ASQ "Living Strategy"

[Wes Bucey]

https://www.asq.org/cgi-bin/guestbook/guestbook.cgi
is the direct link to the ASQ Living Strategy "Forum."
Posts to this Forum go through a censor prior to being published on the ASQ website.

If you pay dues to ASQ or are considering joining ASQ, you owe it to yourself to read through the posts which have made it past the censor system.

Some very visible and active ASQ members have made posts expressing discouragement and dissatisfaction with the status quo at ASQ. This is a good thing because "successful change management first requires the Change agent to get the interested parties dissatisfied with the status quo."

Often, bureaucrats are so blind, they don't recognize whether change can be good or bad - they are MOST satisfied when things stay the same with no change.

If, after reading the comments to date, you have a comment for that page, please don't hesitate to post it.

 

[Jen Kirley]

Yes, I have posted a comment. Thank you for sending the link.

It has been awhile since I frequented the ASQ message boards. Overall I haven't felt like a member for a long time. I don't sense outreach or mentoring, people seem to be working for themselves. This includes my local chapter, full of nice people with whom I've never built a sense of comraderie at all.

 

[Wes Bucey]

Yes, I have posted a comment. Thank you for sending the link.

It has been awhile since I frequented the ASQ message boards. Overall I haven't felt like a member for a long time. I don't sense outreach or mentoring, people seem to be working for themselves. This includes my local chapter, full of nice people with whom I've never built a sense of comraderie at all.

The sorry truth is that many ASQ members "on the ground" or, as they said in 'Nam, "in country," are under a tremendous amount of stress just keeping a job. When the stress factor builds up, there just simply is no time for Mentoring. If the only common ground for comraderie is joint misery, who wants to share that?

• Despite all that, though, the folks at the Section level do what they can to provide training and tips for taking certification exams.
• Many of the larger Sections have fantastic monthly programs with practicing experts and authors bringing in new methods to attack old problems.
• Almost every Section has some sort of program to provide free or low cost access to the meetings for members who are out of work.
• ASQ, itself, provides a discount for membership fees for out-of-work members, based on years of membership.
• When approached directly, on a one-on-one basis, almost any Section member will review a resume from another member and offer suggestions (if any are warranted) for improving the presentation.
• Section officers will suggest members who may help a member "role play" in preparation for a job interview.

All in all, ASQ HQ offers the infrastructure of tools, courses, and publications to help members and would-be members prepare to advance in the Quality Industry. The Sections offer hands-on implementation of those tools and tips on taking the courses. There are a number of glitches and disconnects. The curse is there is no viable competitor to ASQ to spur improvement. Improvement, therefore, must be self-generated from within.

Experience both here in the Cove and in the ASQ Forums clearly demonstrates there are "some" who offer answers to questions from even the most naive "newbie." Questions from more experienced practitioners are dealt with much more comraderie and respect, creating a certain collegial and mutually respectful atmosphere, tempered with a modicum of good humor. The task, then, is to concentrate on finding the helpful ones and leaving the others to their own brand of misery.

 

[Jen Kirley]

Experience both here in the Cove and in the ASQ Forums clearly demonstrates there are "some" who offer answers to questions from even the most naive "newbie." Questions from more experienced practitioners are dealt with much more comraderie and respect, creating a certain collegial and mutually respectful atmosphere, tempered with a modicum of good humor. The task, then, is to concentrate on finding the helpful ones and leaving the others to their own brand of misery.

I agree that improvement must be generated from within. I'm almost completely self taught. I guess I'm just exasperated with trying to find an outlet for that improvement. Like, employment in my industry.

But now I'm confused. Is it bad to take a newbie's question seriously and answer him or her with the same respect as a more experienced poster would receive? Am I out of place for doing this?

My self generated improvement doesn't include enough workplace experience to answer questions on CPK, House of Quality or in a host of involved subjects. My research is in small businesses (most of Maine's economy) and how to help them fill their needs. For this, one starts with the basics and one does not make the student feel bad, or one's credibility as an advisor is shot. I thus recognize and accept I am best for answering the more elementary questions. Should I worry about being a "some" body--am I shutting myself out of a community for doing this? What a strange feeling.

There are many very advanced people here who can answer the very technical questions from experienced practitioners. You needn't tarry in places that aren't appropriate for advanced expertise. Your time is much more valuably spent in answering very technical questions.

 

[Wes Bucey]

The point is there is someone ready, willing, and able to answer ANY level of question. It is all part of one community. No matter how knowledgeable any of us is individually, it is the GROUP knowledge base (the totality of all who visit) and the willingness to share to the best of one's ability which makes for a good Forum.

When Howard, Randy, and I met last Wednesday, it was one of the things we strongly agreed - the sense of community is very strong here in the Cove.

To be sure, many of the Private Messages which pass back and forth are the clarifications of points which may be only hinted at in the public Forum because some Covers are too shy to expose their lack of knowledge to the whole world
or
(much more likely) because the information may be too sensitive to discuss in a public Forum when specific details have to be disclosed to get the best solution for a problem. Without the public Forum, though, the exchange of information might never have taken place because one party would not know the other existed.

Adding a clarification:
When I wrote
"Questions from more experienced practitioners are dealt with much more comraderie and respect, creating a certain collegial and mutually respectful atmosphere, tempered with a modicum of good humor. "
it occurs to me I thought I had implied something, but on casual reading, the implication is not obvious -
So, same sentence with the implication added.
"Questions from more experienced practitioners are dealt with much more comraderie and respect, creating a certain collegial and mutually respectful atmosphere (not available in one's own workplace), tempered with a modicum of good humor. "

 

[Jen Kirley]

Adding a clarification:
When I wrote
"Questions from more experienced practitioners are dealt with much more comraderie and respect, creating a certain collegial and mutually respectful atmosphere, tempered with a modicum of good humor. "
it occurs to me I thought I had implied something, but on casual reading, the implication is not obvious -
So, same sentence with the implication added.
"Questions from more experienced practitioners are dealt with much more comraderie and respect, creating a certain collegial and mutually respectful atmosphere (not available in one's own workplace), tempered with a modicum of good humor. "

Oh. Phew. Thank you for that clarification. With me, one really does need to spell it all out.

I was confused because when I referred to a low camraderie level, I was referring to my local ASQ chapter, not the Cove.

I think it is a marvelous thing to have this forum as a resource and a place to visit one another. Good information can be hard to get, insight on a problem made from outside the problem's sphere. I never had that when I was the Quality Department and Safety Department in my machine shop some time back. Without an accessible, willing, and responsive community to access I felt truly alone. I'm still alone, as my chapter's members mostly work in manufacturing, I alone work in public education. No one in my school district has expressed a clue about what Quality [management] is as we know it.

Now I hasten to add that my ASQ membership is comprised of fine, professional and kind people. I simply never felt like I was truly part of the group. I'm sure they didn't mean for that to happen. They were all in management positions and I was an inspector, an inside auditor. Things might have been different if I had taken a chapter office. So I do not blame them. Your insight on their possible nervousness about their own jobs really did help. They never appeared concerned to me, I never got that impression.

Making it clear that all are welcome is critical for The Reading Room to succeed. All must truly feel invited, and taken seriously so they will submit their articles and such.

 

[Wes Bucey]

Now I hasten to add that my ASQ membership is comprised of fine, professional and kind people. I simply never felt like I was truly part of the group. I'm sure they didn't mean for that to happen. They were all in management positions and I was an inspector, an inside auditor. Things might have been different if I had taken a chapter office. So I do not blame them. Your insight on their possible nervousness about their own jobs really did help. They never appeared concerned to me, I never got that impression.

Making it clear that all are welcome is critical for The Reading Room to succeed. All must truly feel invited, and taken seriously so they will submit their articles and such.

Only "some" of the managers feel secure enough in their jobs to devote time to being an officer in a local ASQ Section. The fact they do volunteer the time (it takes a LOT of time) shows they care about providing a safe, secure environment for Quality Practioners to meet, learn, and interact.

I wish I had a perfect formula for making every Section super-effective for the members. Sadly, the FEAR that pervades most workplaces spills over into the professional and private lives of the workers and affects their interaction with peers, even outside the workplace.

The feeling of frustration can be overwhelming when the suits and other bosses in the workplace completely discount any value of the Quality folk as a whole, reserving special scorn for folks who want to pursue "certification."

My own frustration level reaches a peak when I see the out-of-work or underemployed come by with resumes which demonstrate they've never had a chance to be more than a cog in a wheel at their jobs, with no authority or empowerment.

 

[Steve Prevette]

Thoughts from a Section Chair

Amongst other things, I am the chair of a rural ASQ section. We have in past year's taken hits on the ASQ surveys, and I sure would like to do a lot more things with the Section. I wish I had a bunch of folks beating down my door saying - 'we want to go and and do this . . .' But unfortunately, it is all I can do just to keep the section "legal". Section planning for 95 members is done by 3 officers (of which one wears both the secretary and vice chair hats, and also writes the newsletter) and one non-officer. We do what we can and are able to do.

That is why I find it so bizarre the behavior sometimes at ASQ HQ. There are a bunch of us beating on the door saying "Let's go out and do this . . . and we are even committed to making it happen", but nooooooooooo . . .

Things are better now than 5 years ago. And I think if we want to keep things getting better, we need to continue to push on ASQ staff and leadership. I know I will be doing what I can do for politicking at the ASQ annual (The WCQI in Seattle in May).

 

[Jen Kirley]

I submitted a rather detailed comment on the Living ASQ link Wes included yesterday, but it doesn't appear to have made it past the webmaster.

I included suggestions on how to keep ASQ relevant. As usual, it regarded the opportunity we have of reaching out to the small business nonmanufacturing sectors, which in fact dominate the economy.

Their silence helps explain the nature of frustration I have been reading in their forum's posts. It doesn't feel like the organization is paying a lot of attention.

 

[Wes Bucey]

Figure one to two business days to get past the sensor (I mean "censor") for a straightforward comment. Up to a business week or more for relatively strong comments. FEAR runs rampant at ASQ HQ and no low level staffer is going to risk his job by letting ANYTHING through that would upset his "masters."

For some of the positions, the rule seems to be "revolving door" while other positions seem "tenured for life." If it were mine to revamp, I would re-engineer several departments to fit closer to a Deming ideal company, rather than the current Deming Red Bead factory.