The Evolution of Excellence

Today I want to discuss what I have learned from observing and participating in efforts to improve quality and achieve excellent performance over the past fifty years by individual and by organizations. I speak not as an expert but as a student. A student who has had some very distinguished teachers including Dr. W. Edwards Deming, Dr. Armand V. Feigenbaum, and Dr. Curt Reimann. I worked seven years with Drs. Deming and Feigenbaum and my work with Dr. Reimann began in 1988 and continues today more than twenty years later. I have also learned much from assessing hundreds upon hundreds of organizations worldwide. More than this, I have learned from discussions with Dr. Joseph Juran, Phillip Crosby, Masaaki Imai, from Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa studying a Total Quality System Management project I was leading in Brazil in the early 1980s, and from reading the works of many acknowledged leaders in the evolution of excellence including Dr. James Harrington. So, as you can see, I have been fortunate to have some of the best teachers and today I want to share with you what I have learned. I also realize that all of us here today are students and that what you have learned may be different and in some cases in conflict with what I am about to report. Sharing our views is what learning is all about and I look forward to listening to your inputs and improving my personal learning in our discussion following my talk.