Phil´s Journal
PHILIP CROSBY

As we go through life practicing our profession, raising our family and meeting our obligations, we generally follow some sort of a plan. It may not be a PERT-charted, computer-based process, but it is something we follow. My question is: "Are you following your plan or someone else's?" Where did you get what you think is important?

An amazing number of people simply latch onto the conventional wisdom of the day. They don't think for themselves, and the results of their life show it. Very little that they do is original, particularly in their work. For instance, I see young people taking at face value the managerial concepts developed in another era, under different circumstances. They don't examine these practices for their worth; they just assume that they must be right because others use them.

When I first began to travel on business, I was advised to pack one clean shirt for each day of my trip. However, I soon discovered that hotel laundries are quite reliable and that nearly every place I go has a store nearby that sells shirts. During the years I only had one problem, and I solved that by buying a shirt right in the hotel lobby. So, I travel with one small suitcase, whereas my advisor travels with two large ones. His past experience had shown this to be necessary, but modern hotels made carrying along so much luggage unnecessary. Despite all of the evidence around him, he never changed.

Many people at the bottom end of the wage scale think that the only way to get financially secure is to hit a "big one": stock options, a great idea, win the lottery, marry a millionaire, etc. Yet, if these same people were to have invested 10 percent of their salary in a mutual fund, they would have accumulated several million dollars by the time they reached retirement age. (Compound interest really is our friend!) Because most people spend every cent they make, even as their income increases, this 10 percent won't be missed if it's taken out first. It's not necessary to manage money like our parents did.

The quality philosophy is littered with inaccurate and out-of-date concepts and practices. Most of them were designed for organizations with workplaces where metal pieces dropped off the end of a machine one at a time. These "metal shop" concepts and practices don't fit into today's Internet age. The concepts weren't designed for knowledge work, but people keep trying to squeeze them in anyway. Work is still a process--as it always has been--but the process itself has changed. No one person can see the entire process all at once any more.

So where did you get your plan? Did you study and think and then put it all together? Did you take advantage of examining the thinking and practice that has gone on before and then determine what is useful to your situation? Or do you just hop in line behind someone with a reputation? Those who employ us to help make their organizations reliable need something that works, not just what everyone else is getting. They need our personal thought process.

What is quality? How do we go about getting it? What is the performance standard? How should we measure quality in financial terms?

Also, is quality a noun or an adjective to you? If it is an adjective, you need to change professions.

About the author

Philip B. Crosby, a popular speaker and founder of Philip Crosby Associates--now PCA II--is also the author of several books, including Quality Is Still Free (McGraw-Hill, 1995) and The Absolutes of Leadership (Jossey-Bass, 1996). Visit his Web site at www.philipcrosby.com .