Friday, August 31, 2012

Quality Culture and Feelings

Paul Borawski ASQ CEO touches upon the concepts of Quality Culture and its relation to Feeling in this months A View from the Q.

 For a long time know I've heard many organizations discuss transitions to a Safety Culture, a Quality Culture and Customer-centric Culture, etc.  Every discussion seems to be the same.  We want to change the way we act, perform, think to _______ (fill in the blank).  In my opinion, these cultural changes are only required because we've developed inherent weakness in the way we conduct business.  A company, any company is in business for one purpose - to make money for it's stakeholders / shareholder.  To do this we must provide a service or product that meets our customer's needs and expectations.  To do this we must produce that product or develop and deliver that service.  I be successful, the level of quality must satisfy the customer.  We must also operate in a safe manner to protect our personnel.

So by definition and extention, to be in business we must deliver quality products or service and do what we do safely.  So why do we need to 'develop a _____ (again, fill in the blank) culture when that should be inherent in what we do.  Okay, to answer my own question, we need a culture transition because we've strayed from the original path and we must right ourselves.

So why does the transition to the right path have to be painful (make us feel uncomfortable).  I believe it is because we reach a level of comfort that does not allow for achieving the overall goal...making money by satisfying our customers.

That said, let me now address one of Paul's questions:

              "If you’re working on a culture of quality, or sustaining one, what do you look for in the people you
               hire into the organization?"

When I am hiring into my team I look for people that meet the job criteria, with personalities that fit the personality (culture) of the organization, that I believe will stick around for an extended period of time and for people with whom I can work comfortably and succesfully.  This applies regardless of the perceived culture of the organization.  I most instances I am also considering succession planning when hiring.  Is this person capable of moving up through the organization and, if hired into the right position, eventually becoming my replacement.  I guess all of this means, does the person fit the culture of the organization now.

2 comments:

  1. David , I find it interesting how both of our posts have looked at the concept of change with respect to quality-culture. Perhaps as the business environment changes occur, they in turn drive the need for a change in culture in order to satisfy our customers and stay in business or as IT put it VERY BLUNTLY - change or die. Cheers KerrieAnneChristian

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  2. First, I don't agree with your claim on the only reason for companies to exist, I believe Deming had a better view: http://curiouscat.com/deming/purpose.cfm

    But I do agree with the general premise: a "culture" isn't an aim. The reason a culture matters is that it embodies a robust system that delivers the best results over the long term. The problem of not having a good culture (but doing well today - reducing waste, gaining customers...) is that over and over we see these companies collapse. The reason a "quality culture" matters is as a strategy to achieve an aim: long term success.

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