I always enjoy posting in response to Paul Borawski's post on A View from the Q and this month is no exception. The question of the month: 'How well understood and embraced are the contributions of the quality
professional beyond what is traditionally thought of as the quality function?'
Let me begin my answer by telling a story:
I've been working in my current position for about 2 1/2 years. As Senior Quality Assurance Manager my primary site (I have responsibility at 3 sites within our division) has the QC Supervisor as my direct report. He is an older gentleman who joined this company about 20 years ago after selling his own business and semi-retiring. His perspective on Quality is, in my opinion Old World. His primary concern is the inspection for acceptance / rejection of product...this is a necessary evil in this business. My primary concerns are (1) Customer Satisfaction (both internal and external) and (2) Continual Improvement. He continually comments to me that I don't know what I'm doing, I'm always getting into things that are not Quality's concern, I am trying to undermine him. For instance, I volunteered to be a member of the Safety committee. He questions this asking, what does that have to do with Quality. No matter how many times and different ways I explain to him that without a safe work environment we cannot produce a quality product he just disagrees with me and says I'm into things that I shouldn't be involved with.
Okay, enough he said / I said. This is not the first time I've been down a road like this and I can deal with it.
With 4 generations in the workplace old style and new style approaches to all aspects of business, including Quality, will clash.
Expanding the involvement of the Quality function beyond our traditional silos is paramount to our overarching goals of Customer Satisfaction and Continual Improvement.
Monday, October 15, 2012
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:
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.
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.
Monday, July 23, 2012
Business Speak
When blogging as a member of the ASQ Influential Voices team I begin by saying ASQ CEO Paul Borawski in his blog A View from the Q asked the question...so staying true to form...Paul asks: Do you speak the “language of business”? How important is it, in your experience?
Let's start with the language of business...
I've been hearing this discussion about the language of business since I started as a quality professional back in the days of enlightenment...the 1980's. I'm sure the discussion was not new then. So why are we still trying to encourage our quality professionals to speak this languauge...shouldn't this be motherhood and apple pie by now? The reason we need to keep selling the business speak is that our Engineering schools are still failing us. As an Engineering student I was required to take a course called Engineering Economics. It was a senior year requirement and basically taught about break-even points. No other required course in my Engineering program discussed Business, Money, Costs, Expenses, Income, Revenue, or any other language of business. I did take Accounting as an elective so I was a bit ahead of the curve. Still neither course mentioned touched on Business speak...Failure STEM!
How important is it in my experience?
Try to solicit funding in your organization for simple quality tools like QMS software, new test equipment, SPC software, or even new furniture without a cost justification, an ROI or details of all the expenses associated with training and installation and see how far you get. Even preparing a simple expense report for business travel requires a simple understanding of business speak. Again, without basic training in the language of business, we as Quality professionals will fail...yet another failure of STEM, in my opinion.
Sure, Engineering students have among the heaviest course loads in any college or university yet we fail to teach them what they really need to know for success...change the requirements for Engineering programs to include Business 101, Business Law and basic Accounting 101. Once this is done there will be no need for this discussion of speaking the language of business.
Let's start with the language of business...
I've been hearing this discussion about the language of business since I started as a quality professional back in the days of enlightenment...the 1980's. I'm sure the discussion was not new then. So why are we still trying to encourage our quality professionals to speak this languauge...shouldn't this be motherhood and apple pie by now? The reason we need to keep selling the business speak is that our Engineering schools are still failing us. As an Engineering student I was required to take a course called Engineering Economics. It was a senior year requirement and basically taught about break-even points. No other required course in my Engineering program discussed Business, Money, Costs, Expenses, Income, Revenue, or any other language of business. I did take Accounting as an elective so I was a bit ahead of the curve. Still neither course mentioned touched on Business speak...Failure STEM!
How important is it in my experience?
Try to solicit funding in your organization for simple quality tools like QMS software, new test equipment, SPC software, or even new furniture without a cost justification, an ROI or details of all the expenses associated with training and installation and see how far you get. Even preparing a simple expense report for business travel requires a simple understanding of business speak. Again, without basic training in the language of business, we as Quality professionals will fail...yet another failure of STEM, in my opinion.
Sure, Engineering students have among the heaviest course loads in any college or university yet we fail to teach them what they really need to know for success...change the requirements for Engineering programs to include Business 101, Business Law and basic Accounting 101. Once this is done there will be no need for this discussion of speaking the language of business.
Sunday, May 20, 2012
ASQ WCQI Anaheim, CA May 2012
Hello my friends,
I am in Anaheim, CA for ASQ (#ASQ) World Conference on Quality and Improvement (#WCQI12).
Before the conferece begins there are meetings, ceremonies and gatherings for both Member Leaders and Members.
On Sat, May 19 I attended 4 activities for Member Leaders:
My major take-aways from the day include:
Stay tuned...more to come!
I am in Anaheim, CA for ASQ (#ASQ) World Conference on Quality and Improvement (#WCQI12).
Before the conferece begins there are meetings, ceremonies and gatherings for both Member Leaders and Members.
On Sat, May 19 I attended 4 activities for Member Leaders:
- Ideas to Action Gathering (#ITAG)
- Community Leadership Institute (CLI)
- Quality Management Process (QMP) Awards ceremony
- Member Leader (ML) Dinner / Reception
My major take-aways from the day include:
- Speakers on Panel Discussions must listen to the questions being asked and answer those question. In other words, get off your own agenda and address the concern of the moment.
- ASQ is not broken as one ML may think...he needs a time machine to go back to the first ML Summit (grand-dad to the ITAG) and feel the pains then see the growth and improvement we've had as a result.
- There is a preception of drive to improve ML satisfaction.
- Creating an email to communicate with Members is a lot more complex then the typical section may know.
- QMP is going through a major overhaul.
- Stuff that is motherhood and applepie to me as a long time ML is virtually unknown to many both new and long time MLs due to limited communications.
- Perception of MLs is ASQ still sends too many emails.
- The ability to opt-out of different types of emails is improving through personal preference updates.
Stay tuned...more to come!
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