elearn Magazine: Chasing Down the Elusive Credits for Facts and Fictions in Learning and Improvement

elearn Magazine: Chasing Down the Elusive Credits for Facts and Fictions in Learning and Improvement: Recently the authors were involved in an Internet exchange across several social media channels in an attempt to sort the wheat from the chaff of a rather famous (or infamous) statistical claim, which some believe came from Gilbert, others claim Rummler and Brache, or Mager, or Deming, and some credit/blame Pareto.

Some variations of this claim include:

"Confusion between common causes and special causes leads to frustration of everyone and leads to greater variability and to higher costs, exactly contrary to what is needed. I should estimate that in my experience most troubles and most possibilities for improvement add up to proportions something like this:

- 94 percent belong to the system (responsibility of management);
- 6 percent special.