Reply #9: Reminds me of the Demming story - the Quality Circle guy. Just after WWII

[groovedaddy]

He came up with a management method that leaned heavily on employee involvement in how the work was done, with a focus on improving processes. American management at the time scoffed at Demming and didn't want to hear any of it. Demming took his ideas to Japan and they latched on to them. When Japanese industrialists were asked about the key to their rise to dominance in the auto and electrical industries, they all sited Demming's method as the reason for their success.

Sony Corp. brought it's first U.S. plant to California in the 80s. The "wisdom" at the time still said that American workers were lazy and this would never work. The Japanese culture was different, more authoritarian and that's what facilitated Demmings methods working in Japan. Sony's California plant ended up being far more productive than any of it's Japanese plants.