All Features
Annet Aris
After an initial phase of euphoria about how the digital world improves our daily life with virtual assistants, among other gadgets and services, slowly but surely, we're coming firmly back to earth. Post-honeymoon, the breakneck speed of digital development has created an increasing number of…
Eric Cooper
You’re in the market to build a new house. Would you tell the builder what you’re looking for, or would you just tell him to build “something?” If the latter, what’s the likelihood that the house you end up with is going to be what you want? Documenting your requirements should be obvious, right…
Bruce Bolger
HighlightsThe New Focus on People Overview of ISO 9001:2015 Standards and the ISO 10018 Certification How This Microsite Helps Quality Management, Auditors, and Solution Providers Articles ResourcesOther Articles In This Series
This Month's Featured ArticleAccumold Starts With the Why
Can the…
Robert Means
Manufacturing is an industry in flux. Characterized by increasing pressure from global competitors, the impact of new technologies, Industry 4.0, and the “smart factory,” the face of manufacturing is changing drastically for the better. In a recent manufacturing outlook survey from the National…
Ryan E. Day
When your public motto is “staying on the cutting edge of technology,” you’ve set a bar for yourself. Thomas Paquin set that bar when he founded Laser Specialists Inc. (LSI) in 1986. Paquin’s untimely death in 1993 left the company with questionable leadership and direction. In 2004, Nick and Jon…
Steven Brand
The global aerospace and defense (A&D) industry grew by 2.4 percent and generated about $674 billion in 2016, according to a Deloitte 2017 study. California alone was responsible for generating $62 billion a year in revenue in 2014, according to a 2014 California Aerospace Industry Economic…
Mike Richman
During last Friday’s episode of Quality Digest Live, we looked at the far-reaching implications of a prospective merger, previewed our latest webinar with DNV, considered the importance of fun at work, and inspected some interesting stereo microscopes from Vision Engineering. Here’s a closer look…
Earl Van As
Competitive forces are intensifying in the B2B supply chain, increasing customer expectations for service and pricing, and creating more pressure for businesses to maintain an edge. Instead of being reactive to today’s increasingly low margins, decision makers should take advantage of the risks…
Dirk Dusharme @ Quality Digest
Those of us who care about communication accuracy in the workplace—which should be all of us—cringe at the idea of using something like Facebook or Twitter to communicate with co-workers. We look at how those platforms in particular get abused outside of business and can’t imagine a corporate world…
Dave Crenshaw
According to a poll conducted by Harris and the University of Phoenix, 59 percent of American workers wish they were in a different career. For employees in their 30s, that number is right around 73 percent. Employees disliking their jobs may be nothing new, but pushing to make the workday more…
Stanislav Shekshnia, Veronika Zagieva, Alexey Ulanovsky
During the last decade, we studied CEOs of companies that thrive within some of the most challenging business environments on the planet. Though very different in many respects, these CEOs share leadership behaviors and attitudes that strongly parallel those of top athletes. We further theorize…
Vip Vyas, Diego Nannicini, David Sherman
In an era of volcanic Twitter accounts, devastating disruptions, seismic shifts toward de-globalization, and widespread corporate uncertainty, is your organization trapped in fear, or is it reaching out to the future? In short, are you “forwarding” your business?
Against the current backdrop,…
Carrie Van Daele, Ronee Franklin
The key to being an explorer lies in what you do with your creative thinking and attitude, which allow you to consider different points of view. Like the explorer, you look for probabilities and possibilities. This is what is known as creative thinking skills: having the ability to create…
Jennifer V. Miller
Are there any positive leadership stories out there anymore? Anyone? Anyone?
Sometimes, I feel like Ben Stein’s economics teacher in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, casting about for any story that sheds a positive light on the ability to lead with character. Within one week I heard three stories of…
Debashis Sarkar
We all know the famous quote, “The customer is always right.” It was coined more than a century ago. In the United States, it was popularized by Marshall Field during the early 1900s. In the United Kingdom, it was popularized by Harry Gordon Selfridge of luxury retailer Selfridge’s fame. Since…
Marlene Chism
Many new leaders silently struggle in their leadership role. They avoid difficult conversations about performance because they do not have the confidence or the skill to coach others or facilitate change. Or, they do not have the critical skills to determine the root problem of poor performance,…
Mike Richman
Last Friday’s episode of QDL welcomed the new year with our usual original take on featured editorial content, plus a great Tech Corner. In case you missed it, here’s what we covered:
“Most ‘Innovations’ Are Mere Novelties” In this article, author Helen Barrett exposes the myth of the lone-wolf…
Quality Transformation With David Schwinn
I was recently reminded of a fundamental statement about continual improvement. In Out of the Crisis (Massachusetts Institute Center for Advanced Engineering, 1986), W. Edwards Deming stated, “I should estimate that in my experience, most troubles and most possibilities for improvement add up to…
Manfred Kets de Vries
The CEO of Wickrott Corp. was known as a suspicious control freak. Symptomatic of his leadership style were the numerous “internal consultants” hired to keep him informed of the goings-on in the organization. Staff described their work environment as a cutthroat, Darwinian “soup.” Information was…
Gleb Tsipursky
When was the last time a colleague said something so ridiculous that it made your jaw drop? Perhaps a desk mate went into something political, claiming that George Bush is behind 9/11 or that Barack Obama is a Muslim from Kenya? Or maybe your boss voiced science denialism, arguing that the Earth…
Scott Berkun
On Tuesdays I write about the top-voted question on “Ask Berkun.” This week’s question came from J.R., who wrote: “What is a favorite theory that you wish more people understood?”
A favorite theory that I wish was more well-known is the Satir Change Model. It’s popular in some circles, but often…
Annette Franz
Why is employee engagement at an all-time low? Why is turnover as high as it is? Why are employees constantly looking for better opportunities?
Think about those questions, along with what I wrote in my column, “Employee Engagement: A Confluence of Passion and Purpose”: “...engagement comes from…
Mike Figliuolo
Focusing on metrics is key to achieving your desired business results—but it can be difficult to determine which metrics actually matter. There are five major questions you need to answer to ensure the metrics you’re measuring matter and you can take action based upon what they tell you.
Some…
Bruce Hamilton
Speaking at the 2003 Shingo Conference, Guy Briggs, general manager of North American operations for General Motors lamented, “We spent the 1980s ‘counting robots’ before we realized that it’s people that make the difference in our business.”
He was alluding to the thirty-five billion (yes,…
Alaina Love
Among the most significant qualities demonstrated by effective leaders is the ability to make meaning of their experiences by interpreting the deeper insights that can be gained from daily interactions in the workplace, especially when times are challenging.
This reflective quality is like a…