Hello, all:

Have you ever wished you could send your CEO a letter to give him a wake-up call on quality and customer focus? Well, I certainly have. Too bad I waited until now to write it. When you get a moment, check out the attached article entitled "Dear Boss." I would love to hear your feedback on it: what worked, what didn't, what I forgot to include, etc.

Talk to you soon,
Craig

Thank you again,
As ever succinct, humorous and effective.
I need some time to digest

I wish that I could have put the importance of QMS so beautifully in to words. A true delight to read it :agree1:

Hi Craig,

If quality personnels can have a fraction of your ability to articulate their ideas, then we would not have that much negative comments about QMS or complaints about 'top management' not giving support or showing commitment.

Having said that, one needs more than just just technical knowledge to be able to look at things from anothers point of view, speak his language and then recruit him to be on your side.

Well done!

Craig, you have done it again: Great writing, just as we have come to expect from you :applause:

There is one crucial headline near the end of the document, of course: Boss, are you listening? I do hope that the target group will read it and act accordingly, but I see an obvious risk that it may pass them by:

During the years I have noted a marked reluctance to read documents of anything more than one or two pages, preferrably containing a bit of condensed information in bullet points and a bunch of flashy graphs. This phenomenon seems to increase as a person climbs higher up the organization ziggurat. Nothing strange about that, just a natural result of the fact that more people are competing for the attention of the climber...

Still, once more: Great piece of writing :agree:

/Claes

no useful feedback from me either, just :applause:

Hello, all:

Have you ever wished you could send your CEO a letter to give him a wake-up call on quality and customer focus? Well, I certainly have. Too bad I waited until now to write it. When you get a moment, check out the attached article entitled "Dear Boss." I would love to hear your feedback on it: what worked, what didn't, what I forgot to include, etc.

Talk to you soon,
Craig

I like it, but because CEOs have notoriously short attention spans (some say due to the fact that they're very busy, but I think it's more like a cranial capacity issue) your piece would make their eyes glaze over somewhere in the middle of the second paragraph, and someone from Finance would have to come in and resuscitate them.

Here's a short version:

Dear CEO:

We're dying down here. Please stop counting the *$%!& money for a minute and get off your fat arse and help us.

Regards,

The Little People

From the cover page cartoon: Quality Progress (May 2006)

What Quality Profesionals say: "So, when you look at the x-bar chart, you can see the bottom line shows the lower control limit and the top line..."

What CEOs Hear: "blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, BOTTOM LINE, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah..."

A good lament, but unlikely to have any effect on a CEO out there. CEO's and managers are people too. It is possible to poke and prod the system (and the CEO) all be it a slow process. A key though is to indeed learn to speak the CEO's language. I generally dislike six sigma, but one of the lessons from them is to quantify quality issues as dollar costs. Even the direct costs of a quality issue can be surprisingly high.

I recently attended the ASSE (American Society of Safety Engineers) and was surprised to see several topics on learning to speak management, talking dollar costs for safety problems. The opening speaker was especially amazing - Stan Slap (http://www.asse.org/annualpdc_06_mainb.htm and http://www.slapworld.com/about_slap/slap_the_guy.html). He had some great comments about leadership, and a killer song parody "I want my Strategy" (sung to "I want my MTV"). If I could ever get my hands on that file I would love it.

Sorry Craig, I agree with some of the others, who said it's too long.

Mark Twain wrote once, to a friend, "Sorry, I didn't have time to write you a short letter -- so here's a long one instead." It's hard to write short pieces, but the benefit is focus.

I don't agree with those who said CEO's have small attention spans. It's a mistake, methinks, to think this way (because they'll sense one's lack of respect) and the good ones know that by writing something short you concentrate your own attention, and focus. So, first, I'd say it must be short, a page or at most two.

Next, I'd delete the thanks for the party. It sounds obsequious and made me feel, "Yeah, yeah, get to the point." If the party really was that good, and the joke that funny, I'd send him a letter on just that point immediately after the party. He would more likely feel then that your thanks were genuine.

It's not clear to me whether this is a CEO who has bought into ISO 9001, or one that's said "Get me the certificate". Either way, in the introductory paragraph I'd remind him of the context and his involvement so far. If he has not been involved at all, I'd write quite a different letter ... or rather, I'd go visit: you can't build initial commitment in a letter, methinks.

To structure a letter in order to appeal to a CEO I'd try to answer these questions, from his perspective:

What do I want from him? (They often say, "Yes -- but what do you want me to _do_?)
What will be the benefit to the business of so doing?
What will it cost?
Whom else is doing it?

(The letter might not be written so baldly, but these key points would sing out.)

This last question is key, and rarely asked (although Six Sigma programs appear to understand it). CEOs are risk-averse and you can give them all the data and rationale in the world you like -- but if they're the first, or if nobody they know is doing something similarly, and successfully, they'll just hate to be first. Those that are first, the Bransons and Chamers of the world, don't need letters, they're already in your face asking where their management system is.

Just my 2c,
Patrick

Gentleman,

Thanks for all your feedback. I especially enjoyed Jim Wynne's short version: "We're dying down here. Please stop counting the *$%!& money for a minute and get off your fat arse and help us." That basically sums it up. Quality Digest required around 2,000 words, so that accounts for the overall length. A real letter would have been considerably shorter. Very good point, though. Brevity is the soul of wit, as Polonious said.

Speaking the language of top management is of course critical. The language of top management isn't the only language, though. Their whole lexicon is focused on finance and accounting metrics, which often doesn't provide much guidance for the future. Sure, quality folks need to understand these bottom line results, but top management needs to understand that profit and revenue are the residues of doing a lot of other things well. You can stare at bottom line results for hours and still not know what to do about them. The more forwarding looking metrics (like customer feedback) will tell you exactly what to do about them. So, I guess my point is that we all need to become multilingual. Speaking one language and looking in only direction will guarantee trouble.

Fire away!

Craig

In general, I liked and agreed with the points contained in the letter. Reading it DID make me wonder if you were being paid by the word - lots of padding.

There was one segment that made me wonder how it "would play in Peoria"
I've worked for too many organizations where training was considered good to do if time and circumstances allowed. Once we got busy, training was abandoned. "Hey, we've got work to do!" everyone shouted. "Who's got time for training?" Then they wondered why customer complaints skyrocketed. It's simple cause and effect: Neglect training, and people will make mistakes.
My questioning ran along the lines of:
"how many organizations has this guy worked for?"
"is the abandonment of training really that prevalent?"
"who needs to be trained?" (if I have a stable workforce, do I really need to continually train or train only when some change occurs? what about evaluation of training?) For as much as you padded the rest of the essay, I feel you should have been less glib on this aspect and much more descriptive of a "best practice."

Ccochran,

Good article. :applause:

It reminds me of a bit more satirical article written by our very own Cover Robert Nix also published in Q Digest appropriately named "Ten Things Every Top Manager Should Do to Destroy the Quality Culture" It was also an article many would like to give to their top managers or CEO's.


http://qualitydigest.com/QDarticles/FMPro?-db=iq_editorial.FP5&-lay=article%20data%20form&-format=QDarticle_text.html&articleID=4809&-script=cntaccesstype&-Find

In general, I liked and agreed with the points contained in the letter. Reading it DID make me wonder if you were being paid by the word - lots of padding.

There was one segment that made me wonder how it "would play in Peoria"
I've worked for too many organizations where training was considered good to do if time and circumstances allowed. Once we got busy, training was abandoned. "Hey, we've got work to do!" everyone shouted. "Who's got time for training?" Then they wondered why customer complaints skyrocketed. It's simple cause and effect: Neglect training, and people will make mistakes.
My questioning ran along the lines of:
"how many organizations has this guy worked for?"
"is the abandonment of training really that prevalent?"
"who needs to be trained?" (if I have a stable workforce, do I really need to continually train or train only when some change occurs? what about evaluation of training?) For as much as you padded the rest of the essay, I feel you should have been less glib on this aspect and much more descriptive of a "best practice."

In my limited experience Cochran is absolutely right. I've seen companys and plants rund down by truly stupid management who didn't think that training was needed. And, yes, IF you have a stable workforce training is not that big an issue, simply because that the total amount of training needed is by default smaller when you only have to train a relatively small amount of new employees a year. However, stupid managers don't create a working environment where people want to work, and therefore the have to hire a lot more employees on a continual basis. I've worked for companies where the turnover on employees were 40+ %. Companies like that don't have the time, or the capacity to train their employees because they have a continual back log of orders due to low production efficiency. :bonk:

Gentleman,

Thanks for all your feedback. I especially enjoyed Jim Wynne's short version: "We're dying down here. Please stop counting the *$%!& money for a minute and get off your fat arse and help us."



I like that one too.

Counting the money only tells you how well you did, yesterday. It tells you absolutely nothing about what will happen next, or where to prioritise effort to improve performance. And as Enron's investors discovered, the money is not always an indicator of present or future success.



Speaking the language of top management is of course critical. The language of top management isn't the only language, though. Their whole lexicon is focused on finance and accounting metrics, which often doesn't provide much guidance for the future. Sure, quality folks need to understand these bottom line results, but top management needs to understand that profit and revenue are the residues of doing a lot of other things well. You can stare at bottom line results for hours and still not know what to do about them. The more forwarding looking metrics (like customer feedback) will tell you exactly what to do about them. So, I guess my point is that we all need to become multilingual. Speaking one language and looking in only direction will guarantee trouble.

Fire away!

Craig

Yes, I agree. The most successful quality managers I've met have been able to relate every action they want to take directly to revenues, costs or margins. They tend to teach managers by making them learn through doing the right things, and they make them do the right things by appealing to the cost/revenue/margin motive.

Patrick

Craig

Thank you for this great piece. It was read critically and much enjoyed. I was reticent to post early on, and am glad I waited for the discussion to begin.

This article was clearly written for Quality Digest and I think it looks great in print. It's a good article and touches on the essentials of the basics of a modern "QMS." You've got the process approach, objectives, and the support and involvement of top management nailed down, in brief. A briefing like this followed with a Gantt chart including resource needs would be a great way to go.

I hate to say it, but I would never second guess my leadership. Engineering your approach to try to fit the leader will only remove you further from your core. The quality manager's job is to brief the leadership and obtain their support and involvement, which is the wellspring of life for a QMS.

Therefore, I would not try to speak the language of my leadership, or prove benefits in dollar figures, or make any judgements about attention span. You could run the risk of confusing the subject or insulting and alienating your leader.

Do what you do best first. If they don't like it, or if they're not interested, then you must remove from yourself all harsh judgements and do your best again. If after many times this doesn't work... I say follow your leader or get off the path.

Craig

Thank you for this great piece. It was read critically and much enjoyed. I was reticent to post early on, and am glad I waited for the discussion to begin.

This article was clearly written for Quality Digest and I think it looks great in print. It's a good article and touches on the essentials of the basics of a modern "QMS." You've got the process approach, objectives, and the support and involvement of top management nailed down, in brief. A briefing like this followed with a Gantt chart including resource needs would be a great way to go.

I hate to say it, but I would never second guess my leadership. Engineering your approach to try to fit the leader will only remove you further from your core. The quality manager's job is to brief the leadership and obtain their support and involvement, which is the wellspring of life for a QMS.

Therefore, I would not try to speak the language of my leadership, or prove benefits in dollar figures, or make any judgements about attention span. You could run the risk of confusing the subject or insulting and alienating your leader.

Do what you do best first. If they don't like it, or if they're not interested, then you must remove from yourself all harsh judgements and do your best again. If after many times this doesn't work... I say follow your leader or get off the path.It is certainly true each of us should do what he does best, but carrying your statement to an extreme could mean speaking Klingon to a boss who only understands English because "I would not try to speak the language of my leadership . . . ."

Let me ask this: "Would it 'run the risk of confusing the subject or insulting and alienating your leader'?"

Simply, the job of a Quality professional is to COMMUNICATE facts and opinions about Quality, using any and every method that works.

Dear Craig!

I've read your articles in QDigest from time to time and always find something to think about. Unfortunately, i have no much time for regular discussions and so on. Last three months I've been busy with delivering trainings to various cathegories of people in different cities in Kazakistan. I believe top managers are the same all over the world, may be americans are more concentrated on money, than the others - but may be that's why they have them, while others - not. So it's right that we have to learn using language clear to bosses, not to pursue them understanding our jargon. But, taking my experience as qualuty manager, auditor and trainer - I will say that in most cases such kind of letters are almost useless. Folks, don't waste your time and best hours of your life for these kinds of matters - better find more convenient and relevant place and more understanding boss. Some remarks for training. We must look at the personnel management as a whole. May be we hired not appropriate people, or may be overall organization of work is wrong - and in such cases training don't help. But put the next question - why not better people were employed - and why you don't have good organization - you'll discover some deep reasons for this.

My school friends used to say that everyone goes mad in his own way. So QManager shall be able to recognize it as early as possible and shall not waste time - Or the whole world will be paradize long ago. So first we shall find the reasons, why people often behave not appropriately, and why a lot of bosses and managers like to destroy their own business - and to work with those who are adequate and committed to the philosophy of sustainable development - for them you can write less passionate and consize letters - and receive adequate responce.

Still I think it's fine that these issues are discussed, though I don't know any case when boss "became right" after any lectures, talks or letters. Adults are very rarery can be improved or reformed - unfortunately.

Andrey,

Hello! Good to hear from you. Thanks for checking out the article. You made some very good points, and I agree with you about lectures and letters not changing anybody's mind. To tell you the truth, this piece was more entertainment than a real example of what to tell top management. If a single top manager saw it and gave it some serious consideration, though, it was worth writing. Hope all is well in Kazakstan.

Warm regards,
Craig

Hi Craig,

Perhaps we should call it a 'WISH LIST'. Like all wishes, some will come true. If we can't move the mountain, at least move some particles of sand.

Having said that, why not consider moving ourselves since moving the mountain is out of question!

Regards.

Ten Things Every Top Manager Should Do to Destroy the Quality Culture
Basic steps to defeat this thing called quality
by Robert Nix
My first experience with the word “culture” comes from my high school science class. We grew a living organism on a nutrient base, which the teacher called a culture. The girls in class described it using the medical term, “Eeewwwww!” Years later, in the business world, I find top managers subjected to the pressure to incorporate a quality culture into their business, describing it in the executive term, “Eeewwwww!” Like the old cereal commercial, they are told it’s “supposed to be good for you,” which means it doesn’t taste very good.
Everybody’s talking about “quality” disciplines: Six Sigma, zero defects (NOTE: the only difference between the two is about 3.5 defects), ISO 9000, the Malcolm Baldrige Award, and so on. Our customers tell us we need them; consultants tell us we need them; nine out of 10 doctors tell us we need them. “Yeah, well, smart people and their pomp and flourish have never run a business like mine.” Yes, top executives know how to run their business. But they also realize they have to indulge and pacify those fools advocating “quality.” So they do the first of 10 things to effectively neutralize the virulent quality culture: they hire a quality manager. For all of you future business executives, all 10 of the following things should be implemented to ensure the death of the quality organism eating away at your “bottom line.” It’s already being done successfully in many businesses throughout the world. Here are the steps:
1. Hire a quality manager and stand behind him or her—way behind. In fact, don’t give anyone the impression you even know the quality manager, let alone support his or her quality initiatives. There are two benefits to this approach:
• It’s the QM’s job, not yours, to ensure quality. That’s why you hired a quality manager
• Take the circus trapeze people as an example. They become much more professional and conscientious when they work without a safety net. Take away support from the quality manager; it builds character.

2. Assign the quality manager the task of becoming certified to an international quality standard. But remember: don’t support it—just insist it gets done. Yes, insist on getting certified, but make it clear it’s only for the sake of getting a certificate. Every top manager knows that to be efficient, a company only must provide the minimum customer requirements. Customers generally just want to see a certificate on the wall, but they may ask for a faxed copy once a year. Give it to them.
3. Establish policies, but be the first to violate them. This is a great way to show everyone who’s the boss. The explanation should be, “I can do it, but you can’t.” For example, establish safety policies throughout the building that ensure employee coverage from the top of their hard hats to the bottom of their steel-toed shoes. Then walk around the plant in Bermuda shorts and open-toed sandals. Or, send a mandate to all personnel regarding “on time” meeting attendance with no exceptions. Then walk in 20 minutes late for each meeting while talking loudly on your cell phone. These techniques help clarify to all employees the pecking order.
4. Don’t spend a lot of time planning, organizing, strategizing or even managing. Fighting fires is the most productive use of your time. Besides, it’s the comfort zone of most top managers, as it’s likely how they got where they are. Getting involved in every-day problems shows you are a “hands on” executive and your people will respect you for it. It should be noted, however, that this effort shouldn’t be in cooperation with the quality manager, as that would violate point No. 1. above. Remember the goal is to kill the quality critter.
5. Make sure all goals are short-term. Yes, there’s a lot of hoopla about long-term goals out there, but keep in mind all business factors linked to short-, not long-term goals:
• Your bonus plan and pay out is generally one year, not three to five years
• Faster turnover of personnel means impressions must be made more quickly
• Your boss expects tangible results now. In relation to goals, management should also avoid any clear mission or vision statements. These things paint top managers into a corner. It’s important to stay fluid, flexible and ready to go in any direction at any time. A side benefit’s this keeps employees on their toes, always ready for any shift in the wind.

6. Assume the bottom line is really the bottom line. Financial statements like the P&L really say it all. They are precise, clean and easy to remember. Chief executives should focus all their attention on financial considerations. CFOs are always looking after top management to make sure their retirement is lucrative. CFOs are the only ones who care. So, when those quality “types” present their data and facts regarding customer satisfaction, problem resolution success, training effectiveness and other intangibles, diligently avoid rolling your eyes. Placate them with a smile, a “well done” and a “keep up the good work.” That has the Pavlovian effect of making them drool. Likewise, if anyone else comes to top management with a suggestion, the person who brought it up should handle the project (obviously without the provision of resources). They’ll think twice the next time.
7. When it comes to measuring business performance, don’t measure what’s important; measure only what is easy to measure. For example, measuring rework is complicated. It means making sure the employee reports time accurately, tracks reasons, makes graphs, tabulates material costs and so on. A better measure is to account for how long an employee takes on breaks. Another important point regarding performance measurements is to never measure anything that might implicate or embarrass top management. Keep all things regarding top managers’ performance nebulous and circuitous. When reporting company performance to the employees, speak using jargon that only elicits a wink from your fellow executives. The amoebic I.Q.s of the shop people will quickly cause their thoughts to shift to who’s buying the first round after work.
8. Speaking of I.Q., never hire people smarter than you. They may take your job someday. Once hired, you control their breeding. Send employees to training on things they can’t possibly implement. If they never put their training into practice, they continue to be unmarketable, and you reduce turnover. However, executives shouldn’t go to any training themselves, because they already know everything they will ever need to know. This, of course, doesn’t exclude business retreats and other conferences where they can consume copious amounts of beverages, eat foods, and enjoy entertainment. These are necessary things for the company’s future.
9. Be inconsistent. One of the insidious spores that emit from the quality culture is that consistency is tantamount to quality. Consistently followed procedures, consistent motions, consistent statistical control and consistent processes supposedly lead to better quality and happier customers. But that is a smokescreen for the quality manager’s true mission: to expose inefficiencies in the organization. But keep in mind that people may associate these inefficiencies with you. Therefore, keep everything in a state of flux. It’s harder for people to realize the sources of incompetence when everything is murky.
10. Finally, avoid closure at all costs. Don’t finish a project and don’t let others finish theirs. If they linger interminably, you continue to have work. The quality culture suggests that if everything is working smoothly, the quality people will appear unhurried and, at times, appear as if they have nothing to do. That can’t be productive. Support the starting of as many projects as possible, then find reasons to prolong them, delay signing approvals for each step of the plan, and find ways to amend or add to the original plan. This includes not completely killing the quality culture. If it hangs by a thread and is kept on life support, the quality department will always feel hopeful and you should feel good.

In a nutshell, this is what you should do to almost kill the virus of the quality culture:
1. Hire a quality manager and keep your distance.
2. Just get a certificate for the wall.
3. Establish policies applicable to every employee (except you, obviously).
4. Fight fires instead of planning, organizing and strategizing.
5. Establish only short-term goals.
6. Focus exclusively on the “bottom line.”
7. Measure just the easy things that don’t make you look bad.
8. Keep training in its place.
9. Keep things in a constant state of flux.
10. Never finish a project.

About the Author
Robert Nix is the quality director for Merrill Tool Holding Co., a privately owned business headquartered in Saginaw, Michigan, that includes machine design and build, machined parts manufacture, and metal fabrication. Nix has been in quality management for 27 years and is an ASQ-certified Quality Engineer and Reliability Engineer
Coutesy: Quality Digest

Since you are a relative newbie to the Cove, I don't suppose you are aware Mr. Nix is a highly regarded member here. I hope he is flattered by your post, but you should have also noted where you copied it from (the link, unless you typed it from a magazine, in which case, you should identify the issue.)

Craig, I thought I had already read this but obviously not :o . Having now read it I LOVE it. Forget the style, length, special comments from other 'Covers' as the letter has everything that I would want my CEO to understand. If he read this then He would know that I (The QMS) am not here to change or add to his business...I just want to ensure it runs smoothly...His KPIs ARE the Quality KPIs etc. I HAVE sent this to my Boss and asked him to send it to the other bosses. My Boss and I walked out of a MR meeting last Wednesday and shook our heads. The QMS has separate KPIs to the business KPIs. They do not understand that the QMS is a direct reflection of the BUSINESS and your letter addresses this. Sorry if this does not make a lot of sense but I am in the middle of a project and just happened upon this during my lunchbreak. Keep up the good work and I'll try and let you know what my boss thought :applause:

Greg,

It's really good to hear from you. I'm glad you're still trying to get all those rascals squared-away. Your top managers need my "Swim with the Sting Rays" expedition. I'm running a special on it right now: 50% off. For them, I'll hook them up for free! I hope they one day make the connection between your fine efforts and everything they're trying to achieve. The linkages are right in front of their eyes.

I hope you're doing well, my friend.

Craig