All the creative breakthroughs must originate with people. The people you want in your organization, regardless of position, want to grow in personal and group leadership skills. They want to be "led," not driven.
This white paper presents an approach that systematically designs and builds a culture in which a total emphasis on quality reaches and affects all policies, practices, processes and people. The insights and tools provided here are blended into a purposeful and focused life and leadership style, quantum leaps in quality will occur.
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Assess:
• Assess organizational goals and current performance.
• Determine most important problems and biggest opportunities.
• Determine customer needs.
• Translate customer needs into service features.
• Benchmark other service providers.
Plan:
• Comprehensive implementation plan.
• Involve employees at all levels of organization to establish feasibility of
implementation.
• Receive inputs and try to in‐corporate good inputs in the revised plan.
Expect:
• Set quality‐related goals, requirements for all teams, units, departments, and
divisions in the organization.
• Define the requirements relating to quality in the organization’s strategic plan
• Define quality in the job descriptions of all personnel
• Define quality in all of the organization’s team charters
• Define quality criteria in all of the organization’s performance appraisal
instruments,
• Talk about quality at all levels in the organization,
• Recognize and reward quality‐positive attitudes and behavior
• Provide quality‐related training for personnel at all levels
Model:
• Identify role models generally Executives, managers, and supervisors
• Management personnel must walk the talk; make sure role models consistently
relay positive quality‐related attitudes and reinforce the expectation of
personnel.
• Orient. Provide guidance and training. Set Quality‐related expectations to new
entrants in an organization teach good habits to being with .
Training and Mentor:
• Provide training and mentoring current as well as new employees,
• Cultivate quality‐positive attitudes and behaviors
• Make them aware of their role in TQM and ultimately how their contribution
leads to organizational success.
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Monitor:
• Monitor the exceptions inappropriate attitudes and behaviors
• Track the effectiveness of TQM initiative
Reinforce and maintain:
• To maintain a quality culture, reinforce the quality‐related attitudes and
behaviors
• Incentives could be recognition and reward systems
• Tie raises, promotions, and recognition awards with level of quality standards
met by individuals performance based compensation
• Maintain process if working
Characteristics of Quality Culture
To better understand these characteristics/values let's state the opposite end of the
spectrum John A. Woods, 1998 . These characterize the assumptions behind the
behavior and approach of corporations with traditional approach to quality.
In an organization with a traditional culture, the primary focus is return on investment
and short‐term profits.
The boss knows best. Managers think and employees do.
Lack of team spirit. Everyone for him or herself. Creates an unnecessary strain
between co‐workers. “MVP” Syndrome, organization depends on few
individuals “heroes” to help in tough time. Focus on individual work; work in
silos
Keep communication limited and secretive. Keep most information at the top,
and share it only when necessary.
Success is everything; no tolerance for failure. Success is measured by immediate
bottom line without much concern for long term growth and survival.
Enough said about traditional culture. So organization with Quality Culture has to be
opposite of traditional culture, as this approach does not seem to work most of the
times.
A quality culture is led by management who believes in the systems view and
understands that their company exists to create a mutually beneficial relationship
between itself, its people and its customers. Modified ISO9000 process model ISO
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2009 can be treated a system view of quality culture Figure 1 . The bidirectional input
links between company and external world mainly customer represent an
information flow.
Figure 2 Modified Process model of the ISO 9000 family of standards
Characteristics of company with quality culture can be listed as follows:
1. Widely shared philosophy of management
“WE'RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER: COMPANY, SUPPLIERS, CUSTOMERS”
This is the natural place to start. This comes from the idea that companies are
systems. "We're all in this together" reminds us that individual success depends on
how everyone in the company works together and that the company's success
depends on all individuals doing their work well.
For this to happen, a company must be a place where people feel they are part of
something bigger than themselves. Then they must identify their personal success
on the job with that something. This can result in people understanding that by
working hard for the company, they look out for themselves at the same time.
2. Emphasis on the importance of human resources to the organization
3. Informal rules of behavior
4. Effective internal network for communicating the culture
5. Recognition and rewards for successful employees
6. Ceremonies to celebrate organizational events
7. Strong value system
8. High standards for performance
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Understand Concerns of Potential Resisters
Understand the concerns of resisters like
Fear
Loss of control
Uncertainty
More work
Implement Change Promoting Strategies
Involve Potential Resisters
Avoid Surprises
Move slowly at first
Start Small and be flexible
Create a positive environment
Incorporate the change
Respond Quickly and Positively
Work with Established leaders
Treat people with dignity & Respect
Be Constructive
Resistance to Change
Change is inevitable and it does not come easy for many people. John Simone, Sr. once
said, “If you're in a bad situation, don't worry it'll change. If you're in a good situation,
don't worry it'll change.”
It can be extremely difficult however; change is part of everyday living. It should be
expected and anticipated. The process of change can cause a sense of insecurity and
that is primary reason is it so difficult for people.
The primary reasons why people resist change Goetsch and Davis, 2012 are:
Fear
Change brings with it the unwanted specter of the unknown, and people fear the
unknown. Worst‐case scenarios are assumed and compounded by rumors. In this
way, fear tends to feed on itself, growing with time.
In other words, change is scary. We’re essentially cavemen and our bodies and
minds haven’t really caught up with the 21st century. Instinctively therefore we
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Identify key people and make them advocates
Take a hearts‐and‐minds approach
Support
Similar theory on how to "do" change originates with leadership and change management
guru, John Kotter, a world‐renowned change expert. Kotter 1995 introduced his eight‐
step change process. We look at his eight steps for leading change below.
Step One: Create Urgency Identify the changes needed
For change to happen, it helps if the whole company really wants it. Develop a sense
of urgency around the need for change. This may help you spark the initial
motivation to get things moving.
This isn't simply a matter of showing people poor sales statistics or talking about
increased competition. Open an honest and convincing dialogue about what's
happening in the marketplace and with your competition. If many people start
talking about the change you propose, the urgency can build and feed on itself.
What you can do:
Identify potential threats, and develop scenarios showing what could happen
in the future.
Examine opportunities that should be, or could be, exploited.
Start honest discussions, and give dynamic and convincing reasons to get
people talking and thinking.
Request support from customers, outside stakeholders and industry people
to strengthen your argument.
Kotter suggests that for change to be successful, 75% of a company's management
needs to "buy into" the change. In other words, you have to really work hard on Step
One, and spend significant time and energy building urgency, before moving onto
the next steps. Don't panic and jump in too fast because you don't want to risk
further short‐term losses – if you act without proper preparation, you could be in
for a very bumpy ride.
Step Two: Form a Powerful Coalition Apply courtship strategies
Convince people that change is necessary. This often takes strong leadership and
visible support from key people within your organization. Managing change isn't
enough – you have to lead it.