John Hunter wrote an article for The W. Edwards Deming Institute titled Create Constancy of Purpose (September 21, 2015).
« “Create constancy of purpose toward improvement of product and service, with the aim to become competitive and to stay in business, and to provide jobs.” — W. Edwards Deming, Point 1 or the 14 points for management, page 23, Out of the Crisis »
« “Problems of the future command first and foremost constancy of purpose and dedication to improvement of competitive position to keep the company alive and to provide jobs for their employees.” — W. Edwards Deming, page 25, Out of the Crisis »
« You should not try to think of the 14 points as disconnected from the others… Deming understood the points were all interrelated within his management system. »
« You don’t want to achieve “constancy of purpose” in order to check that off the list of things you need to do. You need to create constancy of purpose in order for the management system to help the organization succeed… For example, without constancy of purpose how can you push decision making out to everyone in the organization? If there isn’t shared understanding of what principles are suppose to drive decisions chaos will result. »
« Constancy of purpose is about long term thinking and about thinking of the organization as a system. And it relates to creating organizations that push decision making to those at the gemba (those where the important is being done – where the individuals that know the most about the situation are). »
« A management system with constancy of purpose doesn’t fret about variation in quarterly profit. If the actions make sense when looking at the organization as a system over the long term but have costs today we accept the short term results. This might conflict with bonuses or performance appraisals. Well guess what, that is addressed in point 12, which encompasses eliminating such practices. »
« “Establishment of constancy of purpose means acceptance of obligations like the following:
- Innovate. Allocate resources for long-term planning…
- Put resources into: Research and Education
- Constantly improve design of product and service. This obligation never ceases…”
— W. Edwards Deming, page 26, Out of the Crisis »
Articles of Interest 