The topical theme for this year’s event was ‘Out of the Crisis…….back to the future’ which embraced Systems Thinking and was a call for us to fundamentally transform all of our businesses in the wake of recent global events.

Given the profound impact that Deming has had on the way the world does business it is surprising how much of his thinking is unexplored by many people. His work on organisational transformation inspired the quality movement, the Six Sigma revolution and Lean Thinking. But what he has to offer is much broader than this.

It provides a framework for organisations to better engage their people, instil a culture of continuous improvement, target and deliver investment programmes more effectively, and to develop strategy and policy. It goes beyond transactional process management; it provides an environment where managers and staff are far better placed to improve these processes using a wide range of methods.

Challenges and pitfalls

The intensive two days, with a networking dinner in the middle, were ably led by Forum host James Crawford who is a Director of Touchpoint Change and a member of the Deming Forum Advisory Board. James set the scene by exploring some of the typical challenges and pitfalls of transformation initiatives. He introduced Deming’s system of management as a framework for the conference.

As a first time attendee I was struck by the passion for the subject, the terrific friendly atmosphere and the quality and knowledge espoused by the first class speakers. It proved to be an inspiring event giving good food for thought and an extended network of contacts.

Day 1. The keynote presentation was ‘Systemic Government’ delivered by Jim Mather MSP, Scotland’s Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism. Building on the ideas of Deming, Mike Rother and Joshua Cooper Ramo, Jim provided delegates with a unique insight into the power that Systems Thinking can have on the national stage.

Jim explained how he is promoting this thinking at the core of the Scottish Government. He believes the no nonsense approach will help to re-focus the energies of all Scotland’s people towards the purpose of sustainable economic growth with opportunities for all members of society to flourish.

The second speaker, Kelly Allen, then addressed the reality of the current economic situation with his presentation on ‘Applying Dr Deming’s system in ‘turn around’ situations to keep companies alive’.

Kelly demonstrated how Deming’s approach provides powerful insights into the root causes of a failing company’s problems. By ‘inverting’ these weaknesses he identified what to do about them and what to do next. He illustrated this with examples of several companies where he and his team had diagnosed their situation and took rapid and meaningful actions to turn the business around.

The parallel sessions either side of lunch included presentations by Charlie Dalrymple of Southern Housing Group on ‘How to get the Snowball Rolling’, Andy Raymer & Mark Moorhouse (Head and Deputy Head of Matthew Moss High School) on ‘Into the Crisis’ and Dave Gaster on ‘Visualising Transformation’ (also the title of his latest book).

Systems Thinking: dramatic improvement

The closing session was a presentation by Steve Johnson, CEO of Advice UK, on ‘Optimising Legal Advice Services’. Advice UK is an umbrella organisation of over 200 public, private and charity organisations that provide free legal and citizens advice to over 5 million people per year. Steve expounded on the use of a Systems Thinking approach not only to improve advice services but also to identify areas for dramatic improvement in the wider public sector – the source of many of the problems that require advice.

The ‘Public Sector’ focus day was rounded off to great effect with a relaxed and informative networking dinner and a charity auction in aid of WheelPower, who provide specialist wheelchairs and sports opportunities for disabled athletes.

Day 2. Breakfast networking discussions were followed by a day with more of a focus on the private sector, demonstrating the applicability and strength of a Systems Thinking approach in all kinds of organisation.

James Crawford again set the scene for the day by looking at why our attempts to transform our organisations often fall short, and what it takes to deliver a profound and sustainable change. The four components of Deming’s system of management provided the backbone for the day’s discussions, i.e. Systems Thinking, Understanding Variation, Psychology and the grandly titled (but very practical) Theory of Knowledge.

Creativity, innovation and business modelling

First up was Dennis Sherwood, one of the country’s leading experts in creativity, innovation and business modelling. He is an acclaimed consultant, academic, former senior banker at Goldman Sachs and author of 9 books including Seeing the Forest from the Trees and Smart Things to Know About Innovation and Creativity.

The audience was split into teams to consider the advice we might give to the new government on how to build an effective team. Let’s hope they find it as easy to do as it was for us to define the approach … incorporating systems thinking!

He then shared his thoughts on an emerging and novel approach to building high performance teams called ‘Organodynamics’ which he neatly paralleled with Thermodynamics. Dennis explored the first principles that can be applied in helping to build high performing teams and explained his assertion that organisational energy must be continuously created or the organisation will fizzle out – and the critical role of leadership in this. We need to identify the sources of energy that generate sparks, not hot air.

Christina Bush and Emma Langman followed to share their experience of ‘Transforming Leaders for Organisational Change’ in one of our leading retailers – Waitrose. Being from opposite ends of the people-process spectrum, (a specialist coach and an engineer), Christina and Emma described how their methods and chemistry had blended perfectly to deliver a radical leadership development programme.

Leaders need to be open minded and curious, immersing themselves in the organisation and helping people to take down the various masks they hide behind during periods of change. Their analogy of leaders as wizards of change delivering the alchemy of change was effective. There was no sorcery involved, apart from on the ready meals!

Deming on policing

The parallel sessions on day 2 were led by Matthew Ayres, Deputy District Commander in Avon and Somerset Constabulary and Professor John Seddon, CEO of Vanguard Consulting, who spoke on ‘Deming in Policing’ and ‘Things you can do on Monday’ respectively.

Matthew has used the Deming approach to great effect in his current role running an operational Police District. He and his team developed a continuous improvement methodology linked to catching criminals, saving money, preventing crime and providing improved public service. He compared and contrasted the Police applications of Deming’s 14 points and traditional leadership methods.

John Seddon’s session could have been very short – his answer to the subject of ‘things you can do on a Monday’ was ‘to study’ (something useful about your organisation)! He gave the answer in the first minute and,of course, his typically forthright views and pithy exposure of some of the absurdities that exist in many (most?) organisations led to some interesting discussion.

In essence we need to get new knowledge by reflecting on our purpose from the customer’s point of view and then optimising the flow of work – and not focusing first of all on costs. The crux of his message was that if you study flow, costs come down; if you study costs, they go up.

The afternoon parallel sessions were led by Peter Worthington of PRISM Europe and Jason Pugh of Atkins Rail.

Peter explored the impact of Shewhart’s concept of prediction on your business, your behaviour and your whole system. He argued that the control chart (or ‘Prediction Chart’ more aptly) is under valued and should be used as the premier method of performance analysis and prediction.

Jason shared an inspirational story of how to deliver team building training in an innovative way. Not only did a large, disparate and demanding team benefit in a way which could not have been anticipated but there were significant positive effects on the local community. This was obviously a life changing experience for many involved and was inspired by the thinking and methods of Deming.

The most misunderstood aspect of business improvement

Davis Balestracci rounded off the conference in typically animated fashion. He emphasised that “statistics” may be the most misunderstood aspect of business improvement. It should actually permeate the everyday fabric of any organisation serious about true excellence, but not in the way you might think.

He explored the elegant analytical power of control charts but emphasised that we then have to start work on something specific. We must know what is really important to our customers, find out which 20% of processes are causing 80% of the problems. And then which 20% of those processes are 80% of the root cause and do something about it. The strategies for ‘common cause’ and ‘special cause’ variation are quite different, but both provide a powerful focus on the action to take.

The Forum concluded on that note but CDs of all the presentations are available as a reminder or for those who missed out. There are also many other workshops available via the Transformation Forum which explore the major components of Deming’s famous 4 day seminar. For more information on these and to purchase the CDs, contact the Transformation Forum office at www.transformationforum.org, or on +44 (0) 1525 402323.