The Secret Behind Quality Companies
H. James Harrington
jharrington@qualitydigest.com
An organization will excel
only when it taps the full potential of all the individuals
within it, sparking their creative abilities and providing
them with a high degree of personal self-worth and pride.
As psychologist Abraham Maslow pointed out so long ago,
people's first instinct is to survive. Once that need is
satisfied, the desire for camaraderie and friendship--which
membership in a team provides--becomes their top priority.
But it's by means of self-actualization that people perform
best. This isn't because they're driven to perform by promises,
threats or praise but because excelling in their chosen
jobs provides personal satisfaction and fulfillment.
Don't fool yourself; the job you have today is your chosen
job. Everyone has options. It's you who decide whether to
continue doing what you're doing. It's your choice, and
you must accept your responsibility to excel at the job
you have.
As Martin Luther King Jr. put it: "If a man is called
to be a street sweeper, he should sweep the street even
as Michelangelo painted, Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare
wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that the host
of heaven and earth will pause to say, 'Here lives a great
street sweeper who did his job well.'"
For employees to perform effectively, management must
provide them with the three T's: training, tools and time.
The three T's will get an employee to the starting gate.
They're a requirement for good performance. To excel, an
individual must build upon these basics, using individual
creativity, pride and sacrifice as he or she reaches for
self-fulfillment. The trick is to build into your present
job personal challenges that will throw off the chains of
boredom and mediocrity. What could be more boring than hitting
a walnut with a stick and then running after it and hitting
it again for eight hours a day? Put 18 holes in the ground
and that boring task becomes golf, a sport that millions
of people wait anxiously, and pay good money, to play.
I'm not suggesting that people invest their entire lives
in their work. Everyone should spend time in each quadrant
of life's arena: work, religion, family and self.
When it comes down to it, everyone spends time in the
work quadrant in order to provide funding for the other
three. The average hours per day devoted to work--from the
time an individual leaves home until he or she returns--are
13 hours in Japan, 11.3 hours in the United States, 10.5
hours in Germany, 10.4 hours in France and 10.2 hours in
Great Britain.
Selling half of your life to support your needs should
be enough without working additional overtime. As individuals,
we must use our time effectively and creatively while at
work, excelling in everything we do so that we don't need
to work overtime. I doubt that you've ever heard a person
lying on his or her deathbed say, "I wish I had spent
more time at work."
Paul M. Schyve, M.D., vice president of research and standards
for the Joint Commission, stated: "While the standards
clearly emphasize systems and processes rather than individuals
in health care, you cannot ignore the role that an individual
professional's knowledge and skills play in outcomes. In
the interest of driving out fear from an organization, you
can't choose to ignore issues of individual competence.
The standards represent the need to balance those issues."
Yes, you must have good processes and teamwork to get
into the race, but when it comes right down to it, an individual's
personal excellence makes or breaks an organization.
Kaoru Ishikawa, the man who started the quality circle
movement in Japan, openly recognized that individuals were
more productive and effective at solving quality problems
than teams. The need to excel is an idea to which everyone
can relate on a very personal, fundamental level. Excellence
applies to everyone's occupation. The need to excel, to
be the very best we can be, can't be imposed upon us. It
can only come from within.
We all need to improve the way we perform our jobs so
they don't interfere with the activities that occur in life's
other three quadrants. At the same time, we must increase
our value to our organizations, excelling at everything
we do, so we can accept more responsible assignments and
improve our financial status. To accomplish this, individuals
must:
Be educated to perform their assigned task(s)
Understand their organization's busi- ness plan and how
it relates to their jobs
Understand how well they're performing
Not be afraid to take risks
Be willing to take on new assignments
Be uncomfortable with the status quo
Think creatively
Be willing to share credit
Indira Gandhi said: "My grandfather once told me
that there are two kinds of people: those who do the work,
and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in
the first group; there's less competition there."
Make excellence your way of life.
H. James Harrington recently retired from his position
as COO of Systemcorp, an Internet-software development company.
He has more than 45 years of experience as a quality professional
and is the author of 20 books. Visit his Web site at www.hjharrington.com.
Letters to the editor regarding this column can be sent
to letters@qualitydigest.com.
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