Great Deming’s Ghost
It has often crossed my mind how angry Dr. Deming would be if he were to come back in 2022 and see that the Red Bead Experiment hasn't changed for over 40 years. Deming's ghost may suggest updating the game. Mike Harris recently posted an excellent overview of Dr. Deming's Red Bead Experiment. In the Red Bead Experiment, variation in the processes is demonstrated exceptionally well. The Red Bead Experiment also addresses systems thinking (appreciating a system). However, the game fails to explore the theory of knowledge and psychology fully. Two more recent games explore knowledge, psychology, and systems theory. I have used the Kata in the Classroom and DevOps Kanban games to illustrate Dr. Deming's System of Profound Knowledge.
Combining all three of these games into one would be an excellent experiment. This way, the game could demonstrate all four facets of the System of Profound Knowledge. Control charts are used in most Red Bead Experiments I've seen. However, they stop there. A game that integrates the theory of knowledge, variation, psychology, and systems would be interesting. One of the best games to illustrate knowledge is Kata in the Classroom. Every Kata is a true PDSA, with prediction playing a significant role. The DevOps Kanaba game also uses a knowledge approach; however, it has a considerable amount of human condition variation built in, which exposes opportunities to consider Deming's theory of psychology. Also, as part of the improvement process, Kata in the Classroom and DevOps Kanban games require participants to collaborate.
The following are my thoughts on an extended version of the Red Bead Experiment:
Increase the number of willing workers in the Red Bead Experiment by three. In another room, two workers continuously fill a cargo vessel at the start of each day. One fills red beads and the other white beads. After the cargo vessel is complete, the third worker brings the beads into the main room with the other workers and supervisors so they can begin their process.
Like the DevOps Kanban game, at the beginning of each virtual day, give all the workers different instruction cards (introducing variation). For example, tell the worker who fills the white beads one day that she has a broken right arm from skiing the weekend before, so she can only use his left arm to fill the container. On another day have a card instruct the red bead worker to start a few minutes before the white bead worker. Then on the fourth day, have the supervisor give a concise lecture on SoPK and Improvement Kata. Then run the experiments for four more days with the workers in both rooms using an Improvement Kata/Kanban standup before the start of the experiment and a retrospective at the end of each experiment.
I would love to hear your thoughts.
