He would say to trust the workers, but also all the other things you need to do in addition to trusting the workers. Look at his 14 points. You need to do all the things to get all the benefits.

This is why Deming never landed here. He espouses a complex view, and most people just aren't that smart or skilled. He also espoused pride in craftsmanship, quality, and analysis, things most American workers don't value as much as the Japanese, which is another reason Toyota took them up so quickly while it took us 50 years.

> His books are filled with exhortations to trust the workers. This is what American managers could never bring themselves to do.

This is one of the big differences in the military, with far more trust given to the "workers" in the US and generally western countries compared to others.

>Even in manufacturing, the application of statistical process control was never entrusted to the workers, but became a department of its own, with bureaucracy, OKRs, and elaborate software

That is wrong thinking. While you can go overboard with bureaucracy, the line worker doesn't have the the background (or time) to evaluate statistics. You need an expert in statistics at times to see if what looks like a pattern really is. Mean while the line worker needs to spend their time on what they are good at.

Trust the line worker is important, it just isn't a shortcut to people who really know specialized domains.

> the application of statistical process control was never entrusted to the workers

I has been a long time since I have looked at it, but I think not even Toyota did that, though.