On Making Quality Personal

Focusing on quality means we work to adjust our products, services and processes so that they continue to be the best they can possibly be. Quality starts first in our mind – with our making the decision to look for opportunities to make things better. Here are some tips on how to elevate our game:

• Pleasure – Quality is a choice we make. When we choose to make things better, we find that it makes us feel better about us, about what we do, and about what kind of difference we are making in the world.
• Measure – If we are trying to improve things, we need to focus on one item at a time. Just like we advise clients to focus their resources on one or two objectives, we need to focus on one thing that needs improving. How do we know it needs improving? We measure things like time, effort, delay, or errors to identify one or more areas that seem to be performing poorly or slowing other things down. We can measure that item, make a change to improve quality, then measure again. Hopefully the change we made will have a positive impact. If not, we pick a different strategy or item to improve.
• Treasure – Working on a team that is constantly improving is a real joy. That positive feedback, feeling that we have really accomplished something positive, and that we have a strong purpose and commitment to improve something every day gives us something special we can cherish. There are few rewards as powerful or precious as knowing we have done our best.