Tuesday, November 11, 2003

Starting to use this as a prompt / record of what to do next with the site at www.learn9.net

After the day on the theory of knowledge at the IQA Deming SIG meeting, the site needs an update with the previous material. This could be in a date sequence.

Two things made a strong impression.

There is much more of a base for quality as a subject in UK universities than I realised. I still think there could be more of a connection with peeople studying learning in organisations. Also the people at the meeting think that German universities have a history with engineering that compares with MIT as a source for positive attitudes to quality theory.

Deming stated that change comes from outside a system. I missed this bit really, although it comes at the beginning of the chapter. I was reminded of this, although I can't see how it fits with the idea that the system of profound knowledge can help management make decisions. This stuff is not prescriptive, whatever some comment may suggest.

Maybe the book is called 'The New Economics' as a study in what happens to companies whether they are learning or not. In the printing industry many organisations have ceased trading. Moving along with computers and the web is not easy.