Problem four: The common difficulty with goal setting is that although you need to focus on the positive (some say in ratio of four to one) often there is little attention paid to assessment of obstacles and the strategies to overcome them. What we need to do is spend a little time in predefining anticipated difficulties or obstacles and allocation the resources that will be needed to overcome them. we may need legal assistance, financial assistance or the cooperation of an already over-stretched production department just to cite a few examples. Lets be honest even with all the positive attitude we can muster we still have to deal with the reality that obstacles are unavoidable and we must spent some energy in planning for them in advance.

Problem five: Little or no serious focus is given to the solutions that need to be developed for overcoming obstacles. I’ve often been in planning meetings and heard the term “lets cross that bridge when we come to it”. If we are going to invest time energy and money into the execution of a plan that attitude is just not good enough. Some sort of scenario development needs to be undertaken an brainstorming for creative solutions needs to be done at the outset, otherwise all investment up to the the point of difficulty can be wasted.

Problem six: Keeping the goal to ourselves either as individual or a small team: Attempting to achieve our gaols alone or with limited resources is fraught with danger. We are all always part of a bigger process and we need to align with those ‘external processes’ and stakeholders if we are to achieve real results at a minimum cost. You need to call on all resources you have reasonable access to the get the best results for the goals you have set.

Problem seven: Not setting and clearly defining the important milestones on our path to achieving the result we (outcomes) we want. I talked in the previous post about objectives and again these have to be clearly defines and measured. Once reached they also need to be rewarded and celebrated.

I guess I could have titled these posts the “Seven Deadly Sins of Goal Setting” and that they may be. Finally it is wise to remember that goals to us may just be seen as onerous targets when other from whom you enlist support and effort. People inherently do not like externally imposed targets, so if you are gong to obtain “real support” for your goals, you have to get others whom you need to buy into your vision and accept the mission that the goals are supporting.

Ric-orglearn The six “Ps” of planning, always important and so is visualising what you want the end result to look like!

If you are to: satisfy the customer, ensure staff motivation is high, keep the bosses off your back, make cost effective decisions, take risks that pay off, lead the indolent, manage the misfits and all that other stuff, when do we get the time to do ‘the quality thing’? I’ll tell you… ALL THE TIME… no quality and the rest is a waste of effort.

Important point – TQM is an approach to improving the competitiveness, effectiveness and flexibility of the entire organization. It is a way of planning, organising and understanding each activity and depends on each individual at each level in an organization.  TQM when properly implemented must involve the TOTAL WORKFORCE, not just a quality department. So trying to implement quality improvements in your work area will require the involvement of all other areas of your organization that you interact with whether they are internal suppliers, customers or collaborators.

Today more than ever buyers don’t ask for quality… they demand it… and if they don’t get it they’re gone… and so are all those they can influence. I guess anyone watching what has happened to the Chinese manufacturers over the past few years can bear testimony to that. Dramatically increasing choice potential made available through ‘the communication revolution’, the net and the exponential growth of ‘the e-commerce reality’, make the issue of quality critical to continued existence. With price comparisons easier than ever, physical locality no longer a major limiting factor and worldwide delivery mechanisms now in place (and improving buy the hour), competitors are increasing at a rate never before experienced.

So what is quality? A few definitions may help to crystallize the real idea.

1. Quality is fitness for use, ‘Juran’
2. Quality is conformance to requirements, ‘Crosby’
3. Quality should be aimed at the customer needs, present and future, ‘Deming’
4. Quality is the loss (from function variation and harmful effects) a product causes to society after being shipped, other than any losses caused by its intrinsic functions, ‘Taguchi’
5. Quality is the totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs, ‘International Standards Organization’.

WHAT EFFORT IS PUT INTO QUALITY AT YOUR PLACE?

By the way a useful guide to at least starting to think about quality improvement methodology is:

1. No processes should be undertaken without DATA COLLECTION, so we need to find effective ways to measure activity.

2. No data collection without ANALYSIS, essential to find out about underlying difficulties or ‘energy suckers’.

3. No analysis without DECISIONS, the scary stuff, we need plan ways to change the way things are done.

4. No decisions without ACTIONS, all the collecting, analysing and planning usually goes to waste because taking action requires REAL effort.

Before I go on if you would like to read other articles by Ric here is the link for direct page viewers return to main career success blog to check out other posts!

While you’re here take a look at the free blank resume form just in case you are stuck in an organization that has no real or measured approach to quality outputs!

To continue with an important and often (in my experience) overlooked fact… Quality is about improved performance not just about satisfying quality audits!

ISO certifications are now eagerly sought by many organizations around the world, however, if you do have a quality department, is it really improving the quality of the important areas of the business or is it just creating ‘quality documents and records’. I suggest that much of the quality effort expended today is geared more to quality audit success rather than creating improvement for the real reason… to better satisfy the customer. If managers want to improve quality they need to ask these questions… what is the satisfaction level of our customers… how is it measured… and when did we measured it last…

For the non-TQM specialists, Prof. W. Edwards Deming’s ‘quality points’ provide a succinct guide to what we all need to do. In summary the critical issues are; ensure a constant effort towards improvement; seek and adopt new work philosophies; be intolerant of the normal or accepted level of delays, mistakes and defects; build in quality rather than inspecting for faults; stop buying inputs based on price; work continually on the system to find problems; institute modern management methods; change primary responsibility from numbers to quality and eliminate numerical goals; institute a policy of education and training; drive out fear and break down barriers between departments; when asking for new levels of productivity provide methods; instil a need for pride in workmanship and of course create a structure in senior management that will constantly strive to achieve all of the above.

DOES THIS SOUND EVEN REMOTELY LIKE THE PLACE YOU WORK?