RULE 75 - Let The Company See You Are On Its Side

“One of the basic causes for all the trouble in the world today is that people talk too much and think too little. They act impulsively without thinking. I always try to think before I talk.”

Margaret Chase Smith, the first woman elected to both the US House of Representatives and the US Senate

To let the company see you are on its side you need to do some concrete things. Such as:

- Buy some shares
- Read the company newsletter – better still, edit the damn thing
- Support company functions
- Show an interest
- Ask questions
- Have your interest in the company noticed and recorded in some way
- Focus on what you contribute to the company, not on what you get out of it
- Use the company’s products or services
- Rehearse saying what you think is good about the company – have a ready answer to hand if asked
- Know the company’s mission statement and philosophy
- Know the company’s products and/or services inside and out
- Know the company history – its formation, its mergers and acquisitions etc., it long-term goals and its key personnel (founder etc.)
- Know the company’s social standing and what it does for the community.

What you do not do – ever – is bad-mouth the company, under any circumstances.

‘But, but, but’, I hear you say, ‘Won’t this make me out to be an OIK, a toady, a yes-person, a lackey, a company mouthpiece?’ Nope. Not if you do it right. If you mouth platitudes and seem insincere people will know it is an act and that you are a company pawn. But if you are strong about it people will take your lead and follow suit. Set an example. Be outspoken in your praise for the company. It is such an unfashionable thing to do you will make your mark, but you do have to be sincere and bold.

‘But what if I don’t feel so good about the company?’ Then get out. It’s a two-way process. They employ you. You work for them. You give and they give. You take and they take. If you’re unhappy about this relationship, then get out, get a divorce, find another lover. You have to love your company and see it as a relationship. If you’re in a bad one, what are you going to do about it? Put up and shut up? I do hope not.

Book Title: The Rules of Management

Author: Richard Templar,
Prentice Hall Business

Source: Rule 75 – Let The Company See You Are On Its Side
* Notes: This Rule 75 was extracted from one of the chapters from the book titled “The Rules Of Management” written by, Richard Templar, Prentice Hall Business

Attitude Is The Key To Success

We all want success in life. We want success in our home life, business life, and in our relationships with others. The most important single factor that guarantees our success in every aspect of our lives is having a positive attitude. Without a positive attitude success is not possible. Earl Nightingale call attitude "the magic word."

You will never attract positive things into your life if all of your thoughts are negative. Just as a magnet attracts anything metal our minds attract the things we think about most. Your mind will always seek to turn the things you think about most into physical reality. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, "A man becomes what he thinks about, most of the time."

Every one of us has two different minds, the conscious and the subconscious. The conscious mind is our thinking, which uses logic, deduction, reason, and sound judgment to make its decisions. Your choices in life are made by the conscious mind.

The subconscious mind lies outside your conscious mind. It has access to data, information, and ideas outside your own experience. Your subconscious mind works 24 hours a day and it is the source of all examples of pure creativity, problem solving, and goal achievement. It is a magical part of your mind. This is a part of your mind where genius lies.

Our subconscious mind is not able to distinguish between positive and negative thoughts. So, if you tell yourself something often enough your subconscious will eventually come to believe it. If you repeat something often enough whether it be positive or negative it will become your reality. This is because your subconscious mind constantly strives to attract the material equivalent of your most frequent and prominent thoughts.

It is impossible for a negative mind to attract positive things. If you're thinking about problems constantly you will find them. Is it possible to overcome negative and pessimistic thinking with positive thoughts? You bet it is! And it's something, which can be easily learned.

It's all a matter of conditioning. You can train your mind to think positive thoughts the same way you can learn anything else. The way to do this, is to remove any negative thoughts one at a time until there are none left.

And for each negative thought that you remove, you then plant a new and positive thought in its place. You then nurture those positive thoughts until there is no room for any negative thoughts to grow. Then, make a habit of stopping a negative thought any time it appears and replacing it with a positive thought. For example, replace, "I can't do it" with "I can do it" and you'll find your attitude and your life will greatly improve.

Positive thoughts will lead you to financial success and it will help you find the true riches of life for yourself and your family. So whatever it is in life that you want, you must begin today to become a "positive thinker." Once you do this, your future success will be unlimited.


This article extracted from journal published from the e-zine articles written by, Joe Love

Four Powerful Little Words that Make Life Worthwhile

Over the years as I've sought out ideas, principles and strategies to life's challenges, I've come across four simple words that can make living worthwhile.

First, life is worthwhile if you LEARN. What you don't know WILL hurt you. You have to have learning to exist, let alone succeed. Life is worthwhile if you learn from your own experiences - negative or positive. We learn to do it right by first sometimes doing it wrong. We call that a positive negative. We also learn from other people's experiences, both positive and negative. I've always said that it is too bad failures don't give seminars. Obviously, we don't want to pay them so they aren’t usually touring around giving seminars. But that information would be very valuable – we would learn how someone who had it all then messed it up. Learning from other people's experiences and mistakes is valuable information because we can learn what not to do without the pain of having tried and failed ourselves.We learn by what we see so pay attention. We learn by what we hear so be a good listener. Now I do suggest that you should be a selective listener, don't just let anybody dump into your mental factory. We learn from what we read so learn from every source; learn from lectures; learn from songs; learn from sermons; learn from conversations with people who care. Always keep learning.

Second, life is worthwhile if you TRY. You can't just learn; now you have to try something to see if you can do it. Try to make a difference, try to make some progress, try to learn a new skill, try to learn a new sport. It doesn't mean you can do everything, but there are a lot of things you can do, if you just try. Try your best. Give it every effort. Why not go all out?

Third, life is worthwhile if you STAY. You have to stay from spring until harvest. If you have signed up for the day or for the game or for the project - see it through. Sometimes calamity comes and then it is worth wrapping it up. And that's the end, but just don't end in the middle. Maybe on the next project you pass, but on this one, if you signed up, see it through.

And lastly, life is worthwhile if you CARE. If you care at all you will get some results, if you care enough you can get incredible results. Care enough to make a difference. Care enough to turn somebody around. Care enough to start a new enterprise. Care enough to change it all. Care enough to be the highest producer. Care enough to set some records. Care enough to win.

Four powerful little words: learn, try, stay and care. What difference can you make in your life today by putting these words to work?

To Your Success,Jim Rohn

This Article was written by Mr. Jim Rohn, and was extracted from the web page: http://www.burrese.com/Personal_&_Professional_Achievement/Articles/Rohn/Four_Words_That_Make_Life_Worthwhile.htm

The Ultimate Expectation

Dear Employee:

You’ve been hired to handle some pressing needs we have. If we could have gotten by in not hiring you, we would have. But we’ve determined that we needed someone with your skills and experience and that you were the best person to help us with our needs. We have offered you the position and you’ve accepted. Thanks

During the course of your employment, you will be asked to do many things: general responsibilities, specific assignments, group and individual projects. You will have many chances to excel and to confirm that we made a good choice in hiring you.

However, there is one foremost responsibility that may never be specifically requested of you but that you need to always keep in mind through the duration of your employment. This is The Ultimate Expectation, and it is as follows:

ALWAYS DO WHAT MOST NEEDS TO BE DONE WITHOUT AWAITING TO BE ASKED

We’ve hired you to do a job, yes, but more important, we’ve hired you to think, use your judgment and act in the best interests of the organization at all times.

If we never say again, don’t take it as an indication that it’s no longer important or that we’ve changed our priorities. We are likely to get caught up the daily press of business, the never-ending changes of the operation, and the ongoing rush of activities. Our day-to-day practices may make it look like this principle no longer applies. Don’t be deceived by this.

Please don’t ever forget The Ultimate Expectation. Strive to have it always be a guiding principle in your employment with us, a philosophy that is always with you, one that is constantly driving your thoughts and actions.

As long as you are employed with us, you have our permission to act in our mutual best interests.

If at any time you do not feel we are doing the right thing – the thing you most believe would help us all – please say so. You have our permission to speak up when necessary to state up when necessary to state what is unstated, to make a suggestion, or to question an action or decision.

This doesn’t mean we will always agree with you, nor that we will necessarily change what we are doing; but we always want to hear what you most believe would help us better achieve our goals and purpose and to create a mutually successful experience in the process.

You will need to seek to understand how (and why) things are done the way they are done before you seek to change existing work processes. Try to work with the systems that are in place first, but tell us if you think those systems need to be changed.

Discuss what is presented here with others and me in the organization so that we might all become better at applying The Ultimate Expectations.

Sincerely,

Your Manager

P.S.:

Like much sound advice, The Ultimate Expectation seems like common sense. Don’t confuse what sounds simple with what is easy to do. Take this message to heart and become skilled at applying it to your own job and circumstances. Once you learn the Ultimate Expectation, you must apply it on daily basis to your work. Accepting this challenge is paramount to your success with us, in your career, and in your life.

* Notes: This letter was extracted from one of the chapters from the book written by, Bob Nelson with Foreword by Ken Blanchard

Quality Management is: Don’t just do what you are told, do what needs to be done, and adopt Plan Do Check and Action (PDCA) cycle!

When a project is awarded, the project manager will be tasked with putting together a project team to complete the project on time and within budget. For a project to be done well, the project manager must always bear in mind an issue not always considered to be important: quality management.

The very first thing to understand about quality management is that quality management does not determine the quality of the product. The product quality is determined by the client. In our business, the product is the building or the infrastructure works. Ultimately the project team must deliver a product to the quality expected by the client. This can be issued through quality management.

I would say that to deliver quality product the project team’s approach should be ”Don’t just do what you are told, do what needs to be done, plan to get it done right and focus on how it is to be carried out.” Why? This is because the task to get the project done is similar to “being told what to do by the client”.

The project manager cannot simply assume that he knows all his client’s requirements as that written in the contract document. There are many other areas that need to be done which are not explicitly written in the contract. Therefore, there is a lot more for him to find out and to learn from his client about “what needs to be done” to his satisfaction through formal meetings or several informal discussions. In fact a quality product is all about meeting the client’s requirements and even exceeding their expectation if possible.

Sometimes there is also a tendency to think that 'quality' means the best material, the best equipment and absolutely zero defects. However, in most cases, the client does not expect, and even cannot afford a perfect product. On the other hand, a flawlessly designed, defect-free drawing that does not meet the client's needs is also not considered a quality product. Therefore, the purpose of quality management is to first understand and manage the expectations of the client in terms of quality, and then put a proactive plan and process in place to meet or even exceed those expectations.

What you are told? … It may not be right…

In many instances, the project manager is being told to do something or everything at one go without knowing what needs to be done first, and how to do it right. The consequence of this is that a wrong move is made if there is no proper planning, which may also result in rework. Likewise this could be one of the most common project management mistakes; problems of quality always show up in a number of areas during or at the end of the project. For instance:

Rework. This is the primary problem caused by poor quality work during the construction. Rework means that you have to do the same work because the original effort was not satisfactory. This is the work required because the original construction and testing process was not thorough and defects still exist in the handing over period.

Higher maintenance and support costs. If defects are caught within the design development process, there is also a cost associated with this rework. However, many times quality problems surface during or after the project completion. This situation just hands the problem off to the maintenance department. High maintenance costs from a poor quality product can be a sign that the project team willingly handed over a less than acceptable product, or else they did not realize the poor quality because of their lack of supervision or testing and the inspection processes were also inadequate.

Client dissatisfaction. If a product that is delivered is of poor quality, the client will not be happy. This unhappiness may be transferred to the maintenance department and subsequently to our company itself. However, if this particular client has a choice, he may not want our service in the future.

Missed deadlines and budget. In many cases, most of the projects that do not manage quality well end up with a lot of rework, which in turn leads them to miss the deadlines and exceed the budget. This can cause the overall project progress to be delayed, or it may change the financial cost of the entire project.

Poor morale. No one likes to work for a company that has poor processes or produces poor quality products. No one likes to work on projects that are missing their deadlines because of rework. People tend to find excitement and challenge in building a quality product. However, their motivation level goes down when they have to continually repair and rework on those defects that don’t work correctly. In addition to poor morale in general, specific costs can include increased absenteeism, higher turnover and less productivity from the staff.

What needs to be done? …Need to adopt a proper PDCA cycle…

Quality management is not an event that we consider once in a while. Quality management is an ongoing process that the team needs to focus on throughout the project. When the project begins, the project manager should prepare an overall Project Quality Plan (PQP) containing but not only limited to these three major components:

Completeness and correctness criteria. Remember that the client determines the quality and not the project manager. This might make the project manager uneasy, since he may not be sure of the client's expectations. That is where completeness and correctness of the criteria come in. The project team and client then have to have a common expectation of what is required for each deliverable item to be accepted as all these criteria may be stated clearly in the inspection test plan (ITP).
Quality control process. Quality control (QC) refers to the ongoing activities that the project team will perform to ensure that the products are of high quality. This can include all incoming inspections, ongoing inspection, and walkthrough with client representatives, testing and commissioning of all major components, come with the completeness of checklists and records, and etc.

Quality assurance process. Quality assurance (QA) processes are the activities designed to ensure that the overall processes used to create the products are of high quality. These types of activities include third party audits, internal quality audits, checklists to ensure that all parts of a process were completed, sample submissions, method statements an other deliverable approvals, etc.

Everyone on the project team needs to have a quality mindset to ensure that work is completed with a minimum amount of defects – the first time. The project manager and team members need to understand that the first goal of quality management is to deliver products with least defects. The second goal is to correct any remaining defects as early as possible.

In most cases, quality problems usually tend to show up late in the project or during the testing process. Nevertheless, if we have a good quality process in place, our testing should confirm that everything is working correctly. Then we can quickly work toward final approval. In conclusion, always REMEMBER: Our client is also our customer. Don’t just do what you are told, do what needs to be done, adopt Plan Do Check and Action (PDCA) cycle, keep the level of our customer satisfaction high and aim for continual improvement.

Creating a Quality Culture

Creating a Quality Culture

What is a Culture of Quality?

“Quality Management is not just implementing tools and techniques. It is about people, values, and commitment to an organization’s core mission.”
~~~ Diane L. Dixon- Fostering a Culture of Quality Improvement in Your Facility

“To facilitate an evolving culture of quality improvement, leaders must understand the nature of organizations. Organizations are patterns of communicative interaction between interdependent individuals.”
~~~ Ralph Stacey, Ph.D. University of Hertfordshire Business School – Hertfordshire, England


Organizational Culture
* Organizational culture is a difficult concept to grasp
-Culture is intangible
-Every organization has a culture, but it’s hard for most people to see, touch, hear, or smell
-Culture exists as if in gaseous form…reaching to every corner of the organization, but remaining largely invisible.

*The other difficulty with organizational culture is that it’s the result of many different things.
-You could never implement a culture the way you would implement a new procedure…or system.
-Cultivated over time…however by implementing systems and procedures


How Can Culture Be Identified?

Despite its complexity, it leaves markers that can be found throughout an organization…if you know what to look for…
-The way people treat one another
-Degree of trust between organizational members
-Magnitude, breadth, and type of communication
-Values and ethics held by organizational members
-People’s general appearance, dress, and demeanor
-Personnel’s motivation
-Management and staff’s interest in making improvements and changes [or would they
just prefer that things remain the way they are?]
-The amount and type of employee development and training
-Dangers or risks in carrying out the organization’s mission
-Job description

Top Management Cultivates Culture
-For better or worse, an organization’s leaders are under constant surveillance. Their actions shape the organization’s culture.
-Top Management can embrace a few simple behaviors that will lead to a strong and positive culture, one that helps drive continuous improvement:


Intangible ways of cultivating an organizational culture of Quality
- Respect
- Involvement
- Communication
- Orderliness
- Recognition


Essential Elements of a Quality Culture

“The first absolute in the attainment of quality is to comply with requirements.”~~~Phillip Crosby

“Quality and regulatory compliance rest upon properly trained individuals who follow clearly written procedures of a well-designed Quality system”~~~ -Jim Colyn

More tangiblee elements

-Effective Training Program
-Well-written Policies and Procedures
-Well-designed Quality System


Quality Management System (ISO 9001:2000)
Illustrated the process model base on Clauses 4 to 8 of ISO 9001:2000:
4. Quality Management System
5. Management Responsibility
6. Resource Management
7. Product Realization
8. Measurement Analysis And Improvement

5. Management Responsibility
· Management Commitment
· Customer Focus
· Management Representative
· Quality Policy
· Planning
· Responsibility, Authority. Communication
· Management Review

6. Resource Management
· General Requirements
· Provision of Resources
· Human Resources
· Infrastructure
· Work Environment

7. Product Realization
· Planning of Product Realization
· Customer Related Processes
· Design & Development
· Purchasing
· Production& Service
· Monitoring & Measuring Devices

8. Measurement Analysis And Improvement
· General
· Monitoring & Measurement
· Control of Nonconforming Product
· Analysis of Data
· Improvement

Plus…

4. QMS Documentation Requirements


Quality Program (Specified Requirements & Basic Function)

A) FOUNDATION of Quality Program

6 Specified Requirements
1.General

2. Eight (8) Basic Functions
i. Doc. & Data Control
ii. Recall & Investigation
iii. CA/PA
iv. Training
v. Monitoring Systems
vi. Control of Records
vii. Product Deviations
viii. Investigations


3. Management Responsibility
4. Internal Audits
5. Computer Validations
6. Procedures

B) SUPERSTRUCTURE
1. Org. & Personnel
2. Procedures
3. Facilities Controls Env. Monitoring.
4. Equipment Controls
5. Supplies & Reagents
6. Process Controls & Changes
7. Process Validation
8. Labeling Controls
9. Storage Rec’t & Distribution
10. Records Mgt. System
11. Tracking Controls
12. Complaint File

The “Givens”
-Quality is not nuclear science…it is formalized, structured common sense – formalized so improvements can be codified…and structured so that they can be repeated.
-The only logical defensible approach is 100% employee involvement [unless Sr. Management is willing to publicly state there are people on the payroll who are incapable of Improving or having original thoughts] – it has to become culture
-Major tenet of quality science: Quality of a product [or a service] cannot be established by end product testing alone. The best economical control over quality is when processes are well defined, they are stable, and in control.

Complete Quality Process (CQP)

7 CQP Components in Developing a Culture of Quality
1) Top Management Commitment
2) Leadership
3) Structured 100% Employee Involvement
4) Communications
5) Training
6) Measurement
7) Recognition, Gratitude and Celebration

Top Management Commitment

*Who is “Top” Management?
- Folks at the top of the hierarchical ladder…including the President/CEO and his/her direct reports;
- Anyone more than two levels up from the bottom of the pile.

*What is Commitment?
-Willingness to invest one’s self – one’s ego, time and effort;
-It does not only mean the willingness to sign amazing checks for consultants, or go to a school in some tourist area for two weeks before turning things over to the consultants.

*Sr. Management count in that 100% employee
-They must be active …part of the QMS design and implementation;
-They must be obvious…make sure employees know about it because people cannot follow an example if they don’t know it is there;
-They must be informed…able to talk about quality intelligently and convincingly.

*The real e-word…long before “e” became “electronic” – it was “empowerment”
-“Empowerment” means authority equal to responsibility…it does not mean to do your own thing;
-“Empowerment” requires confidence…senior management must be confident employees...and have confidence in their employees.
-“Empowerment” means an environment where everyone understands and does their job; managers must be able to do their own jobs rather than spend their time overseeing others.

Leadership
*Leadership can be defined as the creations of an environment in which others can self-actualize in the process of doing their jobs.
-Without leadership, no quality process can survive;
-Without a conscious pursuit of, and continual growth in, leadership, a quality process will run dry long before everything has been accomplished;

*A key to this CQP component is recognizing leadership can be taught and learned.
-Therefore, a well-conceived program of leadership training is essential to implementing Quality.

Structured 100% Employee Involvement
-Every employee should undergo thorough training on the Quality Management System Model
-Beginning with all Sr. Management;
-That’s the beginning of developing a “culture of quality”
-Not just an announcement by the CEO: “We are now a quality company, and you are all responsible for making it happen!”

-Doing “right things right” calls for employee involvement at all levels
-Teams – involving employees at all levels of the organization – who have been trained in the requirements of the Quality System Model – every person on the payroll a member of at least one team.

*Employee suggestion programs
-The establishment of a Quality Department comes under this component since it is part of the structure


Right Things Right Grid

Doing the right things… the right way

Doing the right things… the wrong way

Doing the wrong things… the right way

Doing the wrong things…the wrong way

It is commonly understood there are two general quality goals:

1) Doing the right things…
2) …And doing things right

Doing “right things right” requires the definition of processes within the organization (i.e. Are we even built right to do what we want to do?)

Communications
*Communications consists of “transmission” and “reception”
-What you think you said…
-What you are very sure you said…
-What you just know you were very clear about…
-Are only as meaningful as what your audience hears

*Intent of communication is simple
-Everyone should know as much as he/she needs to know to make the best possible decisions
-When cultural values are set, all in the organization should discuss them.


Training
-Both Technical and Quality specific training
-One should not be sacrificed for the other;
-This component will probably call for the organization’s largest monetary investment;
-If you must contract for outside training, ensure that after training-the-trainer, the consultant company will turn over all rights concerning in company training (retain control of the training program).
-You will want to improve the courses from year-to-year by adding examples from your own experiences, beefing up the portions that need it, and removing the portions of the course that you didn’t find useful.

-The Training Dept. and Quality Dept. must work closely to define new courses as the quality process matures;

*For the purpose of this presentation, we will concentrate on Quality-specific training
-Basic Quality Concepts
-Internal Auditor Training
-CA/PA
-Root Cause Analysis
-Complaint Handling

Measurement
-In the context of Quality, there are two (2) valid uses for measurement:
1)To make the data available as a source of ideas for improvement;
2)To check progress against a goal. If progress is less than expected, revert to 1).

“You cannot improve what you do not measure…and if you don’t measure, how do you know when you’ve improved…or getting worse!”

Recognition, Gratitude and Celebration

-A company must say “Thank You!”
-Expressing gratitude, extending recognition and engaging in some celebration of accomplishments are acts of leadership
-Employees deserve to be thanked…they’ve done something good that has benefited the company.
-They deserve the feeling that comes from being appreciated (the emotional reason)
-If they hear the company say “Thank You!” they’ll do more of it (the rational reason)

Good morale…bad morale…those are cultural!

Rules for Recognition
-Recognition should be...
-Public
-Available to everyone
-Dignified [recognition should create a feeling of dignity in the person who receives it]
-Symbolic
-Non-monetary
-Presented by Top Management
-Prompted by a variety of actions
-Not tied to a rigid time frame

10 Process Implementation Lessons

-You won’t get there without an end in mind
-Improvement competence must be grown organically
-Sustained improvement must be self-sustaining
-Local improvements do not always equal system improvement
-Activity does not translate into results
-It will get worse before it gets better
-Not everything is a nail
-How long depends on how much
-Without clear accountabilities, no one is accountable
-Crossing the goal line does not always score

Deadly Sins of Quality Management

1. Placing budgetary considerations ahead of quality
-In many companies, quality is still viewed as an expense, rather than an indispensable element for profitability;
-Key decisions are made based on accounting principles that do not recognize the concept of the “cost of poor quality.”

2.Placing schedule considerations ahead of quality
-When quality processes are in place, schedules will be met.
-Remember the “right-things-right” grid?
-Being “schedule” driven causes quality problems to be ignored, inevitably leading to an inability to meet schedules.
-This, in turn, also drives up costs
-Ready, fire, aim…faster, better, cheaper!

3.Placing political considerations ahead of quality
-In some organizations it is not possible to discuss problems that may exist…in fact, mentioning a problem can be a career-limiting move.
-In some cases, an important person will be implicated if a problem is discussed…so it is ignored.
-In other cases, a problem may be well known within an organization, but it is kept hidden so clients, customers or the public will not learn about it and possibly develop a bad impression.

~~~ Deming: “Drive fear out of the organization!”

4.Being Arrogant
-Our organization is made up of the best minds in our field…graduated from the top Universities…PhDs, scientists, top marketing people…we’ve invented our technology…we hold patents…we have the top scholars in the field.
-Once organizations begin to use these types of rationalizations to justify their actions, they are composting a soil of arrogance that will ultimately sprout significant quality, environmental, health and safety problems.
-Any organizational culture that creates an environment in which it’s top people cannot be viewed as capable of making a mistake has embraced an arrogance that will ultimately lead to disaster(s).

5.Lacking fundamental knowledge, research or education

-When we sail into new waters and have made contingency plans for things that might go wrong; we are doing pioneering work;
-When we rashly embark on a journey with no consideration for the adverse consequences, we are taking unnecessary risks that can lead to significant failure.
-The principles of Quality Assurance – such as independent verification, testing, and auditing and calibration control – are denigrated as being unnecessary, burdensome and anal-retentive.

6.Pervasively believing in entitlement
-The entitlement belief system is one in which employees believe they are entitled to their jobs and their benefits due to years of service, past sacrifices and past performance.
-None of us is immune to the vagaries of market forces, impact of new technologies and changes in customer requirements.
-We are each responsible for our own employability, and should continue to grow…keeping up-to-date with new technologies,

7.Practicing autocratic behaviors, resulting in “Endullment” [opposite of empowerment]
-When high school students have no sense of control over, or involvement in what they are forced to study, they turn off, passively resist, become apathetic, fail to complete assignments, and fail to attend class
-Same phenomena occur when management adopts an autocratic approach to decision making and does not share information with the workforce.
-Mushrooms: kept in the dark and fed manure.

Conclusions

Four essential threads are woven in the fabric of developing a Quality Culture

1.Top Management must lead the way and stay involved!
-You don’t stand a chance of developing a Quality Culture if top management isn’t 100% sold on the benefits and if they don’t stay involved

2.Appoint a Champion
-All successful efforts have a champion;
-To rally the organization and keep everyone focused, you need a charismatic leader;
-Ideal: Top Management is the champion
-However, exceptional results can be achieved with a wide range of other personnel filling the champion role and being the liaison to top management

3.Communicate vigorously
-The lubricating oil that flows through the gears of a Quality Culture is communication.
-None of the processes that had taught you today will function without communication.

4.Cultivate the Culture
-Processes are concrete and analytical…Organizational culture is amorphous, fluid, and difficult to grasp
-Culture will ultimately determine whether your Quality Program becomes a core organizational process, or just a flash-in-the-pan program that fades away after a few months.

Total Quality

‘Total Quality’ is the totality of features, as perceived by the customers, of the product or service. Totality of features includes stated as well as implied needs and expectations of all types of customers. As it is the perception by the customers, in addition to conformance with pre-established quality standards, it may also include additional parameters like cost-effectiveness, conformance to time schedule, after sale service etc. Quality thus cannot be defined by the supplier himself, but should always be defined by the customers. Then only quality ratings carry meaning and retain validity.
Customers of Education System
Universities are complex organizations with variety of customers making demands unparalleled in society. But, then who are customers of the university? Prospective customers of the university include:
§ Students, as they receive education services from the university
§ Affiliated colleges or study centers, as they receive various support services from the university
§ Society at large, as it receives the product of university, that is, student with added knowledge and skills.
The student is at center of education system and thus, is the major focus of the educational process. Although the definition of the customer need not be reduced to single alternative and in fact is the combination of all alternatives, the student clearly should be placed at the forefront of this definition.
Products of Education System
Once customer is defined, the next logical question is what is the product of an education system? Answer to this question may be explored with following different views:
§ Student may be viewed as a customer who buys a product of an education system, that is, an academic programme, in expectation of some type of life benefit.
§ The student himself is the product of an education system after being transformed by the educational process from a ‘raw’ material into a person with added knowledge and skills. With this view, the buyer is society; directly in terms of the employer and indirectly as a funding agency.
Although, these two products of an education system are apparently different, product from the first view, that is an academic programme, is nothing but encapsulation of the educational process mentioned in the second view.
Total Quality Management (TQM)
Total quality management (TQM) is not a technique; it is a broad management approach or methodology, dealing with processes and attitudes. TQM places quality as the primary objective for the organization, as opposed to the traditional management objective of maximizing production and subsequently controlling costs. Although, TQM was initially developed for the manufacturing environment, it can be equally applicable to any environment, which involves inputs and outputs, such as knowledge service industry like universities.
Principles of TQM may be summarized as follows:
§ There is a goal of ‘Continuous Improvement’ against achieving some static level of quality. It is about approaching excellence in an incremental way. Quality is a continuous ongoing process. Quality is responsibility and mission of all. Hence all employees should be continuously trained and motivate to consistently achieve better and better quality. Even ‘Commitment of Top Management’ should be visible and clear to all.
§ Instead of reactive and person dependent system, TQM is a ‘Proactive Systematic Approach’. This means ‘prevention and immediate detection of errors and problems at root source’ is preferred over of ‘correction for problems after its occurrence’. Responsibility for quality takes place at the source. This feature demands ‘Quality Design’ rather than inspection of quality after poor design.
§ TQM attempts to expose problems rather than hide or burry them. ‘Just in Time (JIT)’ concept described in next section will elaborate more on this. TQM identifies and addresses causes of problems, not effects.
§ TQM creates, encourages and nurtures simplicity, instead of bureaucratic approach of adding controls. It attempts to identify and eliminate non-value-added activities thus naturally motivating people to use quality procedures.
The essence of TQM is the simple but extremely powerful belief that it is better and hence cheaper, to do every process right at first time, rather than not to do it right and then correct it afterwards. Doing things right at first time requires no money. Doing things wrong is what only costs money, as time and resources are wasted by allowing defective products to get produced. Thus, longer it takes to identify problem, more will be the cost incurred to correct it.
TQM is systematic way of guaranteeing that all activities within an organization happen as planned. It is the management attitude that concerns with preventing problems at source, rather than allowing problems to occur and then correcting them afterwards.
Just In Time (JIT)
‘Just in Time (JIT)’ is the philosophy which systematically enforces ‘Continuous Improvement’ by continual reduction of non-value-added inventory stocks to lower and then further lower levels. Inventory stocks allow production process to continue even when some problem occurs. In a way, inventory stocks act like a buffers to hide any problem that may occur. But, with JIT, there are no buffers to hide problems and thus, occurrence of problem can shut down the entire production process. Thus, JIT philosophy helps organization to prominently expose problems and thus, bring a clear focus on removal of it at source, by eliminating the cause, rather than effects, of problem.
With JIT, it is believed that the root causes of most problems are due to faulty production process design. Hence, with JIT, nothing is taken for granted, everything is subject to analysis. Each activity is identified as either ‘Value-Added’ or ‘Non-Value-Added’. The reduction of ‘Non-Value-Added’ activities is achieved mainly through increasing manufacturing flexibility and improved quality.
Simplification of the production process is another key concept in JIT. Reusing existing components in design of new products keeps variety of required components at minimum level and thus, enhances cost-effectiveness and simplicity of the production process.
JIT is an extremely powerful tool to identify where improvements should be made. It helps you to identify cause (not the effect) of problem and its elimination. Failures and exceptions are treated as opportunities to improve the system. In fact, JIT initiates failures due to problems to expose them. It is a system of trouble-shooting, within a culture of constant analysis and improvement. It is clear, as an attitude and approach, JIT and TQM are perfectly complimentary to each other, to expose and correct problems at source, so as to avoid wasting resources on production of defective products.
TQM/JIT and Open and Distance Education System
TQM/JIT demands highly focused attention directly on those activities which are responsible for ‘Quality Costs’. Here, ‘Quality Costs’ are defined as any cost incurred, because something is not done right at first time. They are not the cost associated with the ‘Quality Department’ or ‘Quality Function’. Enormous productivity enhancement can be made as a result of exploring and eliminating non-value added or waste activities, which exist because things were not done right at the first time. In fact, quality is highly profitable only due to this.
TQM/JIT demands continuous improvement in definition of quality itself. Thus, attention is focused on ‘Quality Costs’, that is, on those activities which are responsible for problems and hence have potential for improvement, resulting in great cost reduction. Accurate and reliable measurement of ‘Quality Costs’ is the most important requirement for this improvement process. With TQM/JIT, output of any organization can be described as below:
Output = Value-Added Activities + Non-Value-Added Activities
Hence, to maximize the output and efficiency, organization must continuously explore ways to reduce and finally eliminate ‘Non-Value-Added Activities’. It can be done only when every thing is subject to analysis and examination. Most of ‘Non-Value-Added Activities’ are often the result of ‘faulty or inefficient design’, previously taken for granted. System design evaluation from this perspective allows improvements or changes, so as to reduce and finally eliminate ‘Non-Value-Added Activities’. The result is more efficient design which improves productivity and reduces costs.
Well known quality expert like ‘Dr J M Juran’ estimates that about 85% of the problems with a product are designed into the product. Hence, one can not expect significant quality improvement in ‘Open and Distance Education System (ODES)’, unless inefficiency and ineffectiveness are removed from the design, delivery and assessment of courses and subjects.
Focus on simplification is the fundamental concept in TQM/JIT. Products and processes are designed around existing families of standardized multi purpose components of minimum variety. Mass education system like ODES can not be achieved, without the development of standardized modules, which have a recognized exchange value at inter university level. Along with the cost reduction, flexibility can be significantly increased with this modular approach.
TQM/JIT continuously pushes the exposure of problems back, towards the starting point of the process, until initiation point is reached which is prevention. Every problem has a cause and every cause is preventable. Obviously, sooner the problem is detected, sooner it can be addressed.
Model for ‘Total Quality’
Clear definition of the ‘Total Quality’ in measurable terms is extremely important as no quality improvement is possible without its unambiguous measurement. Hence, quality should be expressed in clearly measurable parameters with appropriate importance. Not all features of quality have equal importance. Weight-age or importance assigned to each quality parameter can vary as per organization mission and goal or even as per the type of customer. Quality is defined not by the organization itself, but rather by the customers. Hence easily accessible quality feedback systems are essential to sustain quality drive, with which, customers of the organization can define quality. It is clear that definition of the quality will be dynamically changing with the changing perceptions of customers, which is in conformance with ‘Continuous Improvement’, an important principle of the TQM/JIT philosophy.
Thus, Quality parameters should be logically grouped together at different levels with appropriate importance. Hierarchical tree of quality parameters for the ‘Total Quality’ of ‘Open and Distance Education System’ is as follows:
1. Total Quality
a. Academic Quality (50%)
i. Academic Human Resource Quality (30%)
1. Well Qualified and Experienced (20%)
2. Self-Motivated and Properly Trained (20%)
3. With good Knowledge (30%)
4. With good Communication Skills (30%)
ii. Teaching Learning Process Quality (20%)
1. Regular, Enjoyable and Flexible (20%)
2. With Peer Group Interaction (20%)
3. Effective, Efficient, Quick and Interactive (20%)
4. Proper and Judicious Media Mix (20%)
5. Use of Modern Interactive Multimedia Learning Tools (20%)
iii. Learning Material Quality (20%)
1. Clear and simple Language (20%)
2. Distance education Pedagogy (20%)
3. Logical Presentation (30%)
4. Generating Curiosity, Hence Engaging (20%)
5. Well Illustrated (10%)
iv. Curriculum and Syllabus Quality (15%)
1. Clear, Accurate, Up to date and Optimum (15%)
2. Realistic Programme Calendar Design (15%)
3. Communication, Self-Learning, Managerial and IT Skills (15%)
4. Real Life Context, Relevance and Equivalence (25%)
5. Modular and Flexible with Multiple Entry and Exit Points (30%)
v. Academic Infrastructure Quality (15%)
1. Library and Learning Resource Centre (40%)
2. Laboratories (60%)
b. Student Services Quality (20%)
i. Services Quality (60 %)
1. Programme Information Quality (10%)
2. Pre and Post Admission Counseling Quality (10%)
3. Learning Material Distribution Quality (20%)
4. Counseling Session Quality (20%)
5. Learning Feedback Quality (20%)
6. Evaluation Quality (20%)
ii. Infrastructure Quality (40%)
1. Basic Infrastructure Quality (30%)
2. Computing Infrastructure Quality (30%)
3. Communication Infrastructure Quality (30%)
4. Audio Video Infrastructure Quality (10%)
c. Management Quality (15%)
i. Clear Quality Policy visible to all (10%)
ii. Continuous Ongoing Quality Training for All (20%)
iii. Accessible quality feedback systems for customers (20%)
iv. Proactive Systematic Approach (15%)
v. Simple and Preventive System (15%)
vi. Accountability with Error Correction (20%)
d. Time Quality (10%)
i. Right at First Time (20%)
ii. Right at Every Time (20%)
iii. Speed of Response to Query/Feedback received (30%)
iv. Time Efficiency of systems and processes (30%)
e. Cost Quality (5%)
i. More Value for customers (40%)
ii. Less Cost for customers and organization (60%)