B
Rob Nix said:
A good test is to list those who are sent to the seminars on all these tools. If it is not TOP management, but rather the middlings of the organization, it ain't gonna have lasting success.
Rob,
I hear many quality professionals and also consultants say that the problem is that top management should attend the seminars and then TQM, Six Sigma, Continual Improvement, or (fill in the blank) will succeed.
As quality professionals we spend years learning the tools and methodologies so it is unlikely that top management will ever learn or even want to learn what is needed for the program to be successful. That is okay since that is what they have us for.
What is really needed is for top management to agree that there is a need for quality professionals in the same way there is a need for accountants, HR, sales, engineering etc. When that happens they will not only let us do the job but support us in a visible way. Some of us have worked for executives who believed in the concept and yet they did not sit in hours of seminars trying to learn what we do. The problem with most executive seminars is that they are aimed at explaining why the executive should do (fill in the blank) program and why they should buy the books, tapes, and consulting services to implement the program.
Wouldn't it be great to have an executive seminar that taught if you have a quality professional with this body of knowledge than you should support them and if you don't have one then find one? What you need is a quality champion. Note my chosen title below my name. Here is what I believe a quality champion is.
"The [quality] champion is not a blue-sky dreamer, nor an intellectual giant.
The champion might even be an idea thief. But, above all, he’s the pragmatic one who grabs onto someone else’s theoretical construct if necessary and bullheadedly pushes it to fruition . . .
Champions are pioneers, and pioneers get shot at. The companies that get the most from champions, therefore, are those that have rich support networks so that their pioneers will flourish. This point is so important it’s hard to overstress.
No support system, no champions. No champions, no innovation."
Thomas Peters and Robert Waterman, Jr. In Search Of Excellence