Quality and Democracy: Common Ground
Pat Townsend & Joan Gebhardt
ptownsend@qualitydigest.com
When the Berlin Wall came down
more than a decade ago, one of the results was that businesses
in East Germany--which had done well within East Germany
and exporting to other communist countries--were forced
to compete in the open marketplace with democratic countries.
Not a single East German firm was commercially viable--not
one.
This example underscores an important point as America
heads into its 228th year of existence. There are many similarities
between the form of government that Thomas Jefferson and
others had in mind and our modern vision for how a “quality
company” should operate. That vision--with its reliance
on informed employees taking an active role in the continual
improvement of the company--is far different from what was
found in failed operations established on the communist
model.
There is a series of similarities between a well-established
democratic republic and a successful commercial or governmental/nonprofit
operation:
* In both, the individual is thought to have value. In
totalitarian operations, whether they’re government
or business organizations, individuals are thought of as
inter-changeable parts with little unique value. In such
operations, the turnover rate is always high--even if people
have to dig under walls to get out.
* Neither the United States nor a “quality organization”
would function well as a pure, everybody-vote-on-everything
democracy. Such an approach would be too clumsy and time-consuming,
and it would not make best use of everyone’s individual
talents.
* Both are held together by mutual trust. The glue that
holds our nation together is that, for the most part, we
trust each other to do everything from stopping at a red
light to paying taxes to living according to the law. In
the same way, the employees of a quality organization trust
each other, knowing that when something is passed to one
of them, the previous person in the process flow did his
or her best with it.
* Both must be open to evolution. Our nation has changed
how it does things while staying true to its mission and
goals. An organization in pursuit of quality must also be
able to adapt, to evolve as different opportunities and
tools become evident. But, at the same time, it must stay
true to itself, to its mission, to its culture and to its
values.
* Rights and responsibilities are always present. People
in a democratic republic vote for how things should be done
tomorrow, but an individual doesn’t have to vote.
Participation in a quality process is a vote for how things
should be done tomorrow, but a person doesn’t have
to do that either. If someone chooses not to participate
in a quality process, he or she forfeits any right to complain.
* Participation is possible at several levels. Depending
on decisions that an individual makes about his or her education
and exactly where he or she wants to spend time and energy,
a person can get involved in the community in a number of
ways. Joining a town committee, running for office in a
community organization, taking an active role in public
meetings or simply voting are all possibilities. At work,
people can continue to grow and learn as they “climb
the corporate ladder,” or they might choose to answer
a call to volunteer for company-sponsored activities in
the local community, or to be an active member of a quality
team. The crucial point for an individual is to be aware
of what is happening--in one’s country and one’s
company--and to be actively involved.
Remember that being passive and accepting the idea that
“it’s going OK; there aren’t any changes
needed” is simply not based in fact. The founders
of the United States didn’t get it perfectly right
the first time. One needs to look no further than the Constitution’s
27 amendments to know that even the best of beginnings can
always use some improvement. The point is that good men
and women took the time to improve the initial rules for
government, and it’s now one of the oldest in the
world.
Companies need their employees to take an active role in
defining the future, just as a nation needs its current
citizens. People need to keep looking for ways to improve,
and they need to keep working on building a community that’s
the envy of others.
As Americans enjoy their having made it to birthday No.
227, they can all rightfully take pride in what they’ve
helped to build and sustain, and they can use that mutual
experience as a model for their organizational experiments.
Pat Townsend and Joan Gebhardt have written more than
200 articles and six books, including 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); Recognition, Gratitude
& Celebration (Crisp Publications, 1997); How
Organizations Learn: Investigate, Identify, Institutionalize
(Crisp Publications, 1999); and Quality Is Everybody's
Business (CRC Press, 1999). Pat Townsend has recently
re-entered the corporate world and is now dealing with “leadership.com”
issues as a practitioner as well as an observer, writer
and speaker. He is now chief quality officer for UICI, a
diverse financial services corporation headquartered in
the Dallas area. Letters to the editor regarding this column
can be sent to letters@qualitydigest.com.
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