Feel expendable to upper management? Improve the corporate quality culture.

Question:  Do employees hesitate or refuse to participate in a root cause analysis (RCA) team, or  provide subject-matter expertise, because they don't feel it's an approved activity?  Or, do they fear repercussions for taking time away from their regular job responsibilities and deadlines?

Question:  When you present the results of a root cause analysis, do decision makers question the conclusions, thinking they know better?

Question:  Are you denied budget for solution implementation?

These symptoms may indicate lack of management support.

Before you can change corporate culture, you need to know:

• What it is? The predominant attitudes and behaviors in an organization.
• What you want to eliminate. What's detrimental?
• What you want to add. What's a positive influence?

Eliminate the bad, reinforce the good.  Sounds simple enough.  But we all know it can be political, complicated and tricky.

Put yourself in the executive's shoes.  Play to their perspective and needs.

• They're focused on what's in it for their department or function. Achieve results that make them look effective and successful. Eliminate problems that are costing them money and wasting their resources.
• The bottom line is king. Demonstrate cost-avoidance, revenue generation and return on investment.
• They think at a high, business-goals level. Understand their business goals. Demonstrate how your work is directly helping meet those goals. Call in other internal experts to help you gather and position the data.
• They'll embrace the Quality Management System (QMS) and RCA only if the results merit. Speak their language. Present results, not process!!

Question:  How is the level of management support in your organization affecting your job?

Question:  What attitudes and behaviors do you need to eliminate or reinforce?

Question:  How have you improved the corporate quality culture?

Share your experiences and best practices.  We're building an online community to support professional development and continuous improvement.

I look forward to hearing from you,

 

John Stiller | November 17 2009

 

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