Quality Digest

Twenty years ago at a great conference, I learned a wonderfully simple model summarizing the personal change process. It complements the “ABC” model—which stands for activating event, beliefs, and consequential behavior, leading to results (R)—that I described in part one.

The menu has folded out into four sections. Each page has a picture next to the delicious option; however, I know the server will be taking the menu away from me after I’ve placed my order. I’m pondering how I can confirm that my order is the same as the picture. Perhaps I should ask if they have a quality system in place to guarantee satisfaction?

Novelist Rose Tremain is quoted as saying, “Life is not a dress rehearsal.” Accordingly, there are no second rounds. We get one chance—one moment—and there is no looking back at what could have been. Sounds pretty depressing, doesn’t it? But what if you could go back with the knowledge of what went wrong and repeat the day or the event? That would be neat!

Lack of loyalty is a serious problem in organizations everywhere today. No longer do people join a company and devote the rest of their working lives to it. But neither are companies exactly known for offering up 30 or 40 years of employment, along with a gold watch and pension plan.

As I’m sure most of you have discovered, transformation is not a linear, predictable process. People have insights and breakthroughs in fits and starts, and growth is full of individual, inner personal transformational phenomena. This process can be seriously compromised by traditional attempts to measure them, which are based in pedagogy theory. But did you know that predicting your behavior is as simple as A-B-C?

This year will mark another push for aggressive food regulation at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). On tap, salt regulations and industrywide regulations dictating which foods can be advertised on television.

During a recent trip to the great state of Texas, I heard some down-home wisdom: “Before you season your food, why don’t you taste it first?” The person who uttered that question was not talking about food. Rather, he was challenging someone who was a little too hell-bent on changing something without truly understanding it.

Sound familiar?

Life can be a real kick in the pants. In her 1983 commencement speech at Vassar College, Meryl Streep expressed her genuine surprise when she figured out that “real life is just like high school.” She went on to explain, “In high school there’s generally one acceptable way to be, and it’s dictated by the exigencies of dating.”

From the Broadway play A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum comes a delightful song titled Comedy Tonight. In the song are phrases such as “something familiar—something peculiar” and “something appealing—something appalling.” As a follow-up to those words, each day we read or hear about people distinguishing themselves in a positive fashion or on the other hand, some jerks upsetting the tranquility of the community by doing something dumb and outrageous.

During a recent holiday debriefing with a friend, I learned that a colleague of hers was feeling guilty because she and her husband were unable to afford an iPad for their daughter. Nodding and sipping tea, I was vaguely sympathizing while trying on the idea of buying a macaroon from the bakery where we sat. It was the tail end of the report that barged into my brain and preempted all pastry speculation: “Her daughter is two years old,” said my friend.