"Half of our presidents have been above average. How lucky we are!" This 90-second Deming treasure from the PQ Systems archives always makes me smile.
Half our presidents have been above average
- Thread starter Beth Savage
- Start date
Exactly! Based upon what? What a ridiculous headline, then and now. And yet think still today how often managers are forced to rate employees below or above average. How can managers be expected do this when employees are part of a system and so many factors are unknown and unknowable? 30 years later I believe we still have much to learn from Deming.
Randy
Super Moderator
I dream of Walden Pond
My students in Applied Statistics this week have to answer the question - would you rather have your surgery performed on you by a Doctor who got straight A's or one that got straight B's? That always leads to some good discussion of operational definitions. and then relating to what is ther purpose of grading of homework vs getting feedback.
Robinson A
On Holiday
That's a pretty good question to debate on. These type of questions help a student to think and express their point of view which is essential nowadays. It also increases shared knowledge and GK. I wonder what all points do the students come up with.
Reading the post reminded me of the time I was in management school and our teacher asked us to mention that difficult decision, big or small, we had to make and what steps did we take to make it. It was an oral discussion to realize and develop our decision making skills.
Randy
Super Moderator
That didn't go over well when I answered a similar question, not one bit.
Robinson A
On Holiday
Did you experience it as an academic test? Our was like more of a discussion. So good or bad, our replies came out to give some fine ensembled information that helped analysis ourselves.
