W. Edwards Deming Quotes

The important thing in my view is not to pin the blame for a mistake on somebody, but rather to find out what caused the mistake.

Instead of seeking to pinpoint blame, seek to understand cause.

Quality has to be caused, not controlled.

It took us about a day and a half to find out what had gone wrong.

'How' is a great thing to know. 'Why' is the ultimate. I'm the 'why' coach. Why are we doing this? Why are we not doing that? Why is this not working? Those are the things I want to know.

Finding out exactly what went wrong is key toward preventing future debacles.

To me, error analysis is the sweet spot for improvement.

If your project doesn't work, look for the part that you didn't think was important.

If you don’t understand how problems came to be, how are you going to know how to fix them?

Whence it is evident that the remedy must be adapted to the particular cause of the mischief; consequently, the cause must be ascertained, before the remedy is devised.

Everything is relative. If you want to understand a problem you look at its cause. You don’t look at its manifestation.

The best way to solve any problem is to remove its cause.

The Problem is never the problem! It is only a symptom of something much deeper.

It's the people who have an incentive to find the problem who usually find the problem.

The writers want to know were you made your mistake, no how well your curve is breaking.

Yet we act as if simple cause and effect is at work. We push to find the one simple reason things have gone wrong. We look for the one action, or the one person, that created this mess. As soon as we find someone to blame, we act as if we've solved the problem.

the cause must be ascertained, before the remedy is devised.

When I want to understand a problem, I want to understand it from the ground level.

If the crisis lasts moments, rapid action is critical. But if it's simply the beginning of a broader issue, especially one where the root cause isn't known yet, the worst thing a leader can do is act immediately.

Problems are cured by facing their cause.

Usually, you can figure out where a person's mistakes came from if you ask them the genesis of their thought process: 'Why did you do it this way?' As opposed to telling them they did it the wrong way. Understanding their thought process will ultimately help you be able to communicate with them and navigate around them.

I was always trying to get people to fix things that are wrong. Now, it was, 'How do I make things that are going good go better?

It's impossible to have zero defects.

Generally, you cannot solve a problem without defining the problem completely.

When someone makes a mistake, it's right to underline this type of situation and find the best solution to avoid the same mistake in the future.