TL;DR: Both W. Edwards Deming and Toyota independently arrived at 14 core principles because transforming an organization requires a system, not a slogan or a handful of tools. Deming's 14 Points and The Toyota Way's 14 Principles strongly align–especially around long-term thinking, leadership responsibility, respect for people, and continuous improvement. The lesson remains relevant in 2026: real improvement takes disciplined, interconnected management practices–not shortcuts.
Editor's Note (2026):
More than a decade after this post was written, the tension between “adopting a few tools” and embracing a full management system remains one of the biggest barriers to meaningful improvement–especially in healthcare, tech, and startups. Deming's 14 Points and Toyota's 14 Principles continue to remind us that transformation requires leadership discipline over time, not selective adoption.
Those of us who grew up with “Schoolhouse Rock” will remember the song “3 is a Magic Number.”
Students of W. Edwards Deming
Readers of Jeff Liker‘s book The Toyota Way know the 14 principles of Toyota's management system.
I'm no numerologist, but I've always wondered… what's special about 14?
Professor Liker recently posted this in his LinkedIn group:
On the magic number 14, I shuffled around my principles many times adding, subtracting, combining. I did want to avoid thirteen, but otherwise it was a coincidence.
So there you have it.
There is a strong parallel that point #1 in both lists is about long-term thinking. The 14 points aren't meant to map directly to each other… but I've combined them into the table below.
This emphasis on constancy of purpose also connects directly to how organizations misuse short-term metrics–something I explore further in my work on Process Behavior Charts and system thinking.
While Deming and Toyota arrived at their principles independently, the overlap highlights a timeless truth: sustainable improvement only works when leaders treat management as a system, not a checklist.
Why Deming's 14 Points and Toyota's 14 Principles Align
| Dr. Deming's 14 Points | The Toyota Way | |
| 1 | Create constancy of purpose for improving products and services. | Base your management decisions on a long-term philosophy, even at the expense of short-term financial goals. |
| 2 | Adopt the new philosophy. | Create a continuous process flow to bring problems to the surface. |
| 3 | Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality. | Use “pull” systems to avoid overproduction. |
| 4 | End the practice of awarding business on price alone; instead, minimize total cost by working with a single supplier. | Level out the workload (heijunka). (Work like the tortoise, not the hare. |
| 5 | Improve constantly and forever every process for planning, production and service. | Build a culture of stopping to fix problems, to get quality right the first time. |
| 6 | Institute training on the job. | Standardized tasks and processes are the foundation for continuous improvement and employee empowerment. |
| 7 | Adopt and institute leadership. | Use visual control so no problems are hidden. |
| 8 | Drive out fear. | Use only reliable, thoroughly tested technology that serves your people and processes. |
| 9 | Break down barriers between staff areas. | Grow leaders who thoroughly understand the work, live the philosophy, and teach it to others. |
| 10 | Eliminate slogans, exhortations and targets for the workforce. | Develop exceptional people and teams who follow your company's philosophy. |
| 11 | Eliminate numerical quotas for the workforce and numerical goals for management. | Respect your extended network of partners and suppliers by challenging them and helping them improve. |
| 12 | Remove barriers that rob people of pride of workmanship, and eliminate the annual rating or merit system. | Go and see for yourself to thoroughly understand the situation (genchi genbutsu). |
| 13 | Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement for everyone. | Make decisions slowly by consensus, thoroughly considering all options; implement decisions rapidly (nemawashi). |
| 14 | Put everybody in the company to work accomplishing the transformation. | Become a learning organization through relentless reflection (hansei) and continuous improvement (kaizen). |
In healthcare, these parallels matter deeply. Many organizations still focus on isolated metrics, incentives, or improvement projects, while Deming and Toyota both emphasize leadership responsibility, system design, and long-term learning as prerequisites for better quality and safety.
A useful reflection question for leaders today:
Which of these principles do we talk about–but routinely violate through incentives, targets, or short-term decisions?
Many of the misunderstandings Deming warned about–targets without method, incentives without system improvement–are explored further in Measures of Success, where I examine how leaders can use data responsibly to improve systems instead of reacting to noise.
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If you’re working to build a culture where people feel safe to speak up, solve problems, and improve every day, I’d be glad to help. Let’s talk about how to strengthen Psychological Safety and Continuous Improvement in your organization.
I never quite understood Liker’s 14 principles in that The Toyota Way 2001 document lists 13 “principles” related to continuous improvement and 7 “principles” related to respect for people. 13+7 = 20.
In each of the five organization that I have worked in over the years, all 14 or 20 or 28 or whatever points (or “principles”) are the biggest opportunities for improvement. That’s how bad it is.
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