The 20th Annual International Deming Research Seminar

March 3, 2014

Pages 250 - 264:

My study of transformation in organizations has brought me to understand much of W. Edwards Deming’s System of Profound Knowledge (SoPK) and the synergies between the work of Dr. Deming and many other authors.

Chris Argyris’s work resonates strongly with Dr. Deming's philosophy and themes on transformation. Like many philosophers and social scientists, Argyris has perspectives about organizational transformation through understanding systems, the people in them and the power of shared purpose.

Any leader of a learning organization can encourage a team to begin with knowledge and start the practice of productive dialogue. This requires "discussing the un-discussable" as Chris Argyris described ways to counter the common defensive routines in organizations. The key in this process is leadership's demonstrated commitment to productive reasoning and dialogue, to remove fear and embarrassment by new learning and improved productivity for their whole enterprise, starting with themselves.

In the context of his studies and writing, it seems the common purpose in each of the Argyris case studies was to transform the organization under study by transforming the leaders. In his practice and writings, Argyris provided us hard evidence of many of Deming's points and provides actionable solutions. I propose to share a number of these solutions from Argyris and evidence from others as well.