|
|
||||||||||
|
THE EVIDENCE Our current system of societal institutions is fraught with many obstacles to the enhancement of participants' creativity. Not the least of these is the long-established custom of motivating participants with rewards and punishments within a hierarchic authority structure. The resulting culture instills fear in those affected: fear of getting the “wrong” answer, fear of getting poor reviews, fear of embarrassment and humiliation, and ultimately, fear of being fired on someone's whim. Such fears inevitably limit or diminish our ability to be creative, and in many instances destroys this ability utterly. In 1950 a similar situation plagued the manufacturing industries of Japan, which were still attempting to recover from World War II. At that time Japanese industrial creativity was at an all time low, so the words “made in Japan” were considered worldwide to mean “cheap shoddy imitation”. Having little to lose, Japanese industrialists decided to apply the management methodology suggested to them by the American expert, William Edward Deming. So effective were Deming’s suggestions, which he unassumingly labeled “Statistical Quality Control”, that within five years Japanese industry had regained the respect of industrialists the world over. By 1960 Japanese industries ranked among the world’s best, and by 1965 they were outperforming their overseas competitors without exception. Clearly, this phenomenal success by Japanese industry proves that Dr. Deming’s suggestions acted as a powerful catalyst of industrial creativity. In the years that followed, Japanese educators attempted to apply Deming’s management methodology to the field of education. But this worthy experiment failed to do for Japanese education what the preceding experiment had done for Japanese industry. We know now how it failed and how to correct the errors made in the attempt.
|
|
|||||||||
|
READ OUR BOOKS
|
||||||||||
