[Dixielandjazz] W. Edwards Deming

[Bruce Stangeland]

Steve,

I was glad to hear your comments about W. Edwards Deming. I took a seminar
from him in Montreal in the 1980s. An amazing man. His 14 principles for
improvement are still good advice. But I think people didn't have success
with his methods because they didn't want to follow all of his 14 points
(like to pay people equally, and to not find fault but to find sources of
errors and fix them).

Maybe we should apply his 14 principles to increasing the interest in OKOM.

Regards,
Bruce Stangeland
banjoist from Berkeley, CA


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Message: 7
Date: Wed, 28 Sep 2005 23:06:08 -0400
From: Steve barbone <barbonestreet at earthlink.net>
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Getting Gigs
To: <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Message-ID: <BF60D25F.3B03%barbonestreet at earthlink.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

Mike Vax at Vaxtrpts at aol.com wrote

. . . . . 

> I could go on and on, with examples, but I think you get the picture.
> You know that I respect you and I applaud you for what you have been able  to
> do for many years, but please don't say that it is "our own fault" that the
> music doesn't have as big an audience as it used to.  Many of us are trying
> our best.

Once again Mike, if the message doesn't fit you, don't listen to it. Don't
be upset and include yourself in the general pool of those small bands which
cannot get gigs because they do not try. But make no mistake about my belief
that it is "our" own fault that the music has no audience. Basically,
because contrary to what you and I do, most of the rest do not play where
the kids are. Nor do they make any attempt to do so.

Regarding "trying our best", an old business mentor of mine, (day gig times)
loved to shoot that expression down. He would always say "Trying your best,
or doing your best is not enough because it implies that there is no room
for improvement." He viewed that expression as a management cop-out. His
name? W. Edwards Deming (PhD). He is the man who set Japan on its post World
War 2 rise to industrial leadership over the USA. Well worth a google
search, because he is the basic reason we buy Toyotas, Hondas and Nissans in
the USA instead of Chevys, Fords and Chryslers. Doing what is right was his
mantra, not doing one's best. Like if something is not worth doing, then it
is not worth doing well either.

> OK - I got that one off my chest and I hope we are still friends!

I hope we are still friends too Mike. Who needs friends that won't tell you
like it is? You are an excellent musician and a stand up guy, what's not to
like? 

Above all, (everybody else) please don't shoot the messenger. ;-) VBG. But
rather ask for my 10 page tome on how we got to our target audience.

Cheers,
Steve