ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

W. Edwards Deming

W. Edwards Deming was a really smart man who lived a long time ago. He knew a lot about making things better and helping people work better together.

Imagine you were trying to build a really big tower out of blocks. You might make some mistakes along the way, like putting the blocks in the wrong spot or not making the tower strong enough. Deming wanted to help people do a better job at building things like this tower.

He had some really cool ideas, and they're kind of like a recipe for making things better. Here are some parts of that recipe:

1. Understanding what you're trying to accomplish: Before you start building your tower, you need to know what you want it to look like in the end. This is called your goal. You want to make sure everyone working on the tower knows what the goal is so that they can work together to achieve it.

2. Measuring what you're doing: To see if you're on track to reach your goal, you need to measure things. This might mean counting how many blocks you've used or how tall the tower is. By measuring things, you can see where you might need to make adjustments to keep moving toward your goal.

3. Finding ways to improve: If you want to get better at building towers, you need to keep trying new things. Deming believed in something called continuous improvement, which means always looking for ways to make things better.

4. Working together: When you're building a tower, it's important to work together as a team. Everyone needs to do their part and help each other out. Deming thought that when people work together, they can achieve great things.

Deming's ideas were so helpful that people all over the world began using them to make things better in all sorts of industries. He was a really important person in the world of business, and people still follow his ideas today.