What happened next
So, a while ago I wrote this journal entry about thoughts I was having at the time about doing something other than recording music and work. I thought I'd provide an update about what I've been up to since, and why I've been updating this blog so infrequently.

In a nutshell: I've become obsessed with work. I said I wouldn't, but I did. These things happen.

What actually happened was this: the company I work for is one where high quality service and products are primary goals for everyone that works there. I became interested in the following questions:

- Why do companies tend to provide lower quality services as they get bigger in size, and how can this be avoided?

- What is quality anyway? How do you define it? How do you measure it? How do you 'create' it?

These questions have interested me for a long time, especially as my previous employer has one of the worst reputations in its industry and my present employer has one of the best. No one sets out to create bad service or products as heir goal, so - how does this happen? And why does it happen in so many companies?

These aren't easy questions and I had no idea where to begin looking for the answers, so I started by looking at the entry for quality on Wikipedia - it may not be the world's most reliable source of information, but at least it's a starting point. From there I clicked on a lot of links related to the subject and... got nowhere fast. I was recommended to read 'Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance' as a 'classic' text on quality, but this didn't get me far in practical terms of understanding what to actually do about 'creating' quality. The most useful definition I found of quality tself was the following:

"a subjective term for which each person has his or her own definition. In technical usage, quality can have two meanings:
1. the characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs.
2. a product or service free of deficiencies."

- which isn't of much use, as it basically means that quality is whatever you define it to be.

And then.

By chance I clicked on a link in Wikipedia that led to the entry for the late Dr. W. Edwards Deming, and all of a sudden the lights came on. It may sound weird, but I hadn't had a 'moment' like that since I first heard Jimi Hendrix on the radio - everything I read on that page made perfect sense, and just 'clicked'. This was everything I had been looking for, and addressed everything I knew (though only instinctively) to be wrong with companies I had worked for in the past.

I knew that I had to thoroughly research and understand Deming's work to fully understand how it could be applied to my own and this is what I've done, at my own expense of both time and money. There are no courses where you can learn about this stuff, so I've had to do my own research and reading to teach myself about the work that Deming did and how it can be put to practical use. I've found this hard work but hugely enjoyable, as it feels like discovering some arcane, almost cultish but immensely powerful and useful knowledge that is little-used in the Western world (as most managers in the West find it too difficult to get to grips with), though in countries such as Japan it has been second nature since just after World war II when Deming, an American statistical expert, was sent to a devasted enemy country to help the Japanese rebuild their industries and economy. In future posts I'll document the research I have done and the 'journey' it has taken me on (both for my own future reference and in case others find this information in any way useful).