The quest for continuous quality improvement: Empowering employees

As organizations strive for quality improvement there is one key element that separates a world class organization from "the equality of mediocrity" – Culture. Culture is as important to Quality as is the effort it takes to solve problems, improve productivity, downsize, merge,  acquire businesses, or drive organizational change. But when the Culture of the organization does not embrace quality and shared ideals, many organizations never fully utilize their resources, thereby diminishing productivity and improvement within the organization.

Providing a steady vision, and engaging and empowering people at all levels of the organization in quality, creates a culture that improves and enriches what people do, the process-knowledge they utilize, and the products and/or services they produce. By promoting and facilitating a Culture of Quality that inherently embraces continuous improvement, organizations will achieve higher (albeit never perfect) levels of employee and customer satisfaction.

Organizations that have engaged in Continuous Improvement, Quality Assurance, TQM, and other programs, have realized some success. However, all too often employees and processes fall back to the status quo. While various departments can sometimes claim a short term win, the overall organization generally cannot. The level of quality that is being demanded by the public today is robust systems that result in zero errors or defects, i.e., Perfection. But they unwittingly demand something that can only be perceived-never realized. To change how an organization's culture drives quality, the organizations must require Future Quality to be the fundamental and preeminent focus. This can only be done by creating a Culture of Quality "of, by, and for" – THE PEOPLE.

This will requires all levels of an organization to be completely engaged and dedicated to the principle of continuous quality improvement. This is nothing less than asking everyone to commit to perfection, knowing full well that the perfection we perceive is in name only. But the very fact that they do perceive something "more perfect" than what they are currently producing is proof enough (for most people) that perfection at the point of service or product realization does exist. In this quest, management must be guided not only by accurate and reliable data collection systems but also by a new wave of prevention thinking, by utilizing tools such as Lean, Six Sigma, or quality and systems thinking. But without "the people," who is left to lead these initiatives and utilize these tools? Simply put: without all levels of the organization embracing the Culture of Quality, all that remains are the tools.

People are a company's greatest asset to facilitate quality improvement. Everyone wants to be valued, to have a voice and the opportunity to share what they know and see. The knowledge people possess is an untapped resource that provides answers to the seemingly unsolvable challenges organizations face. Given the chance, however, employees will openly and willingly share solutions to process improvements, ideas for new innovative services and/or products, and fresh views on performance metrics. But people tend to feel most protected in their "comfort zone" and must be made to feel "safe" enough to break out!

Why are people hesitant to share their knowledge and opinions when they "see" quality improvement opportunities?  Many companies pride themselves on an "open door policy" and how they encourage "out-of-the-box thinking." But what becomes of the shared information?  Joseph Juran (1904-2008), the architect of Quality, observed that employee empowerment is an advanced form of employee involvement. Organizations must recognize that this simple fact is the key to a future yet to unfold, and they must be willing to give more responsibility to the employees who are "in the trenches" and closest to the action. The customary norm is that employees are held accountable and responsible to fix any problems or improve any processes that need attention. Moreover, employees will take on these responsibilities and accept any consequences, but only if they are given the insight to "see" why they are doing what they are doing. True (real) employee engagement comes through proper training and cultivating an environment for continuous improvement. Working in teams helps to engage administrators, managers, and staff in meeting goals and objectives. Organizations that intuitively know how to utilize the experiences and capabilities of their people also know how to maximize employee potential. Ultimately, the companies "see" improvement in performance metrics as well as improved employee and customer satisfaction surveys.

Financial success, or failure, is directly related to an organization's approach to internal Culture. The major difference between managing short-term versus long-term, and ensuring organizational success, is identified by making the conscious choice to invest in people and their ideas. This creates an environment that encourages both ownership and pride among employees to strive for sustainable quality improvement. For it is "the people" who possess the knowledge to solve some of the most pressing problems within the organization, and "the people" who have the wherewithal to improve processes, provide better services, and to create superior products.

Tying Quality & Culture together requires an inordinate amount of people's energy, but when passion is involved, suddenly energy becomes synergy (which requires much less time) because it is positive, emotional energy. Organizations are accustomed to using workflow energy regarding such things as: Policies-what people are required to do; Structure-what functions they perform; Information Technology-what systems will be used to gather data. But when we talk about the emotional side of the business, we are talking about what matters most to people, i.e., the "things"-beliefs, values, knowledge, for example-that people are passionate about but find difficult to discuss with managers or coworkers. Therefore, organizations must be willing to support "real talk" among management and staff and make it "save" for people to leave their "comfort zone" and share their passion for what they do.

Organizations who genuinely want to embrace a Culture of Quality must allow people to share their innermost needs, wants, desires, hopes, and fears about the company in an environment where they feel safe, secure, warm, and protected. Conversely, employees must feel obliged to understand what it means (and why it is important) to care about errors that are occurring, or safety records that are declining, or why suppliers are sending a faulty product, or why turnover is high, or why return on investment is not met. All of this drives straight into the heart of the Culture of Quality and what it really means to care about continuous improvement and what the consequences are for falling short of the goal.

The challenge for any organization, both now and in the future, will be the pace of change and the degree of the effort required to make the change. While the length of the journey is indeterminate, the commitment to the Culture of Quality is essential. Leadership must commit and realize that the power and knowledge that rests with the people will create the long term value all businesses strive to achieve. When leaders encourage people to challenge the status quo, the desired future state starts to become a reality and not just a goal written down on a piece of paper. Culture built on the foundation of quality has purpose. The purpose driven behaviors of self-management, self-direction, teamwork, and trust must be woven into the fabric of the new Culture of Quality, and all employees must feel "safe" enough to step out of their "comfort zone" and provide the contributions that they are capable of making.