Meeting the Challenges of Leadership
A renowned scholar and teacher in American academia for more than 50 years, Dr. W. Edwards Deming’s groundbreaking theories on quality control sparked the renewal of Japan’s economy following World War II and launched the total quality management movement. One of Graduate School USA‘s most notable instructors, he promoted the concept of a “we” organization rather than a “me” organization and believed that organizational “sharing” should be an ongoing theme.
WHO IS
W. EDWARDS DEMING
Dr. W. Edwards Deming
“Learning is not compulsory…
neither is survival.”
– W. Edwards Deming
Dr. Deming and Graduate School USA
Dr. Deming was a curriculum dean and a statistics and mathematics instructor at Graduate School USA from 1932 to 1939. During that time, he edited a series of lectures delivered by Walter A. Shewhart, Statistical Method from the Viewpoint of Quality Control, into a book published in 1939.
While working with Shewhart, Dr. Deming found great inspiration, and began to move from the application of using statistical methods to industrial production and management. These ideas influenced Deming in crafting curriculum for the Graduate School and influenced his ideas on Total Quality Management, which he used in later years.
For more information on W. Edwards Deming, visit the Deming Institute at www.deming.org
THE DEMING AWARD CATEGORIES
1. Human Capital
Management
W. Edwards Deming with businessmen, geishas and Managing Director of Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE), Mr. Kenichi Koyanagi in 1951. (Photo courtesy of The W. Edwards Deming Institute®.)
Workforce initiatives benefit the entire organization. For organizations to succeed they must have a commitment to high quality in all that they do. They also understand the importance of teamwork and the success that comes with empowering all parts of the organization.
Has your organization created an innovative program, with measurable results, for your organization that centers on the areas of talent management, employee engagement or succession management?
2. Agile
Management
W. Edwards Deming teaching in Japan, 1951 (Photo courtesy of The W. Edwards Deming Institute®.)
How has your agency responded to the constant shifting of events these past few years? With the ever-changing environment facing government, being able to adapt or being agile in your decision making and planning is paramount.
What training initiative did your agency create to respond to a changing environment and did this initiative produce measurable results?
2022 W. EDWARDS DEMING OUTSTANDING TRAINING AWARD WINNERS
A Collaboration Between the University of Nevada, Reno, DOE Packaging Certification Program, Argonne National Laboratory and U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management
Since 1986, there has been a shortage of professionals who are experienced with the regulations and practices needed to design, regulate, and use nuclear material packages. To encourage more professionals to obtain the skills needed to successfully enter and advance in the nuclear packaging industry, the DOE Office of Environmental Management’s Packaging Certification Program (PCP), the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) and Argonne National Laboratory collaborated to develop 14 courses, taught by world-class subject matter experts at 5 DOE National Laboratories, as well as a unique hands-on internship program. Students who successfully complete these experiences earn accredited university graduate units. The university-DOE-lab collaborators also developed two graduate certificates, one in Nuclear Packaging and the second in Transportation Security and Safeguards. Each consists of required coursework that experienced stakeholders believe is essential to the topic and electives chosen by students according to their personal interests and needs. Since 2017, over 100 students have earned graduate credit in courses, and seven have completed graduate certificate. All seven are currently employed or interning at DOE sites in nuclear-packaging-related topics. In the past two years, the rate of certificate completion accelerated, with four of the completions in Spring 2022. Motivated by this success, the collaborators are working to develop seven new courses, including ones taught at two new National Laboratories, and determining the feasibility of a research-based Master of Science in Nuclear Packaging. They are also conducting course instructor training, assembling a council to assess and continuously improve the program, and sharing results by presenting papers at international conferences. These statistics and activities show that this educational program is developing the next generation of highly qualified nuclear packaging professionals. It is also supporting the DOE’s and related industry’s environmental management missions, as well as UNR’s educational mission.
JATO Point Mugu Personnel:
Asrar Ali, Jeffrey Anderson, Connie Beglinger, Taban Beigali, Bart Bellmore, Gina Benigno, Mohammad Biswas, Nathan Blinn, Thomas "Weed" Bluhm, Juan Cabrera, Grant Chen, Max Cuevas, Dritan Dalipi, Albert Duenez, Brad Duren, David Ebel, Byron Edde, Michael Estrada, Jenelle Fletcher, Victor Garcia, Charlotte Gray, Christopher Guerra, Arianna Halamandaris, Sarah "Rat" Hall, Nikolaos Hatzopoulos, Felix Heiter, Sam "Manpad" Hilyer, Andrew Im, Evan Jones, Monica Jones, Kiran Joshi, Lalith Karunaratne, Bruno Kemen, James Kim, Ryan Lenart, Chris Lewis, Barak Li-or, James "Lamar" Lomax, Areli Lopez, Robert Marshall, Jason Moore, John "Sling Blade" Moss, Matthew "Man Whore" Munn, Sally Navarro, Thai Nguyen, Yookta "Max" Nilkaew, Joseph Palomba, Chris Perkins, Diane Phung, Brian Platt, Tanvi Rane, Steve Rhee, Luis Rios, Eduardo Rivas, James Robinson, Sylvia Robles, Andy Rojas, Christopher Sanchez, Alexander Scott, Masato Taniguchi, Yeshi Tenzin, Steven Tien, Jonathan Tivald, Kevin Toste, Steve Vernon-Cole, Morgan Walford, Haywood Wall, Ryan Wang, Randall Webber, Simon Woo, Andy Wu, David Wu, Gary Wu, and Brian Ziegler.
EWDS personnel who directly contributed to JATO process improvement and automation for mission data production:
John Michael Bradley, Kurt McCullum, Wayne Ryan, and Evan Ward.
Airborne Electronic Attack Systems Program Office, HC, Department of the Navy – Human Capital Management
JATO is a national organization of civilian, military, and contractors managed by PMA-234. The largest JATO site is at Navy Base Ventura County, Point Mugu, California. JATO provides the highest quality and frequency of mission data updates to the USN, United States Marine Corps, and Royal Australian Air Force Electronic Warfare (EW) units.
The JATO team focuses on devising, testing, and optimizing the weapons that are the jamming waveforms for the EA-18G Growler. JATO also assists in researching, developing, testing, and evaluating jammer upgrades and new jammers.
The COVID-19 pandemic proved to be exceptionally challenging for the team. JATO was forced to reevaluate how to be productive under restrictive environments while working in classified workspaces.
The JATO team exemplified innovative training, enhanced the quality of the workforce and processes, and demonstrated measurable results. JATO developed and fielded new software tools and custom test equipment, streamlined many tasks, and mitigated errors in testing and production through automation and extensive automated quality checks. Additionally, JATO created a three-tiered engineering development program that standardizes, organizes, and coordinates JATO test engineer development from New Hire to Test Lead. With marginal increases to budget and workforce, JATO Point Mugu working through COVID-19, was able to support an additional 33 percent more diverse kinds of EW gear, increase U.S. JATO Techniques Analysis and Tactics (JTAT) production rate by 38 percent, and Australian JTAT production rate by 71 percent, and increase mission data production rate by a total of 290 percent.
2023 W. EDWARDS DEMING OUTSTANDING TRAINING AWARD NOMINATION INFORMATION
- Explain specifically how the nominated initiative meets the criteria.
- Show a correlation to the organization’s mission.
- Demonstrate a mastery of the challenge.
- Stress the factors that make the initiative exceptional or noteworthy.
- Demonstrate the concepts of teamwork and sharing.
- Illustrate the effect of the initiative on the organization’s performance.
- Substantiate all claims, providing information that objectively verifies the successful results of the nominated initiative.
- Provide supplementary video or other media as it relates to the overall success and performance goals of the organization’s initiative.
- Include a photo of the nominated team.
You must select a category for your nomination entry.
| Human Capital Management |
| Workforce initiatives benefit the entire organization. For organizations to succeed they must have a commitment to high quality in all that they do. They also understand the importance of teamwork and the success that comes with empowering all parts of the organization. Has your organization created an innovative program, with measurable results, for your organization that centers on the areas of talent management, employee engagement or succession management? |
| Agile Management |
| How has your agency responded to the constant shifting of events these past few years? With the ever-changing environment facing government, being able to adapt or to be agile in your decision, planning is paramount. What training initiative did your agency create to respond to a changing environment and did this initiative produce measurable results? |
- Federal, state, and local government organizations, and civilian and uniformed branches of the U.S. military are eligible.
- Government contractors who are partnering with a federal, state, or local government agency on a project that meets the criteria of the Deming award are also eligible to apply. However:
- The contractor must be the primary contact brought on by the agency that created the specific program, under the direction of the agency.
- The contractor must be administering the program in partnership with the agency.
- Individuals are not eligible.
- Nominated projects must have been initiated within two years of the nomination deadline. Your project must have been initiated by August 2021.
- There is a one-year moratorium on any extension of a previous winning initiative.
Priority will be given to nominations that meet all of the following criteria:
- The results are outcome-based, rather than activity-based, resulting in a verifiable improvement in some aspect of the organization’s performance.
- A strong rationale is evident to support the decision to utilize training (rather than alternatives) to address the organizational performance deficiency.
- A sound methodology was used to determine and objectively verify the impact of the initiative and how it contributes to the organization’s mission.
- The initiative demonstrates a commitment to collaboration and information sharing.
- The initiative illustrates a strong “story,” presenting a before and after narrative.
- Completed nomination must be received by August 25, 2023
- When preparing your nomination, please keep in mind that it should convey the strategic importance of your initiative as it relates to overall organizational success. Dr. Deming stressed the idea of transformational change that produces measurable results. His book, Out of the Crisis, includes a roadmap of 14 points that describe how transformational management is achieved. Some of those key points are listed below. Ask yourself: “Do these points apply to my organization’s program or initiative?”
- Create constancy of purpose for improving products and services.
- Institute training on the job.
- Adopt and institute leadership.
- Drive out fear.
- Break down barriers between staff areas.
- Eliminate numerical quotas for the workforce and numerical goals for management.
- Remove barriers that rob people of pride of workmanship, and eliminate the annual rating or merit system.
- Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement for everyone.
- Put everybody to work accomplishing the transformation.
- Adopt the new philosophy.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
No, however, whatever you present, be sure it fully represents your initiative. Provide a summary of the problem or challenge, the approach or initiative that addressed, and most importantly, metrics that demonstrated the start data (baseline) and the end data (results).
Once we have closed the application deadline, the scoring process begins. The process can take up to three -four weeks.
No. As you can imagine they are extremely busy and having them talk to prospective applicants can take up some of their time. We encourage you to review their submissions on the website.
It would be nice, especially if your team is identified as a winner. If you have members who do not wish to have their photo taken, while others are, you can just their names as members of team.
Unless we extend the deadline, all nominations must be by the deadline. To meet our internal deadlines(scoring process, etc.) and to notify all nominees in timely manner of the status of their submissions, we do not accept nominations after the deadline.
Yes, you may contact Cynthia Hawkins at 202-314-3438.