Last month, we began a two-part description of what an organization might do to snap out of a "quality slump"--a period when a quality process is in place but with little to show for it. This month, we'll look at the essential ingredients for a successful process. First, three questions must be answered regarding quality: Whose behavior changes? Where do I go with a good idea? And how will taking this measurement help me? In many organizations, the answer to the first question is, "Everyone except senior management." Those same organizations believe there is no real answer to the second question, and merely asking the third question is considered incredibly naive. What's the best answer to the first question? Everybody's behavior must change, starting with senior management. In stalled processes, odds are that a quality consulting firm implemented the effort. The consultants put a flock of senior managers through training and then excused them from participation, barring an occasional speech. Meanwhile, these consultants went on to work directly with the middle managers and below to implement the system. Much expensive training may have followed. It's time to put training dollars to better use. Nothing significant can happen until an organization's senior management gets personally involved--and stays involved. Senior managers must come to a collective agreement about what quality is and whether they are ready to give it the necessary support. This is one of the few points in the process when a company can financially justify importing one or two "quality experts." However, outsiders must function more as facilitators and advisors than as consultants giving prepackaged answers. Typically, these experts will conduct a two- to three-day workshop with the senior management team to help them organize their thoughts, increase their knowledge about quality and present them with optional methods of defining and implementing a more complete quality process. They will help them understand the potential benefits of a quality process and reach consensus on a company vision in which they are personally invested. Executive training must be followed by executive action. If there is no answer to the second question--Where do I go with a good idea?--it's time to decide on one. The best way to deal with this is to establish a committee composed of senior managers who can make decisions about allocating resources, both people and funding. More often, middle managers are delegated the task of defining an organization's quality effort and told to take their recommendations to senior management. The message sent was--and still is--all wrong. Those decisions must result from in-depth discussions and conscious decisions by the senior managers themselves. If there is no desire for a fundamental change in the way the organization does business, then the whole effort should be abandoned. For as long as it takes, the management committee should meet weekly in the organization's most obvious meeting place. The rest of the organization must see that the folks at the top think a quality process is so important they will devote two to four hours every week to it. If attendance lags, the entire company will know within hours. Our advice? Make attendance mandatory, and cancel the meetings only if the building is on fire. The committee has a number of choices: They can train current management to proactively solicit ideas, they can establish an effective suggestion system, or they can implement a team approach. When the second question is asked, every person in the company should know and believe the same answer. Any answer on where to go with a good idea will require support. That includes: *Someone to track results. A few hardy souls can do the job. One of the most successful quality teams in U.S. corporate history consisted of a manager, four analysts and a part-time secretary. They managed by having, as a fundamental tool, a computer-based method to track quality improvement ideas, their current status and their impact. *Appropriate training. If a suggestion systems is used, training must include such basics as how to write a suggestion, how to solve problems by using appropriate measuring tools and understanding quality fundamentals. If teams are used, training must include how to run a meeting in a participative manner and basic leadership skills. In fact, no matter what the approach, a program for improving leadership skills throughout the organization should be implemented. Find a training company with a product that can be customized and then, after the courses have been conducted a few times, buy the rights to the program and integrate it into the organization's regular training cycle. That way, next year's attendees won't simply get the same course as this year's; they'll get a better one reflecting the first year's successes and lessons. *Effective use of measurement. This leads to the third critical quality question: How does taking this measurement help me? The answer is built into quality's fundamental role: to create competitive businesses. At the most basic level, what's in it for you when you use measurement to keep a company in business is a job--your job. If that connection hasn't been made, it's time to make it. On the other hand, if an organization has previously used measurement as a weapon or religion, it's going to be difficult to make that connection. When employees are asked to take measurements that supply answers to questions that are never asked, they are bound to be skeptical. Measurement has only two legitimate uses: as a source of ideas and as a way to track progress. Involving employees in designing measurement can help ensure that measurements are used effectively. Linking measurement to recognition also is a powerful connection, although not all recognition should be linked to objective measures. Organizations that recognize quality improvement of any kind encourage more of the same; organizations that ignore employees' quality efforts kill initiative. So now you have the three questions that need answering. When senior managers have the answers, they should be announced in some memorable way. At a ceremony, the previous quality efforts could be acknowledged as a "successful pilot," and participants can be praised for proving the worth of paying attention to quality and helping to convince senior management that it was time to involve everyone. The next step after the process is in place? Change. Any process must change, even a wildly successful one. After all, if a process that advocates change is not itself open to growth and improvement, everyone will quickly spot the inherent hypocrisy. One of senior management's primary tasks is to watch for appropriate times to introduce changes. It is never too late to begin or fine-tune a complete quality process. Quality must not be allowed to become the privately owned property of a few nearsighted devotees whose vision does not go beyond preserving their own jobs. Quality is not something extra that is done by a select few when there is time. Quality is how work is done, and how relationships are formed and strengthened. It can only happen if everybody is involved and if the organization not only gives permission but encouragement and structure to the process. The fact that the effort has started badly or has gone astray doesn't mean the organization is doomed to forever mourn what could have been. Quality is about change. A nonproductive quality process can be a wonderful beginning. About the authors Pat Townsend and Joan Gebhardt have written more than 200 articles and four books: Commit to Quality (John Wiley & Sons, 1986); Quality in Action: 93 Lessons in Leadership, Participation, and Measurement (John Wiley & Sons, 1992); Five-Star Leadership: The Art and Strategy of Creating Leaders at Every Level (John Wiley & Sons, 1997); and Recognition, Gratitude & Celebration (Crisp Publications, 1997). |
