Key elements of a successful transformation
From the assessment there should emerge clear recommendations for improvement, including quick wins, and goals for the short-,
medium-, and long-terms. Because organizations differ, the particulars of these recommendations for transforming any given
culture will vary. But there are some constants in the execution of such recommendations. A centralized project management
framework should be put in place to help guide the planning and successful implementation of the recommendations.
To help drive and sustain changes, a compelling quality culture message must be developed—in effect, internally branding the
effort. The message must be clear, relevant, understood by all, and designed to provide a point around which every employee
can rally, motivating them to contribute to the effort. Best practices in human resources, organizational development, and
leadership should be followed in order to maximize employee engagement, assure effective rewards and recognition, provide
timely communication of progress, and institutionalize accomplishments. Finally, appropriate operational-excellence tools
should be used to further help assure successful implementation and sustainability of these efforts—as well as to provide
the metrics needed to monitor and report progress along the way.
What should the resulting high performing, sustainable quality culture look like? Again, the particulars may vary from company
to company, but such cultures should share the following characteristics (see Figure 1):
- Employees at all levels understand the organization's quality objectives, policies, and procedures and their individual roles
in helping to achieve them.
- Leadership at all levels is visibly engaged in supporting the development of a quality culture and effectively engages and
motivates others to do the same—leading to self-motivated accountability and sustainability.
- Effective communication, enterprise-wide sharing of best practices, engagement of all employees, and rewards and recognition
for both teams and individuals maintain the momentum and enthusiasm required for sustainability.
- The organization hires people who possess the quality values, norms and work practices the company desires.
- Staged on-boarding and technical and quality training are deployed at the company, business unit, functional area, and individual
levels.
- Consistent and sustainable standards of quality are defined clearly and deployed across the organization in conjunction with
quality and compliance systems that enable the organization to achieve those standards.
- The organization distinguishes between people and processes as the root cause of mistakes, and instead of blaming people looks
to correct processes.
- Leaders and managers at all levels establish an environment of trust and collaboration in which challenging issues can
be raised without fear of reprisal.
- The organization institutionalizes a process for capturing, analyzing, and incorporating lessons learned from past successes
and failures.
- As the organization grows and changes, the quality culture is continually monitored and fine-tuned to ensure that it remains
effective and sustainable.
The journey from quality culture assessment to transformation to sustainability need not take long or consume massive resources.
But it does require the recognition that achieving quality and compliance is not a matter of a discrete, isolated process
but of the larger environment in which it takes place.
Ian Uydess, PhD, and Chet Meyers, PhD, are managing consultants at Tunnell Consulting, ian.uydess@tunnellconsulting.com
and chet.meyers@tunnellconsulting.com
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