I'm to talk about Quality in American Business tonight and that's a subject that affects us all and should be of concern to all of us.
In the group in this room tonight everyone is a consumer or user of goods and services purchased from someone else. We also have in this room providers of these very same products and services. Quality is an ingredient of each transaction.
If we were to take a poll I'm sure we would find very few, if any, consumers that do not from time to time receive Non-Quality products or services that are not up to par. It has happened to all of us..... Also, if we polled the providers I bet we would be hard pressed to find EVEN ONE provider who bestows upon the public a non-quality product or service of any description. It is the nature of Quality to be elusive, difficult to explain and to really understand. We're often fooled by taking it for granted. Just what is quality?
Quality is "good".. How about "Excellence".. pretty or "handsome" there are some problems with these meanings.. have a look around the room.. There's not a lady here that don't believe she's has a handsome escort... yet she may be one of only two people in the room that believes that.
You see goodness, excellence, pretty and handsome are different to different people. If we think of quality as these things, like good, excellent and so on, we can never be quite sure what we will get when we ask for quality.
Furthermore, defining quality this way might present some special problems when dealing with employees.. How do you think an employee would react to the instructions "This work is not good enough, bring it back when it's excellent".
We need some more useful definition for quality. I like to talk about the two flavors of quality and use at least two definitions. We could call them left handed and right handed quality or consumer and provider quality. The important thing is to recognize the dual character of quality.
When we talk about consumer quality we can define it as:
"That part of the product or service that is perceived to be in excess of what is customary";
Here, non-quality would be that part that is less than expected... I call consumer quality "right-handed quality"
Provider quality address conformance to specifications such as specific dimensions, weight, grade and any number of variable parameters. I call this "Left-handed Quality" ...as providers we have to "speak specs" to our suppliers and employees.
Right handed... Consumers.... Left handed ....Providers. You can always remember this if you associate it with the two halves of the brain.. You know.. the left side of the brain controls our logical thoughts, our ability to deal with numbers, and our language;... the right side of our brains control the more subjective thoughts, opinions, tastes, and appreciation for artistic things.....
Whereas a provider might precisely express quality in terms of numbers, grades and specifications.. using the left side of his brain; the consumer might say "I can't explain it.. but I sure know it when I see it"... or feel it".. or wear it".. or taste it".. or just use it".
With just these two definitions we can already make a difference in how we achieve quality as a provider or consumer.
As a Provider and business person we can recognize that we have to be switch hitters it the "thinking about quality department".. left handed for our suppliers and workers and right handed for our customers.
As consumers we can recognize that there are such things as grades and specifications applicable to the more complex things we buy... and that we can become better informed making wiser decisions on which of what to buy and what expectations are realistic.
Fortunately for us business folks, there is a lot of latitude in consumer quality.. for the most part we are dealing with a perception or belief rather than a tangible benefit. This is where brand loyalty and the brotherhood resulting in a trust developed over time come into play.
Advertising can have some impact here as well.. I'm reminded of the story of two farmers who shared an apple stand.. They had a neatly lettered sign along side the highway that read "Nice Apples $2.50 a basket"
Although friends in every other way, they always argued over the price of the of the apples. Brown insisted that they should be receiving $3.00 per basket while Jones was perfectly satisfied with $2.50 and insisted that raising the price was sure to destroy their trade. Finally one day the situation was recognized as hopeless and Brown moved across the highway and set up his own stand..
It wasn't long before Jones noticed that Brown was getting almost all the business even with a higher price. Then he noticed Brown's new sign that read "Nice Apples $3.00 per basket" (No Worms!)..
Although these were really the same apples, (Jones's apples didn't have worms either) the consumers perceived a higher quality and value in Brown's apples.
Many times our customers will blame themselves for our shortcomings.. They'll often tell themselves.. Well I didn't know what to order.. or I should have bought the more expensive one ... the service was not right because of something I did..
But WATCH OUT they could tell themselves " I went to the Wrong Provider" !! Blessed are those customers who complain.. You have another chance with them. There is no chance with those that blame themselves.... then go away.
As we the customers become better informed and more demanding in the "I want quality department"... We the providers must realize that our success even.. our survival may depend upon the quality performance of the enterprise.... Quality being another thing to monitor and control.
How do we do this? ... With fussy customers and careless employees it may seem near impossible.
It's management's job to determine the expectations of the customers... those right hand thinking individualist that don't understand specifications but know quality when they have it.
Then translate these expectations into objective specifications and instructions for the suppliers and employees.. those left hand thinking folks we have come to love in spite of their lack of sensitivity to the peculiar expectations our customers.
O.K. WHAT ABOUT THE HUMAN ELEMENT?
We've got good people, they work hard and we just can't expect them not to make mistakes.. right? So what do we do? ... WRONG!
We certainly have good people but they don't have to make mistakes! We were not born with a built in genetically imposed error rate.
WHY DO PEOPLE MAKE MISTAKES?
From the time we were knee high we've been told by our parents.. Aunts, Uncles and Teachers things like:
TO ERR IS HUMAN... TO FORGIVE DIVINE
LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES
IF AT FIRST YOU DON'T SUCCEED TRY TRY AGAIN
I'm sure their intentions were good but maybe they were just repeating clichés without giving much thought to them.
Let's look a little closer....
"To err is human... to forgive divine"
An often quoted excerpt from an Alexander Pope essay,.... an essay on humility. The quote in context was intended to illustrate the virtue of forgiveness. It did not establish a natural law that requires us to make errors.... yet we have used this statement to justify our errors as normal natural human characteristics.
How about "LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES"??
This statement implies that if you want to become very smart ... go out and make a lot of mistakes!
Actually the statement echoes a quaint old custom where it was proper to admit your mistakes and indicate your willingness to learn. We have abridged it over the years and use it to mitigate the circumstances when we screw up. Actually, no one ever learns how to do something right by doing it wrong... You only learn to do it right when you succeed. We would be better served by learning from our successes than from our failures.
"IF AT FIRST YOU DON'T SUCCEED.. TRY TRY AGAIN" That's REWORK!!!
While illustrating the virtue of persistence we're subordinating the importance of doing it right the first time.. justifying wasted energy and resources.
I know this scenario is a bit "tongue in cheek" but it illustrates that we are preconditioned to accept our errors from childhood.
You see, we like it... it makes us comfortable it allows us to deal with our double standard..
Yes we all have two standards, one for work or dealings with other people and one for our personal life. It don't bother us to make a few mistakes at work... mess up an account ledger, leave a screw out... But we wont tolerate errors in our personal life... if we did we would:
We would expect our paychecks to be decreased in an amount proportional to the mistakes we make.
Expect to go to work on our day off by mistake from time to time.
Expect to go home to the wrong house occasionally.
We really need to put these old standby declarations back into the originators perspective and stop using it for an excuse or alibi for not paying attention to what we're doing.
How do we improve?
Improvement is not just a matter of being more careful, concentrating or trying harder. It requires a fundamental change in our thinking about errors, our own and those others make. There are some things we need to recognise as we start making this change.
In order to improve we must learn to tolerate rather than accept errors. These are not just words but an expression of a "state of mind" important to success. Acceptance has no bounds, tolerance does and will provide the initiative needed for actions to improve.
We must recognize that there are only two major causes of errors in the workplace: LACK OF KNOWLEDGE and WRONG ATTITUDE. The origin of 85% of the errors and problems in business is the result of management's negligence in these areas.
BE CERTAIN that you know the expectations of your customers.
BE CERTAIN that your subordinates know how to do the things that result in those expectations being met.
BE CERTAIN that they understand that although you may tolerate some error you do not accept it as a normal natural human occurrence.
Recognize that all errors, even though tolerated, are expensive and can be prevented.
Recognize that although you are hearing these words and perhaps agreeing with them.... as individuals you really don't believe they apply to you personally... But they do. As business leaders, achieving Quality in America is Not "Watch my lips.. but watch my FEET.... as I go about DOING quality things..
Thank You
Copyright © 1989 Charles Prier
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