Shift Happens: Good leadership equals good quality…and vice versa

Silicon Valley North - Posted Wednesday, January 31, 2001

By Janice Calnan

I am one of the Canadians that returned to Canada after a number of years in the US. While there I had the great fortune to work with some of the best change masters in North America. My work, then and now, focuses on helping leaders manage the human side of change—especially those assigned with the task of improving quality and managing organizational churn. My guiding principles are based on three well-known specialists, the late Ron Lippitt who Cofounded NTL (National Training Lab), Kathleen Dannemiller of Whole System Change‘ and W. Edwards Deming with whom I studied for three years.

Perhaps some of you know Dr. Deming. He was an American statistician whose claim to fame was Total Quality. He died in 1993 at the age of 93 and was credited with turning around the Japanese economy. What many people don’t know is that during the latter part of his life he focused on qualitative data, as well as quantitative data, and as such paid particular attention to the human side of change, as do I. He would often say, “You (statisticians and business experts) have us measuring everything. The things that are really important can’t be measured, namely, how people think and how they feel.” This is an important message right now in Canada’s fast paced, demanding, high tech culture. Here’s why. Technology alone is not enough to meet the demands. We need that extra edge. We need the mind, heart and collaborative mindset of our people to put us over the top.

Senior managers deal with a number of organizational concerns and issues as a result of this rapid growth. They include; market pressure, weak integration as a result of multiple site development of operations, lack of clarity about decision-making, poor communication and the resulting unmet expectations about leadership decisions.

Over the years I saw production managers, quality control experts, HR specialists and others in this field adopt the quick fix method to deal with this, namely measurement. Measurement isn’t enough. When you focus on measurement alone as a means of initiating and managing change you miss 75% of what’s required to bring about purposeful, quality-driven improvements. We all know that we’re in a knowledge-based economy but Deming referred to “Profound Knowledge” meaning we need to understand how people think, how they learn, the system in which they work and finally, we need to establish some form of measurement to monitor the shift. This requires more than measurement alone.

Quality is never about things. It’s about people. It’s especially about how people think, how they feel and how they perceive the system in which they work. Think about it! If you, the leader of your group, are discouraged from expressing your real concerns about work and how people (especially your boss) behave, what happens to your concern, irritation, worry or anger? Do your feelings go underground? If so they are bound to pop up somewhere as a quality issue. Ask yourself, “How do I deal with the concerns of my people?” and “How do I deal with difficult conversations with peers, direct reports or with my boss?” All of this impacts quality.

So why the fuss about quality and leadership? The most important thing to remember is that quality improvements in the human sense depend on good communication. While quality is the responsibility of all levels in the organization, the environment for quality to flourish needs to be set by senior management. Without effective communication and clarity of business priorities and goals, quality suffers. The best way to do this is to bring people together so they can explore creative ideas about quality initiatives at all levels. Shift happens. Employees, managers and senior leaders commit to necessary changes when they have an opportunity to talk about their perception. This is especially so when they are in the presence of others whom they believe can make a difference.

The result—when employees and managers talk openly, both are wiser. Better decisions are made. Anger and disappointment disappears. Quality processes improve. Leadership is perceived to be strong. Teams meet time lines around product release. Client satisfaction improves. Innovation and creativity increase. Ultimately everyone wins.


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