It has been several months since we reported on the progress of the Complete Quality Process at the Insurance Center, where
one of the authors of this column (Pat) is serving as the chief quality officer. Happily, the news is all good. First, to catch everyone up, a few words about the make-up and unique
features of the process, then some results. The Complete Quality Process (and the implication being that other quality process methodologies have in some way been incomplete is
intentional) has seven components: (1) Top management's commitment (2) Leadership (3) One-hundred-percent employee involvement, with a structure (4) Communications (5) Training
(6) Measurement (7) Recognition, gratitude and celebration The distinguishing features of the CQP process are: * The speed of implementation. Pat arrived in early
February 2000; the management team of this several-hundred-person insurance company voted on March 28, 2000, to proceed with a CQP process. Strategic planning, process analysis workshops,
measurement training and formal leadership training all began during the next four months, and the quality teams began operating on Sept. 14, 2000. * One-hundred-percent employee involvement
. Every employee of the organization is on at least one quality team. Teams are empowered to act -- with empowerment defined as "authority equal to responsibility." * An
extensive program of recognition, gratitude and celebration, with active participation by senior managers. * The number of things going on at one time, the level of activity and
participation at all levels, and the impact. The quality teams are the most evident facet of the process. There are 80 different quality teams. Most teams are made up of
folks who work together in a particular area plus, in many cases, one or two members from the computer department. The inclusion of the computer analysts and programmers in the operational
department's quality teams was a deliberate effort to break down functional barriers by fostering opportunities for greater mutual understanding. By and large, the effort has become quite
successful as more and more individuals became more familiar with each other's needs and capabilities. In the 11 months since the "quality team" segment of the process was
initiated, the quality teams have entered 1,400 "quality ideas" on the Quality Idea Tracking Program (a program developed in house). Of those, 538 have been both implemented (by one or
more of the quality teams) and certified (by one of the two quality analysts who make up 2/3's of the quality department). The annualized dollar value of these ideas has been $1,925,153 in hard
dollars (usable budget dollars; either avoided costs or added money) and $3,070,412 in soft dollars (primarily savings in time or, looked at another way, growth in the capacity to do needed work).
The process analysis workshops have been conducted by a consultant organization with a long track record of working well with financial-service companies. The workshops have been
conducted on a one-department-at-a-time basis and have led to major reorganization efforts, which, in turn have been the catalysts for a shuffling of members of quality teams and the initiation
of quality ideas: Call it "reengineering in context." Facilitating everything has been the time, money and effort put into leadership training. Every supervisor and above has
been through a very intense three-day leadership course and a one-day follow-up class. This training has been augmented with a series of e-mail messages and frequent reminders by the company
president about specific leadership elements. The strategic plan -- along with the process analysis workshops -- has been how the company has defined the "right things to do"
(while the quality teams concentrated on "doing things right"). To ensure that everyone in the company was at least aware of the primary thrusts of the strategic plan, the company
staged a "strategic plan week," featuring an all-employee meeting that described (using a talk-show format that included live animals) the plan, as well as daily activities to highlight
each of the specific strategies. It's the quality teams that are the most obvious generators of activity and change, thanks both to the impact of the teams' activities on the workplace
and to the recognition ceremonies. On several occasions, virtually every week, the president of the company and/or the COO can be seen hurrying through the work areas, headed for another
recognition ceremony. The president conducts about 80 percent of the ceremonies; the COO virtually always attends the ceremonies and conducts them if the president can't make it. These ceremonies
(also attended by whomever else from the Quality Steering Committee and the senior leadership team can make it) tend to be punctuated with a lot of laughter and applause as the team members
explain what ideas they had and what the impact of those ideas was. The real test of a quality effort is how business is doing. The primary purpose for any quality process is, after all,
to strengthen the bottom line by increasing the capacity for work, by reducing waste and by increasing income. These measures are very positive. The company is doing well financially.
Quality is good business. About the authors 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. E-mail the authors at ptownsend@qualitydigest.com . |
