W. Edwards Deming Quotes

Managers are trained to make incremental, programmatic improvements. They aren't trained to lead large-scale change.

Effective leaders help others to understand the necessity of change and to accept a common vision of the desired outcome.

We know that leadership is very much related to change. As the pace of change accelerates, there is naturally a greater need for effective leadership.

Leaders never outgrow the need to change.

For me, I go somewhere for three days, and then I come back and I want to change everything, and so it's a fight with everybody. I'm transforming and convincing. It's more than designing. It's shaking people and trying to give them direction. I'm a bit of a control freak. This is a problem as I get older, and it's something I should work on. I should be more confident - learn to trust people and give them freedom and delegate.

Reorganization to me is shuffling boxes, moving boxes around. Transformation means that you're really fundamentally changing the way the organization thinks, the way it responds, the way it leads. It's a lot more than just playing with boxes.

We started Kotter International to improve leaders' ability to deal with big, important transformations in organizations - and in their lives.

Kotter International is about leading large-scale change, not just managing it.

More than once in the history of Whole Foods Market, the company was unable to collectively evolve until I myself was able to evolve - in other words, I was holding the company back. My personal growth enabled the company to evolve.

No matter how good you think you are as a leader, my goodness, the people around you will have all kinds of ideas for how you can get better. So for me, the most fundamental thing about leadership is to have the humility to continue to get feedback and to try to get better - because your job is to try to help everybody else get better.

I am often asked about the difference between 'change management' and 'change leadership,' and whether it's just a matter of semantics. These terms are not interchangeable.

Leadership is a journey - you never arrive.

I can change businesses, but I can't change people.

Leadership is developed daily, not in a day.

One quality of leaders and high achievers in every area seems to be a commitment to ongoing personal and professional development.

We spend a lot of time teaching leaders what to do. We don't spend enough time teaching leaders what to stop. Half the leaders I have met don't need to learn what to do. They need to learn what to stop

Management works in the system; leadership works on the system.

Every new level of growth we hope to experience as leaders calls for a new level of change. You cannot have one without the other. If you want to be a better leader, get ready to make some trades.

Leadership development is a lifetime journey, not a quick trip.

I learn a little more and I change a little bit

To lead others is to help them change their thoughts, beliefs and actions for the better.

Failure is not a one-time event; it's how you deal with life along the way. Until you breathe your last breath, you're still in the process, and there is still time to turn things around for the better.

Transformation isn't a future event, it's a present day activity

The most effective way to manage change is to create it.

You are either getting better or getting worse, but you are never staying the same.