Successfully implementing quality programs depends more on people-related issues than the technical merit o f the selected approaches.

Avoiding the Mistakes of the Past

Lessons Learned on What Makes or Breaks Quality Initiatives
Janetjacobsen

t's hard to disagree with the fundamental concepts of large-scale quality initiatives continuous improvement, employee involvement, customer focus, and teamwork so, why are some organizations struggling to fulfill the expectations for their chosen quality methodology? When proven quality methodologies such as TQM, ISO 9000, Six Sigma, or Lean aren't successful, it's typically not for reasons inherent in the particular methodology more likely is due to unrealistic expectations and failures in planning and executing the chosen methodology. We can learn much from the experiences of other organizations that have implemented broadbased quality initiatives. According to a variety of case studies and

previously published analyses, issues related to the following factors can lead to achieving lessthan-hoped-for results: Leadership/management support. Fear of change. Tools and training. Customer focus. Project selection. Focus on results and communicating successes.
Leadership/Management Support

Top management support frequently is cited as a major requirement for success with any broad-based quality initiative, but top-level support doesn't in itself ensure success. Leadership must

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be proactive, not passive. Management cannot simply endorse the initiative; managers must personally apply the quality improvement tools and techniques. Management loses credibility and support when it says one thing but does another. Top management must lead, motivate, and nurture the quality process (Hoover, 1995). It's clear that top executives in organizations that have achieved success with Six Sigma have acted with determination and adopted a highly visible profile in doing so. Whatever the chosen quality methodology, management support is key and has been throughout history. It is unlikely that Six Sigma would have succeeded at GE without CFO Jack Welch's (and now Jeff Immelt's) unflinching leadership (Swayne and Harder, 2002). There are three things to which senior management must commit to provide the necessary leadership for a successful quality program, as described below: (Dobbins, 1995). TimeLeaders must take the time to learn the quality tools and use them. They personally follow up on results and direct the process of integrating the lessons learned. Enthusiasm Effective leaders use a "follow me" rather than a "go do" approach to leadership. Resources SucctssiuX leaders spend the necessary money to develop problem solvers. Management's commitment also includes establishing and supporting an infrastructure for the quality program. This commitment involves setting up the formal organization, defining key objectives and responsibilities, developing a budgeting process, and specifying a solid process for measuring results (Swayne and Harder, 2002).
Too Much of a Good Thing?

determining quality improvement priorities to the organization's improvement groups. This can result in too much activity directed toward less important or less relevant issues, which ultimately can undermine commitment to the improvement process.
Key Reasons for Leadership Failures

Of course, it is possible to overdo a good thing. In this case, problems can arise when a leader assumes too much ownership of the quality initiative, thereby depriving others of full participation in the process. Successful leaders will foster employees through facilitation, coaching, and mentoring. They provide direction and guidance but leave the driving of the quality vehicle up to others (Shearer, 1995). Other leadership failures can occur because management, in its desire to avoid the appearance of top-down control, passes along the responsibility for

Two key reasons for leadership failures involve a lack of constancy of purpose and a lack of adequate leadership (Corrigan, 1995). If the failure is linked to a lack of constancy of purpose, senior executives may display one or all of the following traits: Over-delegation of responsibility for the quality program. Great initial enthusiasm, quickly followed by impatience. An unwillingness to change his/her behavior. Lack of personal participation in the quality effort. These traits are often the result of not understanding the quality methodology in use. Whether it's Lean Six Sigma, TQM, or Six Sigma, not establishing the methodology as a living management philosophy can result in a lack of adequate leadership. Because leadership is a driver for success, a directive management style can be effective when launching a new quality initiative especially when coupled with a few personal behavior changes. This type of leader: Seeks personal, hands-on responsibility and ownership. Provides clear, concrete feedback. Manages by example. Sets clear goals and focuses on these goals. The role of middle management in the improvement process is not always clear. Some quality initiatives fail because lower or middle management, rather than top management, promotes them. On the other hand, many companies have trouble getting middle managers, who will be directly affected by measures, to participate actively in the process itself. In the worst case, this problem can lead to vigorous resistance to change at this level. Because middle management normally is organized on a functional basis, it also may result in suboptimization of the improvement process. To achieve genuine success with Six Sigma or any quality initiative, it is important for managers ac all levels to become involved and be recognized as the problem owners (Sandholm and Sorqvist, 2002).

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Linking Quality to the Paycheck

Salary increments and possible bonus systems should be closely linked to the company's continuous improvement program. GE, for example, makes it clear there will be no promotions without active participation in Six Sigma activities, and Volvo refers to its Six Sigma Black Belts as future leaders. This serves as a powerful incentive to workers to give priority to and become involved in improvement programs. Linking compensation to specific measurable quality goals, such as failure costs, cycle time reduction, etc., provides top management with a mechanism for communicating its total commitment to quality. It also provides a process for monitoring the success of quality initiatives by replacing slogans with quantifiable measures.
Fear of Change

When employees are asked to embrace quality initiatives, they need to see evidence that the authority for the change goes beyond the current manager. Without such evidence, employees may become suspicious because they see continuous management rotation, which is frequently accompanied by changes in policy. Implementing any type of broad-based continuous improvement program eventually involves change. Typically, change is accomplished by working with and through the people already employed by the organization. It's no secret that many people resist change, and there are two primary reasons why this happens: psychological contracts and the law of effect. Whether there is a written employment contract or not, people form a psychological relationship to their jobs. This becomes the set of beliefs regarding the terms of exchange between the individual and the organization. One example is "a fair day's work for a fair day's pay." The full psychological contract incorporates all the experiences, obligations, and rewards that bind a worker to his/her employment relationship. This contract causes workers to intermingle their identities with that of the organization for which they work. The contract is a two-way deal, but it is more powerful to the worker than to the organization because the organization has many, but the worker has only one. Proposed change is a threat to this contract and, therefore, causes alarm for workers. Change programs should offer an opportunity to affirm mutually the best part of the contract while negotiating a new one that clarifies new expectations.
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Perhaps the most compelling law of human nature is Thorndike's Law of Effect, which states that people repeat behaviors that have in the past produced pleasant outcomes. Conversely, people avoid behaviors that have in the past been unpleasant in their outcome. Workers' job tasks, roles, relationships, behaviors, and so on, have been established not just because the boss said so but because they have produced positive outcomes such as status, power, esteem, a sense of accomplishment, or a sense of security for the worker. Proposed changes such as those involved with continuous quality improvement are threatening to a worker's personal law of effect for the following two reasons: To propose a change is to say that the current way is wrong. This is an unpleasant criticism to the worker. All change brings about the unknown. The chances of changed procedures bringing losses of some kind in the form of status, power, self-control, or whatever is valued about the status quo will make the proposed change seem negative. Managers proposing change related to a quality initiative must recognize that people first work for themselves and then for the organization. If workers are to adopt and incorporate change behaviors, then the changes must be viewed as good not just for the organization but for the individual worker as well. It's important to remember that change is a process driven by humans, who by nature are programmed to attend to their needs first. When those needs are threatened by proposed change, the natural response is resistance. Identifying the root causes of problems may open up old wounds, expose painful areas, and require change; therefore, improvements may focus on "safe" areas such as introducing new software or equipment. If organizations can find ways to make employees, not necessarily jobs, secure, innovation and continuous improvement can result (Weyrnann, 2001).
Tools and Training

According to Hoover, once management commits to a continuous improvement initiative, it is critical to operationalize this commitment by developing employees' skills through comprehensive training. A lack of training in group discussion and communication techniques, quality improvement skills, problemidentification, and problem-solving techniques could

be barriers to successful implementation. Problemsolving techniques and group dynamics skills are required for employees and teams to succeed in improving processes, products, and services. Depending on the quality methodology selected, employees need training in SPC, Pareto charts, the DMAIC process, the PDSA cycle, cause-and-effect diagrams, and so on.
Customer Focus

operations management, you may create a bias away from customer service.
Project Selection

For a quality initiative to succeed, an organization's continuous improvement efforts must focus on meeting and exceeding customers' expectations. With any continuous improvement program there is serious risk of becoming too inwardly focused. If programs are heavily geared toward internal variation, customers' needs and expectations often are given lower priority. Improvement initiatives may fail because of a lack of focus on customers, their needs, and their perceptions. Organizations may believe they have a clear understanding of tbeir customers' views, but in fact they do not have adequate voice of the customer (VOC) information. Activities can become focused heavily on internal cost-cutting, and customers and the potential to increase revenues may be ignored. If a Six Sigma or another quality initiative is to have maximum effectiveness, improvement activities need to include a distinct customer focus. The selection of improvement projects should be designed with customer benefit in mind. It is, therefore, key to develop the knowledge of customer needs and behavior and evaluate completed projects from the perspective ofthe customer (Sandbolm and Sorqvist, 2002). If customer satisfaction is to act as a driver for quality improvement, mechanisms are needed to truly understand customer needs, to measure their perceptions, and to focus improvement plans on this information. It seems as if companies are nor focusing sufficiently on the starting point for Six Sigmacollecting, translating, and transforming VOC information into actionable projects to achieve revenue growth and cost reductions. Swayne and Harder recommend that one way to put more customer focus into continuous improvement activities is to involve sales and marketing people in the effort. Salespeople, relationship managers, and others more attuned to VOC are valuable assets. By involving only back office employees, such as those in accounting and

Total management commitment, a plan ro overcome the fear of change, the right training, and a customer focus all set the stage for success and result in high expectations. These expectations need to be metand met rapidlyto maintain momentum; therefore, it is wise to focus on projects tbat simultaneously increase customer satisfaction and attain the organization's goals. Selecting projects tbat both managers and team members agree are worth the effort increases the likelihood that they will be embraced by team members and implemented without debate from the sponsors (Hopen, 2007). Improvement projects should meet tbe following criteria: Tbeir importance is evident or can be demonstrated readily. They are viable and achievable in a short time. Their success can be quantified. A successful start, built on accepted and highly demonstrable successes, will expedir tbe path forward.
Focus on Results and Communicating Successes

It's vital tbat continuous improvement activities primarily focus on achieving results. The tools and methodologies needed to achieve results are merely aids for the improvement activities and can vary from situation ro situation. Sandholm and Sorqvist note that a threat to Six Sigma, TQM, or Lean initiatives comes from the frequently exaggerated focus on the tools included in training courses. To arrive at sound solutions, tbis knowledge of tools is naturally important, but the tendency is often for them to become ends in themselvesa common phenomenon witb many quality initiatives. A fundamental aspect of focusing on results is setting challenging improvement goals. Tbis concept empbasizes tbat goals should be based on systematically gatbered facts. Challenging goals are needed for tbe overall improvement program and for individual improvement projects. Be sure to explain and clarify tbese goals to the entire organization and provide regular refreshers.

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Another key success factor for any continuous improvement initiative is communicating results and successes. Follow-up should be from three perspectives: goals, methodologies, and return. For the project goals, this means verifying that the intended results were achieved. The most important follow-up by far is to determine the financial return generated by the improvement activities because this information will become a critical driving factor for the future of a continuous improvement initiative. In addition to financial follow-up, you also should communicate about implemented improvements from the perspective of employee and customer impact. These nonmonetary effects are also extremely valuable because they help emphasize the customer focus of the quality initiative and create important incentives for employees. The follow-up on methodology involves acquiring valuable skills that can be applied to future improvement projects.
Conclusion

References:
H.W. Hoover Jr., "What Went Wrong in U.S. Business's Attempt to Rescue its Competitiveness?" Quality Progress, Vol. 28, No. 7, pp. 83-86. B. Swayne and B. Harder, "Where Has All the Magic Gone," Six Sigma Forum Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 3, pp. 22-27. R. Dobbins, "A Failure of Methods, Not Philosophy," Quality Progress, Vol. 28, No.7, pp. 31-33. C. Shearer, "What To Do When TQM Fails: Symptoms and Remedies," 49th Annual Quality Congress Proceedings, 1995. J. Corrigan, "The Art of TQM," Quality Progress, Vol. 28, No. 7, pp. 61-64. L. Sandholm and L. Sorqvist, "12 Requirements for Six Sigma Success," Six Sigma Forum Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 17-22. E. Weymann, "Why Change Programs Fail," 55th Annual Quality Congress Proceedings, 2001. D. Hopen, "Lean Six Sigma Best Practices Forum: Tales From the Trenches," American Strategic Management Institute Conference, November 2007.

The benefits of broad-based quality initiatives are too important to ignore, so to maximize your continuous improvement efforts, keep in mind potential obstacles that may stand in the way of success. By engaging top management's full support, managing employees' fear of change, providing the best tools and training, keeping the focus on the customer, selecting the right projects, and communicating your successes you will greatly improve the likelihood of meeting and even exceeding the expectations for your quality initiative.

Note: The author would like to acknowledge the contributions ofASQ's Quality Information Center librarian, Alice Haley, for her assistance in researching the information that served as a foundation for this article.

Janet Jacobsen is a freelance writer and editor specializing in quality and compliance topics. She is the former communications manager for the Registrar Accreditation Board (now the ANAB). Jacobsen currently serves on the

sto/fof The Journal for Quality and Participation.

She can he reached at janetjake@msn.com.

THE JOURNAL FOR QUALITY & PARTICIPATION

Summer 2008