4. A System of Profound Knowledge Flashcards
“And the chaff he will burn with unquentiable fire.” - Luke 3:17
“And the chaff he will burn with unquentiable fire.” - Luke 3:17
Chapter
The first step is transformation of the individual.
- This transformation is discontinuous.
- It comes from understanding of the system of profound knowledge.
- The individual, transformed, will perceive new meaning to his life, to events, to numbers, to interactions between people.
The individual, once transformed, will:
- Set an example.
- Be a good listener, but will not compromise.
- Continually teach other people.
- Help people to pull away from their current practice and beliefs and move into the new philosophy without a feeling of guilt about the past.
The layout of profound knowledge appears here in four parts, all related to each other:
- Appreciation for a system
- Knowledge about variation
- Theory of knowledge
- Psychology
A System
A system is a network of interdependent components that work together to try to accomplish the aim of the system.
Interdependence
The greater the interdependence between components, the greater will be the need for communicaiton and cooperation between them. Also, the greater will be the need for overall management.
Obligation of a component
The obligation of any component is to contribute its best to the system, not to maximize its own production, profit, or sales, nor any other competitive measure.
Basis for negotiation
Best for everyone concerned should be the basis for negotiation between people, between divisions, between union and management, between companies, between comnponents, between countries. Everybody would gain.
Knowledge About Variation
Life is variation.
Once a process has been brought into a state of statistical control, it has a definable capability.
- A process that is not in statistical control has not a definable capability: its performance is not predicatble.
There are two mistakes frequently made in attempts to improve results, both costly.
- To react to an outcome as if it came from a special cause, when actually it came from common causes of variation.
- To treat an outcome as if it came from common causes of variation, when actually it came from a special cause.
Use of data requires:
- knowledge about the different sources of uncertainty. Measurement is a process. Is the system of measurement stable or unstable?
- understanding of the distinction between enumerative studies and analystic problems.
- An enumerative study produces information about a frame. The theory of sampling and design of experiments are enumerative studies. Our Census is an enumerative study.
- The interpretation of results of a test or experiment is something else. It is prediction that a specific change in a process or procedure will be a wise choice, or that no change would be better. Either way the choice is prediction. This is known as an analytic problem, or a problem of inference, prediction.
Theory of Knowledge
The theory of knowledge helps us to understand that management in any form is prediction.
Knowledge is built on theory.
- The theory of knowledge teaches us that a statement, if it conveys knowledge, predicts future outcome, with risk of being wrong, and that it fits without failrue observations of the past.
Use of data requires prediction.
No number of examples establishes a theory, yet a single unexplained failure of theory requires modification or even abandonment of the theory.
Operational definitions
Information is not knowledge.
- To put it another way, information, no matter how complete and speedy, is not knowledge.
- Knowledge has temporal spread.
- Knowledge comes from theory.
- Without theory, there is no way to use the information that comes to us on the instant.
Psychology
People are different from one another.
People learn in different ways and at different speeds.
There are intrinsic sources of motivation, extrinsic sources of motivation, and the phenomenon of overjustification.
