 10 percent under, the next year you're gonna get 10% less. So I used to kid people is, so what will I spend... Again, so you learn the hard way, if you don't spend the entire budget then your boss the next year says, "Well, Andrew, you only spent 80% of the budget, so we're only gonna give you 80% of last year." So what's the... What message does Andrew learn? I tell people is you go a little bit over the 100%, right? You go a little bit over. And so even that I would say is worse than a thief 'cause what are you doing? You're withholding your resources that others may find. So I just wanna say that that statement is not as narrow as looking at a set of requirements, it is looking at things from what's good for me versus good for the system. All right, have fun to that one.   0:06:30.0 Andrew Stotz: Right.   0:06:31.0 Bill Bellows: So relative to the title you mentioned. Are you in favor of quality? What inspired that? There's another thing I've been looking at recently, whether on LinkedIn or elsewhere on the internet. I'm a member of ASQ, the American Society for Quality, so I get regular notes from them. And I go off and look, and I'm just reminded of how most organizations think about quality, which is meeting requirements, and it could be much more than that. But anyway, in The New Economics, Dr. Deming's book, first edition, came out in 1993. In there in the first chapter, he says, let me pull it up, and I wanna read it exactly from the good doctor.   Near the end of chapter one of the New Economics, Dr. Deming, in bold text, our listeners will find a statement, “a look at some of the usual suggestions for improvement of quality.” And Dr. Deming says, "There's widespread interest in quality. Suppose that we were to conduct next Tuesday a national referendum with the question, are you in favor of improvement of quality? Yes or no? The results." predicted Dr. Deming "would show, I believe," and again, I'm quoting Deming, "an avalanche in favor of quality. Moreover, unfortunately, almost everybody has the answer on how to achieve it. Just read the letters to the editor, speeches, books. It seems so simple. Here are some of the answers offered, all insufficient, some even negative in results."   0:09:17.9 Bill Bellows: "Automation, new machinery, more computers, gadgets, hard work, best efforts, merit system, annual appraisal, make everybody accountable, MBO, management by objective as practiced, MBR, management by results." And I'll just pause. Dr. Deming, when he would read this list in a seminar, would also make reference to MBIR, management by imposition of results. All right, back to Dr. Deming. "Rank people, rank teams, rank divisions, rank salesmen, reward them at the top, punish them at the bottom. More SQC, statistical quality control, more inspection, establish an office of quality, appoint someone as VP in charge of quality, incentive pay, work standards," in parentheses, "quotas," comma, "time standards," end quote. "Zero defects, meet specifications, motivate people." And then in bold print, Dr. Deming adds, "What is wrong with these suggestions?" He says, "the fallacy of the suggestions listed above will be obvious from subsequent pages of the text," meaning The New Economics.   0:10:36.1 Bill Bellows: "Every one of them ducks the responsibility of management," Andrew. "A company that advertised that the future belongs to him that invest in it, and thereupon proceeded to invest heavily," 40 million, no, 40 billion, I'm sorry, that's ten to the ninth. "40 billion in new machinery and automation, results, trouble, overcapacity, high cost, low quality. It must be said in defense of the management that they obviously had faith in the future." And I asked some people that knew Dr. Deming far better than me. Once upon a time, I said, "So who was Dr. Deming talking about, the company that invested $40 billion?" He said, "Oh, that was General Motors." And I used to think when I was at Rocketdyne that you could not ask for a better competitor than one that would invest $40 billion to lose market share, right? Talk about self-inflicted gunshot wounds that they're gonna go off, invest heavily in technology gadgets. That's what Dr. Deming's calling 'em, gadgets.   0:11:55.2 Andrew Stotz: Gadgets.   0:11:55.8 Bill Bellows: Did you ever hear what Dr. Deming said about, he says, there's a couple of things he said. This is one of the things I heard him say live. He said, "Where's the data in the computer? Gone forever." And then he'd say, "the hardest thing in all the world to find..." You know what he said, Andrew, was the hardest thing in all the world to find?   0:12:24.0 Andrew Stotz: No, what was that?   0:12:27.3 Bill Bellows: "A piece of paper and a pencil." 'Cause his mindset was just put the data that you wanna plot on a piece of paper, as opposed to in the computer, gone forever. Now, I worked with a company as a consultant for three years. And one of the first things they had me work on, of course, was trying to learn about a problem that happened a few years earlier. A problem, meaning something that did not conform to requirements. And in the middle of working on that for about three months and working on that, and the issue was, let's learn about what happened a couple of years ago so it doesn't happen again. And what happened a few years ago was a very stringent set of requirements for this aerospace hardware, missed the requirement by 10%. It was close. It was close, but the customer would not buy it. And it was a multimillion dollar asset that they held onto 'cause they were hoping they can convince the customer to buy it. And the customer just said, "You keep it, you keep it." So the issue was, "Come over and help us understand what happened. We don't do that again."   0:13:54.1 Bill Bellows: Well, in the midst of that, the same product being produced a few months later, instead of missing the requirement by about 10%, missed the requirement by about 70%.   0:14:12.9 Andrew Stotz: Oh.   0:14:13.2 Bill Bellows: Oh, oh. It was a nightmare. And the company spent a whole lot of money chasing that. In the long run, it may have been a bad test. We never found exactly what it was. And when I caught up with them years later, they eventually went back into production. But the reason I bring that up is, after the incident, I was called over. It was a very intense time to go figure out what's going on, only to find out that the data was in a computer. So, the data was not being plotted real time. So after the incident, one of the things that happened within a few days of the incident was to go back and plot the data. So when I was in a meeting and they showed the data and I knew what they were saying was they had pulled it out of the computer. I thought, "Dr. Deming's not kidding. Where's the data, in the computer? Gone forever." So I wanted to...   0:15:23.8 Andrew Stotz: I had something I wanted to add to that, and that is I have a couple of great classic pictures in our family that were made 100 years, 120 years ago.   0:15:36.8 Bill Bellows: Oh wow. Lucky you.   0:15:39.9 Andrew Stotz: Great grandma, those old, really old pictures. And I was just showing them to my, to some of the ladies that take care of my mom and they just can't. And I said, "Now think about all the improvements that have been done in photography. What is the chance that one out of your 10,000 pictures on your iPhone that you've taken is going to survive 120 years like this picture?" And the answer is zero. There's zero chance.   0:16:14.4 Bill Bellows: That's right. Because even if you have kids, they don't want 4000 photos then... 4000...   0:16:25.0 Andrew Stotz: Nobody can deal with that.   0:16:26.4 Bill Bellows: No one could... You're absolutely right. They will not. Unless that photo is printed and turned into a keepsake. Gone forever.   0:16:38.7 Andrew Stotz: Yeah.   0:16:39.0 Bill Bellows: Yeah. No, that's a good point. That's a very... And the fact that these photos lasted that long is pretty damn amazing.   0:16:47.2 Andrew Stotz: Well, there's a great book. I forgot the name of it, but I'll remember it. There's a great book about how slow this... The pace. It's called "Future Hype" is the name of it. It's all about the slow pace of innovation. And this is a great example. Going from no photo to a great photo 120 years ago was true innovation.   0:17:12.0 Bill Bellows: Oh, yeah. Yes.   0:17:13.8 Andrew Stotz: Just coming up with ways to do thousands of photos. And the author just basically crushes everything that you think is innovation. That there's millions of patents now that are coming out. We're much more innovative than we were in the past. And then his whole point is, "Yeah, and go and look at them, and what you see is that they've changed the color a little bit, they've changed this, they've changed that, and they're just doing modifications." So, every single area that you think there is innovation. And I think that's part of what Dr. Deming's talking about, about it's in the computer that doesn't. Tools and gadgets don't solve the problem.   0:17:56.1 Bill Bellows: No, it's... Well, they are tools. And as we've talked about in this series, in the first series, there are tools and techniques. Cell phones, computers, automobiles. These are tools. Techniques are how to use them. And tools, to borrow from Ackoff, are about efficiency, doing things well. But not to be confused with effectiveness, also from Ackoff, which is doing the right thing. And what I admire... I think what we both admire about Dr. Deming's work is the ability of the System of Profound Knowledge to provoke the question of whether or not something is... Doing something is worthwhile to do. And that has to do with not doing things faster, but stepping back and asking, "Why am I doing this in the first place?" Dr. Deming talked about. I think he used to say... He phrased it as, be, Dr. Deming saying, "Andrew, do you know how companies make toast?" And Andrew says, "No, Dr. Deming, how do companies make toast?" You ever hear that?   0:19:16.0 Andrew Stotz: No.   0:19:17.1 Bill Bellows: He says, "First, they burn it, then they scrape it." [laughter] And so what I see in organizations is the people who make the toast pass it off to the next person who does the inspection, and then upon the inspection, is sent to the toast scraper, then the toast scraper scrapes the toast and then sends it to somebody else, which could be a second toasting. [laughter] And then on to the next. And the person who makes the toast in the first place is none the wiser that X percent of the toast, they're just passing it on and so the technology is used to speed that up. And what's not happening is some type of feedback on adjusting the controls. It's just, it's... And this is what I saw when I worked in Connecticut, was immense toast scraping. Oh, it was just phenomenal. We had a machine making these plates for a heat exchanger for the Army's current main engine battle tank. A 1500 horsepower gas turbine engine. And half the volume, Andrew, of the tank is a heat exchanger to capture the exhaust heat to preheat the compressed air to improve the fuel economy.   0:20:52.4 Bill Bellows: Even when half the volume of the tank engine is a heat exchanger to capture every ounce of excess energy and convert it back to the efficiency of the engine. Even with that, the fuel economy of the Army's today main battle tank is measured in gallons per mile 'cause it drinks gasoline. Now, it's phenomenal performance. But they can't move too fast to outrun the tankers. So, these heat exchanger plates have, in the original design, I'm not sure what design is nowadays, had roughly 2 miles of welding in the heat exchanger. And the welding was what's known as resistance welding. And these very, very thin plates were welded together with a little dot of current to melt the metal to create a little bead, and then another one on, and they were overlapping melts, and that created a seam. And after these plates were welded together, you know, two together, each of them was put on to this under a bright light, a literally a Lazy Susan.   0:22:11.0 Bill Bellows: This thing had a 27 inch outer diameter and there'd be a bead around the outside and a bead around the inside. Two different diameters. And on a given plate one inspector would look under a magnifying glass to see, are there any gaps in the beads? And then flip it over and look at the other side, and then hand off to the next person to look at the same plate again.   0:22:37.1 Bill Bellows: So, every plate was 200% inspected. There were 10 machines making these plates. There was no traceability from the inspector. All the problems might have been coming from machine number one. There was no such awareness. And so, after the inspector, "I found a quarter of an inch where you... " "Okay. Then we send it to Andrew for a re-weld." There's no feedback and is that system any better today? I'm aware of systems today that are very similar to that. So, anyway, that's what Deming's talking about relative to the... Yeah. How do companies make toast? Well, the other thing I want to jump to, relative to this "Are you in favor of quality?" Which got it on my one is, I thought, is something really neat to include in this series that we're doing Misunderstanding Quality. But as I'm getting these prompts from ASQ on a regular basis, I was reminded of a few things that are near and dear within the world of the American Society of Quality. And one is what's known as Quality 4.0. Not, 1.0, Andrew, 4.0. 4.0.   0:24:00.1 Andrew Stotz: So, we're out of the crisis.   0:24:01.1 Bill Bellows: Oh, and so the phrase, Quality 4.0, this is today, right? And actually, the incentive, "Quality 4.0," this is actually five years old. So maybe they're on to Quality 5.0, Andrew. The phrase, "Quality 4.0," derived from the German industrialization program called Industry 4.0, is an evaluation of the role of quality in the increasing digital and automated world. One question surrounding Quality 4.0 is where increasing automation will leave quality professionals in the future. Technology, Andrew, has changed quality work and now offers useful statistical software that allows the Six Sigma quality movement to grow. Tons of data that allow quality professionals to act on quality issues in almost real time and new statistical methods. So, what I find is, "Quality 4.0" is artificial intelligence. It's the Internet of Things. It is technology. So if Deming was writing the, you know, the chapter on that we just mentioned earlier, the list of all the things on that list would be pretty much everything I see in "Quality 4.0." Right.   0:25:23.9 Bill Bellows: So, how far have we come in the professional world of quality? At least I am... I find there's a lot missing relative to what Dr. Deming was talking about 30 some years ago. So, that's what I wanted to put on the table is, you know, we're again not... None of us have said we're against tools and techniques. Whether it's chat GPT, artificial intelligence, those are fantastic. But if they're not guided with a System of Profound Knowledge, then you're going to improve uniformity in isolation.   0:26:09.8 Bill Bellows: And we've talked about that in this series and that is the difference between precision and not accuracy. It is making things uniform. Then you have to ask, again when I... What I challenge for those that are in the Six Sigma world is everything I've seen and I've been reading a lot about Six Sigma for the last 30 years. Everything I see about it when it comes to reducing variability, it is about reducing variability to shrink the distribution such that, what, Andrew? Such that we end up with acceptability 100% all. No red beads, all white beads. And then we get into... I went in preparation for a call today to the ASQ website to learn, just a reminder, refresher on Quality 4.0 and again, nothing wrong with advanced digital technologies, but what if we coupled that with a strong foundation that we're trying to offer people in the Deming ??? who are interested in what Dr. Deming's ideas bring to improve, to guide that technology. So anyway, that's, you know, Quality 4.0. Also, I'm on the ASQ website and their glossary section if anyone wants to go look there. If you're a member, you get free access to this. "Quality, a subjective term for which each person or sector has its own definition."   0:27:42.7 Bill Bellows: Okay. "In technical usage, quality can have two meanings. One, the characteristic of a product or service that bears on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs. Two, a product or service free of deficiencies." Excuse me. "According to Joseph Juran, quality means fitness for use. According to Philip Crosby, it means conformance to requirements." And I don't see in here a reference to Dr. Deming and how he defined quality, Andrew. Huh? Interesting. What I enjoyed about being a member of the... In fact I'm still a member of the American Society for Quality. The reason I joined is I was excited by quality. Everything I was learning about Dr. Taguchi's work and then Dr. Deming's work and then began to wonder if the American Society for Quality was advancing and doc... So if anyone listening has access to the American Society for Quality and people that make decisions there, you might want to include Dr. Deming's definition of quality.   0:29:00.2 Bill Bellows: Where Dr. Deming would say a product or service possesses quality if it helps someone and enjoys a sustainable market. And what I find is unique about that is my interpretation, as Dr. Deming is saying a lecture I deliver, a podcast we present, that we are not the judge of the quality that our listeners, students are. The people downstream are the judge of that. So, it's not me handing off a part that meets requirements saying this is good. Even when Juran says fitness for use, what I would ask is fitness absolute or is fitness relative? And so that's... So anyway, I just thought it'd be fascinating to remind our listeners of the simplicity of Dr. Deming's message from The New Economics. You know, is everyone and anyone in favor of quality? Yes. And again, nothing wrong with tools and techniques, but what a Deming organization, a Blue Pen Company, a "We" organization. What they could do, guided by the Deming philosophy, with computers, where computers make sense, with AI, where AI makes sense, would seriously outpace what other companies are doing. It's interesting, but it's just not enough to compete with companies who will do that.   0:30:32.3 Bill Bellows: So, if nobody is following the Deming philosophy, then you can get by with Quality 4.0, doing AI and doing those things. But if you've got competitors and what Dr. Deming would say, Andrew, is be thankful for a good competitor, one who raises your game, right. And so, if you and I are playing tennis and you know, we're out there to become better tennis players, and as soon as I find out that you're out there so you can go brag to your mom about how you beat me last night, then I say, "Andrew, find somebody else to beat." But if you're interest and my interest is, you know, getting a lot of exercise and improving our game. That's a different story. So, that's what I just wanted to share with our ongoing listeners, is there's a lot to be gained by continuing to study the Deming philosophy. Add it to your repertoire, build a foundation guided by what The Deming Institute is doing and sponsoring podcasts like this, as well as DemingNEXT is, there's just a lot of opportunities for what Dr. Deming is offering. And I'm reminded of that on a regular basis that people are saying, "Boy, why didn't I learn about this a long time ago, what this can bring organizations?" So that's what I wanted to bring to the table today.   0:31:50.1 Andrew Stotz: That's wonderful. Well, Bill, on behalf of everyone at The Deming Institute, I want to thank you again for this discussion and for listeners, remember to go to deming.org to continue your journey. You'll see DemingNEXT there and the like. If you want to keep in touch with Bill, just find him on LinkedIn and reach out to him because he is responsive. This is your host, Andrew Stotz, and I want to leave you with one of my favorite quotes from Dr. Deming. I just never stop talking about this quote 'cause I love it. "People are entitled to joy in work."  

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In this episode of Life Science Success, we sit down with Katrina Rogers, a change expert with over 25 years in life sciences, dedicated to transforming the way therapies are brought to market. Katrina, an ASQ-certified Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence and Pharmaceutical GMP Professional, shares insights on her mission to reduce costs and accelerate timelines in drug development. She walks us through her journey, her company's impactful work, and the innovative strategies she employs to streamline operations in life sciences. Join us as Katrina reveals the leadership lessons that inspire her and the exciting future of pharmaceutical advancements.   00:00 Introduction to Life Science Success Podcast 00:34 Meet Katrina Rogers 00:47 Sponsor Message: Bullpen 01:22 Katrina's Journey in Life Sciences 01:42 Joining Bullpen and Its Impact 03:08 Katrina's Background and Career Highlights 05:22 Key Career Moments and Transitions 10:32 Current Role and Responsibilities 21:36 Leadership Advice and Inspirations 27:33 Closing Remarks and Podcast Information

My guest for Episode #518 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Jerry Wright, author of the new book The Insanity Trap: What Your MRP Consultant Won't Tell You. Jerry M. Wright, PE, MBA, is an accomplished operations executive and teaching professional with over 39 years of experience in the manufacturing and service sectors.  His extensive career spans various industries, including aerospace, consumer goods, healthcare, medical devices, diagnostics, and industrial sectors, where he has held leadership roles in engineering, operations, quality assurance, and operational excellence (OpEx).  He is an expert on taking businesses from MRP "insanity" to Pull Systems (Kanban) and driving operational excellence through the implementation of Toyota Production Systems (TPS/Lean) tools and methods. He's a Master Black Belt and only the 7th person in the world to receive the Lean Gold Certification (LGC) from the joint alliance of ASQ, AME, SME, and the Shingo Institute. In this episode, Jerry shares his insights and hard-earned lessons about the pitfalls and inefficiencies of Material Requirements Planning (MRP). Jerry reflects on his career, starting with his early Lean experiences at Kimberly Clark, where he encountered the challenges of forecasting, production scheduling, and the recurring "insanity trap" of MRP. He discusses the implementation of Kanban systems, the impact on inventory management, and how turning off MRP systems helped teams dramatically reduce shortages and excess inventory. Through real-life examples, Jerry illustrates how companies can shift from traditional MRP-driven processes to more effective demand-driven and Kanban-based systems, leading to operational improvements, better employee engagement, and more reliable supply chains. The episode also touches on the psychology of change management, navigating the resistance from those invested in outdated systems, and how leadership can foster a more adaptive, efficient environment by embracing simplicity over complexity. Questions, Notes, and Highlights: What is your Lean origin story? Were your parents open to Kaizen opportunities or suggestions from you as a child? Was your first introduction to the "insanity trap" of MRP at Kimberly Clark? Can you describe the challenges of dealing with MRP at Kimberly Clark? What was Bill Holbrook's role when he suggested unplugging the MRP? How did your team transition from MRP to Kanban, and what were the results? Can you explain the issues with relying on forecasts and lead times in MRP systems? What do you think about demand-driven MRP as an alternative? Why do you think demand-driven MRP isn't more widely adopted? How do you balance the risk of excess inventory versus lost sales? How did Dell handle material constraints and lead time reduction when you were there? How does Toyota manage its supply chain and production planning without relying heavily on MRP? Can you talk about how Toyota's system recovers quickly from supply chain disruptions? What was the origin of your book The Insanity Trap? How can leaders and companies overcome the psychological barriers to changing their supply chain systems? How do you help employees transition from roles like expediting to managing Kanban systems? What are your thoughts on the promise of AI in demand forecasting and supply chain management? Who is the target audience for your book? What are your thoughts on supply chain planning versus execution in lean environments? The podcast is brought to you by Stiles Associates, the premier executive search firm specializing in the placement of Lean Transformation executives. With a track record of success spanning over 30 years, it's been the trusted partner for the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare sectors. Learn more. This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network. 

Frank Rodríguez González, un destacado ingeniero y líder académico, actualmente Presidente y Canciller de la Universidad Tecnológica de Santiago (UTESA) desde 2020. Sucediendo a su padre, el Dr. Príamo Rodríguez Castillo, Frank ha sido clave en la modernización de la institución. También, es miembro activo en varios consejos directivos locales e internacionales. Es Vicepresidente de la Asociación Dominicana de Universidades (ADOU), Presidente del Parque Industrial de Zonas Francas, Caribbean Industrial Park, y líder en múltiples organizaciones, incluyendo el Centro Médico Cibao-UTESA y el Periódico La Información, entre otros. Su impresionante trayectoria se extiende a ser miembro de asociaciones como IISE y ASQ, y su influencia en la educación y el desarrollo empresarial es notable. Graduado en Ingeniería Industrial en UTESA, con una Maestría en Ciencias de Ingeniería Gerencial de FIU, Frank aporta valiosas perspectivas sobre el futuro de la educación y la integración tecnológica. No te pierdas esta enriquecedora conversación.

Er is weer livemuziek te zien en te horen in het centrum van Zaandam. Vanaf 6 oktober speelt er, tot begin december, iedere zondagmiddag een band in café 't Pand aan de Zuiddijk. Het Amazing Swing Quartet is na jaren weer bij elkaar. De band van organisator en klarinettist Robert Vethaak bestaat verder uit bassist Jan van Dusseldorp, pianist Bob Hos en zanger/drummer Rein van Zanen. ASQ is de eerste band die vanaf 6 oktober in Het Pand te zien is.

As part of our ASQ (answer specific questions) series, today we talk about the process of buying a house and who is involved, what they do and why you need to know what is going on! We always say on the HTRM podcast to do your research and look at things from many angles so you can make better decisions. Today we RANT about how the government and media FAIL to do this because they want to RAISE tax! What do you think? Is £20bn a 'black hole'?! We really appreciate your support! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.buymeacoffee.com/howtoraisemoney⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ You can watch Nigel renovate a lopsided terrace house: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@escapetothedreamhouseuk⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ IF YOU NEED HELP: Get in touch hello@htrmoney.co.uk and talk to us, we may be able to help. A trouble shared is a trouble halved! Email us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠hello@htrmoney.co.uk⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Watch us on YouTube ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@howtoraisemoney⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Recommended Equipment, Software and Books - click ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ REMEMBER to review us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! Resources: NOT SURE WHERE TO START? Start here by clicking the link below Get your free resource guides - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠HERE https://www.htrmoney.co.uk/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ How to Leave a Review on Apple Podcasts click ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Go to the Resources section for links (e.g. for tax inspection insurance via FSB) ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.htrmoney.co.uk/resources⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Join the new HTRM Facebook Group! Here is the link: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/htrmoney/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ If you would like Ray and Nigel to work with you then get in touch - email us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠hello@htrmoney.co.uk⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Our website is appearing (slowly!!) ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠HERE or https://www.htrmoney.co.uk/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Email us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠hello@htrmoney.co.uk⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Before you do anything else, remember that anything Ray or Nigel talk about, share, discuss, etc is for entertainment purposes only. It is not financial, legal or any other advice of any sort! Do not rely on anything we say or share or do because we are doing it for entertainment purposes only. Think of it like this...we are discussing topics that people may like to investigate further; ideas and information that you might want to consider further; and that sort of thing. You should always seek your own independent advice from relevant people such as lawyers and accountants. Although Ray is a qualified solicitor and Nigel is a qualified accountant, we do not have any agreement with you unless expressly and clearly documented in a contract, so please just enjoy our podcast, our info and our content and use it to as a call to action to seek professional and relevant advice specific to you. Does that make sense? Are we clear on this?! If not, then drop us an email and we can tell you the above again! The reason we say this is that everyone's situation is unique and for us to share general content like we do it means it cannot possibly be taken as specific advice just for you. Happy? We certainly hope so. Now go and review our 'entertainment' podcast and we will love you forever! Much love and gratitude, Ray and Nigel PS that link re Nigel losing 14kg in weight - use this affiliate link ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠HERE

In this engaging episode of The A100 podcast, recorded live at ASAE's Annual Conference in Cleveland, host Meghan Henning sits down with Stephanie Denvir, MS, CAE, Chief Member Experience Officer at the American Society for Quality (ASQ). Stephanie shares her strategies for enhancing the member experience through personalization, community engagement and innovative technology. Key Highlights: Segmentation and Personalization: Stephanie discusses how ASQ is using segmentation to tailor messaging and provide personalized member experiences. By focusing on the unique needs of their diverse, global membership, ASQ is delivering targeted value to each member. Building Strong Communities: ASQ's robust network includes over 230 geographic communities and 26 technical communities. Stephanie highlights the launch of a new online community platform, which has significantly boosted member engagement by providing a space for members to connect, share insights and find volunteer opportunities 24/7. Leveraging Technology: Stephanie emphasizes ASQ's commitment to embracing technology. She shares how the implementation of a new AMS, personalized email campaigns, and an accessible conference tool that provides real-time translation in multiple languages are enhancing the member experience. ASQ is also exploring the potential of AI to further personalize content and meet member needs. Challenges and Opportunities Ahead: Looking forward, Stephanie discusses the challenges of integrating AI while ensuring data protection, and the importance of engaging the next generation of members. She stresses the need for association leaders to be open to change and to involve their boards and member leaders in the process. Join us as we dive into how ASQ is setting new standards for member engagement and leveraging technology to create a personalized, inclusive experience for all its members. Stay Connected: Subscribe to The Association 100 podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or YouTube Podcasts to ensure you never miss an episode. Follow us on LinkedIn at The Association 100 and OnWrd & UpWrd for the latest in association trends and strategies. Tune in for more episodes packed with actionable insights to help your association thrive!

Business on the Edge: How to Turn a Profit and Improve Lives in the World's Toughest Places by Viva Ona Bartkus, Emily S. Block https://amzn.to/4bQtrg2 A road map for how businesses can grow and make money while reducing poverty and conflict in some of the world's most challenging environments Many companies worry that expanding into emerging markets is a risky—and even dangerous—move. Professors Viva Ona Bartkus and Emily S. Block see things differently. They argue that by entering markets in the world's frontline regions—areas stuck in cycles of violence and extreme poverty—businesses can actually create stability and expand opportunity for communities and corporations alike. From helping Colombian farmers transition from growing coca to produce to disrupting human trafficking rings by creating more construction jobs in the Philippines, Business on the Edge proves that businesses can make money while advancing corporate social responsibility, environmental conservation, and social justice. Partnering with groups including multinational companies, NGOs, and the US military, Bartkus and Block outline their process for generating opportunities, detailing their successes and failures in launching over eighty growth-oriented business solutions in thirty countries. Bridging the gap between academic research and real-world experience, Business on the Edge shows how businesses can reduce risks, cut costs, and increase profits, all while creating economic opportunities that transform communities. About the author Emily Block is an Associate Professor of Strategy, Entrepreneurship and Management and the George Cormie Chair in Management at the Alberta School of Business. Her research program explores how values pluralism impacts the processes of legitimacy and change, the nature of social evaluations and how organizational theory can be used to understand and address grand challenges. Emily's research has been published in journals such as AMJ, SMJ, JBV, JOM, MISQ and JMS. Her book, “Business on the Edge,” explores how business can both thrive and improve lives in post-conflict environments. She serves on the ASQ editorial board and is a Visiting Professor at Strathmore University in Nairobi, Kenya. She received her BBA in Management from the University of Notre Dame and her PhD in Organizational Behavior from the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign.

Michelle Banger talks with Claire Hopkins, a document control specialist in Boston and author of a recent Speaking of Quality column for Quality called "Creating a Space for Next Gens." She's also the chair of the American Site for Quality's Next Gen Global Committee, which is a committee chaired by ASQ, formed in 2021. It's led by Next Gens, which is defined as people under the age of 40 or new to the quality industry. 

In this episode, Bill Bellows and Andrew Stotz discuss David Garvin's 8 Dimensions of Quality and how they apply in the Deming world. Bill references this article by Garvin: https://hbr.org/1987/11/competing-on-the-eight-dimensions-of-quality TRANSCRIPT 0:00:02.4 Andrew Stotz: My name is Andrew Stotz, and I'll be your host as we continue our journey into the teachings of Dr. W. Edwards Deming. Today, I'm continuing my discussion with Bill Bellows, who has spent 31 years helping people apply Dr. Deming's ideas to become aware of how their thinking is holding them back from their biggest opportunities. This is the Misunderstanding Quality series, episode two, The Eight Dimensions of Quality. Bill, take it away.   0:00:30.4 Bill Bellows: Welcome back, Andrew. Great to see you again. All right, episode two, we're moving right along. So in episode one, which the title I proposed, waiting to see what comes out, the title I proposed was, Quality, Back to the Start. And that was inspired by some lyrics from Coldplay. Anyway, but this is a, it's going back to my start in quality and last time I mentioned discovering Taguchi's work long before I discovered Dr. Deming. In fact, Gipsie Ranney, who is the first president of the Deming Institute, the nonprofit formed by Dr. Deming and his family just before he passed away, and Gipsie became the first president and was on the board when I was on the board for many years. And I spoke with her nearly every day, either driving to work or driving home. And once, she calls me up and she says, "Bill," that was her Tennessee accent, "Bill."   0:01:50.5 BB: She says, "It says on The Deming Institute webpage that you infused Dr. Taguchi's work into Dr. Deming's work," something like that, that I... Something like I infused or introduced or I brought Taguchi's work into Deming's work, and I said, "Yes." I said, "Yeah, that sounds familiar." She says, "Isn't it the other way around?" That I brought Deming's work into Taguchi's work. And I said, "No, Gipsie," I said, "It depends on your starting point. And my starting point was Dr. Taguchi." But I thought it was so cool. She says, "Bill don't you have it? Don't you... " She is like, "Isn't it the other way around?" I said, "No, to me, it was all things Taguchi, then I discovered Dr. Deming." But I was thinking earlier before the podcast, and I walked around putting together how, what I wanna talk about tonight. And I thought, when I discovered Taguchi's work, I looked at everything in terms of an application of Dr. Taguchi's ideas.   0:03:29.7 AS: And one question about Taguchi for those people that don't know him and understand a little bit about him, was he... If I think about where Dr. Deming got at the end of his life, it was about a whole system, the System of Profound Knowledge and a comprehensive way of looking at things. Was Taguchi similar in that way or was he focused in on a couple different areas where he really made his contribution?   0:04:03.9 BB: Narrower than Dr. Deming's work. I mean, if we look at... And thank you for that... If we look at Dr. Deming's work in terms of the System of Profound Knowledge, the elements of systems psychology, variation, theory of knowledge, Taguchi's work is a lot about variation and a lot about systems. And not systems in the sense of Russ Ackoff systems thinking, but variation in the sense of where's the variation coming from looking upstream, what are the causes of that variation that create variation in that product, in that service?   0:04:50.9 BB: And then coupled with that is that, how is that variation impacting elsewhere in the system? So here I am receiving sources of variation. So what I deliver it to you has variation because of what's upstream of me and Taguchi's looking at that coupled with how is that variation impacting you? So those are the systems side, the variation side. Now, is there anything in Deming, in Taguchi's work about psychology and what happens when you're labelling workers and performance appraisals and, no, not at all.   0:05:37.6 AS: Okay, got it.   0:05:38.4 BB: Is there anything in there about theory of knowledge, how do we know that what we know is so? No, but there's a depth of work in variation which compliments very much so what Dr. Deming was doing. So anyway, so no. And so I discovered Taguchi's work, and I mentioned that in the first episode. I discovered his work, became fascinated with it, started looking at his ideas in terms of managing variation to achieve incredible... I mean, improved uniformity to the extent that it's worthwhile to achieve. So we were not striving for the ultimate uniformity, it's just the idea that we can manage the uniformity. And if we... And we'll look at this in more detail later, but for our audience now, if you think of a distribution of the variation in the performance of a product or a service, and you think in terms of... It doesn't have to be a bell-shaped distribution, but you have a distribution and it has an average and it has variation.   0:06:50.4 BB: What Dr. Taguchi's work is about in terms of a very brief, succinct point here in episode two is how might we change the shape of that distribution? How might we make it narrower, if that's a worthwhile adventure? It may be worthwhile to make it wider, not just narrower, but in both cases, we're changing the shape of the distribution and changing the location. So Taguchi's work, Taguchi's Methods, driven by variation comes to me, variation impacts you is how do I change the shape and location of that distribution? So on a regular basis, as I became more fascinated with that, I started thinking about, well, how might I apply Taguchi's ideas to these things that I encountered every day? Well, prior to that before discovering Taguchi's work, when I was a facilitator in problem solving and decision making training, I did the same thing, Andrew.   0:07:52.4 BB: I started looking at, oh, is this a problem? Is this a decision? Is this a situation that needs to be appraised? And so prior to that, what I was thinking about is when I was just a heat transfer analyst working on my Ph.D., I didn't look at how the heat transfer stuff affected all these other aspects of my lives. I didn't think about it when I went into a supermarket, but there was something about the problem solving and decision making that just infatuated me. And I would look at, oh, is Andrew talking about a decision or is Andrew talking about a problem? So I started hearing things. And so when I went into Taguchi's work, it was the same thing. And then shifting into Deming's work, it's the same thing. And I've... There's nothing else that I've studied that I look at things through those lenses. Anyway, so in studying, getting exposed to Taguchi, I mentioned that I had some time away from work, I went out on medical for some reasons and went and bought a book, a bunch of books.   0:09:02.4 BB: And one of the books I bought by David Garvin had come out in 1987, is entitled "The Eight Dimensions of Quality." There's a Harvard Business Review article that I wanna reference in this episode, and I'll put a link to the article. It's a free link. And so when you hear people talk about a quality product or a quality service or quality healthcare. We think in terms of it's quality as things, it's either good quality or bad quality or high quality, or somebody calls it low quality, or we just say it's a quality product. But what does that mean? So what I find is very loosely, we think in terms of categories of quality, good, bad, high, low. What we'll look at in a future episode is what would happen if we thought about quality on a continuum, which I believe Taguchi's work really demonstrates vividly as well as Dr. Deming's work.   0:10:07.4 BB: But even to back up before we talk about the eight dimensions of quality, I wanted to give some background on the word quality. The word quality, and this comes from an article and I'll put a link to this article, I wrote it for the Lean Management Journal a number of years ago, the word quality has Latin roots, beginning as qualitas, T-A-S, coined by the Roman philosopher and statesman, Marcus Tullius Cicero. He later became an adversary of this bad guy named Mark Antony. You've heard of him. Feared by Antony, this guy was feared by Antony because his power of speech led, you know what it led to, Andrew, his power of speech?   0:10:54.5 AS: What?   0:10:54.6 BB: His beheading.   0:10:55.8 AS: Oh my goodness.   0:10:56.5 BB: So for those of you with great powers of speech, watch out for your Mark Antony. But meanwhile, he introduced fellow Romans to the vocabulary of qualitas, quantitas, quantity, humanitas, humanities, essentia, which is, essence, he also is credited with an extensive list of expressions that translate into English today. Difference, infinity, science, morale. Cicero spoke of qualitas with his peers when focusing on the essential nature, character or property of an object. And this is kind of interesting. I mean, you can count how many apples do we have. And again, he came up with the term quantitas for quantity, but he is also talking about the essence of the apples. That's the quality word. And then 2000 years later when writing "The New Economics", Dr. Deming provided his definition and a little bit different.   0:12:05.3 BB: He says, "The problem anywhere is quality. What is quality?" Says the good doctor, "A product or service possesses quality if it helps somebody, it enjoys a good and sustainable market." And I said in the article, "As with Cicero, Deming saw quality as a property." And then some other background on quality before I talk about Garvin, "long after Cicero and well before Deming, quality as a property was a responsibility of guilds." Guilds. I mean, now we have writers guilds, we have actors guilds, and it's kind of cool that these guilds still exist and they are associations of artisans who control the practice of their craft, each with a revered trademark. So here in Los Angeles, we have writers guilds, actors guilds. They were organized as professional societies, just like unions.   0:13:00.2 BB: And these fraternities were developed, and within these fraternities they created standards for high quality. All right. So what is this quality management stuff from David Garvin? So this article was written 37 years ago and reviewing it for tonight's episode and I thought it fit in really, really well. I was reminded of... First time I read this article, 1989, I knew a lot about... Well, I knew, I was excited about Taguchi as I knew a lot about Taguchi, didn't know a lot about Dr. Deming. So I'm now reviewing it years later with a much deeper, broader Deming perspective than at that time. But I do believe, and I would encourage the listeners to get ahold of the article, look at it, if you wanna go into more depth, there's Garvin's book. And doing some research for tonight, I found out that he passed away in 2017, seven or so years ago.   0:14:04.6 BB: He was, I guess from, most of his career and education he was at the Harvard Business School, very well respected there. And so in the article it talks about, again, this, 1987, that's the era of Total Quality Management. That's the era in which Dr. Deming was attracting 2000 people to go to his seminars. 1987 is two years before Six Sigma Quality, two years before “The Machine That Changed The World.” And in the article, he says, "Part of the problem, of course, is that Japanese and European competition have intensified. Not many companies tried to make quality programs work even as they implemented them." This is back when quality was an era of quality circles. He says, "In my view, most of the principles about quality were narrow in scope. They were designed as purely defensive measures to preempt failures or eliminate defects, eliminate red beads."   0:15:10.3 BB: "What managers need now is an aggressive strategy to gain and hold markets with high quality," there we go again, "as a competitive linchpin." All right. So in the article, he has some interesting explanations of... Highlights. In the book is more depth. He talks about Joseph Juran, "Juran's Quality Handbook". Juran observed that quality could be understood in terms of avoidable and unavoidable costs. Dr. Deming talked about the economics. The New Economics, right? But Juran is looking at avoidable, unavailable costs resulting from defects in product failures. That's very traditional quality today.  The latter associated with prevention, inspection, sampling, sorting, quality control. And so this is what I found fascinating, is 37 years later, this is still the heavy sense of what quality is all about. Avoiding failure, avoiding defects.   0:16:18.3 BB: Then he talks about Total Quality Control coming from Armand Feigenbaum, who was a big name in the '80s. Again Dr. Deming's work kind of created this big quality movement but it wasn't just Dr. Deming people discovered, they discovered Philip Crosby in a Zero Defects advocacy, Feigenbaum, Juran, sometime later. Again, mid '80s, Dr. Taguchi's name started to be heard. All right. And then the reliability. All right. Now I wanna get into the... Oh, here's, this is good. "In 1961, the Martin Corporation, Martin Company was building Pershing missiles for the US Army. The design of the missile was sound, but Martin found that it could maintain high quality only through massive inspection programs."   0:17:13.0 BB: You know what Dr. Deming would say about inspection? It's after the fact. Sorting the good ones from the bad ones after the fact. No prevention there. But Martin found that it could only do it with inspection. And decided to offer... Again, this is 1961, and this is still the solution today, decided to offer workers incentives to lower the defect rate. And in December, 1961, delivered a Pershing missile to Cape Canaveral with zero discrepancies. Buoyed by this success, Martin's general manager in Florida accepted a challenge issued by the Army's missile command to deliver the first Pershing missile one month ahead of schedule. He went even further, he promised that the missile would be perfect. Perfect. You know what that means, Andrew?   0:18:12.3 AS: Tell us.   0:18:12.8 BB: All good, not bad.   0:18:14.9 AS: All good, not bad.   0:18:15.9 BB: He promised missile would be perfect with no hardware problems or document errors, and that all equipment would be fully operational 10 days after delivering. And so what was neat in going back to this is we still have this mindset that quality is about things being good, not bad. What is bad we call that scrap, we call that rework. That's alive and well today.   0:18:45.0 AS: The proclamations are interesting when you listen to what he's saying, when you're quoting that.   0:18:52.4 BB: Yeah, no, and I remember, 'cause again, I read this recently for the first time in 37 years and I'm going through it. And at the time I was thinking, "Wow, wow, wow, this is a really big deal. This is a really big deal." Now I look at it and say, "This is what we're still talking about today, 37 years later." The absence of defects is the essence of quality. All right. But so I would highly recommend the article. Now we get into what he proposes as eight critical dimensions of quality that can serve as a framework for strategic analysis. And I think even in a Deming environment, I think it's... I think what's really cool about this is it provides a broad view of quality that I think Deming's work fits in very well to, Dr. Taguchi's work fits in very well to, and I think covers a lot of what people call quality. So the first dimension he talks about is performance.   0:20:01.4 BB: And he says, "Of course, performance refers to a product's primary operating characteristics." He says, "For an automobile, performance would include traits like acceleration, handling, cruising speed. For a television, sound and picture clarity." He says "A power shovel in the excavation business that excavates 100 cubic yards per hour will outperform one that excavates 10 cubic yards per hour." So the capacity, that could be miles per gallon, carrying capacity, the resolution of the pixels, that's what he calls performance. Okay. Features is the second dimension of quality. Examples include free drinks on an airplane, but not if you're flying a number of airlines they charge you for those drinks, permanent press cycles on a washing machine, automatic tuners on a color television set. A number of people in our audience won't know what those are, bells and whistles. Features are bells and whistles.   0:21:17.2 BB: There was a time people would say the number of cup holders in your automobile, a feature could be intermittent wipers. So these are features. So again, I mean, so performance is kind of cool. What is the capacity, is it 100 horsepower, 200 horsepower, that's performance. Features, bells and whistles. Okay. Fine. Reliability, now we're talking. The dimension represents the probability of a product malfunctioning or failing within a specified period of time. So your car breaking down, are you gonna drive to work every day and one morning you're gonna go out and it's... That's a reliability issue. Okay. That's... When I think about reliability, that's a Taguchi thing, that's a Deming thing.  And looking at time between failures, okay, fine. Reliability comes down to... And if importance for the impact of downtime, if you're looking at engines not working and you're sitting at the gate, that's a reliability issue. The reliability is, it can be repaired, but it's gonna take some time, perhaps. Conformance. All right.   0:22:40.4 AS: Is number four, right?   0:22:42.2 BB: This is number four, a related dimension of quality is conformance or the degree to which a product's design and operating characteristics meet established standards. "This dimension owes to the importance of traditional approaches," it says, "to quality pioneers such as Juran." All products and services involve specifications of some sort. When new designs or models are developed, dimensions are set for parts or purity, these specifications are normally expressed as a target or a center. Now it's starting to sound a little bit like Dr. Taguchi's work, an ideal value, deviance from the center within a specified range. But this approach equates good quality with operating inside the tolerance band. There is little interest in whether the specifications have been met exactly. For the most part, dispersion within specifications is ignored. Ignored. That's balls and strikes, Andrew, balls and strikes.   0:23:51.2 BB: As long as the ball is somewhere in the strike zone, as long as the characteristic is somewhere within requirements, conformance, this gets into what I talk about in terms of the question number one of quality management. Has the requirement been met, the requirement for the performance, the dimension, is it within requirements? And there's only two answers, yes or no. That's conformance. I used to think that the American Society for Quality might be better known as the American Society for the Preservation of Conformance. I find there's a lot of conformance thinking. I'm reminded of, I'm a member of the American Society for Quality as I'm on the Deming Medal Committee, so I have to be a member of ASQ. So I get a daily or every other day newsletter with comments and conformance is a big part of the conversation. Good parts and bad parts, scrap and rework. All right.   0:25:02.3 BB: Conformance is number four. And it's not to say there isn't a place for the conformance, but conformance is then again different from what Dr. Taguchi is talking about. All right. Durability, the measure of a product life. Durability has both economic and technical dimensions. Durability is how long does it work before I throw it away? So reliability is about, I can repair it. Okay. And that's an inconvenience. Durability is like light bulbs. It runs and runs or a refrigerator and someone says, "Well, it's time for a new one." That's a durability issue. Okay. Durability is the amount of use you get before you haul it off to the junkyard. That's durability. Okay. Serviceability. And back in the '60s, now I'm dating myself, there would be commercials for... I don't know which television brand, but what they talked about is, and these would be commercials. Commercials on television as to "our TV is easy to repair." And I thought, is that a good thing?   [laughter]   0:26:22.4 AS: Is that a foreboding?   0:26:24.4 BB: Yeah. And so... But again, the last couple of days I had to fix the sprinkler system in the backyard. And here in California we have, everybody has a sprinkler system. In the East Coast, people have above ground sprinkler systems. Here, they're all below ground. You don't have to worry about the lines freezing, at least in Los Angeles. And so anyway, one of the valves broke and I thought I was gonna buy a new one and take some of the parts from the new one to put it into the old one. And that didn't quite work. And so meaning to say, serviceability on the design was awful. I couldn't service it.   0:27:11.5 BB: I had to replace the whole damn thing, which was a lot more work than I was expecting. Anyway, however they designed it, serviceability didn't seem to be a consideration in the... That's dimension number six. Again, not to say there's anything wrong with thinking about serviceability. In terms of... Yeah. Okay, I'll leave it with that. Okay, serviceability. Number seven, aesthetics. The final two dimensions of quality are the most subjective, aesthetics, how a product looks, feels, sounds, taste, or smells is clearly a matter of personal judgment. Nevertheless, there seem to be patterns, a rich and full flavor aroma.   0:28:01.0 BB: That's got nothing to do with Dr. Taguchi's work. I mean, you can go off and do market research, find out what is the most appealing flavor, the most appealing taste, the most appealing aroma. And this is what I used to tell students is, and once you understand that or that vivid color that attracts the customer, then you could use Dr. Taguchi's work for, how can I reliably, predictably recreate, week after week, day by day, car by car, that aroma, that flavor, but Taguchi's work is not gonna tell you what it is. And then the last dimension of quality, you ready, Andrew?   0:28:45.8 AS: Give it to me, Bill.   0:28:47.7 BB: Perceived quality. "Consumers do not always have complete information on a product's attributes and direct measure is maybe their only basis. A product's durability can seldom be observed." And so we talk about perceptions of quality. Again, this is 1987, he says, "For this reason, Honda, which makes cars in Marysville, Ohio, and Sony, which builds color TVs have been reluctant to publicize that their products..." Ready? "Are made in America." Because the perception in 1987 is we want them to be made in Japan. And then we could talk about the perception of Cadillac quality, the perception of Jaguar quality.   0:29:35.7 BB: My father's gas station back in the early '70s, it was a block away from the nearby hospital. So a lot of our customers were doctors and they came in in their Cadillacs and Mercedes. And it was just a lot of fun. It was pretty cool. And one doctor against all of his peers' recommendations bought a Jaguar XJ12, V12, 12 cylinders, and they told him again and again, they said, "It'll spend more time in the shop than you driving it." No, no, no, he had to have one, he had to have one. And sure enough, it spent most of the time in the shop, but I got to drive it now and then, which was pretty cool. But that's perceived quality.   0:30:27.5 BB: So I just wanted to, in this episode, throughout those eight dimensions of quality. Again, I encourage our listeners, viewers, I think to get a broader sense of quality before you just look at quality from Dr. Deming's perspective, quality from anyone else's. I think that Garvin has done a really good job covering eight bases, if I can use that term, of quality. And then what I think is neat is to look at which of these tie into Deming's work, which of these tie into Dr. Taguchi's work? And that's what I wanted to cover in this episode.   0:31:01.8 AS: Fantastic. Well, let's just review that for the listeners and the viewers out there, eight dimensions. The first one is performance, the second one is features, the third one is reliability, the fourth one is conformance, the fifth one is durability, the sixth one is serviceability, the seventh one is aesthetics, how it feels and all that, and then the eighth one is perceived quality. Woah, that was...   0:31:29.4 BB: All about... Yeah. And it is reputation. You either have a great reputation or not.   0:31:38.3 AS: All right. Well, Bill, on behalf of everyone at the Deming Institute, I want to thank you again for this discussion. For listeners, remember to go to deming.org to continue your journey. And if you wanna keep in touch with Bill, just find him on LinkedIn. This is your host, Andrew Stotz, and I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes from Dr. Deming, "People are entitled to joy in work."

Upskilling of oil and gas professionals in the digital era is a topic everywhere, including the Caribbean island economies. Upskilling means the acquisition of new knowledge and skills, and in digital, this means topics such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence, app development, and sensor technology. It's tough enough to acquire new capabilities and stay current in big metropolitan centers. Imagine the challenges in smaller oil and gas producing economies, such as those found in the Caribbean. On-line and distance learning help, but that's not enough. The formal education sector has to play its role, as does industy. But how does this happen? In this podcast, I'm in conversation with Hamlyn Holder, a sessional lecturer with the University of the West Indies and an employee of the oil and gas industry, based in Trinidad and Tobago, one such oil production nation in the Caribbean. Hamlyn has over 20 years of both upstream and downstream engineering experience with nearly a decade of this time dedicated to serving Methanex Trinidad Ltd. Methanex Corporation is the world's largest producer and supplier of methanol to major international markets in North and South America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. Methanol is a clear liquid chemical used in thousands of everyday products, including plastics, paints, cosmetics, and is a clean-burning, cost-effective alternative fuel. As the Site Reliability Engineer, he ensures the optimal functionality and performance of critical plant assets and is committed to continuous improvement and innovation in the asset management of their methanol plants and air separation units. He currently serves as a Lecturer at the University of the West Indies, Engineering Faculty and also at the Caribbean Institute for Quality training the Caribbean workforce in ASQ courses such as Six Sigma Black Belt, Quality Management and Reliability Engineering. He holds a Master's in Engineering and Asset Management from the University of the West Indies, is CAMA Certified and co-founded Cube Root Farms, a company that helps local farmers, schools and communities to adopt modern smart and sustainable agricultural techniques. He is also well versed in developing, enhancing and launching many enterprise management softwares and is a member of many industry bodies such as API, ASQ, PMI , IEEE, ASME and APETT.  Additional Tools & Resources:

I had a great interview with Erin Bauer, who is the Product Development Manager at ASQE, which is a trade association created by ASQ to provide benchmarking assistance to corporations within ASQ. One of their key products is the Insights on Excellence® (IoE) Benchmarking Tool. The benchmarking survey results are available to members and nonmembers Continue Reading

Just over 200 years ago, 90% of all humans lived in abject poverty. Life expectancy was less than half of what it is today. Business and capitalism take a lot of criticism for creating inequality and leaving some people behind, but capitalism, businesses, and global trade are largely responsible for creating a world that is on the edge of abundance. Dr. Emily Block and her colleague Viva Ona Bartkus are working to help organizations create viable business opportunities in the most vulnerable places on the planet - places they call “the frontlines.” In this interview, Dr. Block discusses the benefits to companies willing to work in the planet's most challenged places, the difficulties they will face, the moral responsibility leaders have in creating thriving business environments in these places, and the results she has seen when companies commit and collaborate with local communities. She goes on to talk about how the principles she has honed working in these “frontline regions” can be applied in disadvantaged communities in countries that are otherwise flourishing. Dr. Emily Block is an Associate Professor of Strategy, Entrepreneurship and Management and the George Cormie Chair in Management at the Alberta School of Business. Her research program explores how values pluralism impacts the processes of legitimacy and change, the nature of social evaluations and how organizational theory can be used to understand and address grand challenges. Emily's research has been published in journals such as AMJ, SMJ, JBV, JOM, MISQ and JMS. Her book, “Business to the Edge,” (Basic Books, July 2024) explores how business can both thrive and improve lives in post-conflict environments. She serves on the ASQ editorial board and is a Visiting Professor at Strathmore University in Nairobi, Kenya. She received her BBA in Management from the University of Notre Dame and her PhD in Organizational Behavior from the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign.

On this episode of the Combinate Podcast, I go over 6 lessons from the life and x of H. James Harrington. Dr. H James Harrington has a decorated career with 40 years at IBM, 10 years at Ernst & Young, and has held multiple executive roles at various companies since. He's written more than 55 books on performance improvement. He was the chairman and president of ASQ and has multiple quality awards named after him. He's currently the CEO of Harrington Management systems, an International consulting firm focused on performance improvement, strategic planning, and organizational alignment for both private and public organization.

Welcome to "Uncut with Q," where real conversations unfold without filters or boundaries. Join your host, Q, as she dives deep into the stories and experiences of remarkable individuals from all walks of life. In today's episode, Q sits down with Jeremy, a passionate entrepreneur hailing from Dallas, who, alongside his wife, runs a thriving real estate company.Jeremy's journey isn't just about business; it's about making a difference. Known for his unwavering commitment to helping others, Jeremy finds fulfillment in every opportunity to lend a hand. His genuine desire to positively impact lives transcends the confines of his real estate ventures, making him a beacon of inspiration in his community.As Q delves into Jeremy's story, listeners are invited to explore the motivations, challenges, and triumphs that have shaped his path. From navigating the complexities of the real estate market to discovering the true meaning of success, Jeremy's candid insights offer invaluable lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs and empathetic individuals alike.

Heather A. Wade, ASQ-CCT, ASQ-CQA is a recognized metrology subject matter expert & internationally sought presenter. She excels at presenting useful and easy-to-implement practices. She is Editor of ASQ's Metrology Handbook, 3rd Edition. She is ASQ Measurement Quality Division's Immediate Past Chair. A graduate of University of Michigan with a B.S. in Biology, Heather has worked as a microbiologist, filter test specialist, laboratory compliance officer, extraction chemist, and analytical chemist before moving full-time into metrology. She brings all her nearly 30 years of professional experience together to provide “Pain Relief for Measurement Headaches” for her consulting clients. Find her on LinkedIn or at www.HeatherWadeGroup.com 

What You'll Learn: In this episode, hosts Patrick Adams and Catherine McDonald discuss the common mistakes emerging leaders often encounter. It's a conversation that highlights the transformative power of errors, turning them into stepping stones for future leadership excellence. About the Guest:   Phil Ranck, a retired 24-year United States Army veteran from Pennsylvania, excels in Lean Six Sigma methodologies, holding certifications such as Certified Department of the Army Master Black Belt and accreditations from IASSC, ASQ, and CSSC. With a background in Military Management and program acquisition, coupled with a Master's degree in Transportation and Logistics Management, Phil has trained numerous students in Green and Black Belt Certifications, leading impactful projects. His commitment to clear processes for change is reflected in additional certifications in Design Thinking, Business Process Re-Engineering, and Change Management from institutions like IBM, IDEO, and Virginia State University. In 2019, Phil founded Lean Alaska upon retiring from the Army, focusing on delivering quality, personalized interactions and fostering a community of Lean Six Sigma practitioners. Links: ⁠⁠⁠Click Here For Catherine McDonald's LinkedIn⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Click Here For Patrick Adam's LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠ Click Here For Phil's LinkedIn Click Here For Lean Alaska's LinkedIn Click Here For Lean Alaska's Website --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/leansolutions/support

Welcome to "Uncut w Q"! In this thought-provoking episode, join us as Q delves deep into matters of faith and spirituality. Today, Q opens up about his personal beliefs and practices, offering listeners a candid glimpse into his relationship with his faith.Focused on his favorite chapter in the Bible, Timothy chapter 2, Q unpacks the profound wisdom found within its verses. Particularly honing in on passages that speak to themes of fear, love, and self-control, Q shares his unique insights and interpretations. As Q breaks down the scripture, he not only offers a fresh perspective but also reflects on how these timeless teachings resonate with his own life experiences. Through his candid commentary, listeners are invited to contemplate the intersection of faith, fear, and the pursuit of self-mastery.

Welcome to "Uncut with Q," the podcast where raw conversations meet unfiltered insights. Join your host, Q, as he delves deep into the realms of passion, purpose, and personal growth. In this episode, Q is joined by a special guest, his cousin Dani, for the second time on the show.Dani brings a unique perspective to the table as she opens up about her profound passion for education within the real estate industry. Throughout the episode, Dani shares her journey, revealing how her fervor for teaching others has become the cornerstone of her career in real estate. From guiding newcomers through the intricacies of property transactions to empowering clients with knowledge, Dani's dedication to education shines through every aspect of her work.As Q and Dani engage in candid conversation, listeners are invited to explore the importance of mentorship, the power of knowledge-sharing, and the transformative impact of education in both personal and professional realms. Together, they navigate through the challenges and triumphs of pursuing one's passion, offering invaluable insights and actionable advice along the way.

The FDA announced the alignment of QMSR to the ISO 13485 standard. So now the question is: What does it change for me? Do you need to update your full QMS? Will you need to go through another audit or inspection? Is this really a revolution?  Naveen Agarwal from Exceed will answer this question. So don't miss this episode to know more about QMSR.  Who is Naveen Agarwal?  Dr. Naveen Agarwal has 20+ years of diverse industry experience in leadership roles ranging from R&D to Product Quality and Business Analytics. He holds a Ph.D. in Polymer Science & Engineering from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He is an ASQ certified Quality Engineer, a Manager of Quality and Operational Excellence, and a certified Project Management Professional. In his consulting practice, he works on strategic projects in Risk Management, Design Control, Post-Market Surveillance, and Quality Culture in the Medical Device Industry. In his spare time, he enjoys distance running, community work, and spending time with his family. Who is Monir El Azzouzi?  Monir El Azzouzi is the founder and CEO of Easy Medical Device a Consulting firm that is supporting Medical Device manufacturers for any Quality and Regulatory affairs activities all over the world. Monir can help you to create your Quality Management System, Technical Documentation or he can also take care of your Clinical Evaluation, Clinical Investigation through his team or partners. Easy Medical Device can also become your Authorized Representative and Independent Importer Service provider for EU, UK and Switzerland.  Monir has around 16 years of experience within the Medical Device industry working for small businesses and also big corporate companies. He has now supported around 100 clients to remain compliant on the market. His passion to the Medical Device filed pushed him to create educative contents like, blog, podcast, YouTube videos, LinkedIn Lives where he invites guests who are sharing educative information to his audience. Visit easymedicaldevice.com to know more.  Link:  Naveen Agarwal Linkedin Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/naveenagarwal/  Learn more about Let's Talk Risk! here ans subscribe: https://naveenagarwalphd.substack.com/about  Webinar recording - Getting Ready for QMSR: https://naveenagarwalphd.substack.com/p/webinar-5-getting-ready-for-qmsr   Risk management training on ACHIEVE:  https://www.achievexl.com/    Social Media to follow Monir El Azzouzi Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/melazzouzi Twitter: https://twitter.com/elazzouzim Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/easymedicaldevice Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/easymedicaldevice

Quality spoke with Praveen Gupta about how to expect excellence, strive for defect free manufacturing, and link the CAPA process, FMEA model and eventually innovation. Gupta has been in the field of quality for about 40 years, a Fellow of ASQ since 1996, an early practitioner of Six Sigma and ISO 9001 systems since 1987, a past member of US Tag/TC-176 (for ISO 9001), and current member of US Tag/TC-279 for developing Innovation Management standards. Praveen received the Quality Professional of the Year Award in 2016. He will be speaking at The Quality Show South Thursday, May 2 at 11:30 a.m.

In this captivating episode of "Uncut with Q," host Q and special guest Trevon, an editor and photographer at Infinite Productions in San Antonio, embark on a journey through the digital landscape. Having crossed paths nearly a year ago, their professional relationship has blossomed, with Trevon now a valued member of Q's team.Join Q and Trevon as they not only share insights and anecdotes from their collaborative ventures but also surf the web together, exploring relevant subjects and uncovering hidden gems. From scouring the internet for inspiration to engaging in thought-provoking discussions on pertinent topics, listeners will gain a deeper understanding of the digital tools, techniques, and trends that shape their work.But their conversation extends beyond the confines of the studio. As Q and Trevon reflect on their journey together, they explore the transformative power of mentorship and the importance of cultivating a supportive creative community. Through shared experiences and candid revelations, they invite listeners to join them on a journey of exploration, inspiration, and creative discovery."Uncut with Q" offers an unfiltered glimpse into the world of digital creativity, where stories are shared, perspectives are challenged, and bonds are forged. Join Q and Trevon as they embark on a quest to uncover the hidden gems of the digital realm, inspiring listeners to embrace the endless possibilities that await online.

Step into the realm of raw authenticity and deep-rooted friendship with "Uncut with Q," where unfiltered conversations unravel profound connections. In this special episode, host Q is joined by a beloved guest, Cherry the Barber, hailing from the vibrant streets of San Antonio, Texas. But their connection transcends mere geography; they've been inseparable since their elementary school days, growing up side by side.As Q and Cherry embark on a nostalgic journey, listeners are treated to a tapestry of laughter, reminiscence, and raw honesty. From mischievous playground antics to adolescent escapades, they reminisce on the cherished moments that forged their unbreakable bond. Beneath the surface lies a shared history marked by trials and tribulations. As Q and Cherry unveil the shadows of their past, listeners witness the resilience that defines their journey. From navigating personal struggles to finding solace in each other's presence, their story is a testament to the enduring power of friendship and the unwavering strength of the human spirit.Join Q and Cherry as they navigate the complexities of their shared experiences, offering listeners a rare glimpse into the depths of their souls. From childhood dreams to adult realities, their journey serves as a beacon of hope and inspiration, reminding us of the transformative potential of vulnerability. With candor, humor, and unwavering authenticity, "Uncut with Q" invites listeners to join the conversation and forge connections that transcend time and space. So grab a seat, lean in, and prepare to embark on a journey of discovery unlike any other.

In this captivating episode of Q's podcast, listeners are treated to an engaging conversation with the dynamic Brittany, hailing from the heart of Central Washington State. A true embodiment of versatility, Brittany wears multiple hats as a personal trainer, massage therapist, realtor, and investor, painting a vivid picture of ambition and determination.As Q and Brittany delve into the depths of their shared passion for fitness, listeners are drawn into a narrative that transcends boundaries. Brittany's journey, rooted in her own personal transformation in 2018, serves as a compelling backdrop for a discussion that navigates the intricacies of entrepreneurship, self-discovery, and the pursuit of one's passions.From the quaint confines of her small-town upbringing to the expansive horizons of her multifaceted career, Brittany's story is a testament to the power of perseverance and the boundless potential of human ambition. As Q and Brittany uncover the threads of her diverse portfolio of businesses, listeners are offered a rare glimpse into the inner workings of a driven entrepreneur.

Welcome to "Uncut with Q," the unfiltered podcast where raw conversations meet valuable insights. Join host Q in this eye-opening episode of Business Talk, where the hot topic on the table is none other than generational wealth.In his signature candid style, Q delves deep into the question that's on everyone's minds: Is generational wealth dead? Tune in as he unravels the layers of history, exploring the origins and evolution of this fundamental concept. From ancient traditions to modern-day realities, Q provides a comprehensive overview that will leave you enlightened and eager to learn more.But this isn't just a history lesson – it's a call to action. As Q explores the dynamics of generational wealth, he offers practical strategies and actionable advice for building and preserving your own financial legacy. Whether you're a seasoned investor or just starting out, Q's insights will empower you to make informed decisions and secure your family's future.So grab a cup of coffee and join Q for a conversation unlike any other. With his trademark blend of wit, wisdom, and unfiltered honesty, "Uncut with Q" is your go-to resource for navigating the world of business and finance. Don't miss out – tune in now and take the first step towards unlocking your true wealth potential.

Dan Zrymiak, an ASQ Fellow and recipient of ASQ's Feigenbaum and Crosby Medals, has almost three decades of experience in international quality and risk management. Here he shares his expertise on culture, leadership and values.Read more from Dan Zrymiak here.

Welcome to another episode, the seventy-fifth, of the Lessons from the Cockpit show! I am your host Mark Hasara and for over 60 years my passion has been aviation. The situation in the Red Sea and Gulf of Adan has everyone's attention. It's the continuation of the Proxy War between western powers and the Ayatollahs of Iran and their influence with the Houthi Rebels in Yemen, attacking shipping in one of the largest and wealthiest waterways on the planet. America and our allies have been here before, sometimes with tragic results. The USS Cole was nearly sunk in the Yemeni harbor of Adan after an al Qaeda suicide boat rammed into it. The weapons used are now much more sophisticated and supplied by other US enemies. But we are more prepared in my opinion to fight and win a maritime conflict in this region, which this episode discusses. This episode is financially supported by the book Tanker Pilot, found in all four formats; hardback, softback, Kindle, and Audible on Amazon. The Hardback, Kindle and Audible formats contain the 32 pictures in color, the softback in black and white. Tanker Pilot gives readers a behind the scenes look at global air refueling and air operations in four wars. The Lessons from the Cockpit show is sponsored by Wall Pilot, custom aviation art for the walls of your home, office, or hanger. Wall Pilot creates profile views of famous aircraft, printed on vinyl in four, six, and eight foot lengths you can peel off and stick to any flat surface. Wall Pilot can also create custom graphics of your favorite airplanes with your name, tail codes and numbers, and cool weapons loads. Support the Lessons from the Cockpit show by ordering one or two of these very detailed prints for the walls of your home, office, or hanger. We did a thirty foot long profile for one customer and his hanger! US and Coalition forces recently struck Houthi targets in Yemen. The Navy aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower has four F-18 Super Hornet squadrons in its air wing. This F-18F Super Hornet from VFA-103 represents the 22 Super Hornets involved in the air strikes in Yemen. The strike packages were supported with electronic intelligence by the RC-135 Rivet Joint signals collection and intelligence aircraft of the US Air Force. This print is an RC-135 Rivet Joint aircraft assigned to the 343rd Reconnaissance Squadron of the 55th Reconnaissance Wing, Offutt Air Force base Nebraska. F-15E Strike Eagles from Royal Air Force Lakenheath England have deployed to the region when Iran tried to close down shipping going through the Straight of Hormuz. This F-15E Strike Eagle from the 494th Fighter Squadron is configured for the Maritime Air Support or MAS mission to interdict and destroy enemy surface ships using Laser and GPS guided weapons. The Panthers Strike Eagles carried the AN-ASQ-236 Dragon Eye pod on the centerline as this graphic depicts. Unmanned and remotely piloted vehicles have played a huge role in the Horn of Africa, combating terrorism and piracy on the high seas. This MQ-9 Reaper drone armed with GBU-12 500 pound laser-guided bombs and AGM-114 Hellfire missiles is assigned to the 867th Attack Squadron of the 432nd Wing based out of Creech Air Base north of Las Vegas Nevada. MQ-9 Reapers are the type of drones operating out of Djibouti and Chadbelli airports in the Horn of Africa. Thanks for downloading and listening to this and previous episodes of the Lessons from the Cockpit show. This and previous episodes can be found on the Lessons from the Cockpit website. Every lesson learned today becomes the foundation for tomorrow's breakthroughs and your stories fuel our mission! We are always looking for guests with compelling aviation stories and terrific lessons learned from those experiences. Contact us through the website and lets talk about you becoming a guest on the show. We want to hear your lessons learned and leave a legacy of wisdom for future generations of aviation enthusiasts.

Welcome to another episode, the seventy-fifth, of the Lessons from the Cockpit show! I am your host Mark Hasara and for over 60 years my passion has been aviation. The situation in the Red Sea and Gulf of Adan has everyone's attention. It's the continuation of the Proxy War between western powers and the Ayatollahs of Iran and their influence with the Houthi Rebels in Yemen, attacking shipping in one of the largest and wealthiest waterways on the planet. America and our allies have been here before, sometimes with tragic results. The USS Cole was nearly sunk in the Yemeni haror of Adan after an al Qaeda suicide boat rammed into it. The weapons used are now much more sophisticated and supplied by other US enemies. But we are more prepared in my opinion to fight and win a maritime conflict in this region, which this episode discusses. This episode is finanicially supported by the book Tanker Pilot, found in all four formats; hardback, softback, Kindle, and Audible on Amazon. The Hardbback, Kindle and Audible formats contain the 32 pictures in color, the softback in black and white. Tanker Pilot gives readers a behind the scenes look at global air refueling and air operations in four wars. The Lessons from the Cockpit show is sponsored by Wall Pilot, custom aviation art for the walls of your home, office, or hanger. Wall Pilot creates profile views of famous aircraft, printed on vinyl in four, six, and eight foot lengths you can peel off and stick to any flat surface. Wall Pilot can also create custom graphics of your favorite airplanes with your name, tail codes and numbers, and cool weapons loads. Support the Lessons from the Cockpit show by ordering one or two of these very detailed prints for the walls of your home, office, or hanger. We did a thrity foot long profile for one customer and his hanger! US and Coalition forces recently struck Houthi targets in Yemen. The Navy aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower has four F-18 Super Hornet squadrons in its air wing. This F-18F Super Hornet from VFA-103 represents the 22 Super Hornets involved in the air strikes in Yemen. The strike packages were supported with electronic intelligence by the RC-135 Rivet Joint signals collection and intelligence aircraft of the US Air Force. This print is an RC-135 Rivet Joint aircraft assigned to the 343rd Reconnaissance Squadron of the 55th Reconnaissance Wing, Offutt Air Force base Nebraska. F-15E Strike Eagles from Royal Air Force Lakenheath England have deployed to the region when Iran tried to close down shipping going through the Straight of Hormuz. This F-15E Strike Eagle from the 494th Fighter Squadron is configured for the Maritime Air Support or MAS mission to interdict and destroy enemy surface ships using Laser and GPS guided weapons. The Panthers Strike Eagles carried the AN-ASQ-236 Dragon Eye pod on the centerline as this graphic depicts. Unmanned and remotely piloted vehicles have played a huge role in the Horn of Africa, combating terrorism and piracy on the high seas. This MQ-9 Reaper drone armed with GBU-12 500 pound laser-guided bombs and AGM-114 Hellfire missiles is assigned to the 867th Attack Squadron of the 432nd Wing absed out of Creech Air Base north of Las Vegas Nevada. MQ-9 Reapers are the type of drones operating out of Djibouti and Chadbelli airports in the Horn of Africa. Thanks for downloading and listening to this and previous episodes of the Lesons from the Cockpit show. This and previous episodes can be found on the Lessons from the Cockpit website. Every lesson learned today becomes the foundation for tomorrow's breakthroughs and your stories fuel our mission! We are always looking for guests with compelling aviation stories and terrific lessons learned from those experiences. Contact us through the website and lets talk about you becoming a guest on the show. We want to hear your lessons learned and leave a legacy of wisdom for future generations of aviation enthusists.   

In this episode, Kerry L. Bass and I explore strategies for accelerating organizational change, building trust in elections, fostering societal success for all, attracting the right talent, and examining the continued relevance of quality management principles. What You'll Learn: 1. How can my organization get change faster? 2. What can be done to help citizens have more faith in elections? 3. How can societies be more successful in supporting all? 4. How do I get the right people to join my organization? 5. Are quality management principles still relevant? About the Guest: Kerry L. Bass is the CEO and founder of Potential To Reality Consulting and a Senior Member of ASQ. He is an executive consultant who specializes in enterprise transformation, operational excellence and organizational change management. His personal and professional focus is on helping organizations and societies that are dedicated to the wellbeing of their stakeholders achieve and sustain excellence. For more than 25 years, Kerry has been leading and supporting transformation and major organizational change for governmental agencies, as well as non-profit and commercial enterprises.   Links: ⁠⁠⁠Click here for the Potential To Reality Consulting Website ⁠⁠⁠Click here to contact Potential To Reality --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/leansolutions/support

Should we strive to better understand what happens "downstream" to our defect-free work? No matter the setting, if our work meets requirements and we pass it on, are we responsible for how well it integrates into a bigger system?  In this episode, Bill Bellows and Andrew Stotz expand on the interaction between variation and systems and why Dr. Deming regarded Genichi Taguchi's Quality Loss Function as “a better description of the world.” TRANSCRIPT 0:00:02.8 Andrew Stotz: My name is Andrew Stotz, and I'll be your host as we continue our journey into the teachings of Dr. W Edwards Deming. Today I am continuing my discussion with Bill Bellows, who has spent 30 years helping people apply Dr. Deming's ideas to become aware of how their thinking is holding them back from their biggest opportunities. The topic for today is, in episode 13, Integration Excellence, part two. Bill, take it away.   0:00:31.4 Bill Bellows: Thank you, Andrew. Always a pleasure to connect with you. Alright.   0:00:40.1 AS: Mine too.   0:00:40.1 BB: [laughter] In episode 12, I thought it was great. We shared perspectives on the human side of integration, what it means to be connected, to be synchronous, to feel included, to feel connected, to feel included or connected when something good happens where you're like, well, I was part of that, or to feel separated is when something bad happens. And, we somehow have the ability to not feel associated with that. I pass the puck to you and you hit the slapshot, it goes into the stands, off the goalkeeper. Y'know, girl gets hit in the head and you feel bad, but I go home and I can sleep. And so why is that? And so anyway, but I thought, and listening to it, and I thought it was a lot of fun to look at the human side of feeling connected or feeling separated. And what I wanted to get into tonight, and perhaps in another episode as well, is the physical side of connections.   0:01:46.5 BB: One thing I wanted, and I got a couple anecdotes. I had a woman in class at Rocketdyne years ago, and she said, "Bill, in our organization, we have compassion for one another." And I said, "Compassion is not enough." And, and so you, Andrew, could be in final assembly at this Ford plant, where you're banging things together with a rubber mallet 'cause they're not quite snap fit, and you're banging them together. I mean they all meet print perhaps, but where they are within the requirements is all over the place, and you're having to bring them together. That's called integration. And so when this woman said, in our organization we have compassion for one another, I said, well, that's like me saying, "Andrew, I feel really bad that you're, I can't believe, Andrew go home. You can bang that together tomorrow. You've been banging it together all day." And what I said to her is that "compassion is not enough."   0:02:54.7 BB: When I feel connected to what you're doing, when I begin to understand that the parts you're banging together meet requirements, but how they meet requirements is causing you the issue. Now, the compassion plus my sense of connection, now we're talking. But short of that, what I think is we have organizations where as she would say, we might feel bad for others. And it means I hear about your injuries and your ergonomic training because of all this, but I don't, until I feel associated with that, I just feel bad. But feeling bad is not enough. But I like that, that sentiment. But what I wanna look at tonight is a greater sense of Dr. Taguchi's so called Loss Function and look at more why we should feel more connected to what's happening downstream. So I wanted to throw that out. [chuckle] On the topic of variation, I just started a new cohort with Cal State Northridge University. And this is my, fifth year in the program doing an eight week class in, seminar in quality management. And the cohort model is, anywhere between two dozen and 30 some students that start, the ones I'm getting started a year ago.   0:04:23.5 BB: And they have class after class after class after class. Then a year into the program they get to meet for eight weeks so then onto other professors in the program. So I was showing them, first quarter, second quarter data points from an incident that happened at Rocketdyne years ago. And I was in a staff meeting and the vertical axis is number of accidents per employee. And the horizontal axis is quarter one, quarter two. So the quarter one data point is there, and I don't have the original data, the original data doesn't matter. But what I say to the students is, imagine we've got the first quarter data, what would you expect for the second quarter data? And what's funny is a number of them said, it should be lower. And I said, "Well, based on what?" And it's like, said "Well, we're gonna go off and study what went wrong and we're gonna improve the process."   0:05:20.6 BB: And I said, "Okay, that's all right." So then, I said, "I'll accept that, that's a possibility." Well, then I showed them the actual second data point was lower than the first, which in the meeting I was in, led to the question from one of the senior managers to one of the more, let's say the vice president of operations, "Hey, Andrew, why is safety improved?" To which the executive said, "Because we've let them know safety is important." And so I asked him, "So what do you hear in that?" And we went around and we went around and we went around. It's not the only time it has happened that what they're not hearing is the separation that "we" have let "them" this this. And so in part, I think with my Deming perspective finely tuned. I pick up on those things. And they're not picking on it picking up on it yet which is which is fine. And then but I kept asking, kept asking, kept asking. And then one person said, "Well maybe we need to look for a pattern." I said, "Oh brilliant. What if we've got this run chart of all this extra data?" So then I got them to buy into how easy it is to take two data points draw conclusion up and down. That's called variation. And so it was neat to... The first conversation with them on the topic of variation was really cool. And there's so much more to follow. Well then it, what I wanted to follow with this once upon a time our son when he was in third grade this is 20-some years ago invited me to come to his class.   0:07:07.6 BB: And I don't recall why other than he said, Can you come talk to the class? And I said, Okay fine. So my biggest concern was that the teacher wouldn't know I was coming but she knew I was coming so it was good. So I walk in talked with her briefly and I said I've got some things I'd like to do. She's like oh, I didn't wanna monopolize. But she said okay why don't you show your video? I said I got a video of rocket engines blah blah blah. And then I've got a little exercise I wanna do. Okay we'll do the video then we'll do some reading. So we're doing the reading. And so I'm helping her with the reading. And then what I noticed is now and then a word would come up and she'd write the word on the whiteboard and ask the students if they understood the word. So I clued in, I cued in on that. So when it got to me I wrote the word theory on the whiteboard. This is third graders Andrew, third graders. [chuckle] And I said do any of you know what a theory is? And a one of the girls Shelby whose name I'll never forget, she raises her hand and she says a theory is a prediction of the future. Third grade Andrew third grade! [chuckle] right? Now...   0:08:18.8 AS: And you know what they'd say now they'd say Ethereum is a type of cryptocurrency. [chuckle] Oh Ethereum. No no "theory" not "Ethereum." [laughter]   0:08:30.2 BB: You're right. You're right.   0:08:31.6 AS: Okay. That's a great answer.   0:08:33.9 BB: Well oh but what I tell my students is I didn't correct her. I didn't say well technically a theory is a prediction of the future with a chance of being wrong. But we'll just, I just, oh we'll just stop with that. So I invited her to the front of the room. So she comes to the front of the room and I brought with me this little plastic bag with half a dozen marbles in it. And the bag was also a holes from a three hole punch, little dots of paper. So I held the marble up and I said Shelby I'm going to drop the marble from this height predict where it will land. And what I tell students is she was able to predict where it would land without any data.   0:09:18.3 BB: So she predicts the first data point, the marble lands someplace else. I marked the spot with a marble. I then said okay Shelby I'm gonna drop it the second time. Where will it land? And I'll ask people in class so where do you think she predicted, exactly the same spot of the first drop [chuckle] Exactly right. That's what we do as adults. And so we went through this cycle again and again. And and finally after about 10 drops where these you know 10 different dots on the floor I said Shelby where's it gonna land? And she drew a circle, she said somewhere in here which is kind of like a control limit you know kind of thing.   0:09:55.9 BB: So the one thing I'll say is and I'm sure you've heard people say well you can't predict the future. No, as Dr. Deming would say [chuckle] you know he gave the example you might recall of how will I go home? I'm gonna take a bus. Will the bus... I'm gonna take the train. Will the train arrive? And so I'd ask adults in the class that says how many drove here today? All the hands go up. And I said so at the end of the day will you walk in the direction of where you left your car? Yes. What is your theory? It's still there. [chuckle] Is that a guarantee? No! [chuckle] So I throw that out as a predictions and her sense of variation and this sense of a third grader not acknowledging, I mean one understanding having some sense of a theory, not a lot of understanding of variation but I don't think that's unique to third graders.   0:10:51.8 BB: So that brings us to...there's variation. We can look at the variation in the Red Beads. Okay the Red Beads are caused by the system not the workers taken separately. Then we got into variation and things that are good. And when I introduced the students to last night in class is, I asked them "So how often do you go to meetings where you work to discuss things that are good and going well?" And I get the standard answer, "rarely." I said, "Well, why is that?" "Well 'cause we got, we're focusing on the bad." They said, "to make it good." "Well why do we focus on the bad to make it good? Why don't we focus on the good?" "Well the good is good." And we went around the room, went around the room online and and I said "what's the likelihood that we could prevent bad from happening by focusing on the good while it's good?" And it's like, "...interesting." And so where that leads us to is, is two aspects of looking at things that are good.   0:11:57.1 BB: One is the better we understand the variation of things that are good whether that's on a run chart or a control chart. My theory is we could prevent bad from happening by keeping track of the bad. Whether it's your pulse, your weight, [chuckle] how much gas is in your car. And so there's if we focus, if we pay attention to the good with some frequency you know every second, every hour, once a month, whatever it is, we could prevent an accumulation of damage to an appliance at home. Another aspect to focusing on things that are good is that it can improve integration which is boom, here we are. And that integration that I mentioned last time that understanding integration could be looking at candidates for a new hire and looking for who is the best fit because there's degrees of fit. Fit is not absolute. Last time we talked about reflections of an engineer who is worried that his hardware on the space shuttle main engine may have contributed to the disaster of the second... Of the Columbia space shuttle blowing up in reentry. Well let me share another story from a coworker at Rocketdyne.   0:13:19.8 BB: And this guy's father worked at Rocketdyne in the '60s. So in 1999, 30 years after the lunar landing, there's news teams, you know, from the local TV stations and television. It's 30 year anniversary of the Lunar Landing. And Rocketdyne was known for the Apollo engines that get the vehicle off the ground, as well as the engines that got the, Orbiter off the moon. So there's an article in the newspaper a couple days later, and this coworker is quoted and he says, "Boy, I would've loved... My father worked here back in the '60s, just to be a fly on the wall would be so cool. Oh my gosh, it'd be so cool." And the article ends with him saying how exciting it is to feel like you're part of something big. That's what we talked about last time.   0:14:09.8 BB: And I used to use that quote from him on a regular basis because it, the article was about something that happened at Rocketdyne. Then I would share that this is a quote from a coworker. And after quoting him for several years, it dawned on me, I've never met this guy, so I call him up one day and he answers and I say, "Hi, this Bill Bellows." And he laughs a little bit. And I said, "have we ever met?" And he says, "No, no, no," he said, "But you quote me in your class." And I said, "Well, I apologize for never calling you sooner." I said, "I do quote you." And I said, "Let me share with you the quote." I said, "you feel how exciting it is to feel like you're part of something big?" To which he says, "I wish I still felt that way." [chuckle] And I said, "can I quote you on that?" And so you can join an organization with this sense of being connected, but then depending on how the organization is running and you're blamed for the Red Beads, that you may lose that feeling.   0:15:15.6 BB: And on another anecdote, it's pretty cool. Our daughter, when she was in fourth grade, was in a class, they were studying water systems. And the class assignment was to look at a, they had an eight and a half by 11 sheet of paper with a picture of a kitchen sink on it, like a 3D view of a sink with a pipe out and a pipe in. And the assignment was, we're about to study water systems. How does the water get to the sink, where's the water go?   0:15:47.2 BB: And so my wife and I were there for the open house and there were 20 of these on the wall colored with crayons showing all these different interpretations of water coming in, water going out. And I was fascinated by that. And eventually got copies of them and the teacher wasn't sure what I was doing with them. Well, I turned them into laminated posters. And so I gave one to our daughter one day. I said, take this to Mrs. Howe so she sees what we're doing. And so the following weekend I bumped into this woman at a soccer field, but she wasn't dressed like a teacher. She's dressed in a hoodie. And she says to me, "Allison shared with me the posters." And I'm looking at her thinking, "how do I know who you are?" She pulls the hood back. She says "I'm Allison's fourth grade..." Oh! I, her comment was when Allison shared with me how you're using those posters, handing them out, and people are inspired by them. And she says, "I cried." So that you get that emotion for free Andrew. [chuckle] Right. And that's all the integration stuff.   0:16:58.5 BB: Now let's talk about Dr. Taguchi and his Loss Function. So, um, the Taguchi Loss Function says Dr. Deming in Out of the Crisis is a better view of the world. The Taguchi Loss Function is a better view of the world. Dr. Taguchi says following...   0:17:15.3 AS: Wait a minute. I was confused on that. You're saying Deming is saying that Taguchi is better, or Taguchi is saying Deming's better?   0:17:22.3 BB: Dr. Deming in The New... In Out of the Crisis, Dr. Deming wrote "the Taguchi Loss Function is a better view of the world."   0:17:30.3 AS: Okay, got it.   0:17:34.5 BB: And that's what amongst the things that I read into Deming's work and I thought, boy, that's quite an endorsement. Dr. Taguchi is known for saying quality is the minimum of loss imparted to society, to the society by a product after shipping to the customer. So what does that mean? And we'll come back to that. Deming met Dr. Taguchi in the 1950s. There's a, at least once, there's photos I've seen in Deming's archives of the two of them on stage at a big statistical conference in India, and I know they met in September, 1960 at the Deming Prize ceremony where Dr. Taguchi was honored with what's known as the Deming Prize in Literature. There's Deming prizes for corporations, and there's also Deming prizes for individuals.   0:18:35.0 BB: And Taguchi won it 1960 for his work on the, on his, this quality-loss function concept. 1960. So then in 1983, Larry Sullivan, a Ford executive, was on a study mission to Japan, and he wrote an article about this for the American Society for Quality in 1983 the title of the article is “Variability Reduction: A New Approach to Quality,” so if any of our listeners are ASQ members, well I'm sure you can find a copy of it. The Variability Reduction: A New Approach to Quality. Well, Andrew in 1983, Sullivan's article, 23 years after Taguchi's awarded this Deming Prize in literature, I'm convinced that's the first time Taguchi's Loss Function was heard about in the States. 23 years later. And in this article, Sullivan says, he says, "In March of 1982, I was part of a group from Ford that visited Japan, we studied quality systems out of variety of suppliers," this is ostensibly the first time the auto industry in the States is sending people to Japan.   0:19:52.8 BB: Right so 1980, summer of 1980 is the Deming documentary Why Japan? If Japan Can, Why Can't We? And so here Ford is in 1982, sending a team over. I know it was the late '80s, I believe, when Boeing sent executives over. So then in this article, he says, "The most important thing we learned, right, in this study mission, is that quality in these companies means something different than what it means in the US. That it's a totally different discipline." And so this is like the beginnings of people hearing about Dr. Deming in 1980. They're now hearing about Dr. Taguchi's work through Larry Sullivan. And it turns out Larry Sullivan and Dr. Taguchi became business partners and set up Dr Taguchi's consulting company in the States, which still exists. So they became fast friends and I've met the two of them many times.   0:20:53.6 BB: What Taguchi is saying is, is when it comes to things coming together, we talked about integration, whether that's combining, mixing, joining, weaving, this is the synchronicity. So in sports, we're talking about not, not where I am on the field, but where I am relative to the others, in music, and we're talking earlier about music and I've, I've played a musical instrument one time, Andrew with a group and I was with a, hockey band on a road trip when I was in college. And the cymbal player, they were missing, so they asked me to bang the cymbal, "you want me to do what?"   0:21:36.9 AS: When we signal you.   0:21:39.4 BB: So I'm boom! and what I didn't realize is I'm controlling the pace, like being in is like, okay, slow down, slow down. And I and a former student last year in the Cal State Northridge class who plays with one of the Beach Boys, and I went to watch her in the play and I was asking about these speakers, which are on stage, facing the players. And I said, so what are those about? She said, "Those help us stay synchronized." I said, "what do you mean?" She says, "the speakers next to me," she's the keyboard player. She said, "What I'm listening to in those speakers is the drumbeat. I need to make sure that I am playing synchronous with a drummer." And then what about the others? "Well, the others have their own speakers synchronized. They get to select who they wanna be synchronized to." And so I throw that out because we take for granted when we're listening to Coldplay, whoever these musicians are, we're not paying attention, at least I'm not paying attention to what if they're playing it... What if they're not as synchronous? How would that sound? 'Cause we're so used to it sounding pretty good.   0:23:00.1 BB: And, um, so there we go with synchronization and things fitting together, it's not just that the note was good, but is it played at the right rhythm and pace and, um, you know, with timing. So we talked about the Loss Function. We talked about last time about ripeness of fruit. Depending on what we're doing with the bananas, we wanna put it into a muffin mixed or eat, slice it up. Are we looking for something soft and hard? And I say that because what Dr. Taguchi is talking about is for a set of requirements, a min and a max, we're used to a sense of anything between the min and the max is okay, is "good."   0:23:45.2 BB: What Taguchi is saying is there's the possibility that there's an ideal place to be. And how do you know what that ideal place to be is? Well pay it, as you're delivering that piece of fruit to the next person, whatever it is, to the next person, deliver them something on the very low end of the requirement and see what they do with it. Then, it could be the next hour or the next time you give them something a little bit, a little bit further along that axis. How are they doing? How are they doing? How are they doing? And what you're looking to see is, how, how does, what is the effect of where you are within requirements on them? And this is how Toyota ends up with things being snap fit, because they're not just saying, "Throw everything to Andrew in final assembly." They all come together.   0:24:42.3 BB: My theory is they're doing what we do at home, at home I create the part, I cut the piece of wood. I'm, making the part, but I'm also using it. So I'm the one responsible for the part and integration, in a work setting that may not be the case. So what Taguchi is talking about is there could be a sweet spot in the requirement. And so towards that end, if we're talking about baseball in a strike zone, the World Series is teams are defined, not that I was gonna watch this year, the Dodgers, we're out of it. But in baseball, there's, for those understand baseball, there's a strike zone. If the ball somewhere in that rectangular ball zone is called a strike, outside is called a ball. And depending on who the batter is, it might not matter where the ball is in the strike zone, 'cause this player can't hit the ball anyway. But for another player, you may have to put that strike somewhere in particular to make it harder for them to hit. And that's what the loss function is about, is, is paying attention to how this is used and I wanna share a couple of stories that are, one that's kind of hard to believe. Well, I'd say one that's easy to believe. As you're driving down the highway, Andrew, in Los Angeles, right? You've lived out here.   0:26:07.2 AS: Oh, yeah.   0:26:07.4 BB: And no matter where you're driving down, right, do you stay to the left side of the lane, Andrew? Do you stay to the right side of the lane? Or do you kind of go down the middle of the lane, Andrew?   0:26:17.9 AS: I'm kind of middle of the lane guy.   0:26:20.5 BB: Yeah. And I think that people in the other lanes, you know, like that 'cause I know when I drift to the left, you're like, Hey, what are you doing? So being towards the middle is saying, I get the entire length of myself, but being down the middle is probably, what is that? It's minimum loss to myself and others. So I spoke at a, at a NASA conference ages ago and learned, this is uh '97, '98 timeframe, and I learned that the two greatest opportunities for destruction of the space shuttle are at launch, you can have a catastrophic failure, or at landing. And so at launch, it could be a problem with the engine, any of the engines or the solid rocket motors. Okay, so that I can understand. But I'm thinking, what's the issue with landing? Well, I say, well, the issue with landing at that time was the space shuttle's coming in at a couple hundred miles an hour.   0:27:24.9 BB: And when you're landing on a dry lake bed called Edwards Air Force Base, it's not a big deal. You got all that open space anywhere you want. You just get her down. But then in that timeframe, NASA converted. It was easier for them to have the shuttle land in Florida because they don't, they don't have to fly the shuttle across country. The shuttle is going to land there, launch there. So what they were talking about is, a lot of the pilots for the space shuttle are military pilots. They're used to landing in the center of the runway, Andrew, in the center of the runway. Why? 'cause they're landing on an aircraft carrier. And if I'm a little bit too far from the center, one way or the other, I either crash into the structure or I'm in the ditch and enter the water. So they've got these military pilots landing the space shuttle, wanting to be right down the center. And so they said what happened was if they land and they're a few feet to the left or to the right, going a couple hundred miles an hour, should they quickly steer the nose gear to be on the center?   0:28:32.5 BB: And he said, when you're going that fast, if you steer, you may cause the shuttle to just flip. When you're, once you touch down, don't steer to the center of the runway. Just go, go straight. No more steering. And they kept having this message and it kept being ignored and they kept having the message that kept being ignored so what was the solution, Andrew? You ready?   0:28:58.7 AS: Yes, here, tell me.   0:29:00.8 BB: They painted the center stripe to be wider. [laughter]   0:29:05.5 AS: I was thinking they were going to paint like 10 stripes so that there was no center one.   0:29:10.3 BB: So the center stripe is like three feet wide. You can't miss it. Well, and so I use that because what they're saying is when you land at the Kennedy Space Center, you could be off target left and right a lot, and it's not a big deal, we got a lot of space here.   0:29:29.4 AS: Yep.   0:29:29.6 BB: And what does that mean relative to loss of the vehicle, relative to bad things happening downstream? The loss function that Dr. Taguchi would describe as a parabola, and a parabola being a curve that has a minimum, and then the curve goes up faster and faster to the left, faster and faster to the right. That's if the parabola opens up, it could open down. But in this case, Taguchi draws the loss function as being opening upwards as like a bell and it gets steeper and steeper. But, what, but depending on your system, it could be very steep, which is you're landing on an aircraft carrier, or it could be very shallow.   0:30:13.6 BB: So when I ride on a bike trail in Santa Clarita where I live, I go down the middle of the bike trail. And to my right, depending on which direction I'm going is a split rail fence so I don't go into the Arroyo, which is this gully for all the water running off. And so there's... I go down there and the worst, I stay away from that split rail. When I ride in Long Beach where you went to college where our daughter lives, there is no split rail. So I stay not in the center when I ride in Long Beach. I ride to not the center of my lane, I steer closer to the to the center of the overall lane, which means I'm closer to the bikes going the other way. And that's and that's my understanding of: I go off that off that side is gonna be a bad day.   0:31:08.0 BB: And so that's what Taguchi is saying relative to the loss function. But I think a better way to think about loss, I think that may be kind of a weird concept. I think if we think about integration, and in making the integration easier or harder. So again, if we're talking about space shuttle landing, maybe the loss makes sense. But if we're talking about putting things together, we've talked about the snap-fit that Toyota pickup truck that Toyota was producing in the late 1960s. And what struck me when I first read that is, Holy cow, they've developed a system of hardware which goes together without mallets, and I immediately associated that with what I had heard that Dr. Taguchi was influencing, working with them, consulting with them back in the '50s. And I thought that kind of fits. And so why aren't things here in the States, why are they being banged together? Because over in the States, going back to Larry Sullivan's article, we've got an explanation of quality which is "part" focused. Everything meets requirements. And so what really amazed me is that Toyota in the late '60s, had things which were going together well.   0:32:25.9 BB: Ford in 1982/83 timeframe, they had been working with Dr. Deming for a couple years. They discovered that a transmission they had designed and were building was also being built by Mazda. And part because they owned one third of Mazda and they were outsourcing production. And these transmissions went into Ford cars. And what I've mentioned in a previous episode is that the Ford warranty people figured out that the Mazda transmission, which was designed by Ford, but built by Mazda, had one third fewer complaints than the Ford transmission designed by Ford, built by Ford. And in this study that Ford did, led by their executives, and then they sent out the documentation to their supply chain and it, and it talked about the need to... Their explanation was what Mazda was doing was what's known as "piece to piece consistency." And what they found is that the parts, instead of being all over the place in terms of dimensions and whatnot, that they were far more uniform, yet what you won't hear in that video, what they talk about is within Ford, we're all over the place we're consuming the greatest, a big portion of the tolerance. We've got scrap and rework. But these Mazda parts, boy they only consume a fraction of the tolerance compared to us. And that's the difference. And that's the difference.   0:34:02.6 BB: And so what I wanna close with is, having less variation is not the issue that gets us back to precision, but not accuracy. So my explanation is that Mazda was actually focusing on accuracy - being on target of the respective parts. And as a result, they got great functionality outta the transmission. But what Ford, at least, I'm willing to bet the path Ford was going, was saying, "oh look Andrew, their parts are more consistent than ours. Consistency is the name of the game." And that's precision, not accuracy. So what I wanted to do tonight is build upon what we did last time, bring it to this loss function as being a parabola. Depending on what happens downstream, you don't know how steep that parabola is, and not knowing how steep it is, we don't know how much effort we should spend on our end upfront providing those components to improve integration 'cause we don't know how bad the integration is.   0:35:17.6 AS: And that's a wrap. Bill, on behalf of everyone at the Deming Institute, I want to thank you again for the discussion and for listeners, remember to go to deming.org to continue your journey. If you want to keep in touch with Bill, you can just find him right there on LinkedIn. This is your host, Andrew Stotz, and I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes from Dr. Deming. "People are entitled to joy in work."

Dr. Steven J. Spear (DBA MS MS)Principal, HVE LLCSr. Lecturer, MIT Sloan SchoolSr. Fellow, Institute for Healthcare ImprovementCreator, See to Solve Gemba and Real Time Alert SystemsSSpear@MIT.edu www.SeeToSolve.com Steve@HVELLC.comKnowing how to get smarter about what you do and better at doing it, faster than anyone else, is critical, a bona fide source of sustainable competitive advantage.How so? All organizations share a challenge. They're trying to coordinate people—sometimes a few, sometimes many thousands—towards shared purpose, somewhere on the spectrum from upstream conceptualization and discovery, through development, design, and ultimately delivery. The problem is, particularly at the startof any undertaking, no one really knows what to do, how to do it, nor can they do it well. All that has to be invented, created, discovered…figured out. So, those who solve problems faster, win more. After all, if your team and mine chase similar goals (or we face off as adversaries), you succeed (or win) because you come to your moments of test better prepared than I do. Since knowhow and skills are not innate, you won because you solved your problems, better and faster than I didmine, gaining edges in relevance, reliability, resilience, and agility.Spear's work focuses on the theme of leading complex collaborative situations, imbuing them with powerful problem solving dynamics. The High Velocity Edge earned the Crosby Medal from ASQ. “Fixing Healthcare from the Inside” won a Harvard Business Review McKinsey Award, and five of Spear's articles won Shingo Prizes. “Decoding the DNA of the Toyota Production System” is a leading HBR reprint and part of the “lean” canon. He's written for medical professionals and educators in Annals of Internal Medicine, Academic Medicine, and Health Services Research, for public school superintendents in Academic Administrator, and for the general public in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, Fortune, and USA Today. High velocity learning concepts have been tested in practice, helping building internal capability for accelerated improvement and innovation at Alcoa—which generated recurring savings in the $100s of millions, Beth Israel Deaconess, a pharma company—with compressions by half in a key drug development phase, Intel, Intuit, Pittsburgh hospitals, Memorial Sloan Kettering, Mass General, Novartis, Pratt and Whitney—which won the F-35 engine contract with its pilot, DTE Energy, US Synthetic, and the US Army's Rapid Equipping Force. The Chief of Naval Operations made high velocity learning a service wide initiative, and Spear was one of a few outside advisors to the Navy's internal review of 2017's Pacific collisions. He was also an advisor to Newport News Shipbuilding bout introducing innovative systems on the Gerald Ford, the first in a new generation of aircraft carriers. The See to Solve suite of apps has been developed to support introducing and sustaining high velocity learning behaviors.At MIT, Spear teaches Leaders for Global Operations and Executive Education students, has advised dozens of theses, and is principal investigator for research titled “Making Critical Decisions with Hostile Data.” Spear's work history includes Prudential-Bache Capital Funding, the US Congress Office of Technology Assessment, the LongTerm Credit Bank of Japan, and the University of Tokyo. His doctorate is from Harvard, his masters in mechanicalengineering and in management are from MIT, and he majored in economics, at Princeton, to earn his bachelors.Spear lives in Brookline with his wife Miriam, an architect, and their three children, where he is on the board of the Maimonides School.Link to claim CME credit:

Can giving away too much in your free content damage your ability to make money in your online business? How do you know what you should be giving away for free and what you should be charging for? In this episode of High Value Questions I'll be answering this question: I have a Question about social media content and course creation.  I'm just wondering what's the biggest difference between what I put on social media and what I put in my actual course.   Do I offer up all the info on my social media but when they pay for my course they are getting the system…the step by step process and potentially access to me?  Should I be holding anything more back other than the step-by-step method? In this episode I'll be covering: 5 Frameworks you can use (and also mix and match) to determine what you can give away and what you should charge for in your online business. What, Why, How and ASQ methods. A breakdown of how Alex Hormozi's strategy of giving away his new book '$100 Million Leads' for free and how it not only helps other people but helps his business too. How I stay Motivated and the benefits of thinking bigger and having goals that are unrealistic! I want to answer your questions about how to start an online business and make money online with your knowledge! Let me know your biggest struggles when it comes to digital marketing, sales, content creation and online courses! You can submit your High Value Questions here: https://www.simonwparsons.com/questions If I've added value, would you please leave me some stars on Spotify or Apple? It just takes a second!

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Linkpost: A Post Mortem on the Gino Case, published by Linch on October 24, 2023 on LessWrong. As a followup to my previous linkpost to the New Yorker article covering the Ariely and Gino scandals, I'm linking this statement by Zoe Ziani, the grad student who first discovered inconsistencies in Gino's papers. Here she gives a blow-by-blow retelling of her experience attempting to uncover fraud, as well as telling a fairly harrowing story about how higher-ups in her organization attempted to silence her. I find this story instructive both on the object-level, and as a case study both for a) how informal corrupt channels tries to cover up fraud and corruption, and b) for how active participation is needed to make the long arc of history bend towards truth. In her own words: ____ Disclaimer: None of the opinions expressed in this letter should be construed as statements of fact. They only reflect my experience with the research process, and my opinion regarding Francesca Gino's work. I am also not claiming that Francesca Gino committed fraud: Only that there is overwhelming evidence of data fabrication in multiple papers for which she was responsible for the data. On September 30th, 2023, the New Yorker published a long piece on "L'affaire Ariely/Gino" , and the role I played in it. I am grateful for the messages of support I received over the past few weeks. In this post, I wanted to share more about how I came to discover the anomalies in Francesca Gino's work, and what I think we can learn from this unfortunate story. What is The Story? How it all began I started having doubts about one of Francesca Gino's paper ( Casciaro, Gino, and Kouchaki, "The Contaminating Effect of Building Instrumental Ties: How Networking Can Make Us Feel Dirty", ASQ, 2014 ; hereafter abbreviated as "CGK 2014" ) during my PhD. At the time, I was working on the topic of networking behaviors, and this paper is a cornerstone of the literature. I formed the opinion that I shouldn't use this paper as a building block in my research. Indeed, the idea that people would feel "physically dirty" when networking did not seem very plausible, and I knew that many results in Management and Psychology published around this time had been obtained through researchers' degrees of freedom. However, my advisor had a different view: The paper had been published in a top management journal by three prominent scholars… To her, it was inconceivable to simply disregard this paper. I felt trapped: She kept insisting, for more than a year, that I had to build upon the paper… but I had serious doubts about the trustworthiness of the results. I didn't suspect fraud: I simply thought that the results had been "cherry picked". At the end of my third year into the program (i.e., in 2018), I finally decided to openly share with her my concerns about the paper. I also insisted that given how little we knew about networking discomfort, and given my doubts about the soundness of CGK 2014, it would be better to start from scratch and launch an exploratory study on the topic. Her reaction was to vehemently dismiss my concerns, and to imply that I was making very serious accusations. I was stunned: Either she was unaware of the "replication crisis" in psychology (showing how easy it is to obtain false-positive results from questionable research practices), or she was aware of it but decided to ignore it. In both cases, it was a clear signal that it was time for me to distance myself from this supervisor. I kept digging into the paper, and arrived at three conclusions: The paper presents serious methodological and theoretical issues, the most severe being that it is based on a psychological mechanism (the "Macbeth Effect") that has repeatedly failed to replicate. The strength of evidence against the null presented in study 1 of th...

A New Perspective on Your Business Kerry Bass pt 2 When it comes to sharing your Faith, sometimes it can be difficult if you are in a business situation or at a business meeting. How will people react?  How little or how much should I share?  Is it OK to mention the Name of Jesus? These are just a few of the things that could be crossing your mind as you discuss business, ethics or whatever the meeting is about. What about that terrible word: CHANGE? Some organizations embrace it. Most employees want to avoid it!  Amen!  Don't shout me down when I'm preaching good! Whether you're a business leader, a change management professional, or simply someone intrigued by the intersection of society, technology and faith, I can guarantee you are going to get a lot of valuable information for today's interview. Amen! To help shed some insight into ways to handle these types of situations, our guest, Kerry L. Bass, will give us some insights and wisdom to use in business settings, etc. Kerry Bass is the CEO and Founder of “Potential to Reality Consulting,” which specializes in enterprise transformation, operational excellence and organizational change management. With over 25 years of experience, Kerry has led  transformation and change initiatives for government agencies, non-profits and commercial enterprises. Kerry's vast expertise is what drives the positive changes in the organizations he helps and for society as a whole. He is also the Senior Member of the “American Society of Quality” (or – ASQ) and is the Chairman of the “Center for Electoral Quality and Integrity.” Today is part TWO and the conclusion, of this great interview with Kerry Bass! Is AI something business owners need to embrace or shun? What is something you caution business leaders to watch out for when adopting AI in their business? I want to talk about, as I alluded to in the opening, is the Christian Faith in the organizational culture today. Is that something that is growing or diminishing in the companies that you have gone in to help? Do you see the value of integrity as something that helps Christian business leaders influence the office culture and those who they are working with at their company? Kerry, this has been so interesting. As we get ready to close, I want to ask you to provide our listeners some insight as to what you could potentially bring to their organizations if they would reach out to you with an inquiry? If someone wanted to get in touch with you, to ask a question or maybe perhaps to do an interview such as this… how can they do that? How can someone get in touch with you? I'll put links to all of this in the show notes below… Folks, technology is here to stay. What you may have thought as “top shelf technology” three years ago – well, today – it's possibly obsolete. You need to adapt to the times to stay competitive with (if not ahead of) your competition. Amen! I encourage you to reach out to Kerry L. Bass and his team. Ask a question. Perhaps this will be the first step to the transformation of your business that you've been wanting to see. But you will not know unless you reach out. Amen! What's the worst that can happen? You talk for a few minutes with Kerry Bass and decide it's not worth pursuing at this time. But, on the flip side, this could be the connection you've been praying about! This podcast, today, could be what God sent your way to give you the...

Helen Ramsbottom, RN, and Melody Hackfeld, RN, both case managers with Cook Children's psychiatric department, join the Raising Joy podcast to discuss how to manage a child's mental health care after they are released from an inpatient psychiatric unit. They also discuss resources and support groups for parents, such as Links of Hope.In addition, we learn about the ASQ tool, which is used by nurses in the emergency department at Cook Children's to identify suicidal patients. The tool is comprised of questions that are asked to every patient, regardless of their reason for visiting the emergency department. Since 2017, 640 suicidal children have been identified and received the support they needed. You can learn more about the ASQ tool in the Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing and on Checkup Newsroom. In this episode, you will learn:·        What to expect when your child is discharged from an inpatient psychiatric unit·        How to create a transition plan to help your child adjust to being home·        How to support your child's long-term mental healthListen in to learn how to help your child thrive!

A New Perspective on Your Business Kerry Bass pt 1 When it comes to sharing your Faith, sometimes it can be difficult if you are in a business situation or at a business meeting. How will people react?  How little or how much should I share?  Is it OK to mention the Name of Jesus? These are just a few of the things that could be crossing your mind as you discuss business, ethics or whatever the meeting is about. What about that terrible word: CHANGE? Some organizations embrace it. Most employees want to avoid it!  Amen!  Don't shout me down when I'm preaching good! Whether you're a business leader, a change management professional, or simply someone intrigued by the intersection of society, technology and faith, I can guarantee you are going to get a lot of valuable information for today's interview. Amen! To help shed some insight into ways to handle these types of situations, our guest, Kerry L. Bass, will give us some insights and wisdom to use in business settings, etc. Kerry Bass is the CEO and Founder of “Potential to Reality Consulting,” which specializes in enterprise transformation, operational excellence and organizational change management. With over 25 years of experience, Kerry has led  transformation and change initiatives for government agencies, non-profits and commercial enterprises. Kerry's vast expertise is what drives the positive changes in the organizations he helps and for society as a whole. He is also the Senior Member of the “American Society of Quality” (or – ASQ) and is the Chairman of the “Center for Electoral Quality and Integrity.” First question I always start with is this. Other than that brief in formation I just shared, can you tell us in your own words, “Who is Kerry Bass?” How did you get started in the type of consulting business you now operate? Is it true that, in order to effectively change an organization, you need to bring a change to the people?  Does that mean, “Change the People” as in the leadership?  Or changing the attitudes and perspectives of the people making up the organization? Lee Iacoca example with Chrysler – Change the People… How often do you run into the attitude of “But this is always the way we've done it…” I remember studying about Henry Ford and the assembly line. At first, it was debunked… but when he started turning out better cars and at a faster pace than the competitors, suddenly – everyone wanted to build an assembly line. And not just automobile plants either! Is this kind of how AI is shaking up the business landscape right now?  Something that's new, innovative – but that just about every organization will have to adapt or be left behind? Is AI something business owners need to embrace or shun? What is something you caution business leaders to watch out for when adopting AI in their business? I encourage you to reach out to Kerry L. Bass and his team. Ask a question. Perhaps this will be the first step to the transformation of your business that you've been wanting to see. But you will not know unless you reach out. Amen! CONTACT INFORMATION:

 The AAP/Bright Futures recommend screening all kids 12 years and older for suicide risk.  Realistically, how do you incorporate another screening tool into your practice? Join us as we learn from Dr. Alisa Minkin,  a primary care pediatrician  who has spearheaded an effort to integrate screening for suicide risk in her large network of  practices in the New York metropolitan area.  We discuss:*If you are already screening for depression with the PHQ9/A, do you really need a separate screener for suicide risk? (YES!)*What is an efficient, fast, effective way to screen for suicide risk?·      The Ask Suicide Screening Questionnaire (ASQ) - a 5 yes/no question tool*How do you handle positive ASQ screens?·      The ASQ toolkit provides follow-up questions to ask*At which visits do you screen for suicide?·      Well-visits for kids 11 years and older·      Mental health “sick” visits*What additional resources can help pediatricians in helping kids with suicidal thoughts?·      Consider hiring a social worker to help with mental health referrals ·      Call your state's child psychiatry access program hotline to consult with a social workers and/or child psychiatristAlisa Minkin, MD is a primary care pediatrician from Oceanside, New York, and a mental health champion.  She is  the host of the JOWMA podcast which shares preventative health information geared to members of the Orthodox Jewish community.Check out our website PsychEd4Peds.com for more resources.Follow us on Instagram @psyched4peds

Up next? Testing! Kelly Marie met with her therapist and they both agree that BPD may not be the correct diagnosis for her symptoms. In this episode, Kelly Marie discusses the autism self-assessments she completed online and the path forward in her mental health journey. Kelly took the ASQ-50 and the Cat-Q.  On the ASQ-50 she scored a 33 and on the Cat-Q she had an overall score of 160. Both are over the threshold for autism indication, but she knows a medical professional needs to be the voice of science and reason when considering an actual diagnosis.  RESOURCES Embrace Autism site for self-assessments : https://embrace-autism.com Call 988 - Suicide Prevention Helpline has someone for you to talk to 24/7  Text GO to 741741 to reach a trained crisis counselor.  Call 211 or visit www.211.org for help finding public services in your area.   Click Here to rate & review on Apple Podcast  Rate & Share this Podcast from Spotify Add this show to your collection on Pandora. Support the Show with a one-time donation Credits Hosted by Coach Kelly Marie, founder of Front Seat Life LLC IG @thefrontseatlife FB @thefrontseatlife Email FrontSeatLife@gmail.com  Produced & edited by Jazzy T IG @Jazzytonair  Podcast Like a Pro! Riverside.FM Promo Code JAZZYCAST for 15% off Remote Recording  www.JazzCastPros.com for help launching, branding or editing your podcast.   Check out other Podcasts on the JazzCast Pros Network: High Vibe Table Talks |Empowering your Self-Growth Journey  Fatha Torch, be the Dad You Wish You Had Getting Real with BOSSY | JazzCast Pros   Join Kelly Marie on this leg of her journey while she goes through the process of re-diagnosis and what finding the answers mean.  By offering yourself grace, patience and kindness while you build emotional safety you are creating an internal safe space to process, grow and heal. If you have already reached the active healing milestone, hold space for folks doing their best to get there. Together we can all #bethelight #MentalHealthMondays #Healing #Recover 

When you look at ISO 13485 or EU MDR or US FDA, they all want to see that you are reducing the risk for your products. But to do that you have to brainstorm and identify those risks. Usually, we follow ISO 14971 for that. But not all of your team is aware of this, and we are now short on time. So, what to do? Draft it by yourself or work with some colleagues. Naveen Agarwal will be sharing with us the best way to collaborate to create a successful Risk Management process. So, let's listen to that.  Who is Naveen Agarwal?  Dr. Naveen Agarwal has 20+ years of diverse industry experience in leadership roles ranging from R&D to Product Quality and Business Analytics. He holds a Ph.D. in Polymer Science & Engineering from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He is an ASQ certified Quality Engineer, a Manager of Quality and Operational Excellence, and a certified Project Management Professional. In his consulting practice, he works on strategic projects in Risk Management, Design Control, Post-Market Surveillance, and Quality Culture in the Medical Device Industry. In his spare time, he enjoys distance running, community work, and spending time with his family.  Who is Monir El Azzouzi?  Monir El Azzouzi is the founder and CEO of Easy Medical Device a Consulting firm that is supporting Medical Device manufacturers for any Quality and Regulatory affairs activities all over the world. Monir can help you to create your Quality Management System, Technical Documentation or he can also take care of your Clinical Evaluation, Clinical Investigation through his team or partners. Easy Medical Device can also become your Authorized Representative and Independent Importer Service provider for EU, UK and Switzerland.  Monir has around 16 years of experience within the Medical Device industry working for small businesses and also big corporate companies. He has now supported around 100 clients to remain compliant on the market. His passion to the Medical Device filed pushed him to create educative contents like, blog, podcast, YouTube videos, LinkedIn Lives where he invites guests who are sharing educative information to his audience. Visit easymedicaldevice.com to know more.  Link:  Naveen Agarwal Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/naveenagarwal/ Linkedin Post: https://naveenagarwalphd.substack.com/p/collaboration-is-the-secret-sauce-for-riskmgmt  Achieve Website: https://www.achievexl.com  Let Us Talk Risk Newsletter: https://naveenagarwalphd.substack.com/  Social Media to follow Monir El Azzouzi Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/melazzouzi Twitter: https://twitter.com/elazzouzim Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/easymedicaldevice Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/easymedicaldevice Authorized Representative and Importer services: https://easymedicaldevice.com/authorised-representative-and-importer/ Subscribe to our LinkedIn Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7051455462466023424

Melissa Stefko is a Senior Director of Quality at the FlexPro Group, a provider of professional services for the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industries. With experience in Quality Assurance and Quality Control, Melissa began her career as a microbiologist and has been working in the pharmaceutical industry since 2008. She recently moved into the professional services industry, where she helps pharmaceutical manufacturers add value to their operations.   Melissa holds a Bachelor's degree in Biology with a Minor in Chemistry from Florida State University, where she co-founded the Pre-Pharmacy Informational Leadership and Learning Society. She continued her education by obtaining a Master's in Business Administration, a Master's of Science in Biotechnology, and a Regulatory Affairs Certificate from the University of Maryland Global Campus. She is also certified as a Quality Auditor and GMP Professional through ASQ.   In addition to her work, Melissa is a member of several organizations, including the Regulatory Committee for the Alliance for Pharmacy Compounding, her local ASQ and RAPS Chapters, and the Steering Committee for the International Peptide Society. She believes in advancing the pharmaceutical industry through collaboration and knowledge sharing as well as expanding patient access to medications.

If you're feeling overwhelmed and frustrated with the product development process, constantly running into roadblocks and delays, then you are not alone! Many entrepreneurs face challenges in bringing their products to market, including misaligned goals, lack of communication, and inefficient processes. Perhaps you've already invested time and resources into product development, only to find out that the result doesn't meet customer needs or expectations.In this episode of The Seller Process Podcast, Gianmarco talks with Renaud Anjoran about developing new products effectively and mitigating risks as he guides entrepreneurs through the NPI process.Here's a breakdown of what to expect in this episode:• Discover the essential steps to effectively navigate the product development process.• Learn to identify and tackle risks in order to safeguard your project's success.• Uncover the critical role communication plays in ensuring smooth collaboration.• Adapt the development process to meet the unique needs of your product.• Recognize the value of seeking expert advice to enhance your project outcomes.Download “The 6 Phase NPI Process” by AGILIAN and start creating your next home-run product! About Renaud Anjoran:Renaud Anjoran is a Partner at Sofeast, a service provider that helps develop and manufacture new products in China & India. Sofeast sets up the supply chain management in a way that allows for transparency and control.Renaud has than 18 years of experience working on the ground in China. He holds several ASQ certifications including quality engineer and reliability engineer.He was quoted in Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal, New Yorker, Fortune, and the Los Angeles Times.Connect with Renaud AnjoranWebsite: https://www.sofeast.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/renaudanjoran/Twitter: https://twitter.com/ranjoran?lang=enYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/@SofeastLtdConnect with Gianmarco!Website: https://www.thesellerprocess.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/gianmeli/?hl=en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesellerprocessLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gianmarco-meli/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB07vjOEJnu3mhYxmoaVlegFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/gianmarco.meliTools & Useful ResourcesPickFu -  Polls & Split Tests - Perfect for split testing product variations before launching them. Also useful to optimize your listings by getting real instant data. Get 50% off your first poll with code: THESELLERPROCESS FBAExcel - Best Automation Tools - FBAexcel offers powerful tools built entirely on Google Sheets to help you automate keyword research, PPC optimization, metrics tracking, and more. Sign up for free through the link below to get "Keyword Dominator" 

What was discussed-·        Introduction of the host-Steven T. Snyder and what the podcast is about and what is intended to be delivered to listeners and why.·        The top reasons, advantages, and benefits of becoming a member of a Professional Society ·        Basic Benefits, Networking, Section meetings/outings, Training Education, Certification, Influence, Best Practices, and Exchanging ideas, but most importantly the relationships that can and do sometimes last an entire career or lifetime.·        How your career can be influenced by the involvement in Professional Societies, like AWS, ASNT, and ASQ specifically. Memberships-Professional -ResourcesWeldinghttps://www.aws.org/membershiphttps://www.sws.org.sg/membership-landing.aspx?pid=1https://www.cswip.com/about-ushttp://iiwelding.org/iiw-membershttps://www.awf-online.org/https://welding.org.au/membership/https://www.iccsafe.org/membership/join-icc-dues-applications/ NDThttps://asnt.org/MajorSiteSections/Membership/Join_Renew.aspxhttps://www.bindt.org/membership/https://ndtss.org.sg/about-ntdss/membership/http://www.apfndt.org/apfndt3.htmlhttps://www.icndt.org/Qualityhttps://asq.org/membershiphttps://www.quality.org/ircamembershiphttps://exemplarglobal.org/who-we-are/Scholarshipshttps://www.aws.org/foundation/page/scholarshipshttps://www.careersinwelding.com/scholarships/https://aSupport the showThank you for listening to this Episode. If you like what you're hearing, please do leave a comment or rating on the platform you may be listening on. We want to bring you more value-added content and your comments, ratings, or likes are a great benefit for us to continue. Email your thoughts, requests, and suggested topics to weldconsultant@mindspring.com Follow us on: https://twitter.com/weldsconsultant https://www.buzzsprout.com/1272620/13221743 https://www.instagram.com/pt.asianweldingspecialist/ https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090306085626 https://linktr.ee/asianweldingspecialist https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-snyder-5607356/If you like what you hear, please support us:https://patreon.com/weldndtqualitygurupodcastDonation to Orphanage in Indonesia: https://samiyahamalinsani.or.id/donasi-yuk/

In this episode, Brian talks with Agnieszka about his systematic approach to trading that is helping traders to take control of their profits and make them predictable. Brian's unique approach is born out of his experience as a Quality Assurance Engineer and he puts emphasis on the importance of a proper trading system.Brian stresses the importance of having the system in place right from the start, as most traders develop poor trading habits during their first few months.This beginning phase is where every day is often characterized by impulsive, emotional, undisciplined, and haphazard trading. Jumping from one approach to another, lured by the prospect of making quick profits or experimenting with different indicators and strategies, seeking the next big money-making technique. For Brian it is fairly simple. If you want to be a successful trader, there's three things that you need: a good system to start with, the skills and the knowledge, and an outside perspective such as a coach, because most traders limit themselves.About Brian McAboyBrian McAboy is known as “The Consistency Coach” as he brings a unique, unconventional and very effective approach to getting traders consistently profitable fast, as in a matter of weeks.  Brian's background as a Process Engineer and Quality Assurance Engineer give him perspectives that are completely different from most trading educators.  As a result, he will allow you to see your trading from a whole new angle, one which can definitely help you to be a better trader.On Brian's website you can check out “The Science of Consistency Applied to Trading” and also pick up a free copy of his wildly profitable report “The Proven Formula for Consistent Monthly Profits”.Contact Agnieszka Wood | Ahead Coach: Website: aheadcoach.comTwitter: @Ahead_CoachYouTube: @aheadcoachFacebook: Agnieszka WoodInstagram: ahead.coachLinkedIn: Agnieszka WoodContact Brian McAboy | Inside Out Trading: Website: insideouttrading.comTwitter: @TheTraderBrianYouTube: @TraderBrianFacebook: InsideOutTradingLinkedIn: Brian McAboy--Transcript[00:00:01.370] - Agnieszka WoodI am Agnieszka Wood and on today's show, I am very excited to introduce my very special guest, Brian McAboy. Brian is a consistency coach and he's helping traders to take control of their trading profits and make them predictable. I ask Brian to join us today to discuss the importance of psychology in trading. A very hot topic these days. Brian, after working with hundreds of traders over the last 17 years, found that most don't have psychological issues, that there is nothing wrong with them, that they don't need to fix themselves, and they just have a lack of trading issues. And it's a matter of the right training for their success to come quickly, easily, and very naturally. And since I am a trading mindset coach, predominantly helping traders to overcome the psychological barriers that keep them stuck in failing cycles, I thought it would be incredibly insightful for everyone that is listening to talk with Brian about our point of view on the real issue that prevents most traders from achieving success. Welcome to episode number five, following the Process. Hi, Brian, and welcome to the Confidence in Trading podcast. [00:01:25.540] - Brian McAboyWell, hello, and thank you for having me. I'm glad to be here. [00:01:28.270] - Agnieszka WoodBrian, your background is in mechanical engineering, and being ASQ certified quality engineer, you understand processes, systems, and how to get consistent results by design. Right. And for over 20 years, you have been helping people to make their professional lives more effective and efficient so they can have higher quality personal lives, right? [00:01:56.150] - Brian McAboyYes. [00:01:57.430] - Agnieszka WoodI find your approach incredibly interesting. I am a big fan of having routines that I guess are processes, in fact, because they assure that my days are efficient and my efforts are the most effective. But I also know that many people, not just traders, struggle to stick to their processes and routines. Why is that? What is your take on that? [00:02:23.630] - Brian McAboyWell, there are actually well, we need to distinguish between processes and routines. I look at routines as things that you do every day, regardless, okay, regardless of what the day is. You get up, you go to the shower, you get your coffee, brush your teeth, whatever. Those are your routine. [00:02:42.540] - Agnieszka WoodRight. [00:02:42.790] - Brian McAboyIt doesn't matter what's going on. That's going to be it. Processes are going to be more specific to what's going on at the moment. For example, with trade trading, I like to use the metaphor of a football coach. Every play in football is different, and the coach doesn't show up with just one play to use on every down. Some plays it's first and ten, others it's second and long, maybe third and short. And depending on the circumstances, he's going to use a specific play for those circumstances. Now, each of those plays is a predefined process. [00:03:18.910] - Agnieszka WoodOkay. So it's pretty much based on what you want to achieve in certain circumstances. Right. [00:03:26.950] - Brian McAboySame thing with the markets, because the markets aren't always the same. You might have a trending market, you might have consolidating market, right. Might have a reversing market. So the circumstances are different and there are very few strategies that you can use regardless of what the markets are doing. There are a few, but very few. And so you need to distinguish between, like I said, routines and processes. Processes are where you say, these are my circumstances, here's the appropriate process to apply. [00:03:53.760] - Agnieszka WoodOkay, so how does that apply then to trading strategy or a certain setup? Would you then say that if someone has strategy and for example, trade breakouts, right? Like I trade momentum stocks and I trade breakouts or breakdowns. The process for it depends on the market conditions. Right. I have to see like I mean, if the market is trending, that's probably not a very high probability that I get a breakout in a trend, not a trending market. What I'm saying, if it's in the range. Right. So does that mean that I would need another strategy for different type of market? [00:04:33.430] - Brian McAboyYeah, because well, okay, as far as process applied trading, one of my favorite questions to ask traders is what is a trading system? And so if I ask you what is a trading system? [00:04:51.390] - Agnieszka WoodYeah. So for me, trading system is my strategy. So what I trade and how I trade it. So I would define for myself, like, what do I need to see in order to enter what kind of parameters, in what kind of market conditions I'm looking for, my setup. So there have to be some sort of precondition if I'm even going to consider a certain instrument to trade, if it fits my parameters, and then defining parameters, where I enter, where I stopped out, and where I will be taking the profit and how I am managing my risk and how I manage my trade. Is that correct answer? [00:05:32.170] - Brian McAboyOkay, let's try this just for fun. What is a trading system in ten words or less? [00:05:39.780] - Agnieszka WoodOkay. How I do things, how I trade. [00:05:43.710] - Brian McAboyOkay, that's a good answer. Usually when I ask traders, they'll say, well, my system, it's my rules, or it's my rules and my indicators. That's usually the answer that I get. And the thing is, in truth, and looking at it from the quality assurance perspective, your trading system is what you do, right? [00:06:02.710] - Agnieszka WoodYeah, because we have to do what we do consistently. Consistently. [00:06:08.470] - Brian McAboyThe thing is, your system includes rules and indicators, but it's more than that, right? Because trading, if you think about it well, another question I like asking traders, what is trading? So to you, what is trading? [00:06:24.350] - Agnieszka WoodYeah, that's a very good question. So trading for me is to look for opportunities and get the most out of them, out of the opportunities that the market gives me. So looking basically for yeah, it's a really good question. I think that's it, yeah. Looking for market opportunities and trying to get the most to make the most out of my money with at least possible risk. What is trading for you? [00:06:53.090] - Brian McAboyWell, the answer that I usually get when I ask people that what is trading? They'll say, well, it's buying and selling securities. [00:07:00.150] - Agnieszka WoodYeah, that's shopping. [00:07:02.390] - Brian McAboyBut it's actively buying and selling versus compared to investing, where it's buy and hold. [00:07:07.210] - Agnieszka WoodRight. [00:07:07.790] - Brian McAboyTrading is you're buying and selling for profit. [00:07:10.420] - Agnieszka WoodRight. [00:07:10.920] - Brian McAboyAnd the thing is, if you really think about it, the act of trading though, is it's a decision making process.  [00:07:21.630] - Brian McAboyWe're looking at the charts or the news or whatever, taking in information. We evaluate it against certain criteria and then we draw conclusions and make decisions based on that evaluation. [00:07:33.830] - Agnieszka WoodRight. [00:07:34.530] - Brian McAboyAnd it's just a series of decisions. That's all trading really is. It's not like we're physically going down to a marketplace and exchanging goods and money. We're making decisions and just clicking on stuff on the screen. But it's really important to look at things that way when we're talking about consistency. Because instead of saying, well, I see this kind of a market move, or I see that kind of a market move, my indicator is saying that and I want to jump on that because it's an opportunity. It's like, well, no, that's where a lot of traders get screwed up and they wind up with poor consistency because they're just chasing whatever they see. [00:08:14.590] - Agnieszka WoodSo would you say that in order to achieve confidence in trading is basically a decision making process? You need to be consistently making the same decisions in the same situations? [00:08:28.290] - Brian McAboyYou need to be consistent in how you make your decisions. Yes. How you make your decision the same, but you need to make them in a consistent manner. [00:08:36.890] - Agnieszka WoodOkay, so the how would be then the process, how you define the process, how you will be making the decision. Okay. [00:08:43.530] - Brian McAboyOne of the biggest problems I've seen with traders is they're working with, well, another thing that's good to distinguish the difference between a strategy and a system. Because a strategy is not a system. They're not the same. [00:08:56.510] - Agnieszka WoodSo what's the difference? [00:08:58.330] - Brian McAboyThe strategy is how you plan to get in and out of the markets. Like, okay, I want to trade the trend. I'll get in at the beginning of the trend and get out when it's exhausted. That's a strategy. Your system is how are you going to do that 500 or 1000 times consistently? [00:09:17.250] - Agnieszka WoodRight. [00:09:18.290] - Brian McAboyThey're not the same. There are tons of great strategies out there that are not good. But that strategy by itself does not make a good system. And that's what a lot of traders are working with. They've got like a good idea for a system, but it's a lousy system because the way their system is put together, it's not built for consistency, it's not built for repeatability. [00:09:39.690] - Agnieszka WoodThat's so interesting and system because I always talk about to my students, I always talk about process and I talk in general about following the process. Do you see system as a process or are these two for you, different things? [00:09:54.240] - Brian McAboyOh, no, absolutely. The system is a process. [00:09:56.900] - Agnieszka WoodOkay. So we just call them differently. [00:09:59.050] - Brian McAboyYou ever heard of Edward Deming? [00:10:01.070] - Agnieszka WoodI have not. [00:10:02.400] - Brian McAboyHe's a quality guru back in the 70s. He's the American that the Japanese automotive manufacturers hired to help them come fix what they were doing. Because prior to him going out there, the Japanese were still recovering from World War II. But as far as making cars, they had the reputation of making cute, cheap little cars and they were popular, but everybody looked at them as, yeah, they're cute, but they're cheap and, you know, okay. And that was their, that was their perception. And they were struggling with that because they were, they were also having a hard time making money. They were having a hard time competing in the, in the world marketplace. Well, Demi came over there and he taught them that just going cheap on your materials and your equipment and not investing in training and good materials for making the cars and good technology. He taught them that if you focus on the process and you invest in your people, you invest in the equipment, you invest in good materials, that you'll actually save money because you're not incurring so much scrap and so much downtime and so much inefficiency. [00:11:10.010] - Agnieszka WoodRight. [00:11:11.830] - Brian McAboyAnd that's how during the Japanese took over the global automotive space as the perception of, hey, if you want a quality car, you'll buy Japanese. [00:11:30.280] - Brian McAboyYeah. It's a position they assume, and they've been able to maintain it very well. Matter of fact, if you remember Lexus, their big campaign when they launched the Lexus company, Toyota did their byline on their marketing was the endless pursuit of perfection. [00:12:17.120] - Brian McAboySo Deming was able to prove to them that if you want to make money and you want to have some security in your business yes. Focus on quality. And his whole thing was paying attention to the process because prior to Deming, quality was under the kind of mind frame of quality control where you have production running and then you have inspectors standing down the line, looking at stuff and kicking off the bad product and oh, this one's okay. Ship it. Quality assurance was Deming's approach, and he totally shifted the mentality from let's keep an eye on the product going down the line and just run to let's pay attention to the process and know that what we're sending down the line is good. [00:12:58.760] - Agnieszka WoodGot you. [00:12:59.950] - Brian McAboyAnd so one of his favorite quotes though, and that was the reason for the whole Deming story was one of his famous quotes is if you can't define what you're doing as a process, then you don't know what you're doing. [00:13:11.630] - Agnieszka WoodSo in fact, just going by that very inspiring story you just said, it is really about sort of preventing issues at the front instead of trying to deal with consequences. [00:13:25.900] - Brian McAboyRight, absolutely. [00:13:27.490] - Agnieszka WoodSo curing the source and not trying to get rid of the sickness on the other side, like just taking a pill because you have a headache. [00:13:37.180] - Brian McAboyRight, yeah. But with trading yeah, the whole thing I try to help people understand. In my experience, most traders, they're above average, just the population as a whole. I mean, if you think about it, in order to be in a position to trade, you kind of have to be above average, if you consider where average is. And so traders have already demonstrated that they have what they need. They've already demonstrated that they can earn money, that they can amass money and have money, they can deal with success and the self worth and just the fact that they're there in a position to trade with 20, 5100 thousand dollars, they've demonstrated that they have what it takes. [00:14:23.410] - Agnieszka WoodRight. [00:14:24.260] - Brian McAboyAnd so it's like, all right, if personally it's not you, you're not screwed up, well, what's the problem then? And that's why I like telling them. It's like no talking to people, you don't have psychological issues, you have lack of training issues, you're trying to do a challenging job and you've not been given proper training for it. And have you ever heard of the book The Peter Principle? Yes, excellent book. And if you remember from the book the main finding of that, because Lawrence Peter was hired to study American businesses and see why there was so much inefficiency, he said, well, there's a lot of bad management decisions. But the main thing that came out of his book and later became famous as the Peter Principle was in any hierarchy a person will rise to their level of incompetence and then remain there. And I find that very applicable to traders because his whole point in saying that was a person, they'll have certain personal traits and abilities and that's why they keep rising through the ranks. Bob's over here and he's doing a great job, so let's promote him. He's still doing a great job, so let's promote him. [00:15:33.340] - Brian McAboyAnd then they're going to keep promoting him until he hits a level where he doesn't have the skills to be doing really good anymore and so stop promoting him. And so by definition, yeah, that's his level where of incompetence, where he's not doing so great anymore. But what most traders are in the position of is they've been doing well with their job. Maybe they're an engineer, they're a doctor, whatever, and then they kind of promote themselves into a new position of trading and it requires a skill set that they don't have, but they just kind of jump into it. And so they're struggling from the Peter Principle, it's because, yeah, you've got the skills that you've had before, but none of them are really transferable into trading. [00:16:15.390] - Agnieszka WoodRight. [00:16:17.450] - Brian McAboyBut the thing is, that can last indefinitely because the markets and if they don't seek out the proper training, the markets aren't going to teach them. The markets are just going to rough them up. No, you're making another mistake. No, you're doing it wrong again. But that's all the feedback you get as a trader. Yeah. [00:16:34.510] - Agnieszka WoodAnd eventually you lose confidence in yourself and you start hesitating whether you actually are fit for that. [00:16:40.990] - Brian McAboyRight. [00:16:41.180] - Agnieszka WoodBecause you say, okay, there's nothing wrong with you. But eventually, when you keep failing, people I talk to all the time, they come to me and they have hardly any self confidence left because they think there's something wrong with them. [00:16:57.530] - Brian McAboyTrue. Now, I'm not saying that there aren't psychological issues per se, there aren't psychological issues that they bring as a person. They might have psychological issues to deal with from their trading experience. Traumatic. Yes. The failures. And the other thing, and this is another one that I really try to impress upon people, is I like calling it the kiss of death. And that's where, at the very beginning of a trading career, it's when you place that first trade with real money. [00:17:29.790] - Agnieszka WoodRight. [00:17:31.150] - Brian McAboyIf your sole experience prior to that is, okay, I heard about trading, watched a couple of YouTube videos, and I called up a broker and they opened an account and funded it. And they gave me the SIM account so I can their platform and play for two weeks, maybe jump into their trading room and try to figure out what they're doing watching their traders in the trading room. And then it's like, bam. They'd say, all right, I get it, and they go live. But they only know enough to be dangerous. They know enough how to place trades, but they don't really know what they're doing. And so as soon as they place that first trade, though, now they're in this emotional state. They're in a mentally unprepared state and they kind of know it. There's that anxiety. They're way outside their comfort zones and they start trading with real money. And it's the emotional ride and yeah, it's the euphoria when they hit winners and it's, oh, my God, I suck when I hit losers. But the thing is, they go through weeks, sometimes months, sometimes years of this. [00:18:29.840] - Agnieszka WoodI know, tell me about it. [00:18:32.290] - Brian McAboyWhat they're doing, though, is and they don't realize it, is they're training themselves during this time. It's what they're practicing and ingraining into their head. Their brains getting absolutely. Their emotional system is getting wired. Their emotions are getting wired in their nervous system. It's all this wiring and programming that's going on. And their perspectives are getting established, their emotional responses are getting established, their thought processes are getting established. And it's all this horrible normal that gets drilled into them. Psychological aspect. Yeah. That needs to be addressed. But it does have psychological aspects. But at the core of it is you're suffering from bad training. [00:19:18.610] - Agnieszka WoodSo at what point? Because if you have a system, right? So let's say someone comes to you and they work with you and they work out their system, now they know exactly what they need to do, what happens then? Do they easily follow the system? Because I wonder if having the system in itself already guaranteed that people will follow it, what's your take on it? [00:19:45.370] - Brian McAboyOf course not. [00:19:46.490] - Agnieszka WoodSo what is the reason why people don't follow or I mean, they want to follow, but they don't follow the process. What do you think? [00:19:53.870] - Brian McAboySeveral reasons. First of all, the strategy or the system itself is not the key. It's not. And I can prove it in four words. No. The best strategy on the planet, best one ever invented. If you can follow this strategy, you will make money. Guaranteed, 100%. You ready? Four words. [00:20:22.520] - Brian McAboyYeah. Buy low, sell high. That's the best strategy on the planet. [00:20:27.710] - Agnieszka WoodThat was my very first strategy. The first time I saw the chart, I was like, this is what I'm going to do. I will buy low and sell high. [00:20:37.290] - Brian McAboyEvery strategy, if you boil it down to its essence, is the same thing. [00:20:40.930] - Agnieszka WoodRight? [00:20:41.680] - Brian McAboyJust like every diet is exercise less or exercise more and eat less. [00:20:47.390] - Agnieszka WoodRight. [00:20:48.180] - Brian McAboyEvery diet, fitness program, weight loss program, whatever, it always boils down to those two things. Move more, eat less, just simplify things. So it's not in the strategy. There are several things to it. The first thing you do need to have a good system. That's important. Just like with discipline. Yes, of course. You have to show up every day and not be just stupid about what you're doing. Just like when you get in your car and drive, you can't just randomly change lanes and go through lights and all that kind of stuff. You do have to have enough discipline to function normally. [00:21:22.660] - Agnieszka WoodRight. [00:21:23.100] - Brian McAboyBut it shouldn't take some ironclad abnormal level of discipline. A normal amount of discipline is really all it should be. [00:21:31.450] - Agnieszka WoodBut there is something in human nature, and I'm sure when you were working in quality assurance, that when implementing new systems into companies, for example, there is this reluctance to change and fear of change, or where people let's say within a company that you have ever worked or consult for were people very excited and say, hey, we have a new system, let's implement it? Or did you have to push it through? Or was there any resistance for people to actually be able to do that, to implement that new system and follow it? Because that is what I see. That's a huge problem. People have systems and then they don't follow it. They have rules, they don't follow it. There is something that kind of they might follow it. And I remember it from myself. I would stay disciplined for a period of time, and then my rules would go out of the window. [00:22:27.330] - Brian McAboyWhy does that happen again? If you go back to your early days in trading, what were you practicing? What were you ingraining as your initial habits? I know for me, like my first several months of trading, I was practicing bad trading every day. That is true. Yeah, I'm seeing new stuff. Yeah, I'll try that. Oh, I'll try that. That looks like that makes money. I'll try this indicator. So I was practicing jumpy, emotional, undisciplined, random, scattered trading every day. And that's what I was practicing for months. So yeah. Is that something that's going to probably come back at a later time or maybe just persist, especially if I keep doing it? Sure. Behavioral psychology, you do something for long enough, it's going to be wired into you. [00:23:18.990] - Agnieszka WoodThat's right. [00:23:20.530] - Brian McAboyIt's not always easy. [00:23:22.100] - Agnieszka WoodSo basically everything that has to do with psychology, with changing your habits and building the proper system, should come at the front of trading education. Right. So while you're learning how to trade and let's say the technical analysis and you learn about the market, this should just be logical part of it, right, to set yourself up for success just. [00:23:46.750] - Brian McAboyLike any other job. [00:23:48.010] - Agnieszka WoodWhy is it not like this in trading? Because in my experience, there is really not, at least when I started, now there is much more talk about mindset. And actually, you are the first person that I have came across who is helping traders to set the system and not just sell some $1 million strategy to trade. And a lot of times still, when I talk to people, they go, yeah, mindset. Yeah. Now, everyone knows psychology is an issue. Everyone knows, okay, I do need a system, but somehow they put it away and they think, yeah, maybe one day I'll take care of it. In the meantime, losing money. [00:24:35.770] - Brian McAboyWell, and part of that, again, comes from just the traders who we are as a population generally above average, intelligence wise, success wise. We're used to being able to and you've experienced this yourself, where it's like, yeah, I'll give that a try. And you jump into it and you figure it out and you make it a success. And so as traders, that element of personal confidence that, yeah, I can figure it out. I'm struggling, but I'll get there. I know that I will. And so that's part of where that comes from. Now, there's also an element of false confidence that's a huge part of trading, and that isn't helped by all the shysters out there and brokers. Yeah, look how easy it is. The guy selling the strategies. It's like, look, the chart went up, and we entered here, and we got out here. We made all this money, and you can do it, too, right? And everybody's like, oh, wow. Yeah. I mean, the worst at this one. I still can't believe it. I don't know if you heard of Dean Graziosi. [00:25:40.120] - Agnieszka WoodOh, yes. [00:25:42.110] - Brian McAboyI get this mailer. He's got a thing going on at a hotel, a live seminar, and he's talking about the 37 habits of successful people. Well, I get there nothing to do with habits. It's a pitch for a trading program. There's this guy comes out in the front of the room, and he's got this charisma about him. And he's talking to the crowd, and he's just getting to know him. And he's kind of telling his story, his personal story. Not nothing to do with trading yet, but he gets everybody all warmed up and then he's like so who likes to make money? And can you click on green? Can you click on red? Do you think you can do that? And it was literally that simple, not even showing a chart, but just, like, a green triangle and a red triangle up on the paper on the screen behind it. And then he's back to just kind of schmoozing everybody, and then he's like, do you think you could do this? At the end of, like, 60 Minutes, there's this huge table rush, and everybody's running to the back of the room to buy his $1,000 trading thing. [00:26:44.050] - Agnieszka WoodOh, wow. That's incredible. [00:26:46.310] - Brian McAboyKidding me? Not only did he not explain trading at all or even what the hell they're talking about, it's just can you click on this? Can you click on that $1,000 running back there to sign up? So I walked around the rest of the afternoon, just handed my car to people saying, go get your money back. Call me. Don't do it. Lose money. Seriously. I'm watching them, and I'm looking and I'm looking around the room, and everybody's got their glossy eyes smile on their face and their mouths. Oh, yeah. [00:27:16.810] - Agnieszka WoodThis is so sad. I find it really sad because one of the reasons that I'm here and doing what I'm doing and helping people to get out of that mode of, first of all, I need to trade. I need to make this money, but mostly of the mode of losing money, because there is I mean, you work so hard for the money that you then put into your trading account, and you just give it away, just like it would be much better to just to give it to charity, right? [00:27:55.510] - Brian McAboyWell, you think that's bad, go talk to somebody. And I know this is going to sound terrible, but it's true in my experience. Anyway, the younger generation, like kids in their 20s, right? They're learning to trade on Reddit and with cash app on their phone, and they're calling and trading. Oh, yeah, I'm in a Robin Hood and all that. And I'm like, oh, my God. [00:28:20.340] - Agnieszka WoodYeah, that's a new generation. And you know what? [00:28:23.430] - Brian McAboyThey're throwing tons of money into it. [00:28:25.670] - Agnieszka WoodYeah. [00:28:26.290] - Brian McAboyThis one guy, he's lost over 20 grand. He's a young guy, he's already lost over 20 grand, and he's still putting money every week. And I'm like, Dude, stop. [00:28:36.060] - Agnieszka WoodWell, I think at some point I'm thinking there is probably also they have different mentality, and maybe their mentality, in a way, they're not worrying that much about money, which can be blessing and a curse, because a lot of times when you do worry about money and you trade, it sends you basically no way, right? Because now you're trading out of fear. [00:28:59.070] - Brian McAboyYeah, that doesn't work. [00:29:00.300] - Agnieszka WoodBut if you don't care about money, especially if it's not your money, if you get it, I don't know, maybe from your parents to find your account just to play. Because I don't know, I'm not sure where young people have that amount of money. Unless they made it in bitcoin. Because there's a lot of Bitcoin millionaires, right? But regardless how much money they have, there's no reason to throw it away for nothing, right, unless they learn from the mistakes. Expensive lessons. [00:29:35.210] - Brian McAboyYeah, true. [00:29:36.350] - Agnieszka WoodHow did you even start trading? Because you came from the quality assurance. Did you think, like, hey, I can use this in trading, or were you always into stock market? [00:30:05.070] - Brian McAboyBut as far as trading, back in the days when the Internet was like brand new, mid 90s, just taking off, you see the billboards say www and that's all. And it's like back in the days when you still place trades by picking up the phone and calling your broker to place a trade. [00:30:22.410] - Agnieszka WoodRight. [00:30:22.900] - Brian McAboyWhen I got started and anyway, there was this guy who had a direct mail service, Ken Roberts. You get this sales letter and you read through it, and it's a story about how he ran across these guys, telling him about the best business in the world. You get to the end of the end of it, and he's selling a book called The Best Business in the World, and it's about futures trading. It's a great direct ad, direct mail campaign. It's a huge success. And he got tons of people into trading, me included, and that's where I got my start and the interest in it all. So as far as a business to pursue, it's like, yeah, sure, it. Sounds great. Get out of the corporate job. So that appeal and that whole path to being able to leave the corporate world, have control over your time, have some freedom, money, all that kind of stuff. Sure it's got a big appeal, but that's where I got started. And it was funny. It wasn't until 99 when I first actually started actively trading, I just dabbled a little here and there. But yeah, that's how I got started, was actually working with a broker over the phone and placing trades that way and eventually moving online and all that. [00:31:28.780] - Agnieszka WoodThat's just totally different world. I've seen it only in a movie with Leonardo DiCaprio. [00:31:36.580] - Brian McAboyOh, the Wolf of Wall Street. [00:31:38.010] - Agnieszka WoodThe Wolf of Wall Street. [00:31:50.640] - Brian McAboyNo, actually no. I even got Jordan Belfort's book, The Way of the Wolf. Yeah, his whole thing was he was a great salesman. [00:32:01.360] - Agnieszka WoodYeah, definitely. [00:32:03.080] - Brian McAboyHe was a great trader. He was a great salesman. [00:32:05.180] - Agnieszka WoodSo how did you started to work with traders from trading to actually helping traders? [00:32:12.210] - Brian McAboyWell, I left the corporate world in 2005, just got a new boss that I just couldn't work with and resigned and was actually going to start a mortgage company. I was in the process of starting it. And I had run an ad for Originators, and this one gal who applied, I'm interviewing her for the loan originator job and she's telling me about how she had just gotten her certification as a life coach. [00:32:35.210] - Agnieszka WoodAll right. [00:32:35.840] - Brian McAboyWith specialization in emotional intelligence. And I'm like, well that's cool. I've been through that training where I work emotional intelligence training for managers in the workplace. And so we're talking about emotional intelligence and stuff, and I'm asking her about the training. It's like, heck, I didn't know they had schools for this certifications and everything. And she's like, yeah, it's actually a formal school and you can go there and get different certifications and specializations. I'm like, wow, so how do they teach you to get clients as far as your business, your practice now, right? And are you going for corporate contracts? And she's like, yeah. And I'm like, oh, that sucks. Corporations love abusing vendors. And it's like, no, I said, you really need to be over here talking to traders because you got a whole pile of people that their biggest problem is keeping handling their emotions to keep from making bad decisions, taking a financial beat, right? And so she's like, okay, well, and that sounds a whole lot better than beating my head on the corporate door. And so we talked about starting a company together where I would help her customize her coaching for traders, right? [00:33:42.630] - Brian McAboyAnd also do the marketing, introduce her to the trading world. And so we filled out the articles of organization, formed the corporation, got the bank accounts open, and we're ready to go live and she backed out day one and just got cold feet. And I'm like, You've got to be kidding me. Fine, I'll do it myself because I've been through the emotional intelligence training. I know what it's like to be a trader. [00:34:36.950] - Brian McAboyAnd I'm thrilled that it happened because at the same time the mortgage industry was taking a turn and it's like cool. Great. And love trading, love working with traders. It's been an adventuresome ride, of course. Definitely lessons learned along the way, some ups and downs. But I've had the opportunity to meet some really excellent, excellent people when I was first starting out. Ran across a few guys who at the time were pretty prominent and well established in the trading space and they were extremely helpful to me. Me being a nobody and being brand new to it all. Shout out to Mark McCray and Norman Hallett, a couple of great guys who were again, very gracious is the best word I can find for it because they had no reason to be helping me out aside from just the fact that they were good guys and it was excellent. [00:35:30.260] - Agnieszka WoodThat is so wonderful. And that's exactly also my experience that I have entered the trading market as a coach three years ago and I have had met so many angels, I call them my angels on my way, that it's just incredible how helpful people are and without any expectations, without asking anything back for it. And it's just the will to help within this community when you meet the genuine people, you know what I mean, because there's also a lot of people that are trying to sell you something, but you can see them from far coming up. But in general, the community is absolutely heartwarming and I love to be in the circle because the trading world is pretty harsh. Right. It's like when you are a trader, you are there on your own and it plays on your emotions and you have to stand really solid in your shoes. So all the support you can get is really important. So where the traders can find you, if you say okay, if someone says okay, I have a strategy, but I know I have to focus on my process and I'm getting my mindset side now. [00:36:48.120] - Agnieszka WoodAll good. But I still feel like there is still something that I need to improve from the process point of view where they can find you. [00:36:58.500] - Brian McAboyWell, created the site Inside Out Trading a long time ago and yeah, that's where you can find me. And as far as what the traders, I mean, really to me, it's fairly straightforward and really it's this simple. Basically, if you want to be a successful trader, there's three things that you need. You do have to have a good system to start with. Not just a good strategy, but a good system. You got to have skills and know how and knowledge so that's your competencies. And then you really need outside perspective because what I find for most traders is you're your own limitation. They're not knowing. You can't see what you can't see and you don't know what you don't know. And again, the markets are not going to tell you. They'll just take your money and keep telling you that you're screwing something up, but they're not going to tell you what. [00:37:48.600] - Agnieszka WoodRight. [00:37:49.080] - Brian McAboyAnd so until you get that outside perspective, it can take years to figure it out. It's just this is not an occupation that lends itself to being figured out. It's not. [00:37:58.760] - Agnieszka WoodAnd when you say outside perspective, what do you mean exactly with that? [00:38:03.050] - Brian McAboyHiring a coach, somebody that you can talk to and get the verbal exchange and the feedback and ask questions and they can ask you questions to find out where you're at and find out what you're missing and maybe where you've been seeing, maybe where you've gotten some bad information along the way and help you correct that. Because again, if you're not getting that outside perspective, you can't see it and you're not going to be able to do anything about it if you don't even know it's there. And maybe you do recognize it, but you don't know how to fix it, right? [00:38:34.050] - Agnieszka WoodAnd that is so in line actually also with if you talk about mindset, because I always say mindset is you set your mind on something and then you are just in a tunnel vision. So you need to get outside perspective and look at other ways of doing things. And you have to look at yourself from outside so you actually can see what mistakes you're doing and the behaviors and everything. So it's all about getting that other perspective and being willing to look at yourself in the first place. Right. [00:39:09.440] - Brian McAboyWell, the other thing with the outside help though, again, there are skills that this job takes, right? It's not just am I able to place trades, there's a whole list of other skills that you need to be really fully self sufficient and truly independent as a trader. And again, these things, they're not easy to just figure out. You can if you don't mind investing years to figure it out, it's a whole lot more sensible to say I want to get some help from somebody who's been there and figured it out already and I'm glad to pay them because they're going to save me years and tons of time and money along the way. It's just like people go to college. I mean, I went to college and the whole point is you say all right. I'm going to invest four, six or eight years of my life and pay a ton of money for it because I know that when I come out the other side, I'm going to be in so much better position to have the lifestyle that I want. [00:40:14.140] - Agnieszka WoodRight. And a lot of people cut themselves short with trading, right. They say, okay, I want to make, I don't know, $10,000 in a month, but I don't want any help. I don't know how am I going to achieve this, but I also don't want to invest in myself to learn how to achieve that. So you're setting yourself up for failure in that case, right? [00:40:41.690] - Brian McAboyYeah. And part of its perspective on oneself, self image and beliefs. Totally, yeah. Am I worth in investing in? [00:40:50.950] - Agnieszka WoodYeah. The self worth is a huge issue for a lot of people a lot of times. Also, market will contribute even extra to that self worth. And the fact that people are used to judging their self value by what they have and what they possess, that is an extra trigger that market gives you because when you lose money, it takes away from your self worth. So this whole mix of things is just taking away a lot from your confidence and it's just slowing you down incredibly well. Thank you so much, Brian. This was such an inspiring conversation. And thank you so much for sharing your views. And I'm sure that this have created so much clarity to the audience and to people who are trading and still wondering what is the process? I have a strategy or I trade bullish flags. Is that my process? So that brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you so much, Bran, for joining us and for this candid conversation today. It was a true pleasure to have you here. [00:42:08.270] - Brian McAboyLikewise. Yeah, thanks for having me. I very much enjoyed it. I love chatting with you. It's always fun. [00:42:14.410] - Agnieszka WoodWonderful. I hope that it will help traders who are listening today to get some perspective and ideas to go back and review the way they trade, find the bottlenecks and start taking measures to make their system more efficient and more effective. Thank you so much for listening to the Confidence in Trading podcast. If you enjoy my show, please rate and review it on Apple podcasts and be sure to subscribe so you can come back for real life conversation in the next episode. Until then, this is Agnieszka Wood from Ahead Coach. And don't forget, you too can realize your dream without losing yourself and your confidence in the process.  Contact Agnieszka Wood | Ahead Coach: Website: aheadcoach.comTwitter: @Ahead_CoachYouTube: @aheadcoachFacebook: Agnieszka WoodInstagram: ahead.coachLinkedIn: Agnieszka WoodYou can email me at launchyourlife@aheadcoach.com

Videos: Heather Mac Donald On How The Delusion of Diversity Destroys Our Common Humanity(11:02) This intense AI anger is exactly what experts warned of, w Elon Musk. (15:50) The FTX corruption is even worse than we thought | Redacted with Clayton Morris (13:00)   Almonds can help you cut calories University of South Australia, November 20, 2022 Weight loss is never an easy nut to crack, but a handful of almonds could keep extra kilos at bay according to new research from the University of South Australia. Examining how almonds can affect appetite, researchers found that a snack of 30-50 grams of almonds could help people cut back on the number of kilojoules they consume each day. Published in the European Journal of Nutrition, the study found that people who consumed almonds – as opposed to an energy-equivalent carbohydrate snack – lowered their energy intake by 300 kilojoules (most of which came from junk food) at the subsequent meal. “Our research examined the hormones that regulate appetite, and how nuts – specifically almonds – might contribute to appetite control. We found that people who ate almonds experienced changes in their appetite-regulating hormones, and that these may have contributed to reduced food intake (by 300kJ).” The study found that people who ate almonds had 47 per cent lower C-peptide responses (which can improve insulin sensitivity and reduce the risk of developing diabetes and cardiovascular disease); and higher levels of glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (18 per cent higher), glucagon (39 per cent higher), and pancreatic polypeptide responses (44 per cent higher). Glucagon sends satiety signals to the brain, while pancreatic polypeptide slows digestion which may reduce food intake, both encouraging weight loss. “Almonds are high in protein, fibre, and unsaturated fatty acids, which may contribute to their satiating properties and help explain why fewer kilojoules were consumed.” The findings of this study show that eating almonds produce small changes to people's energy intake, Dr Carter says this may have clinical effects in the long term. Probiotics help maintain a healthy microbiome when taken with antibiotics Texas Christian University, November 18 2022.  A systematic review published in the Journal of Medical Microbiology helps answer the question concerning whether probiotics should be taken along with antibiotics to support gut health.  Although probiotics decrease the adverse gastrointestinal effects caused by antibiotics, their ability to preserve intestinal microbial composition that is negatively impacted by antibiotic therapy is not well understood.  “Like in a human community, we need people that have different professions because we don't all know how to do every single job,” she explained. “And so, the same happens with bacteria. We need lots of different gut bacteria that know how to do different things.” While it is well known that antibiotics destroy some beneficial intestinal microorganisms, some healthcare professionals have expressed a concern that administering probiotics to antibiotic-treated patients could further alter the established gut microbe balance. The review included 29 studies published during a 7-year period. The authors concluded that consuming probiotics with antibiotics can prevent or reduce some changes caused by antibiotics to the microbiome. “When participants take antibiotics, we see several consistent changes in some bacterial species,” Dr Marroquin observed. “But when treatment was combined with probiotics, the majority of those changes were less pronounced and some changes were completely prevented.” New study shows repeated stress accelerates aging of the eye University of California, Irvine, November 21, 2022 New research from the University of California, Irvine, suggests aging is an important component of retinal ganglion cell death in glaucoma, and that novel pathways can be targeted when designing new treatments for glaucoma patients. The study was published today in Aging Cell. Along with her colleagues, Dorota Skowronska‐Krawczyk, Ph.D., at the UCI School of Medicine, describes the transcriptional and epigenetic changes happening in aging retina.  The team shows how stress, such as intraocular pressure (IOP) elevation in the eye, causes retinal tissue to undergo epigenetic and transcriptional changes similar to natural aging. And, how in young retinal tissue, repetitive stress induces features of accelerated aging including the accelerated epigenetic age. Aging is a universal process that affects all cells in an organism. In the eye, it is a major risk factor for a group of neuropathies called glaucoma. Because of the increase in aging populations worldwide, current estimates show that the number of people with glaucoma (aged 40-80) will increase to over 110 million in 2040. In humans, IOP has a circadian rhythm. In healthy individuals, it oscillates typically in the 12-21 mmHg range and tends to be highest in approximately two thirds of individuals during the nocturnal period. Due to IOP fluctuations, a single IOP measurement is often insufficient to characterize the real pathology and risk of disease progression in glaucoma patients.  Long-term IOP fluctuation has been reported to be a strong predictor for glaucoma progression. This new study suggests that the cumulative impact of the fluctuations of IOP is directly responsible for the aging of the tissue. Researchers now have a new tool to estimate the impact of stress and treatment on the aging status of retinal tissue, which has made these new discoveries possible. In collaboration with the Clock Foundation and Steve Horvath, Ph.D., from Altos Labs, who pioneered the development of epigenetic clocks that can measure age based on methylation changes in the DNA of tissues, it was possible for researchers to show that repetitive, mild IOP elevation can accelerate epigenetic age of the tissues. What do people experience at the border between life and death? University of London & New York University, November 20, 2022 A new study on near-death experiences featured 567 men and women whose hearts stopped while hospitalized in the United States and the United Kingdom. Out of 28 survivors of cardiac arrest interviewed as part of the study, 11 recalled memories suggesting consciousness while undergoing CPR.  Additional cardiac arrest survivors provided self-reports about what they experienced while their hearts stopped. Reports included perceiving separating from their bodies and meaningful examinations of their lives.  Researchers discovered spikes of brain activity up to an hour into CPR.  Dr. Parnia, who served as lead investigator of the study, explained that he and the other researchers undertook this research in an attempt to scientifically explore something that health professionals have discussed anecdotally for decades: The similar stories people revived by cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) often tell about the time when their hearts stopped. “For decades now, millions of people who've gone through this have reported having lucid heightened consciousness, even though from the perspective of their doctors they were not conscious and they were in death,” Dr. Parnia told MNT. The study centered around 567 men and women who received CPR after their hearts stopped beating while at one of 25 participating hospitals in the United States and the United Kingdom.  When health practitioners began CPR on a patient whose heart stopped, researchers rushed to the scene, bringing along a portable electroencephalogram, or EEG, to monitor electrical activity in different parts of the brain, and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to measure oxygen saturation of superficial brain cortex regions. Taking care not to get in the way of health practitioners performing CPR, researchers also clamped a tablet computer above the patient's head. The tablet was connected to Bluetooth headphones which were placed on the patient's ears. Of 567 subjects, 213 or about 38% experienced sustained return of spontaneous circulation, meaning their pulse was restored for 20 minutes or longer. Only 53, or fewer than 10% of the participants, lived to be discharged from the hospital. Of those 53, 25 were unable to be interviewed by researchers due to poor health. The remaining 28 participants were interviewed 2 to 4 weeks after cardiac arrest depending on their recovery.  Of the 28 participants interviewed, 11 — or 39% — reported having memories during cardiac arrest. Two of the 28 participants could hear the medical staff working while receiving CPR. One participant recalled seeing the medical staff working and could feel someone rubbing his chest.  Using the near-death scale, six participants had transcendent experiences. Three participants reported dream-like experiences, which included a singing fisherman.  Six of the 28 participants interviewed remembered the experience of dying. These recollections included one person who heard a deceased grandmother telling her to return to her body.  “We characterize the testimonies that people had and were able to identify that there is a unique recalled experience of death that is different to other experiences that people may have in the hospital or elsewhere,” Dr. Parnia said, “and that these are not hallucinations, they are not illusions, they are not delusions, they are real experiences that emerge when you die.” Fifty-three participants had interpretable EEG data. Researchers discovered spikes of brain activity, including so-called gamma, delta, theta, alpha, and beta waves emerging up to 60 minutes into CPR. Some of these brain waves normally occur when people are conscious and performing functions like memory retrieval and thinking. According to the researchers, this is the first time such biomarkers of consciousness have been identified during CPR for cardiac arrest.  “We found the brain electrical markers of heightened […] lucid consciousness, the same markers as you get in people who are having memory retrievals who are having […] high order cognitive processes, except that this was occurring when the brain had shut down. Research suggests agmatine can boost brain health and uplift your mood naturally Yonsei University College of Medicine (S Korea), October 28, 2022. Athletes and bodybuilders are always eager to learn more about new products that can help enhance their workouts by promoting strength and stamina. Agmatine, a natural compound, is often used by health enthusiasts as a pre-workout supplement. According to research, agmatine can also potentially be used to boost brain health and improve mood. In one scientific review, researchers suggest that the compound can help prevent neurodegenerative diseases and assist in the recovery of brain injury patients. Agmatine or 4-aminobutyl-guanidine is produced in your body from arginine, an amino acid found in foods like chickpeas, lentils, pork and poultry. When used as a pre-workout supplement, experts recommend not taking it with protein since dietary protein can slow the absorption of agmatine. This then diminishes its benefits. Agmatine is often listed on supplement labels as agmatine sulfate. Dosages range between 250 mg to 1,000 mg per scoop, with intake recommendations between one to two grams per day. Agmatine has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects and can scavenge harmful free radicals that cause oxidative damage to your organs and tissues. Some people believe agmatine can help enhance workouts by increasing levels of beneficial nitric oxide. This then dilates blood vessels and promotes healthy circulation. Data also suggests that agmatine may help activate the release of pain-killing, mood-lifting endorphins, which can boost motivation and mood. This suggests taking agmatine can help make you feel more inclined to exercise. The compound may also help block aged glycation end products. Your body produces these potentially carcinogenic compounds after you eat charcoal-broiled or well-done meats. Agmatine may also help down-regulate matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), which are tissue-degrading enzymes that can facilitate the spread of malignant tumors.  Studies show that agmatine works against the glutamate receptors that affect pain perception. Data from preliminary studies have supported agmatine's ability to reduce pain and strengthen the pain-killing effects of prescription opioids. Experts hope that agmatine can be used to help reduce the amount of medications needed and decrease the possibility of addiction to opioids. Supplementation with agmatine may help activate serotonin, the “feel good” chemical in your body while also decreasing levels of cortisol, the “stress” hormone that builds up when you are under duress. In a review published in the European Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, scientists suggest that agmatine has antidepressant effects. According to a 2018 study published in the journal Human and Experimental Toxicology, agmatine can help protect brain cells from oxidative stress and inflammation caused by laboratory-induced Parkinson's. Prenatal phthalate exposure can significantly impact infant behavior and cognition, says study University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, November 16, 2022 Prenatal exposure to phthalates, a set of chemicals commonly found in plastics and personal care products, has been shown to significantly impact aspects of behavior and cognition in infants, according to a team of researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. “Phthalates are widespread, and several well-known studies have reported that 100% of pregnant individuals had detectable levels of phthalates in their bodies,” said developmental neurotoxicologist Jenna Sprowles, a former postdoctoral research associate at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. Children's toys, cosmetics, and constructional materials are all potential sources of phthalate exposure, as are other materials made from polyvinyl chloride. When individuals who are pregnant are exposed to phthalates, the chemical compound crosses the placental barrier to interact directly with the fetus. Phthalates can also be transferred to a newborn through breast milk. Their study, reported in the journal Neurotoxicology and Teratology, investigated the neurobehavioral impacts of prenatal phthalate exposure in infants aged 4.5 and 7.5 months. Since many existing studies focus on individuals in early and middle childhood, providing attention to this age group is especially important. “Phthalates are endocrine-disrupting chemicals, meaning they interact with and alter how hormones typically act in the body. Hormones play crucial roles in brain development, so when the activities of hormones are altered by chemicals like phthalates, adverse functional effects are possible,” Sprowles said. “While we do know that different phthalates can affect different hormone systems, we don't yet know exactly how particular phthalates exert their specific effects.” The researchers found that the impact of prenatal phthalate exposure was specific to each phthalate's particular properties. For example, higher prenatal concentrations of a phthalate called MEP, which is commonly found in personal care products, were associated with lower ASQ scores (indicating below-average development) in certain domains. Their results align with existing studies, some of which have been carried out in animal models, which indicate that both prenatal and neonatal exposure to phthalates alters neural structure and function, resulting in impaired cognition and altered behavior.