The Plan-Do-Study-Act Cycle puts more emphasis on the learning step and generalizes [the PDCA Cycle](The%20PDCA%20Cycle.md) to the development of skills and knowledge, *in addition* to the [Kaizen](Kaizen.md) aspect of improvement of behaviors and processes that PDCA focuses on. An even better acronym for this idea might be *PDRL* for **Plan-Do-Reflect-Learn** (see next). The four steps are: 1. **Plan**: This involves identifying a goal or purpose, formulating a theory, defining success metrics and putting a plan into action. 2. **Do**: The components of the plan are implemented, such as making a product, taking some action, or having the meeting. 3. **Study/Reflect**: Outcomes are monitored to test the validity of the plan for signs of progress and success, or problems and areas for improvement. 4. **Act/Adjust/Learn**: Integrate the learning generated by the entire process, which can be used to adjust the goal, change the methods, reformulate a theory altogether, or broaden the learning. Implement improvements by identifying how to update the goal, approach, technique, behavior or process. These four steps can be repeated over and over as part of a never-ending cycle of continual learning and improvement. It can scale from a tiny experiment to a long-term implementation plan. Dr. Deming emphasized the PDSA Cycle, that unlike [the PDCA Cycle](The%20PDCA%20Cycle.md) emphasizes Study(S) as the third step, not Check (C). Dr. Deming found that the focus on Check is more about the implementation of a change, with success or failure. His focus was on predicting the results of an improvement effort, studying the actual results, and comparing them to possibly revise the theory. He stressed that the need to develop new knowledge, from learning, is always guided by a theory. By comparison, the Check phase of the PDCA cycle focuses on the success or failure of a Plan, followed by needed corrections to the Plan in the event of failure. Ref: https://deming.org/explore/pdsa/