Deming

Short Series: System of Profound Knowledge in Teaching. Who am I to preach this?

Jim Laughton

16 Nov 2025 — 2 min read

In 2024, I challenged myself to write what are termed 'Atomic Essays' through a fantastic online course ('Ship 30 for 30'). Some of my earlier 'attempted' 'Atomic Essays' were inspired mainly by three things:

The book 'Win-Win: W. Edwards Deming, the System of Profound Knowledge, and the Science of Improving Schools' by John Dues
My daughter is a student in secondary education
Many friends are teachers (and in fact, we are all teachers in our own way)

The beauty beyond

What is fascinating for me is how much of what was taught by Dr Deming, Dr Juran and many others can be applied in any industry. Whilst the origins might have been in manufacturing, many examples exist of successful application across industries. Education is one, healthcare another.

Look beyond what you can easily see and adopt the principles to your work (and life).

Links to the series

Teaching is part of a System (Part 1): Appreciation of the system

Teaching is part of a System (Part 2): Knowledge of variation

Teaching is part of a System (Part 3): Theory of knowledge

Teaching is part of a System (Part 4): Psychology

Recommended book

Whilst I am writing about SOPK as applied to teaching (mostly in schools), none of this is limited to education. However, yet not however, a book I can recommend about applying Dr Deming's SOPK to education is John Dues' book. The however not is that John's book is excellent to learn about SOPK applied in education, whilst equally useful to those of us not in formal education environments.

Dues JA. Win-Win: W. Edwards Deming, the System of Profound Knowledge, and the Science of Improving Schools. Sterling, VA: Myers Education Press; 2023.

Buy Win-Win on Amazon UK or Amazon US
(Affiliate links - thank you for your support).

References

Dues JA. Win-Win: W. Edwards Deming, the System of Profound Knowledge, and the Science of Improving Schools. Sterling, VA: Myers Education Press; 2023.

To learn more about 'Ship 30 for 30', click here.

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The beauty beyond

Links to the series

Recommended book

References

Deming Network

Read more

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