SOME ROLE MODELS THAT INFLUENCE OUR THINKING

THE HONESTY AWARD

We do believe that if the consultant is not honest to the person hiring them, then they can do no good at all.  One of the best examples of honesty that I have personally seen was during one of my several trips to Stonehenge in England.  I do not know if this information has now been changed, but on that date I read several comments by British scientists on Stonehenge.  The comments began with the magic phrase "We are not sure what exactly happened here..".  I was amazed.  It has become odd in this world for someone to actually use the simple phrase "I don't know" - even in the case of something that happened thousands of years ago.  And yet that simple phrase is one of the most powerful.  As soon as one can say the words "I don't know" they then often move onto the next step - and that is getting answers.  And so those people who are not arrogant and who do not claim to know everything, actually are sometimes the most bright - since they are constantly learning.  Those who say they know everything have no reason to continue learning and therefore over time will learn less.  Since I try to be honest and at times say "I don't know" I often spend time trying to find out.  That is why as I type this, behind me are two sets of encyclopedias and also many reference books.  And of course there is also some wisdom on the internet.  If one does not know something, it then leads them at times to trying to find the real answer.  And of course, often the answer is in math and logic or in world history.

W. EDWARDS DEMING (1900-1993)

While Deming is no longer with us, I am very certain that it was him that Motorola hired one day to speak to us.  Deming is known as a statistician, a consultant, and a person who has brought great change in both the US and in Japan Quality.  As such I expected to see a math genius unable to speak rational English, and also an arrogant guy who no one could understand.  I really at first wanted to be anywhere else but in that room listening to him.  What I found during the Deming speech was quite the opposite.  And I for one love to be pleasantly surprised.  This man was not only not arrogant, he seemed to be amazed that anyone ever paid him at all for what he called simple items.  And his approach was masterful.  He is one of the very few people I have met that could talk in very basic common sense, and then move comfortably into math, and then go back into common sense without you noticing the transition.  That to me is the mark of a brilliant person ... the person who sees complex math and complex ideas as quite simple, and then can relate them simply.  And Deming was the kind of person who so dealt in common sense that when he told you a solution, your mind told yourself "I knew that".  And the reason for that reaction is that Deming lived in a world of total common sense, added, not confused, by math.  When he got to the end of his speech and again implied that he was not sure why anyone would hire him.  At that end of his speech, I was left with the opposite opinion - if you could have Deming, why bother to hire anyone else?  But he is sadly no longer with us.

I do want to point out that Deming began with an Electrical Engineering degree, as I did much later.  And I would be the first to say that that does not surprise me.  Engineering is a great deal of math and one must love it in order to get an electronics degree.  But that same love of math branches well into quality and also of course into finance and profit and loss.

ALBERT EINSTEIN (1879-1955)

At this point one might think that I am name dropping.  Actually no.  I am most often suspicious of famous people.  In the case of Einstein as in the case of so many others, they had to die before I understood how smart they were.  When Einstein was alive - or at least for some time after he died - I thought of him as that "nuclear guy".  In University I did have a course on relativity, which of course credited that great Einstein equation that related mass and energy.  But it was much later that I read some of his quotes, and learned how bright a person he was.

OTHERS

I have learned also from many others.  Since those people are still alive and may wish privacy, I will give them that.  But I beleive that I have learned from some of the best.  And the best advice that I could give someone in general is, to learn from others.  Take someone that you think is quite good.  Then find two things that that person does that you should learn from and try and do, and then take two mistakes that that person does and avoid the same mistakes.  If there is a formula that helped grow me quickly, that might have been the most important one.

ARROGANCE

On the side of things to avoid, arrogance is the main one.  You will find many people who say that they know everything and are quite arrogant.  Do not worry about competing with such people.  Unless they are lucky, they are no competition for you.  A person who can say "I don't know everything" is a person who is still learning, still growing, and each day, week or year will be more capable than they were the time before.  An arrogant person is incapable of learning since they believe they know everything already.  Therefore they do not learn, they do not grow, and they do not progress.

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