Quizllaborator – Qllaborator

Your Leadership Style Impacts Management's Commitment to Quality

When was the last time you said to yourself or others that a recent quality failure, and perhaps the one after that, could have been prevented if people had done what they were supposed to? Based on informal statistics, at least once within the last two days.

You and almost every other quality leader in the world share the same thoughts. It is particularly frustrating as you do not ask for the moon or something complicated like rocket science. You asked people to do their jobs and follow the basics. It cannot be that hard, can it?

How hard is it be for a Design Engineer to follow the design guidelines? Or at least try to avoid repeating the same mistake as the last time?

How hard can it be for a Manufacturing team to follow the procedures as necessary compared with treating them as a recommendation or find creative ways to bypass them?

How hard can it be for a Manufacturing Engineer to formally waive deviations, in a traceable manner rather than over the phone?

How hard can it be for employees across different departments to raise a flag when they see a gap and not ignore it?

You may be nodding in agreement now, as you are well acquainted with each of the above gaps. But it is not just you. These issues lie at the heart of the most catastrophic quality failures in the last decade.

Failure is a great learning opportunity, don't you agree?

At least in part, this is true. If failure only teaches you something you already know, it’s a waste of time and energy, as well as your reputation. Consider for a moment how many of the failures you’ve experienced in the recent past are directly related to people not following the learning, the procedures, and the processes YOU have crafted yourself through sweat and tears.

Many quality leaders attribute this phenomenon to a lack of management commitment to quality and claim that management doesn’t do enough to enforce employees’ discipline. The management team will, however, reassure you of their commitment to quality if you talk to them. Throughout my +20 year career, I could not find a single executive who said otherwise.

have you ever considered that your leadership style influences the level of management & employees' commitment to quality?

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Just because you’re experiencing this situation right now at work does not mean it has to stay that way. It is possible to change yourself and the organization to adopt a quality-oriented, collaborative culture. Hey, isn’t that what this blog, the Qllaborator is all about?