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      KEYZINE: An e-zine for LEADERS:
     ABOUT THE PEOPLE PART OF BUSINESS
                 Volume 47, February 2005
    Publisher: © Key Associates, 2005
              ISSN # 1545-8873
           http://www.mkkey.com

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This Issue: "Whither Quality?"

This is a monthly electronic magazine for anyone
who wants to be a better leader, coach, facilitator,
or simply, to tune up their people skills. It is a
complimentary publication, devoted to the next
evolution of Quality Thinking.

View Earlier Issues

Contents:

What's Hot in Leadership
Maintaining Yourself as a Leader
Frequently Asked Questions from Leaders
Educational Opportunities
Useful Websites
Articles/Publications

"It will not suffice to have customers merely satisfied.
A satisfied customer may switch...It is necessary to
innovate, to predict the needs of the customer,
give him more."
-- W. Edwards Deming

"If we did all the things we are capable of doing,
we would literally astonish ourselves."
-- Thomas Edison

"Company goals should always be geared to being
the best in the world, rather than just slightly better
than last year."
-- Jim Sierk, VP of Quality, Xerox Corporation

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WHAT'S HOT IN LEADERSHIP
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VIEWING QUALITY AS "VALUE"--PROVIDING
GOOD SERVICE AT A GOOD PRICE.

CONTINUOUSLY IMPROVING PRODUCTS,
SERVICES, AND PROCESSES.

INSTITUTING A PROGRAM OF SELF-IMPROVEMENT
FOR EVERYONE.

PUTTING EVERYONE TO WORK ON THE
QUALITY TRANSFORMATION.

WALKING THE QUALITY TALK.

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MAINTAINING YOURSELF AS A LEADER
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What value do you bring to your organization
as a leader? Everyone should ask this question
every day. What if you could rally everyone
around the mission of improving outcomes,
delighting customers, and reducing costs from
waste, errors, rework--i.e., CRUD™ (Complexity,
Redundancy, Unnecessary Steps, and Delays)?

Go ahead, model the way. Remove a needless
piece of paper, a pointless meeting, an insulting policy.
Demonstrate, educate, acknowledge everyone's
efforts, and celebrate!

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
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How do you define Quality? It's such an amorphous concept.

Quality has been poorly defined, if at all. I prefer
to think of it as Value, where

VALUE = OUTCOMES + CUSTOMER SERVICE
COST

VALUE = Good product or service at a good price.

OUTCOMES = Results for the individual.

CUSTOMER SERVICE = Actions which not only satisfy
but also delight customers.
COST = Price to the customer. Includes non-tangibles
like inconvenience, discomfort, wasted time.

Many leaders feel they have tried quality and failed.
What happened?

-It took too long.
-The changes made were superficial and incremental, not radical.
-Their approach was academic and not action learning.
-Leadership was invisible or low profile.
-Education followed only the organization chart.
-They used analytical tools only, not tools for innovation.
-They left out major constituencies (e.g., Board, community, vendors, customers, physicians).
-It was an add-on initiative and they did not permit time for teams, facilitators, and training.
-They stumbled over measurement.
-They lost momentum.
-Too little attention was given to culture.
-They did not celebrate victories, no matter how small.

What was your experience? Please write
keyassocs@mindspring.com

I get the importance of culture, but what's a quality culture?

You will see and feel:

* A constancy of purpose
* Continual improvement and innovation
* Pride in work
* Continuous learning and joy in learning
* A spirit of collaboration, not internal competition
* Clear styles of decision-making and fair process
* Communication in all directions--full of listening and open questions
* Distribution of power and leadership
* Enabled teams
* Skills in consensus-building and conflict mediation
* Staff responsible for their processes and customers
* An obsession with delighting customers
* An appreciation for variation and everything being an N of 1
* Use of data and the scientific method for decisions
* HR policies (compensation, appraisal, reward )that reflect systems thinking
* Problems linked to processes, not bad people
* Learning from mistakes and errors
* High trust, low fear
* Everyone committed to the values of quality
* A belief that all people are inherently good and everyone counts
* Everyone knows their job and how it adds value

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EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES
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Thought leading organization for quality in healthcare.
http://www.ihi.org/ihi

Process improvement training
http://www.xlp.com/catalog/display.asp?item=305&iorb=4764

Self-study, interactive training and other products
http://www.qualitycoach.net/

Key Associates offers customized training in
continuous improvement and innovation
http://www.mkkey.com

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OTHER USEFUL WEBSITES
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Former Relevant Keyzines:
Volume 2, May 2001- Innovation
Volume 8, November 2001 - Keeping Customers
Volume 11, February 2002 - Teams
Volume 18, September 2002 - Organizational Culture
Volume 29, August 2003 - Transformation

Paperless quality management system and other products
http://www.webuildqualitytogether.com/

A listing of links to quality sites
http://www.aafp.org/x3843.xml

Quality tools and techniques from an education site
http://www.mehs.educ.state.ak.us/quality/qresources/qualityftp.html

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ARTICLES/PUBLICATIONS
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Books are linked to Amazon.com descriptions.

Caldwell, Chip (Ed.) The Handbook for Managing
Change in Health Care. (1998)

Carey, Raymond G. & Lloyd, Robert C. Measuring
Quality Improvement in Healthcare: A Guide to
Statistical Process Control Applications. (1995)

Langley, Gerald J. et al. The Improvement Guide:
A Practical Approach to Enhancing Organizational
Performance. (1996)

Lloyd, Robert. Quality Health Care: A Guide to
Developing and Using Indicators. (2004)

McLaughlin, Curtis & Kaluzny, Arnold. Continuous
Quality Improvement in Health Care. (2004)

Mitra, Amitava. Fundamentals of Quality Control
and Improvement (Second Ed).

Plsek, Paul. Creativity, Innovation, and Quality.
(1997)

Swanson, Roger C. The Quality Improvement Handbook:
Team Guide to Tools and Techniques. (1995)

Wadsworth, Harrison M. Modern Methods for
Quality Control and Improvement. (2001)