Murphy’s Law is totally misunderstood and is, in fact, a Quality Escape.

Murphy’s Law has a place of honor as one of the most used business jargon. Usually, people use it when something unexpected happens, such that they (think they) have no control over it. But actually, and here is the big scope, in most cases, Murphy’s Law is no more than a quality escape, and what might look like, from a perspective of a quality system leader, a lack of accountability.  

The story tells that the original murphy that coined this expression was an engineer that developed electronic components for the U.S. Army as part of a project to simulate J force influence on humans. In one of the experiments, all the sensors were misconnected and wired backward. As a response, Murphy got angry and refer to technician skills by saying: If there is a wrong way to do something, he will do it. Not sure this is the exact quote, but it something of a sort. 

Since then, many variants evolved for Murphy’s Law. Few of them listed in the infographic below, but the most common one is: Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. But if you will think about it, isn’t it the common assumption of every quality professional? Isn’t Murphy’s Law is the reason we need Quality experts? In theory, yes, in reality, less. 

The Quality team should lead the organization toward better processes and systems, part of it by coaching individuals and groups on the easiest and shortest way to go there. Risk management, process mapping, control plans, proactive thinking, statistical methods, and various forms of assessments are all tools in the arsenal of a Quality expert.

But the truth is that Quality teams, as of today, are not using these tools or fulfilling the expectations to the extent needed. Too often, we can see catastrophic crises (General Motors ignition switch and NASA Hubble telescope, to count a few) that were created by a violation of fundamental quality principles. Even without knowing you, I am confident you can count at least a couple you recently experienced by yourself. Such failures cannot be bucketed as Murphy’s Law. First, they are avoidable. Second, they are the result of minimal engagement inside the organization, accompanied by knowledge gaps. There are many reasons why Quality experts are not influencing the organization as they should be. Mostly it is a combination of one or more of the following:

A. An outdated approach that is no longer fitting the business environment, as well as a misconnect of theoretical quality from day to day operations==> Check out my E.P.I.C. quality leader masterclass to better understand how your quality system should look like in the business world of today. 

B. Non-constructive attitude and lack of perceived value. People will only collaborate with you if you help them to succeed. If people recognized the quality team as finger-pointers and blamers, they would be less likely to engage. Moreover, they will work hard to keep a safe distance==>Take this quiz to find the attitude of your quality team and whether they are helping you win. 

C. Lack of professional authority and a good understanding of quality tools and methodologies and weak leadership skills. 

If you will re-think the rolling year, how many occurrences people around you classified as Murphy? And how many of these are simply breaches of the quality system? You will know you are successful when people around you no longer mention Murphy’s Law. Instead, they will articulate the situation as a quality escape – precisely as it was when this expression was firstly coined – back to basic.