Everything is Awesome

The LEGO Movie is Deming's 14 Points

Me and Susan von Seggern Just Hanging Out on an Average Day in Rochester, New York.

Susan: How are you this morning, Jim?

Jim: Everything is Awesome.

Susan sings Everything is Awesome. Jim looks lost.

Susan: You … haven’t seen the LEGO Movie.

Jim: No

Susan gives Jim 20 minute dressing down for being Jim Benson and not seeing the LEGO Movie.

So, I watched the LEGO Movie. If you haven’t watched it, you will need to talk to Susan for your own, individual dressing-down.

But it turns out, it’s a movie about W. Edwards Deming.

Demingthing is Awesome

So, the LEGO Movie opens with a saccharine, relentlessly upbeat, slogan-song which says over and over "Everything is awesome! Everything is cool when you're part of a team!" You are instantly annoyed and fascinated by the song. An earworm of beautiful, meaningless, pap. I am still singing this song nearly every day.

It is soma. It is mindless propaganda. The LEGO universe uses the slogan to keep workers in-line and to stop conversations that might be uncomfortable or “dangerous”. And it’s really well done, like Academy Award well done.

“We are here to build a better world.”
~ Deming

The LEGO Movie is deep. Beneath the plastic bricks and orchestrated silliness lies something profound: a 90-minute masterclass in W. Edwards Deming's push to make work more humane. So, I’m just going to deconstruct this through his 14 Points for Management. It is a beautiful, fast moving, focused film about creativity, central control, and the courage / confidence to build something better. (And don’t even get me started about the depth of Lego Batman).

"Each system is perfectly designed to give you
exactly what you are getting today."
~ Deming, again

The Modus Addition: Insightful Silliness. Toni and I have never worked with a successful team that got that way without leveraging their internal humor. Humor is focus. Humor is a basic ingredient for understanding.

Humor is observation. Humans look at things, we see their sameness, we see their variation, we see their intent, and we see what is not their intent. When you don’t have humor, you can be certain your team is not paying attention.

The LEGO Movie is 90ish minutes of just solid insightful silly. And what both the movie and Deming bring is perhaps the fundamental truth about meaningful and humane work: transformation happens when we combine serious purpose with "insightful silliness", the core capability of approaching profound challenges with playfulness, creativity, and joy.

Bring in the Deming

Point 1: Create Constancy of Purpose

Deming’s Point: Create constancy of purpose toward improvement of product and service, with the aim to become competitive and to stay in business, and to provide jobs.

The LEGO Movie: President Business has an imposed constancy of purpose, his slogans have sought to have others emulate perfect order, while he has deeper plans. His vision is clear, consistent, and completely toxic (literally his vision is to freeze everyone into place with “Kragle”). Meanwhile, Emmet's (the un, anti, and actual hero) journey reveals a true constancy of purpose: building something meaningful together, professionally and where everyone's creativity contributes to the whole.

The movie shows us that constancy of purpose isn't just about having a mission statement or making something awesome (again). It's about ensuring that we have a shared mission that serves builds human life rather than crushing it. When the “Master Builders” (cranky super heroes) finally unite around protecting creativity and collaboration, they demonstrate what healthy constancy of purpose looks like—not rigid control, but shared commitment to enabling everyone's best work.

Point 2: Adopt the New Philosophy

Deming's Point: Adopt the new philosophy. We are in a new economic age. Western management must awaken to the challenge, must learn their responsibilities, and take on leadership for change.

The LEGO Movie: The entire plot is about adopting a less toxic philosophy. The old way, following instructions perfectly, staying in your designated role, never deviating from the plan, is literally and intentionally killing creativity. The people in Emmet’s city are focused on pre-assigned roles, with drawn-out plans, that tolerate zero variation. Because the people in the town are chanting that everything is awesome, they also are constantly rewarded because things are constantly being built. Bias to action tells them that this progress. Emmet must learn that "the instructions" aren't sacred, that improvisation isn't chaos, and that the most beautiful creations and continuous improvement come from combining structure with freedom.

This transformation doesn’t just happen. Emmet needs to see his own use case. He needs to see that variation isn’t an enemy, but it is something to understand. Emmet doesn't reject instructions entirely; he learns when to follow them and when to build something entirely new. This is the essence of Deming's new philosophy: moving from blind command-and-control to collaborative, evolving, thoughtful creation.

Point 3: Cease Dependence on Inspection

Deming's Point: Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality. Eliminate the need for inspection on a mass basis by building quality into the product in the first place.

The LEGO Movie: President Business's entire system depends on inspection to ensure compliance. Robot police (seriously called Micromanagers) are constantly monitoring for any deviation from the instructions. But this creates a culture of fear where quality comes from avoiding punishment rather than taking pride in creation. People who are punished are instantly forgotten and the system moves on.

The Master Builders represent the opposite approach, in all its painful glory. Quality built in from the start because creators care about their work, even when the builders themselves can be, well, human. They fight, they whine about things, they are skilled, they do amazing things, and they can be jerks.

When Emmet finally builds something original, it’s a “stupid” couch. (Trying to not have spoilers is hard) The Master Builders think his couch is an idiot, but probably less of an idiot than Emmet. But the fact is Emmet built his “only idea” not because someone inspected him into compliance, but because he was free to combine genuine care for his friends with his unique perspective.

Point 4: End Lowest Price Contracts

Deming's Point: End the practice of awarding business on the basis of price tag. Instead, minimize total cost. Move toward a single supplier for any one item, on a long-term relationship of loyalty and trust.

The LEGO Movie: President Business treats professionals like interchangeable, fungible parts, always seeking the cheapest, most “efficient” (read short-sighted) solution. The LEGO Movie sees right through that, revealing hidden costs of cost-accounting and least-cost-contracting: innovation dies, morale plummets, and the system becomes brittle. In the end, that brittle system makes it fall.

The Master Builders operate (in a weirdly wacky way) on relationship and trust. They don't compete with each other for the lowest bid; they collaborate, sharing techniques and building on each other's ideas. Their "contracts" are based on an evolving understanding of the work required, not price gouging or purposeful underbidding.

Point 5: Improve Constantly and Forever

Deming's Point: Improve constantly and forever the system of production and service, to improve quality and productivity, and thus constantly decrease costs.

The LEGO Movie: The movie's is totally, wonderfully about continuous improvement, but it shows two different approaches. President Business's improvement is about perfecting control by making the system more efficient at suppressing all variation and dictating what quality looks like before anyone has studied the problem. One result of this is the “perfect” television show “Where is my pants” which has the same episode with the same catch phrase every day. It is a 100% quality-controlled product produced with 100% efficiency to a 100% captive audience.

But growth and improvement happen no matter how much you try to contain them. Emmet's growth throughout the movie is his personal continuous improvement journey. He isn’t a willing participant. He doesn't become perfect. He fights the change just like anyone else. But he becomes more capable of contributing meaningfully to collaborative creation. He sees what he needs to do. Each challenge teaches him something new about building and he begins to act with confidence because the system is being built to support him.

Point 6: Institute Training on the Job

Deming's Point: "Institute training on the job."

The LEGO Movie: Emmet's real education doesn't come from the instruction manual he's memorized, but the instructions do help. His true training comes from working alongside the Master Builders. Wyldstyle, Batman, and Vitruvius don't give him lectures (though they might complain about him a lot)…they show him how to build by building together.

This is training that develops capability rather than compliance. When Emmet finally understands how to be a Master Builder, it's not because he learned new rules, but because he learned to see building as a collaborative, creative act rather than a solitary, rule-following one. Learning on the job gives people the skill, but it does it while doing. That’s not just about doing like I’m doing something, it’s about I’m doing this with you. We are doing this together.

Training on the job teaches communication, direction, action, and, in Emmet’s case, convinced him that he was much more capable than he ever thought he could be.

Point 7: Institute Leadership

Deming's Point: Institute leadership. The aim of supervision should be to help people and machines and gadgets to do a better job.

The LEGO Movie: Leadership isn’t a role, it is an action. Supervision makes sure that things keep working. Leadership is knowing the right thing to do at the right time and then being able to act collaboratively and with confidence.

The contrast between President Business and Vitruvius perfectly illustrates this point. President Business supervises through fear, control, and punishment. Vitruvius leads by helping others discover their own capabilities and then rejoicing as they lead on their own.

At one point (very challenging not to spoiler here) Vitruvius reveals that he is just a manager and doesn’t have the ability to just say people can be awesome, he's helping Emmet understand that leadership isn't about following someone else's grand plan, but about contributing and helping everyone contribute their best to shared creation.

Point 8: Drive Out Fear

Deming's Point: Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the company.

The LEGO Movie: Fear permeates President Business's world. He does things to make himself look taller, more imposing. His own internal fear drives him to make others more fearful than he is. Workers fear making mistakes, deviating from instructions, or being different. This fear doesn't create better product, it just ensures conformity that masquerades as quality.

In any world of fear, the only product is self-preservation.

The movie shows how fear kills innovation and often in a world where people are really happy to be afraid. For them, the platitudes and rules give them guideways to not get into trouble. So “fear” here doesn’t mean abject terror, it means any toxicity that reduces the likelihood that you will act professionally when something happens. Driving out fear isn't about eliminating standards or removing good practices, it's about creating psychological safety for creative risk-taking.

Point 9: Break Down Barriers

Deming's Point: Break down barriers between departments. People in research, design, sales and production must work as a team, to foresee problems of production and in use that may be encountered with the product or service.

The LEGO Movie: Silos create bottlenecks. Silos keep people from acting. Silos build power for the gatekeepers.

The movie literally breaks down silos in a way that is shocking when you start to think of them all. Different LEGO worlds, different types of builders, "special" and "ordinary" people, our expectations and reality, our preferred solution and the one that works, Batman and Green Lantern. The movie reaches its epic conclusion when all the different LEGO realms and characters work together, each contributing their unique strengths. (It’s like DevOps, but for real).

President Business's system intentionally creates silos. Role definitions, plans, construction workers stay in construction, robots stay with robots, each world remains separate. Controllable. Fungible. Static. And again, brittle. That forced same-ness and adherence to a plan leaves a system that, in the end, leaves a system so brittle that “the construction guy is the hero.” Breakthrough innovation (play) happens when boundaries dissolve and different perspectives combine.

Point 10: Eliminate Slogans (The one Deming fans have been waiting for since the title of this thing)

Deming's Point: Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the workforce asking for zero defects and new levels of productivity.

The LEGO Movie: "Everything is awesome!" is an ultimate meaningless slogan. You might know some others.

Slogans and exhortations demand directed positivity without addressing any systemic issues. The are cheap ways of creating belonging in the disaffected. They create the appearance of a direction or a vision, while only distracting people. The song is catchy precisely because it's empty, vacuous, and gloriously insipid. It asks for enthusiasm without providing reasons for enthusiasm. It asks for loyalty and commitment without providing reasons or indication of trade-offs.

The movie shows how real motivation comes not from slogans but from meaningful, humane work. When the characters finally have genuine reasons to be excited, when they're building something they care about with people they trust, they don't need to be told that everything is awesome. They are literally building awesome. Build the system to build awesome, don’t spend time tricking people into believing they are already there.

Point 11: Eliminate Work Standards and Quotas

Deming's Point: Eliminate work standards (quotas) on the factory floor. Substitute leadership.

The LEGO Movie: President Business's world is built on quotas and standards. He demands exact adherence to instructions, perfect efficiency, zero deviation. These standards obviously prevent innovation, focus, intent, and real value.

The Master Builders don't work to quotas, they work to possibility. Their standard isn't "build it exactly like the instructions" but "build something that serves the purpose and expresses your creativity." This leads to solutions that rigid standards could never produce.

This is how humans actually work. We like standard work, a foundation where we see the things in our work we can predict (things that show us success is possible) and we like to have some things we cannot predict (things that let us create and engage professionally). We all like to build to a plan. We all like to design. We all work better when there is a healthy mix of both.

Point 12: Remove Barriers to Pride

Deming's Point: Remove barriers that rob the hourly worker and management of their right to pride of workmanship.

The LEGO Movie: The most heartbreaking moment in the movie is when Emmet realizes, despite following every instruction perfectly, has never experienced pride in his work. He's competent but not proud, efficient but not fulfilled. Worse yet, he is the perfect worker for President Business, he does everything by the plan. And no one, no one at all, remembers who he is. He is fungible. He is 100% productivity and efficiency and 0% human.

For humans, pride comes from creating something meaningful, from seeing how your work contributes to something larger, from having the freedom to bring your full self to your work. The movie shows that removing barriers to pride isn't about creating conditions where professionals can exceed expectations in ways that matter to them and the company and their team and...

Point 13: Institute Education and Self-Improvement

Deming's Point: Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement.

The LEGO Movie: Emmet's journey is fundamentally about self-improvement. Not learning more rules, but learning to see differently. Because he’s been removed from President Business’ system and is not part of the Master Builder system, he discovers that he has capabilities he never knew existed, not because he was trained in new techniques, but because he was encouraged to experiment and grow.

Point 14: Put Everyone to Work

Deming's Point: Put everybody in the company to work to accomplish the transformation.

The LEGO Movie: The climax of the movie happens when all the characters from all sorts of crazy LEGO worlds participate in the solution. Regular LEGO people, construction workers, weird cat things, random space guy, even the robots join in solving the problem at hand.

Collaborative problem solving isn't everyone doing the same work, it is everyone contributing their unique capabilities to a shared and more robust solution. Whether that’s a full-on Lean journey or just figuring out how to quickly ship a product, sustainable change happens when it engages everyone's creativity, not just the designated "creative" people.

In Jargon: You don’t go to the gemba, you become the biggest gemba you can.

The 15th Point: Embrace Insightful Silliness

Channeled Deming (No, Deming did not say this): Embrace insightful silliness as the antidote to arrogance that destroys value. When we become too serious, too certain, too invested in being right, we stop seeing clearly. The willingness to play with ideas in service of understanding creates the psychological safety necessary for true innovation and system transformation.

For me, the LEGO Movie was the best way I’ve ever seen to understand Deming's 14 Points. And why? Because it makes every one of them relatable. The LEGO movie is 100 minutes (amusingly it’s exactly the prescribed length for a film of this type). There are 14 points. This is 7.14 points per minute. Nothing in the history of the post-Deming era has been this efficient at doling out the Deming.

And I love me some Deming.

But for all their wisdom, the 14 points work towards, but don't explicitly address, the fact that work must be fun to be fully human.

This isn't about forced fun, team-building exercises, or ping-pong tables in the break room. It's about what "insightful silliness": the recognition that playfulness and the profound are partners.

Funny is either a weapon or a tool. With trust, it is a tool. Without trust, yes, a weapon. And we choose how to wield it by building our cultures to suit.

The LEGO Movie is brilliant because it takes the serious themes of creativity, conformity, collaboration, and transformation and lets us explore them through play. The medium isn't incidental to the message; it's integral to it. You can't fully understand the importance and value of creative freedom without experiencing the joy of creative expression. You cannot solve problems or react to change in a healthy, practical, or even relevant way, without having a system that removes fear and engages the other 13 points.

You cannot play without Deming. You cannot improve without play. You cannot succeed without improvement.

In many workplaces, seriousness and fun are mutually exclusive and the latter outlawed. People seem to think that if work is enjoyable, it can't be important, and if it's important, it can't be enjoyable. But this is a false dichotomy that is actively destroying our work and our humanity.

Insightful silliness means:

• Approaching complex problems with curiosity rather than anxiety

• Finding ways to make necessary work engaging rather than just endurable

• Recognizing that laughter and learning are natural partners

• Understanding that play is how humans naturally explore, experiment, and innovate

• Understanding that trusted humor is a deeper communication

• Creating environments where people can bring their whole selves (including their humor) to their work

The most focused teams I've worked with take their work seriously but themselves lightly. They know the work, they know each other, and they know how they work together. They're invested in outcomes and playful (but serious) about process. They know that process is nothing more than how we’ve agreed to work together and our relationships are very important and must be improved. They understand that the best solutions often come from the willingness to try something that might seem silly at first.

My Wife Told Me No More Long Posts

LOL.

So, all I can say is blame Deming. He gave me 14 points to incorporate and the stupid LEGO people gave me a humiliating movie that talked about everything I teach in just 100 minutes.

But, my god, you guys, I’ve seen so many companies yelling at each other. People being frustrated. Blame flying in every direction. And why? Seriously, why?

We don’t have a lot of time on earth. As my friend

Oliver Burkeman

says “The average human lifespan is absurdly, terrifyingly, insultingly short.” He goes on to say that we can use that to move forward, to create, and to collaborate.

So, let’s look a bunch of plastic blocks in the mouth and say, “Okay, let’s build a better world,” and make Deming smile.

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CALL TO ACTION: If this is interesting to you, you can hire me and Toni to help (just message me on substack or linkedin), or take a class at Modus Institute, or simply get a paid subscription to Humane Work here on substack (see below).

This is what we do and have done for decades, and what we work with others on. Simple, visual, humane strategies to fix the real problems of work.