I recently heard a quote that brought me back to the days I spent studying under Dr. Mickey Dunaway. He taught me a ton about leadership, life, and law, but just as much about fishing, coffee, and love, especially love for family and dogs. Dogs, by the way, are family. (I have a feeling I’ll be writing about some of those lessons in the weeks to come, but, for now, I’ll get back to my original point.)
The quote I want to share with you today comes from D. Edwards Deming, the father of Total Quality Management. It reads:
Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets.
Before you move on from this quote, read it again and really let it soak in.
Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets.
If I’m being honest, it took me at least the rest of the class to really understand what was being presented and at least until the end of the course before I believed it to be true. Now, I see the inevitability of this truth in just about every system I encounter, whether it’s a classroom, a school, or an entire district. I even see it in the coffee shops, restaurants, and businesses I interact with regularly. I also see it play out in my life and in the lives of others. Everything is perfectly designed to get the results it gets.
Take a moment and think about it. Do you agree? Can you see it playing out in various places? Now, allow me to write it in a way that will help you personalize the meaning and power of the quote.
Your (classroom, school, district, business, company, life, etc.) is perfectly designed to get the results it gets.
Do you believe that?
If you do, here’s an important follow-up question: “Are you satisfied with the results you’re getting?”
If you’re happy with those results, Great! I hope that you’re happy because you’re thinking of the specific, intentional things that have been done to achieve those results rather than wondering which random acts have led to those positive results. If it’s the former, keep going; get even better. If it’s the latter, spend some time studying the processes that have led to these outcomes so that you gain a depth of understanding and can intentionally improve upon them and achieve even greater outcomes.
If you’re not happy with those results, rest assured you can shift them in a more positive direction, but you have to spend time studying what you’re doing now so that you can decide which levers to pull to create meaningful, intentional change. The first step in this process often begins with our willingness, as the leaders of our organizations (or our lives), to gather and openly receive honest and unbiased feedback about what needs to change. From there, we can begin making decisions to shape systems that achieve great results.
#ChooseToBeGreat
Angelo
CHOOSE TO BE GREAT 