Appearance and thoughts from ASQ World Conference

Earlier this week I attended ASQ's world conference. I wasn't able to enjoy much of what was offered on account of several other things going on in my work and home life, but I was able to hear the opening speaker's remarks.

David Kohler of the company bearing his name spoke on how quality "shows up" in their company and how they manifest quality as both a concept and a strategic enabler.

("quality" has many definitions, but in this entry, you'll see how it's being used without further elaboration)

What struck me most was how thoroughly this man (and supposedly their company) understood what it takes from leadership to infuse 'quality' into an organization. The level of involvement and commitment by leadership to become and sustain a company where quality isn't just a passing marketing fad was clear:

To be and sustain that kind of company takes leadership who fundamentally understands that:

Quality isn't a single measure, there are many perspectives on quality, including product, process, market, perceptions, and inwardly-oriented measure as well;

Quality doesn't only happen on the manufacturing floor, it happens in marketing, design, product and brand management, executive offices, HR;

Quality takes time to achieve, just like anything that we want to stand the test of time, quality takes time to build, time to get it right, and time to work out the kinks... and time to allow for and expect everything to be continuously revisited and changed to reflect current forces; and,

Quality take commitment, commitment to see it through and to allow it to happen even when it costs time, money, resources or delivers bad news.

Companies that don't understand or have never experienced the kind of commitment it takes to build a quality-focused organization may only ever come to understand what it takes when they truly understand exactly how their companies work. CEOs who parachute into an organization rarely have this kind of knowledge, and even more rarely take the time to get the operations under their own skin. -- Merely directing that quality be a priority without actually knowing what it takes is asking for failure. Successful CEOs will know exactly how shifts at the working level will affect quality and how that will, in turn, affect profit.

A brief conversation with one of Kohler's Quality Engineers on the exhibit floor confirmed for me that quality wasn't a marketing catch-phrase.

Also at ASQ's conference, I delivered a 30 minute talk on CMMI and Agile from the perspective of shifting how people implement quality assurance as a means of broadening the concept of "disciplined processes". It was very well received. One thoughtful question asked afterwards was about Agile methods in government contracting spaces for very large government contractors... that one, unfortunately is still an issue I've yet to fully flesh out... the complications of the way the government writes contracts as well as a host of other attributes makes Agile in the Government Space a tricky matter.
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