Quality Progress - American Society for Quality

From Wes Bucey, Quality Manager
Thank you, Richard. I have now read the article. Ed is correct in that TERESA A.
WHITACRE miswrote (or was misquoted by a zealous QP editor trying to shorten the
article for fit) in defining Myers-Briggs as a "skill test" when it is more appropriately
described as an "attitude test." The fact of the matter is most psychologists report that,
when administered correctly, such a test will give a strong indication of the type of life
traits you exhibit, but makes absolutely no prediction as to whether you are good at them.
Just because you state you prefer being in the company of others to working alone
does not necessarily mean you make good company for those other people to be with.
-Wes Bucey
17386 Re: Re: Re: SAAS in your career
Richard Ickler
Dec-17-03
The article is the Career Corner article in the December issue of Quality Progress. It is a
decent article but I really thought that she made a strange distinction between ability and
skill.
Richard Ickler
17383 Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Publishing Bar Charts
William Pflanz
Dec-17-03
Steve,
You are right, I did not see your smiley face. All of us have probably experienced the
problem that someone has a hammer and everything looks like a nail. Each type of chart
has a useful purpose and should be used appropriately. I have an interesting story about
the red bead experiment. When I first started learning about quality concepts I had an
opportunity to go to one of Dr. Deming's one day seminars. During the seminar he
selected people from the audience to demonstrate the bead experiment and act as the
workers, manager, recorder and inspector. After a few cycles, he got to the inspector and
asked for the red bead count. All of a sudden he ordered the person off the stage and
asked someone else to come up. The "inspector" at first just smiled until he realized
Deming was serious and very angry. He sheepishly left the stage. I was there with a
statistician and asked what was going on as if it was part of the demo. His response was
that the inspector had lied about the count. I was so new to the concept of control chart
theory I asked how Deming knew. Of course, the answer was that it was statistically
unlikely for the count to be right based on the years of data Deming had on the
experiment. Later when I understood more of Deming's theory, I also realized it
reinforced his feelings about setting quotas which could cause lying and manipulations.
It was an experience I never forgot and taught me the value of understanding control
charts. I still have my handwritten notes from that seminar.
Bill Pflanz