2020 - Good Bye See Ya!

 

Should we use Letter Grades for Students? It depends.

Whether we use a grading system for students in education or rate and or rank employees is always a lively discussion. Over the years I have had many in both a business and education setting and I must say my thinking was usually in the minority even though I’m Right (Ha). Here are two examples:

Education

One of my former students who is now a teacher asked what I thought was the purpose of grades.  I simply answered that grades are usually a result of some sort of testing procedure. So rather than label a student as a failure, average or success I responded that the grade was to provide me as the instructor how well I did in transferring knowledge to the student(s). So it is my evaluation in question not the student.  I need to use the results as to determine which student needs help and to what degree based on the letter grade.

Business

I have written many posts over the years http://qualityg.blogspot.com/search?q=ranking&max-results=20&by-date=true about ranking and rating employees. Never believed in it and probably never will. There is too much variation between employees and the environmental conditions that go in to one’s job (Even if they are the same) that cannot accurately predict the outcome. It is leadership's job to know their employees talents, wants and needs in order provide them a job that will instill pride of workmanship. Rating and Ranking concentrates too much on documenting failures and mishaps as opposed to proving the tools and knowledge to do the job correctly so that he/she can succeed or move the employee to a job that matches their talents.

OUTCOME! That is the key that most people fail to see. We use students and employees as the outcomes (Scapegoats) when they are the product of the system/process. We want to fire or lay-off employees when a company fails when in fact it’s the system or process that determine the outcome. In schools we want to label or demote students and blame teachers for the failure of the system/process.

We want to uses employees and students as the end-result indicators when in fact they are the value-added inputs in each and every process/system. Yes, we need to monitor and measure employees and students but not for pass/fail we need to monitor and measure to help the overall process get better and to provide them with a sense of purpose.

We used to call this inspecting quality at the end of the line after the product is finished/produced. Amazing we still have this mind-set when it comes to students/employees.

WHO WILL STAND UP? Will it be YOU!

It is so sad that we never learn about the demise that is caused by non-value added work and that quantity over quality never wins – NEVER!

I was at an establishment Friday night and I sat next to one conversation and overheard another at the table next to me when a person was talking very loudly about his frustration with two automakers headquartered in Detroit.

It seems this person travels to many plants and was shocked to see the amount of scrap and defects piling up in the corners and being hauled away. He said he had talked to a number of workers who were disgusted and frustrated that execs are pushing quantity instead of quality so that it looks like we are selling cars. Here we go again playing the short term numbers game. Is this still being taught in our MBA programs or is it bean counters running the auto companies again? AHA, I bet Management By Objectives (MBO) is alive and well and Short Term Goals and Planning are right behind MBO!

I have written for years that execs need to get out of their offices and go to where the workers are interfacing with customers and to where the work is being done. I guess it is not as glamorous as going to international auto shows. However, it is more important.

Like most things people know the what to do but are not trained in

HOW TO DO IT CORRECTLY

http://qualityg.blogspot.com/2005/06/leadership-performance-appraisal.html

The workers are concerned for their jobs and they know this is not a game the automakers can win since we have lost many times before in the 1970’s and 1980’s…

WHO WILL STAND UP?
Will It Be You

How can worker do his/her job when they are not enabled with the appropriate tools to do the job correctly? I’m not talking about the autoworkers; I’m talking about school teachers.

School administrators in many cases are as clueless as auto execs when it comes to non-value added work. Or maybe they just don’t have the time or will not admit they don’t know how to do something or they are just incompetent. Perhaps they just want a job and go home because they want to make it to retirement without change and stress regardless how many students go grade to grade without being given a chance.

Schools like every other industry must find ways to cut cost and trim budgets. Instead of doing a complete feasibility and process check of current work efforts and what is actually being done someone in authority makes has decisions that look good on paper but have long lasting dangerous effects on the outcome results (our students).

Here is an actual example: Teachers may no longer want use copy paper or toner. Supply cabinets are run like Fort Knox and the basics like pencils, folders, erasers and staples must be guarded like the missiles at NORAD.

The best part is when the educational  leaders of nothing send in those so-called financial/accounting experts who are told to improve the bottom line in a hurry. It's easy to take away the obvious but it takes talent and expertise with application of knowledge to remove non-value work from administrators or a staff department in the education setting.

Just look at your school board offices and see how many people work there are still pushing papers instead of automating and removing work that does not bring value to students, parents or teachers. They hide behind non-value added work and make excuses how busy they are day in and day out and worse yet their administrative bosses believe them because they are afraid of confrontation and make excuses how bust they are handling problems. Most of the problems are a result of taking away the enablement and tools of the teachers (workers) to do their jobs. No wonder you have problems within the process (school room) and results (parents).

Educational Leaders have no idea what their staff do on a given day let alone a week or month, most don't even have tangible objectives except for the "scheduled" observations that do no more good than Management By Objectives (MBO) or Annual Goals that are written by the worker (boss request) and then turned in to their boss for approval.

WHO WILL STAND UP?
Will It Be You

Methodology for defining customer focused measurements

ESTABLISHING METRICS

When will people in position of authority quit asking for something that may not be obtainable. Each day someone wants someone to create goals and objectives based on little more that this is what we do each year.

How many Project Leaders get due dates and proposed improvement numerics assigned to them that have no way or means of being obtained?

Hopefully the following will help. I have relied on this method for over 20 years. Please let me know if it helps you!

Determine the following: • Purpose/Mission of Process or Work Team - Created by Executive Process Owners - How it was formed & members chosen The first team meeting should lay the foundation for how the group will set and achieve their goals.

TO DO • Define goals of group • Location of meetings • Roles and Responsibilities • Frequency of meetings

Process Owner: • Is accountable for the quality of process output. • Is responsible for results of the process. • Has the authority and ability to make changes. • Can allocate resources (people, time, money, equipment). • Is responsible of satisfactorily carrying out ownership roles and responsibilities to handling other priorities. • Appoints sub-process owners. • Exercises authority to effect change.

Project Leaders: • Plan and schedule meetings. • Communicate teams activities & progress to Process Owners. • Keep team focused. • Responsible for the integrity of all data used in setting up measurements. • Provide expertise on process improvement activities. • Provide technical assistance with process improvement tools and techniques. • Assist in determining and developing operational measurements.

Team Members: • Be the subject matter experts on, and represent, your Operations area. • Communicate with appropriate Operational employees to collect data and implement customer focused measures. • Collect and analyze data for measurements. • Identify appropriate Operations employees to monitor and measure data on an ongoing basis. • Actively participate in team meetings.

METHODOLOGY FOR DEFINING AND ESTABLISHING CUSTOMER

FOCUSED MEASUREMENTS

Measurements should track how well our processes are performing according to: • Customer Expectations (inc perception) • Organization Objectives • Customer Satisfaction • Value Drivers • Competitive Benchmarking • Employee Satisfaction The above stated types of measurements will help determine the overall quality, efficiency, and effectiveness of all processes.

The activities involved in defining and establishing measures include: 1. Determining effective measures 2. Reviewing and validating existing measures 3. Implementing new measurements 4. Install a measurement and reporting system 5. Establish a feedback and monitoring system 6. Monitor measurements

1. DETERMINING EFFECTIVE MEASURES

Purpose:Effective measures provide an insightful means about the efficiency of a process. Measures of this type are meant to track and align performance (process) and results (quality) indicators of a business process.

Establishing Effective Measurements: Create effective measurements based upon the following: • Customer expectations/requirements • Practical to implement • Easy to comprehend • Consensus of agreement by group • Able to help drive culture change

What to Measure:

Establish measurements based upon customer expectations and business objectives. These measurements should measure what our customers care about and what will drive our Value Drivers toward exceeding Operational business objectives.

Develop objective measures of customer satisfaction. Without measures, we have no means by objectively assessing the magnitude by which our processes are performing to customer and business requirements, and whether or not our improvement efforts and newly implemented systems have improved the process. These types of measurements should provide objective data that will drive decisions that will produce long-term customer preference.

If suppliers are included, be sure to measure input characteristics and services.

How to Measure:

Implement simple, easy to understand measurements whenever possible. Measurements that are complex will not be used. It is vital that our measurements be easily defined, understood and communicated to assure common understanding. A small amount of meaningful measures are worth 10 times more than a large amount of nice to know measures (non-value added).

It's OK to experiment with measures, if they don't tell you what you need, stop measuring and create new ones. If at the beginning measured identification is difficult, start with customer satisfaction, every major process has a customer.

Don't just measure one aspect of a process. Your measurements should be balanced with variable, attribute and some subjective characteristics like time, cost, quantity and customer perception.

Evaluating Measures:

In the beginning it might be best to implement a few strategically based measurements. As stated before, it's best to experiment and monitor the effectiveness of few, rather than implementing a large amount and never monitor.

2. REVIEWING AND VALIDATING EXISTING MEASUREMENTS

Purpose: Once we've identified and understood what makes effective measurement, it is necessary to assess measurements that are already in place. Effective measurements provide input data that drive motivation for continuous improvement. Those that do not measure up should be changed or eliminated.

Measurement Balance: If current measurements are only measuring internal business objectives, move to measure the effectiveness of our processes or solutions from a customer perspective.

Measure Behavior: Implement measures that level to desired behavioral results. Verify the measures do not drive undesired behavior by our workers or to your customers. For example, many companies have found that they speculated "speed of answer" as a desirable measurement for customer satisfaction. Customer survey and interviews found that quality of service provided was more important than speed of answer.

3. IMPLEMENTING NEW MEASUREMENTS

Purpose: It is vital that any new measurements implemented are effective and efficient and that it is collected, analyzed, and used in a way that motivates positive behavior and not punitive threats to workers.

Data Collection: Make sure those responsible for collecting or installing new measurements are familiar with data and are part of the implementation plan.

4. INSTALL A MEASUREMENT AND REPORTING SYSTEM

Purpose: Installing a measurement and reporting system requires an action plan of implementation that identifies the roles and responsibilities of the Process Owner and Sub-Process Owners who will be accountable for the measures. This also requires agreement on what measures will be reported and that method and system support is available. The Action Plan must include trend analysis and plans of who will respond to them in a timely basis.

Automation: Whenever possible and cost effective, automate as many measurements as possible. The advantage is more accurate and timely data collection and analysis.

Share Measurements: Post measurements data in visible places, so that results can be shared by workers in the process. It's also a good idea to keep everyone in the process informed from end-to-end.

5. ESTABLISH A FEEDBACK SYSTEM

Purpose:By establishing a feedback system, employees will keep abreast of changing expectations and update the current process as required.

Sharing Feedback: Corporate Quality, Marketing, Sales and Front Line customer facing employees must keep upper management aware of changing customer needs so that business objectives and measurements may be changed accordingly. It's also important to share feedback with workers in the process as well as customers and suppliers.

6. MONITOR MEASUREMENTS

Purpose: Employees identified as measurement owners must constantly evaluate their measurements, reassess customer needs, and continuously search for new ways to use data for continuous improvement.

Evaluate Measurements: If your measurements are not accurately reflecting process performance or drive undesirable behavior, they should be removed. Update or install new measures as needed.

Benchmark Measures: Benchmarking your process measurement performance relative to your competitors will be vital to competition. Benchmarking provides information to leaders that helps establish performance targets based on data from the marketplace. Benchmarking is a useful method to supply additional data and information but not to be used exclusively for changes or measurements.

Remember - Benchmarking is a guide for your own measures and must fit your process.

Empolyee Goals & Objectives "again the big hitter"

It's amazing that every July and January over 90% of the visitors to my site are searching on Employee Goals and Objectives or some derivative.

No wonder Leadership is still in trouble when so many employees have to search for how to formulate a plan or objective for measuring goals.

It is simple - "What gets planned and measured gets done" - greg campbell

1) Employee Goals & Objectives - 90% +

Other Categories for June & July
2) Quality Tools & Techniques (Especially SIPOC Analysis & Pareto Charts)

3) Education

4) Leadership

5) Autism - ASD Mainstreaming

What I find most interesting is that "Employee Goals and Objectives" is not one of my main labels and the hits are worldwide and not just in one area like the United States or Germany.

Employee Goals & Objective continue to be the most misunderstood of all Management and Employee Tools. They remain a once, twice or four times a year exercise in futility that brings no meaning to employee or boss all the way up the corporate ladder.

One should click on my Label for Dr. Deming to learn from the Master about Employee Goals and Objectives.

How sad that open communication and trust cannot be tolerated in the workplace. People with numbers who have no sense of "Predictability" (Number One Skill of a Manager) and continue to Tamper with both human and corporate systems.

Below are some Links to some of my more popular posts on this subject:

http://qualityg.blogspot.com/2008/10/evaluating-team-effectiveness.html

http://qualityg.blogspot.com/2008/07/team-goals-and-objectives.html

http://qualityg.blogspot.com/2006/02/quality-tooltechnique-systems-thinking.html

For more posts on this subject click on the label to the left "Employee Objectives & Goals"

Good Luck & Remember - When you meet with your boss ask the following:

"By what method or data did you determine my ranking and rating, or did you pull it out of your butt?" - greg campbell

Thousands and thousands of people have visited the above links (and more). I wonder if my methods and examples are being used and credited to me (I do have a copyright tracker)? Who cares I provide these examples because ratings, rankings and goals pulled out of the air are as useless as the leaders who believe in them!!

2009 Most Searched Upon Topics

As 2009 comes to a close I would like to thank the 23,000 plus visitors to my Blog this past year (up 8000+ from last year). I hope the information I have provided has been useful and thought provoking.

As I look over the stats the following are the most searched on topics within my site for 2009:

1) Employee Goals & Objectives - 3rd year in a row

2) Quality Tools & Techniques (Especially SIPOC Analysis & Pareto Charts)

3) Education

4) Leadership

5) Autism - ASD Mainstreaming


What I find most interesting is that "Employee Goals and Objectives" is not one of my main labels and the hits are world wide and not just in one area like the United States or Germany.

Employee Goals & Objective continue to be the most misunderstood of all Management and Employee Tools. They remain a once, twice or four times a year exercise in futility that brings no meaning to employee or boss all the way up the corporate ladder.

One should click on my Label for Dr. Deming to learn from the Master about Employee Goals and Objectives.

How sad that open communication and trust can not be tolerated in the workplace. People with numbers who have no sense of "Predictability" (Number One Skill of a Manager)and continue to Tamper with both human and corporate systems.

Below are some Links to some of my more popular posts on this subject:

http://qualityg.blogspot.com/2008/10/evaluating-team-effectiveness.html

http://qualityg.blogspot.com/2008/07/team-goals-and-objectives.html

http://qualityg.blogspot.com/2006/02/quality-tooltechnique-systems-thinking.html


Thank You and Best Wishes for a New Year!

qualityg

2010 Corporate Quality Business Plan Goals & Objectives

Have you done your Strategic Planning for 2010? If not, hope the following plan will ease some of your pain.

I have received Email requests over the years asking what should go into a Corporate Quality Business Plan. It would be my hope that one would not be necessary because quality is engrained within the company and there is not a seperate quality department.

Unfortunately I know this is not the case in many companies and for those who have no Quality Initiative in place perhaps this example can serve as a model.

So I will provide an example Corporate Quality Business Plan in Stages as they are being developed. I will use 2010 in my example of a company called "qualityg National Operations." The most important part of a Quality Plan is that it is integrated with the overall company strategy. All CQ goals must lead to accomplishing company goals and objectives.

This example also can serve as a model for any department.

I hope you will be able to use the following model as a starting point for your own quality initiatives -- qualityg

Dilbert by Scott Adams says it best (Click on Pic to Enlarge).

qualityg’s CORPORATE QUALITY SERVICE
2010 BUSINESS PLAN
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The qualityg Corporate Quality Service 2010 Business Plan format has been developed to provide guidance and support to organizational strategies and ensure execution of the leadership platform necessary for our success. The plan is divided into two parts:

Part 1- Corporate Quality Service Objectives for 2010

Part 2 -National Leadership Team Strategic Quality Objectives for 2009

2010 promises to be an exciting and challenging year for the qualityg Corporate Quality Team. With the rapid changes in business, technology and competition, it is vital the Corporate Quality Organization directly supports National Operations and partner with other all out internal departments (e.g., Customer Services, Engineering, Operations, MIS, Finance, etc.). Our focus will be to work with these various groups and leaders in defining a total quality system that fits the business needs and strategy of the corporation to insure we accomplish our role in business to build, provision and maintain our products and services. Using this approach, the quality team will consult and advise senior leaders in strategic planning, implementation, assessments and process improvement activities.

We will accomplish these goals by directing our focus on improving the customer experience by driving standardization and excellence in all our critical functional activities and processes. This will be executed by developing strategies that:

· Create an organization that understands the customer and is willing to adapt our process to meet or exceed customer expectations.
· Educate employees on how their roles and actions fit into the companies overall structure for system optimization.
· Continue to drive the Operational Review as a value-added process.
· Reduce cycle times (order flowthrough).
· Improve standardization of activities and processes.
· Reduce National Operational expenses.
· Eliminate non value-added activities and rework.
· Reduce defect rates across Network.
· Support Corporate Quality Initiatives.

We will be successful by assuring that we meet and exceed our goals and objectives for Service Improvement and Customer Preference/Retention. We want our company to be the company of choice for our customers. We will keep our promises!

The Corporate Quality Team will focus on:
● Quality Assurance,
● Problem identification, resolution and prevention,
● Continuous process improvement, and
● Improving the customer experience.

Delivering on this approach is essential to the overall strategy for 2010 and beyond. The reality is we must consult and advise our internal customers in using quality principles and techniques effectively; employees must gain practical experience in applying quality methods in their daily work. The continued integration between internal departments is a critical factor that must be supported so that our operating styles, and cultures can be transformed into one for the benefit of our customers. Emphasis will be on the following items:

· Providing consultation and workshops on performance excellence and techniques.
· Conduct Just In Time Quality Training.
· Establishing customer and corporate specific process measures and goals.
· Conducting Operational Reviews with timely and cost effective resolutions.
· Documenting and analyzing Operational Review data for continuous process improvement value added activities.
· Be the catalyst for communicating downstream operational problems to the process owners for driving upstream process improvements.
· Assist in streamlining our most critical customer affecting processes.
· Own internal/external customer feedback measurements that drive our decision- making policies.
· Increasing our understanding of competitive information and benchmark “best in breed” practices to determine gaps in existing processes and procedures.
· Continue to support ISO 9000 compliance as required (e.g., where/if required).

By concentrating on these strategies we will derive the following benefits:
· Meaningful measures that support unit and corporate goals.
· Systemic identification and removal of root causes to problems identified.
· Clarification of work activities.
· Value added decision-making based on data and facts.
· Prevention of problems especially in design processes.

Our ability to assist in delivering excellent service will depend on our commitment to develop defect-free customer service. This will be determined by working with the appropriate departments and work groups to establish monitoring metrics like availability, reliability, error free new builds, rapid provisioning (defect free order flowthrough) and timely resolution of customer problems.

By conducting a systematic disciplined approach to our work and providing consistently of purpose for our entire team, the qualityg Corporate Quality Team will also focus on five key dimensions and one “Common Goals” for success:

1. Customer Satisfaction is comprised of all the methodologies required to meet or exceed customer expectations and set the directions, which ensure intimacy and customer satisfaction. This section will establish and set measures of quality required to address customer issues and create the benchmarks needed to ensure customer preference.

2. Employee Value - as we continue to be a major player in this competitive market, it will be essential for all our employees to continually improve and excel in their work functions. It is leadership’s job to enlighten, enable, empower and encourage the behavior that drives Operational Performance Excellence and Customer Satisfaction. Employees must understand their roles and responsibilities and be aligned with qualityg’s business strategies and embrace the characteristics that enable us to be a major player in our industry. Consistent execution in a rapidly evolving industry will be key to our success.

3. Financial competitive challenge will continue to put pressure on our revenue growth throughout 2010. In order to maximize short and long term profitability, expense reduction and business growth, we must continue to invest in capital to grow revenue with established customers and improve gross margins by assisting in increasing our customer base. We must also manage our metrics and defend our current revenue stream from competitors. It is clearly the responsibility of all employees to aggressively increase our service productivity while reducing our expenses. Corporate Quality will demonstrate cost savings by conducting value-added Operational Reviews that will achieve avoidable costs (e.g., rework, defectives, non value-added activities, non-standardization, etc.) that will be eliminated through prevention and root cause analysis. Corporate Quality will assist in obtaining additional sales and retention of existing customers through customer specific programs. This will be accomplished while staying within all budget parameters during 2010.

4. Quality Management will be systemically integrated throughout the Customer Satisfaction, Employee Value and Financial Objectives. Our role as quality leaders must be to maintain and continue to view quality as an integral part of our day to day operations and the foundation that supports the other key dimensions. This ensures a concentrated focus on quality leadership and spans all aspects of quality, including training; execution, strategies, tactics and other activities designed to measure customer satisfaction and continuous improvement. In addition, as quality assessors we will provide value-added reviews that lead to improved operational performance of our nodes, switches and other facilities.

5. Community Involvement is an integral part of our 2010 strategy and will be utilized in Corporate Quality to demonstrate our added value to the communities and cities where we operate and live. Corporate Quality will develop specific plans, which will demonstrate how we enhance the value of our company in the community.

Values: Our Common Goals. Corporate Quality Service commits to the following values to guide our decisions and behavior:

· Respect for employees
· Dedication to helping customers
· Excellence of standards for integrity
· Teamwork
· Innovation

By executing these values, Network Operations strives to set a standard of excellence as a customer-focused team that will reward our customers, stakeholders, and all of our employees.

PART 1 – CORPORATE QUALITY SERVICE
CUSTOMER Satisfaction

Corporate Quality’s Customer Satisfaction goal is to be highly valued by our customers for consistently providing world-class service through a team of capable dedicated professionals.

Customer Satisfaction is the single most important differentiator in our goal to be “simply the best” in 2010 and beyond. Led by each manger, we can positively impact the results and the objectives of our business plan. Customer Satisfaction is a strategic initiative and the corner stone of our competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Exceeding our customer’s expectations means we must change the relationship we have with our customers. This means by continually partnering with all customers to establish and manage a clear understanding of their needs, which will strengthen our relationships with our clients.

GOAL: To establish the value of Corporate Quality Service throughout our company with all other client facing organizations.

Strategies /Tactics:

1) Train on Performance Excellence and Process Management throughout National Operations.
2) Support and assist in Company Programs.
3) Design, implement, monitor processes, and develop feedback and measurements designed to calibrate performance relative to improving the customer and supplier experience.
4) Develop mutually agreed to milestones and quantify these as much as possible.
5) Work with all qualityg departments to develop and execute plans which protect the embedded base of services and position new offers.
6) Document and communicate achievements via the Intranet and other communications vehicles.
7) Manage National Operations role in Operational Reviews including follow up and resolution of outstanding issues.
8) Continue to conduct internal Supplier Support (e.g., Engineering, HR, IT, etc.) meetings using data obtained from Quality Operational Reviews.
9) Attend and consult on Performance Reviews with responsible National Operations (N.O.) Management to identify process improvement opportunities.
10) Partner with external customers (i.e. Acme) to share and meet their respective quality goals and standards.

Objectives:
1) By the end of 1st quarter 2010, have a process in place to ensure communications and feedback via Webmaster strategic responsibilities for Corporate Quality and National Operations.
2) By the end of 2nd quarter, establish a Best Practice process for Quality Operations Reviews that can be leveraged nationwide and manage their communications for continuous improvement.
3) By year-end conduct Performance Excellence and Process Management Awareness to all major National Operations cities.
4) Continue to establish a quality partnership with Acme (Preferred Supplier) to share and meet their quality standards and goals.
5) Continue to partner with Manager of Quality Operational Reviews to support and assist in city operational review process.
6) Continue to share Operational Review data and analysis with appropriate departments (e.g., Engineering, HR, Engineering, Operations, etc.) to insure Operational Performance Excellence.

GOAL: Support field organizations to achieve an exceptional rating in all categories of the company Employee Satisfaction Survey.

Strategies / Tactics:
1) Ensure company awareness of the Employee Satisfaction survey results.
2) Have a joint meeting between C.Q. and respective leadership teams to discuss survey results and opportunities for improvement.
3) Assist appropriate leaders within National Operations in developing action items for improvement opportunities.

Objectives:
1) Throughout 2010, conduct an analysis on each employee trend survey and ensure distribution to the National Operations Leadership Team.
2) Provide analysis and feedback on the Employee Trend Survey by identifying the strengths and weakness to the leadership team.

Dr. Deming said “It will not be enough to have employees who are merely satisfied. Satisfied employees will depart, for no good reason, just to work somewhere else. Success and growth come from employees who boast about our company. The loyal employee requires no rewards or other persuasion, and he/she convinces other employees to remain.”

Ownership: Corporate Quality Service is responsible for the design, enhancement, execution and communications of the employee survey. Corporate Quality is responsible to assist National Operation’s leaders for the development of action plans for improvements based on the survey results.

GOAL: Attain World-Class status with our customers by continuously improving our employee processes and procedures.

Processes are the systems of tasks, work flows, information exchanges, people and technology that create value for National Operations employees that are required to differentiate our service from our customers.

Key customer processes include a systemic end-to-end perspective that develop, produce, distribute, and support the primary products or services of National Operations. They form the strategic capabilities that enable the business and empower our employees to compete effectively.

Strategies /Tactics:
1) Assist N.O. Leadership Team in prioritizing core customer affecting processes.
2) Assist N.O. Leadership Team in identifying process owners for all customer-affecting processes.
3) Corporate Quality supports appropriate Process Owner by:
- Defining process and identifying customer requirements
- Defining and establishing measures
- Conducting “Gap” analysis based on customer requirements
- Conducting Root Cause Analysis to identify opportunities for improvement
- Prioritizing opportunities for improvement and create action plans for correction
and prevention
- Monitoring process improvements to maintain gains
- Defining quality and process terms and definitions
- Creating Enterprise Map
- Identifying and defining Process Owners, plus their roles and responsibilities

Ownership: Corporate Quality Team will support, educate/train Process Owners and their respective teams in managing and improving key customer processes upon request or direct them to the company’s Quality Training Institute.

EMPLOYEE VALUE

National Operations employees are our most valuable resource. Corporate Quality recognizes that our employees are not just the ones who service our products; they are the ones that can make or break our reputation for an exceptional customer experience.

These basic strategies, tactics, and objectives will enable us to satisfy our employees and optimize the net value of each individual. Keeping a primary focus on Employee Value will require a partnering with Employee Relations processes (i.e. Employee Survey), practices, and programs needed to better support our teams. Corporate Quality’s plan will assist in communicating the goals, strategies, tactics, and the impact of these on our employees and teams. This Employee Value management transformation will ensure that we:

- Clearly define, communicate and implement Corporate Quality Plans
- Invest in our people with on-going education and training
- Ensure Safety practices are followed (i.e. OSHA Compliance, Motor Vehicles)
- Empower our teams
- Emphasize recognition
- Communicate often and effectively

GOAL: Corporate Quality Service leadership is responsible to develop and manage processes that provide the tools, skills and systems required to allow all employees to do the job right the first time.

Strategies/Tactics:
1) Review our own leadership style.
2) Conduct one-on-one and meetings to share leadership expectations.

Objectives:
1) Share C.Q. 2010 business plan with all employees via the face to face manager/employee meetings we all understand our goals and objectives by 1/31/10.
2) Commit to appraisals of individual performance of team members and communicate the company Career Planning Process throughout 2010.
3) Each manager completes career-planning worksheet by 4/1/10.

Ownership: Corporate Quality Service Leader will manage appraisals and a sincere interest in the employee’s career plans. Each manager will receive a written appraisal in 2009.

GOAL: Enable Corporate Quality Service team members with the necessary technical and administrative competencies needed to satisfy our customers.

Strategies/Tactics:
1) Commit to have all new employees attend Quality Operations Training (1 week) during the first 90 days of employment.
2) Support/encourage Training Department and Health and Safety Department to provide guidelines (published on Intranet) on Safety (i.e. OSHA, Motor Vehicles).
3) Maintain an employee skill set for each major job title and training matrix that addresses the
skills required for the job.
4) Training attendance for employees and their managers will be measured and reflected in
performance appraisals. A guideline of 6 days for all employees has been reflected in 2009 training budgets.
5) Managers should develop and implement plans for cross training.
6) Update all training records with Corporate Training at least once a year.

Objectives:
1) Ensure new employee attendance at new employee Orientation.
2) Develop and document a training program for each Quality Manager.
3) Ensure all employees have a required skill set list developed. This list should address the
primary responsibility of the employee and note the required skills necessary to perform their
Function.
4) Attend Employee Relations and Diversity training as required by HR in 2010.

Ownership: Corporate Quality will supply Employee Relations and Health and Safety with pertinent information.

GOAL: To provide leadership and direction incorporating the goals and tasks of Environmental, Health, & Safety (EH&S) within National Operations.

Strategies /Tactics:
1) Develop & Implement Safety Prevention Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) plans for each of our departments.
2) Identify the Field Safety Coordinator (FSC) for every business operation.
3) Require each FSC attend the 2 day Safety Coordinator Training Program developed by EH&S that defines their responsibilities and duties.
4) Establish the EH&S Awareness for Managers training sessions and the Safety Answers for Field Employees (SAFE) course.

Objectives:
1) SPCC plans must be completed to EPA requirement levels for each N.O. city by end of 1st quarter 2010.
2) Request city operation leadership provide Corporate Quality with the local FSC for each city within their regions by the end of 1st quarter 2009.
3) Have each FSC complete the Safety Coordinator Training Program by year-end.
4) Have all departmental employees complete the appropriate awareness and training courses by year-end.

Ownership: qg Corporate Quality Team will provide leadership and direction incorporating EH&S programs within National Operations. Corporate Quality will act as the single point of contact for any program or task EH&S wants to establish within National Operations.

GOAL: Develop and execute a well-defined Employee Recognition Program that supports the Corporate Common Goals by celebrating team and individual accomplishments.

Strategies / Tactics:
1) Clearly understand, communicate and execute the company Recognition Policies.

Areas to recognize are:
A) Accomplishments
B) Common Goals
C) Quality Results
D) Customer Care
E) Superior service at the lowest unit cost

Objectives:
1) Assist in ensuring that all managers are aware of the company Recognition Policies.

Ownership: Each Quality Manager is responsible for assisting appropriate leadership teams in implementing a recognition program on a local level that aligns and supports corporate objectives.

GOAL: To establish a framework for communicating accurate information in a timely and consistent manner to and from all members of the organization.

Corporate Quality will provide information on quality matters impacting the workplace and the customer we serve.

Strategies/Tactics:
1) Corporate Quality will work with the appropriate managers to stress consistent communications within the company.
2) Management needs to develop a set of formal and informal communication strategies that afford the team with an effective communications loop.
3) Where appropriate, respect the need to protect sensitive, proprietary information.

Objectives:
1) Corporate Quality will manage its Web Site, and assist the departments as required.

Ownership: Corporate Quality Leadership is responsible for local staff meetings and the communications plan. Corporate Quality will assume ownership for its respective web sites.

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

Rapid changes will impact Corporate Quality by requiring the need to develop strategies and tactics to redesign our production process and our service delivery platform. Each manager will take an active role in impacting the revenue base through quality methods and continuous improvements to achieve a competitive advantage and increased customer preference and retention. In concert with existing revenue and expense management tactics, Corporate Quality will partner with National Operations Departments in their efforts to develop a more effective means of calibrating business expenses.

GOAL: Use sound financial management to meet 2010 budget goals:

Strategies/Tactics:
1) Track all expenses on a monthly basis and share results with team members.
2) Document and monitor cost reduction efforts for more effective budget management and/or
budget under-runs.
Objectives:
1) Meet or improve all budget commitments with monthly measurements.
2) Document Cost of Quality savings to Finance through Quality initiatives (e.g., Operational Review findings, Supplier Partnerships, Quality Action teams, etc.). Assist in the revenue growth by partnering with Acme (Preferred Supplier) in their quality initiatives.

Ownership: Corporate Quality Leadership is responsible for monthly management and reports for all financial commitments.

GOAL: Institutionalize a Cost of Quality management philosophy that will enable the appropriate Leadership Team to measure and continuously improve productivity and cost efficiencies.

All work that is not essential to customer quality or corporate objectives is cost-of-quality work. Additionally, any product or service that does not meet customer expectations results in cost-of-quality work. Corrective and preventive solutions dealing with these matters are generally referred to as cost of quality. Cost of quality is the total dollar amount of the related cost-of-quality work including salary/wages; material and other associated expenses. For example, the cost of quality for removing a customer affecting software system includes labor costs for removing the software, the cost of the software, and the associated processing costs, such as paperwork and scheduling.

Strategies/Tactics:
1) A unit measure is defined as and has the following qualities:
- Generates a work activity
- Is measurable
- Is transaction based
- Is independently driven
2) Selection of a unit is driven by first identifying our customers and listing our deliverables.
3) The Maintenance Units of Measure include tickets (switched services and private line) and
calls. Customer Service units include # of orders, calls, transactions, etc.
4) Establish a transaction time for all measured units.
5) Review and analyze expenditures associated with unit production for improvement opportunities.

Objectives:
1) Support the development of a unit cost budget model based on customer transaction volumes
and work drivers associated with expenses by the end of 2010.
2) Support the development of a unit cost tracking model to provide useful financial information
for the Leadership team.
3) Guide Leadership Team in focusing on improving process management tactics.

Ownership: Corporate Quality will support the unit cost methodologies and work closely with the Quality Action Teams to identify cost of quality measures.

QUALITY MANAGEMENT

Corporate Quality strategy for 2010, will focus on establishing and integrating the best quality concepts, and principles and continue to educate and train our employees in the concepts of process management, voice of the customer and systems thinking. In addition, Corporate Quality Managers will begin to introduce as one of our roles the concept of “Servant Leadership.” The focus for servant leadership will be to share information, build common visions, self-management, high levels of interdependence, learn from mistakes, encourage creative input from all employees and challenge current assumptions and procedures to determine a more value-added way of doing business.

Our customers are not going to judge us a great Operations Department, or Engineering Department, but rather they are going to judge us as how well National operations (all of us) meet/exceed their wants and needs.

We will continue our ISO 9000 compliance efforts as required by corporate (if required).

To achieve our goal to be a customer focused organization, we will accelerate our journey to deliver customer value above that of any competitor. If customer value is defined as a combination of price, quality and service then quality becomes a lever by which we can differentiate National Operations to customers.

The Corporate Quality Team is also committed to selecting a staff that has experience, certifications and application in quality tools and techniques. We are also committed to our own continuous improvement by attending a minimum of 5 days of quality training per year by attending outside educational/training forums. The Corporate Quality Team will continue representing the company to outside quality organizations, academic institutions and civic organizations.

GOAL: Increase quality knowledge throughout N.O. and establish a common terminology and methodology.

Strategies/Tactics:
1) Encourage all personnel to attend suggested Quality training at the company’s School of Business.
2) Deliver Performance Excellence Training to major city operations staff.
3) ISO 9000 compliance where required.
4) Begin quality skills transfer to field managers and front-line personnel in the value of process management and systems thinking by providing examples and learning at staff and operational meetings.
5) Move quickly and decisively on improvement opportunities.

Objectives:
1) Document plans for local quality/performance excellence training and overviews in the 1Q10.
2) Conduct Root Cause and Pareto Analysis Workshop as required.
3) Continue ISO 9000 compliance as required.
4) Link Quality Tools and Techniques on the Corporate Quality Web page by end of 2Q10.
5) Assist in educating employees in systems thinking, Process Management, and Voice of the Customer (VOC) as required.
6) Continue to institute quality measures for each customer affecting process.

Ownership: Corporate Quality Leadership will coordinate with appropriate leadership teams to meet their quality education requirements.

GOAL: Manage internal processes and key customer measures of quality using a standard set of quality tools.

Strategies/Tactics:
1) Ensure appropriate team quality knowledge.
2) Communicate expectations relative to:
- Quality Assurance
- Results reporting, tracking and improvement strategies (i.e. Ops Review Tracking Form)
- Statistical Process Control
- Root Cause and Pareto Analysis
- Process Management and Systems Thinking

Objectives:
1) Continue to develop and publish quality efforts using the Intranet.
2) Continue to focus on collecting and analyzing Ops Review Data for improvement opportunities.
3) Assist in ensuring that ISO 9000 compliance in maintained at appropriate sites.

Ownership: Corporate Quality Leader will drive the Quality effort in National Operations. Corporate Quality Managers are responsible for the ISO 9000 compliance in 2010.

GOAL: Demonstrate Cost of Quality savings through Quality Operational Review Assessments and other quality initiatives (e.g., QATs, Process Improvement Activities, Ad Hoc teams, etc.)

Strategies/Tactics:
1) Corporate Quality Leadership will drive the quality efforts in National Operations.
2) Develop reporting mechanisms to document quality improvement activities (e.g., Ops Review) and corresponding cost savings.
3) Replicate and standardize best practices into standard practices in all NOps locations.
4) Improve functional efficiencies within processes and sub processes that drive system effectiveness.

Objectives:
1) Deploy Corporate Staff Quality Managers (if applicable) by 2/1/10.
2) Develop standard reporting format by end of 1Q 2010.
3) Continue best practice distribution on the Intranet.
4) Provide monthly reports on cost of quality savings for each month in 2010.

Ownership: Corporate Quality Staff will lead this effort within National Operations.

GOAL: Continue to build a world-class quality department.

Strategies/Tactics:
1) Secure membership in accredited organizations (i.e. American Society for Quality “ASQ”).
2) Attend at least 2 days of quality education.
3) Subscribe to leading quality publications (i.e. Quality Progress, Quality Digest, etc.).
4) Obtain quality certifications (i.e.Certified Quality Manager, Certified Quality Auditor, etc.).
5) Actively participate in an outside quality initiative (i.e. speaker, academic, civic, etc.)
6) Share quality information learned from outside with rest of quality team.

Objectives:
1) Each Quality Manager to join ASQ by end of January 2010.
2) Attend at least 2 days of quality education and learning by 03/31/10.
3) Subscribe to quality publication by end of 2010.
4) Begin effort to acquire quality certification(s) by end of 2010.
5) Share quality learning and information at regularly scheduled staff meetings.

Ownership: Corporate Quality Leadership will be responsible for providing assistance to quality staff and quality managers in regards to memberships and certifications. Each quality manager is responsible for joining and attending quality training and organizations. In addition, it is the responsibility for each quality manager to provide shared learning information and experiences to the rest of the team.

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

National Operations and Corporate Quality will continue to establish it as an outstanding corporate citizen in each of the locations where we operate. This is not only good for business; it is good business. The communities provide us with our employee base and our current and future customers. Our image and the image of our employees are greatly enhanced when we give back to the community in response to what they have given us. There is a role all employees can take in accelerating public awareness of National Operations as a great company and a great place to work. We can create value within our communities that extends far beyond the boundaries of normal marketing and public relations activities.

Strategies /Tactics:
1) Support normal activities such as Holiday Food Delivery, Focus Hope, Community "Green" Activity Day, etc.
2) Assist in developing and implementing regional activities designed to support the local community.
3) Encourage support for any employee involved in local civic, charitable, educational or other
worthwhile community activity.
4) Actively support National operations charitable contributions.

Objectives:
1) Each member of C.Q. will report on the extent of his or her community involvement by 12/31/10.
2) Each C.Q. Manager will encourage involvement in community activities on an ongoing basis.
3) C.Q. will actively support corporate initiatives such as Holiday Food Delivery, Community Activity Green Day, etc.

Ownership: Each team member of the Corporate Quality Team will participate and report on their 2010 community involvement activities.

In 2010, the Operations Leadership Team will continue to lead the quality transformation of National Operations. This team is not another layer of management hierarchy, but simply an extension of their day-to-day activities where current functional leaders can work together across departmental boundaries, to assist in making decisions that will improve the end-to-end operations in National Operations.

One of the main activities required for the leadership team will be to identify the end-to-end chain of systemic activities vital to accomplish company goals, and to ensure that a clear line of accountability has been assigned across departmental boundaries.

Internal/External customers are a key activity during 2010 and beyond.

The major objectives of the Leadership Team are as follows:

· Review and analyze customer preference and retention data.
· Begin moving from “Hero as Leader to Servant as Leader.”
· Review and analyze company employee survey data.
· Review and analyze competitive benchmarking data.
· Drive quality initiatives into the day-to-day work life of all employees.
· Continue leadership commitment and funding, as required for ISO 9000 compliance.
· Consistent communications of strategic initiatives across the company.
· Identify and appoint Process Owners for critical customer affecting processes.
· Identify best practices that can be leveraged across the company.
· Invite leading quality speakers to at least two meetings in 2009 for additional learning on quality.
· Manage best practice processes that can be leveraged across company.

QSA Logo Developed by: MS, JF & qg

Employee Goals & Objectives & Performance Appraisals--> Rating and Ranking Team Members - I Win You Lose?

It's that time of the year again when we all lose!

I believe in Employee Goals & Objectives when they are used by leaders to enhance the skills and productivy of the workers and help them drive the company toward their individual and overall goals and objectives.

In order to do this leaders must be skilled in setting reasonable and obtainable goals and objective for each of their emplyoyees based on the workers skill and expertise level. One size fits all is Bullshit and every leader/boss knows this, if they don't, well then you have todays leaders. The problem is setting employees goals and objectives is a year round hands on effort and it takes hard word work for the goals and objectives to be done accurately and fairly.

One subject (well there are a few) that drives me nuts is when people/organizations and assholes in general want to demoralize a “TEAM” by rating, and ranking people against one another is ridiculous.

It's that time of year again when employees are searching for ways to make themselves look better than their peers while writing up their accomplishments. This exercise will be a major input for deciding who gets pay raises and bonuses for the year, or who gets to keep their jobs.

This end of the year activity commonly known as “performance appraisal” takes place in most organizations. We all know the different names our organizations use over the years (not going to mention) for rating and ranking employees/team members so they can be herded into groups to be labeled like a bunch of school children being put in Group 1, Group 2, or Group 3 (lookout, your on the chopping block).

So just what is Rating and Ranking and how Ridiculous can Leaders be in thinking this worthless effort does any good? Here is the ultimate qualityg's acid test to ask your boss and the organization after the process is completed,

When will you be posting (Company Web Site, company paper, Email notifications, company texts, twitter or the walls of fame, etc) the top rated and ranked employees so that I may use them as a model to improve my own performance? Oh yes, please add the amount of bonus money they will be receiving so as to motivate me next year?

Should we all not be happy for the winners, we know they deserve it, they worked hard and you didn’t, they were more customer-focused, they sold more products (too bad you were given a sales area that sucks), they removed more defects from their processes and you just maintained yours with little or no defects ar surprises and gave the customer what they wanted.

Should not all our objectives say "I want to be as good as Mike or Mary becasue you gave them more bonus money. Your boss should state how much they beat the objectives set so that you know how much to improve (Yeah Sure).

Americans like winners and losers, in our schools too. Why won’t we show/announce the winners (I Won and You Lost), at least half of winners must be above average, how can we improve (below avergae) when our boss won’t even tell us who to get pointers from to help our team objectives.

We all know they won’t post the names of organization workers rating and ranking because it would depress the troops and there is no known true metrics or measures that can really do this job across a medium or large organization. In Ranking someone has to be number 1, another person number 2, somebody else number 3 and the poor somebody else at the bottom, dead last, bringing up the rear, packing up their desk, etc… is a big time loser.

Now this will happen whether you have 5 employees under you or 50. Don’t forget Rating is where the boss (and in many companies your peers) get to label you “exceedingly excellent, excellent, excellent maybe and well you all know the rest…

Then you are give a bonus based on all the ratings and rankings, plus how the company is doing and blah, blah, blah.

qualityg says…

Allow me to share one of my experiences. I was asked one year to put together a team, a team made up winners, folks who stop at nothing to get the job done, you know qualityg, “one of them skunk teams that Tom Peters talks about.” It always seems senior leaders know the latest quality buzzwords (problem is, they correlate the word to fast and faster and improve the bottom line without having any idea what they are talking about).

The first thing I needed to do was to create the aim/purpose (objectives) for my team (the boss said go out and fix things and create a customer focused operation when you leave, and you get five, maybe six people to be on your team) and individually so they all correlate to company objectives and goals.

QUESTION ---> From the BOSS MAN/WOMAN/IDIOT

By what method may I ask, how it was determined five or six people would be the right amount for my team?

RESPONSE from humble willing worker

“That’s your job to make the work match the people, ain’t you supposed to be the expert?”

Not sure how I replied but “Eat My Shorts” comes to mind.

Once I got focused I needed to determine the type of work and find people with the skills that were to be required to get the job done. I figure I needed two experts in our field of expertise, a strong project manager, a database and web expert, a subject matter expert (SME) who works in the field and understands process improvement (quality certification not required, just able to use common sense).

Being diverse and the ability to work with both front line workers and senior leaders was another important requirement. I thought to myself I have my Center, two Forwards (power/small) and two Guards (shooter/point). I wanted one Reserve that had a general understanding of all the other jobs so that the team would not suffer if a teammate were off ill or on vacation.

Along with those traits the person must have experience, creativity, joy in workmanship and provide jocularity (ability to have fun) in times of stress, deadlines and functional barriers. Team chemistry was a must because there would be frequent travel that required trust and integrity by all on the team.

I was fortunate to find a great team players who were willing to leave their secure jobs, where they were the top performers (I was fortunate to have worked with most of my team over the years, so I certainly went after the ones I wanted), in their work groups.

Everything was going well until Performance Appraisal time. I received all the forms and packages and was told to have my stuff in at the appropriate date. From previous years I knew what was going to happen but I thought I had made it perfectly clear to my boss that I would not take the job if I was going to have to rank and rate my team. They were all top performers who had “unique” skills that optimized the whole team (i.e., my Center need my Forwards and they all needed the Guards). The Team had bought into this concept and liked it because they could concentrate on work instead of politics.

I sent my package (added extra metrics, team and individual objectives, customer feedback, and quarterly reviews, which was not required) up with very good ratings for my whole team. My boss’, boss who made the “final” decision said no way and told me to rate them properly, that no team can have all top performers, one has to be better than the next, and besides it won’t look right when you rank your folks against the others in the department if you have all top performers.

Every year I refused to participate in rating and ranking and every year I ended up doing it because I did’t want my folks to be penalized. Fortunately I keep a Management Log that proves to be essential when it comes to rating and rankings. See my post on Management Logs at http://qualityg.blogspot.com/2007/11/importance-of-management-log.html

I did the best I could; I had a team meeting and an individual meeting with the team and explained the situation. I also told them how I was going to distribute the dollars; those who did not get equivalent dollars got extra stock (it was worth something then). I also promised if we were all together next year I would make up the difference.

Fortunately I was able to make some amends, but soon after we were moved to a special project and found ourselves right back in the mess of barriers, bureaucracy and babbling idiots.

Well we got “skunked” all right, but we had fun, did a good job and cooperated with one another without competition. We saved the competition for beating our rivals in the marketplace, you must have cooperation before you can compete, and you must have the cooperation of the whole team to be a winner.

Sometimes it does not even matter if your whole team did well. When they want to get rid of a team they will call it removing the work function or moving it back to headquarters to save costs. What this really means is some of the people at headquarters lost their job so the Vice Presidents (Shooters) who barely know the people that don't work in headquarters saves his face with the people he comes in contact with each day.

Another example from qualityg on "The Demise of American Management" and the talent that our Business Schools are producing to be effective leaders.

To read more post on Employee Goals and Objectives click on the Label Below or on the left side of Blog.

qualityg's Company Strategies for 2011 and Beyond

So many books have been written about strategy that if you followed every one of them you would not know where to start.

My cheap advice is to create a "Vision of Reality", have "Constancy of Purpose" and make sure your "Aim", strategy, objective, principles and goals are in alignment and completely understood from bottom to top and back down again throughout the organization.

One more thing, please realize the "Corporate World" is not Flat. You will fall off the board if you continue to have strategies that result in denying the competition is global, regardless of the size or type of your company.

qualityg’s strategies are as follows:

• Our strategy is about improving the bottom line (reduce unit cost) by identifying ways in our every day work activities that prevent waste and resources while increasing customer satisfaction.
• Strategy is about reducing variation (e.g., defect reduction, cycle time) in our processes so that non-conformance's and backlogs/bottlenecks can never arise.
• Strategy is about using our disciplined method of using extremely rigorous data gathering and system thinking techniques to identify non-conformance's and ways of eliminating and preventing them from occurring through our Quality Process Improvement Process Road map.
• Strategy will obtain our group objective of exceeding our customer expectations by building long-term partnerships with our customers, and by providing services, which consistently meets their needs and expectations.
• Strategy will implement measurements for all our work efforts to establish baselines for continual improvement.
• Strategy will apply our Foundation Principles to all of our activities, thereby establishing a self-imposed level of performance excellence that far exceeds other goals and objectives.
• Strategy will develop standardized documents, templates and processes that will allow us to consistently lead and set the Benchmark for process improvement.

For additional information read my posts at

Principles - http://qualityg.blogspot.com/2007/01/qualitygs-company-principles-for-2007.html

Innovation - http://qualityg.blogspot.com/2007/01/quality-resolution-2007-innovation.html

Goals Objectives - http://qualityg.blogspot.com/2006/12/quality-employee-goals-objectives-for.html

Costs - http://qualityg.blogspot.com/2007/01/qualityg-says-cut-costs-in-2007-not.html

Leadership - http://qualityg.blogspot.com/2006/12/quality-leadership-characteristics.html

"I Want Quick Results - But We Have No Meterics"

DETERMINING METRICS

Trying to determine what is happening in a process without first standardizing the process is wasting team and employee energy. How can we improve a process without first knowing if it stable and then determining if it is capable of producing the desired results?

How do we know what process is in most need of improving? Why do leaders pick numbers out of the air (along with project completion dates) and subject workers to their incompetence and then punish them when results are not provided fast enough?

Do they any clue to what are Process and Quality Measures?

I always asked the golden question that I learned from Dr. Deming - "By what method did you come up with those goals and targets?"

Make sure you ask humbly and then be prepared to be the one to go out and find the numerics. What leaders don't understand that in the long run taking the time up front to determine what and how big the problem is will save time in the long run.

You see taking time to evaluate the process does not bring results. Let me clarify - does not bring quick results. This type of investigative time is not value-added. The end of the quarter comes soon and so does the leader's next staff meeting. How dare anyone NOT provide non-quick faked numbers and goals and targets and hope no one remembers at the next meeting.

Perhaps the following write-up on establishing measures will get the process rolling. I can't promise the results will come super quick, but I can tell you the improvements will be long lasting because you will have built a process with measures that will let you know when something is wrong and not when a leader picks a process out of a hat.

METHODOLOGY FOR DEFINING AND ESTABLISHING CUSTOMER

FOCUSED MEASUREMENTS

• Measurements should track how well our processes are performing according to:
  • Customer Expectations (including customer perception) and Organization Objectives
  • Customer Satisfaction • Value Drivers
  • Competitive Benchmarking • Employee Satisfaction
  The above stated types of measurements will help determine the overall quality, efficiency, and effectiveness of all processes.
  

The activities involved in defining and establishing measures include:
1. Determining effective measures
2. Reviewing and validating existing measures
3. Implementing new measurements
4. Install a measurement and reporting system
5. Establish a feedback and monitoring system
6. Monitor measurements

1. DETERMINING EFFECTIVE MEASURES

Purpose:

Effective measures provide an insightful means about the efficiency of a process. Measures of this type are meant to track and align performance (process) and results (quality) indicators of a business process.

Establishing Effective Measurements:

Create effective measurements based upon the following:
• Customer expectations/requirements
• Practical to implement
• Easy to comprehend
• Consensus of agreement by group
• Able to help drive culture change

What to Measure:

Establish measurements based upon customer expectations and business objectives. These measurements should measure what our customers care about and what will drive our Value Drivers toward exceeding Operational business objectives.

Develop objective measures of customer satisfaction. Without measures, we have no means by objectively assessing the magnitude by which our processes are performing to customer and business requirements, and whether or not our improvement efforts and newly implemented systems have improved the process.

These types of measurements should provide objective data that will drive decisions that will produce long-term customer preference.

If suppliers are included, be sure to measure input characteristics and services.

How to Measure:

Implement simple, easy to understand measurements whenever possible. Measurements that are complex will not be used.

It is vital that our measurements be easily defined, understood and communicated to assure common understanding.

A small amount of meaningful measures are worth 10 times more than a large amount of nice to know measures (non-value added).

It's OK to experiment with measures, if they don't tell you what you need, stop measuring and create new ones.

If at the beginning measured identification is difficult, start with customer satisfaction, every major process has a customer.

Don't just measure one aspect of a process. Your measurements should be balanced with variable, attribute and some subjective characteristics like time, cost, quantity and customer perception.

Evaluating Measures:

In the beginning it might be best to implement a few strategically based measurements. As stated before, it's best to experiment and monitor the effectiveness of few, rather than implementing a large amount and never monitor.

2. REVIEWING AND VALIDATING EXISTING MEASUREMENTS

Purpose:

Once we've identified and understood what makes effective measurement, it is necessary to assess measurements that are already in place. Effective measurements provide input data that drive motivation for continuous improvement. Those that do not measure up should be changed or eliminated.

Measurement Balance:

If current measurements are only measuring internal business objectives, move to measure the effectiveness of our processes or solutions from a customer perspective.

Measure Behavior:

Implement measures that level to desired behavioral results. Verify the measures do not drive undesired behavior by our workers or to your customers. For example, many companies have found that they speculated "speed of answer" as a desirable measurement for customer satisfaction. Customer survey and interviews found that quality of service provided was more important than speed of answer.

3. IMPLEMENTING NEW MEASUREMENTS

Purpose:

It is vital that any new measurements implemented are effective and efficient and that it is collected, analyzed, and used in a way that motivates positive behavior and not punitive threats to workers.

Data Collection:

Make sure those responsible for collecting or installing new measurements are familiar with data and are part of the implementation plan.

4. INSTALL A MEASUREMENT AND REPORTING SYSTEM

Purpose:

Installing a measurement and reporting system requires an action plan of implementation that identifies the roles and responsibilities of the Process Owner and Sub-Process Owners who will be accountable for the measures.

This also requires agreement on what measures will be reported and that method and system support is available. The Action Plan must include trend analysis and plans of who will respond to them in a timely basis.

Automation:

Whenever possible and cost effective, automate as many measurements as possible. The advantage is more accurate and timely data collection and analysis.

Share Measurements:

Post measurements data in visible places, so that results can be shared by workers in the process. It's also a good idea to keep everyone in the process informed from end-to-end.

5. ESTABLISH A FEEDBACK SYSTEM

Purpose:

By establishing a feedback system, employees will keep abreast of changing expectations and update the current process as required.

Sharing Feedback:

Corporate Quality, Marketing, Sales and Front Line customer facing employees must keep upper management aware of changing customer needs so that business objectives and measurements may be changed accordingly.

It's also important to share feedback with workers in the process as well as customers and suppliers.

6. MONITOR MEASUREMENTS

Purpose:

Employees identified as measurement owners must constantly evaluate their measurements, reassess customer needs, and continuously search for new ways to use data for continuous improvement.

Evaluate Measurements:

If your measurements are not accurately reflecting process performance or drive undesirable behavior, they should be removed. Update or install new measures as needed.

Benchmark Measures:

Benchmarking your process measurement performance relative to your competitors will be vital to competition. Benchmarking provides information to leaders that helps establish performance targets based on data from the marketplace. Benchmarking is a useful method to supply additional data and information but not to be used exclusively for changes or measurements.

Good Luck!

qg