No More Gurus

Friday, August 19, 2011
In Paul Borawski’s recent View from the Q blog posting, he spoke of the decline in new ASQ member knowledge of past gurus. Paul questions if this means we are in danger of losing our foundational knowledge.
I have had these same concerns for the past ten years, but not like Paul. In the many classes I have conducted over the last quarter century, I see a decline in understanding of basic principles. Things like supply-chain management and document control and instrument calibration are not all that hard (in my mind). But I see people and their organizations making these much too difficult and complicated. I think it may be due to insufficient understanding of the fundamentals. That’s one of the reasons I published my “ISO on a page” here a few months ago.
This search for basic principles is reflected in the ASQ Customer-Supplier Division “Roadshow” courses. The most popular classes are the ones offering fundamental knowledge and practical approaches. Like my own supplier auditing and Kathryn Robert’s supplier non-conformance handling. Basic stuff.
Paul laments the lack of guru recognition. I am not sure that’s a bad thing.
Perhaps society and communications have changed so much as to remove the need for gurus any more. Back in Deming’s days, we didn’t have Wikipedia or Webinars. Joe Juran had no need to understand Internet discussion boards. Information back then was locked up in the books that the gurus wrote and the conferences they spoke to. With today’s technology, I believe the days of gurus are behind us. And that’s OK, as long as we can remember and pass along the reasons why we do things, not just what those things are. As long as we continue to have dogs (designated old guys and gals) willing to pass along the tribal knowledge.
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posted by Dennis Arter