To Be ISO 9001 or not To Be ISO 9001

In a meeting I had recently it was decided to do an intro training session on ISO 9001 for the exec team of a company. At first I was very Gung-Ho about this idea.  After reflecting however it gives me some pause for concern.

The whole point I wanted to make was 'Forget ISO 9001 Registration'.  First develop the quality management system that benefits the company, that helps the company make money.  I think this for several reasons:

1) I don't want people (i.e.: managers) concerned with weather or not what they are doing is 'compliant' with ISO 9001. Being complaint with ISO 9001:2000 is actually quite easy but keeping it can be tricky.

2) People feel 'constrained' I often here, oh I can't do this or that because of 'ISO'. When in fact the problem has nothing to do with 'ISO'. It is the companies policies and procedures that restrict them and it is through these procedures where they can influence change.

 

3) QMS: "Quality Management System", The set of inter-related tools that managers use to maintain their company. It must feel like they are 'our tools', not feel like they are tools that were 'imposed' upon them.

 

4) I think determining culture first is important before figuring out how to help improve the companies current system, to help improve the chances of success.

Ideas for Organization Improvement

Summarized ideas I thought of from http://www.refresher.com/!neglected.html by William E. Schneider, Ph.D.

Identify the unique patterns and processes that are at work within your organization:

The principle is that you cannot treat organizations as just a 'machine' and ignore the culture of the organization. Treat the organization as a 'living social organism unto itself.

Some Key Questions:

Where has the organization been (what are the old ways of doing things) ?

What has the organization done already to change these things (and what has happened?)

Where do individuals in the organization see themselves going next (are they resistant to change?)

What are the strength's of this organization?, What are they doing well, How can these strength's built on with respect to change?

How do we do things around here, is our culture one of control, collaboration, competition, cultivation? What mixture of these 4?

Each of the 4 cultures can be put on a grid such that different management ideas fit better in different cultures. A Management Idea in one culture will not work well (or at all) it the opposite culture (vertical opposite on the grid). Adjacent ideas have 50/50 chance of survival.

The system of change/intervention must fit for each sub-culture that might exist within the organization. For example the approach to a management idea in one plant must differ from the approach in another plant, if both plants have different cultures within the same company.

The change must affect PRODUCTIVITY, it must bring the organization closer to its GOAL and be SEEN to bring the organization closer to its goal or it will be ABANDONED.

Some type of guideline to help a company determine where it's culture stands within the 4 quadrants is key to helping the company implement a desired change. Maybe like a personality survey but instead a 'company culture survey'. The results of which help determine which management ideas will work best and what ideas to avoid.

Related Reading:

Zapp! The Lightning of Empowerment:

The Reengineering Alternative: A Plan for Making Your Current Culture Work


--------

The trouble with doing something right the first time is that nobody appreciates how difficult it was.

The Importance of Surveys

The role and importance of surveys in everyday life:

Perhaps you can relate, I often find myself getting phone calls, sometimes several a day, asking me to complete some new survey on something.  Luckily the people that call me are often polite and considerate of my time. I am sure it cannot always be easy for them trying to take a phone survey with people feeling bothered and frustrated about getting such phone calls and disturbing there otherwise ‘quiet’ day.  It could be worse, it could be someone trying to sell you another credit card with a low introductory rate !

The road to improving oneself, or one’s company can be simplified by a very simple model known as ‘PDCA’, Plan, Do, Check, Act.  In a nutshell, we improve ourselves by improving the way we think, behave, and respond to various kinds of situations.  The PDCA model is a structured way of performing our daily activities, projects, ‘todo’s such that we learn lessons from what we do and can improve in the future. Survey’s are one way of performing the “Check” part of this cycle.

Many companies fall into a ‘survey’ trap and hold the belief that the only way to ‘check’ our actions is to perform a survey. Furthermore, survey questions are not always geared in a way that effectively measures the activity flowing through the PDCA cycle. Nonetheless, surveys continue to be prevalent in our society and will likely to continue to be in the foreseeable future.

So if we follow the E+R=0 theory, the question we should ask ourselves would be as follows, What Response (R) can I give to the Event (E) when confronted with a survey. To answer this question we will try look at it from two perspectives. First, what can I do when confronted with a survey request and second what can I do if asked to prepare/distribute a survey to others?

Part I) Choosing our response about completing a survey.

What if no one completed any surveys? In this case, companies performing the survey would make decisions on the products they sell without any input from the customer.  It is likely that we would be dissatisfied with the product and we would not buy it.  We may think to ourselves, ‘well if they just changed it a bit, it would be a great product!’. So maybe you try to make the product for yourself, but then no-one else wants to buy your version of the product because he/she has their own ideas and you could not find out what they were because no one completed any surveys.

What if people completed surveys, but don’t pay any attention to the answers they give.  In this situation the company receive false data on what people like, and may make decisions based on this data. We may have a worse situation because now something we are ‘dead against’ may be implemented and even possibly cause harm to others inadvertently.

It might be helpful, to think of a survey as you may think of a vote.  Each vote on it’s own may not seem like much but together your choices are helping to determine future ideas, products that are created.  If you choose not to answer the survey, or worse give answers without really thinking about the questions, do you really have the right to complain about the product?

So you might be thinking to yourself, “Okay, I get it surveys help businesses create products that appeal to the everyday consumer. But, my time is valuable, I can’t be expected to take 20-30 minutes to listen to some guy on the phone with a bunch of questions, especially if it is the middle of my work day.”  It is likely that you are not paid to answer surveys all day, and you can’t afford to stop doing ‘real work’ to complete a survey for some company you may not even have heard of before.

Here are some tips that allow you to contribute survey information without taking up too much of your time.

1)      Confirm in advance with the telephone personal the estimated time to complete the survey. If you are busy try to arrange a more convient time. Let the operator know that if you only have 10 minutes free, then that’s all you can devote, or if you get rushed away to simply keep the results they have collected so far.
2)      Ask if the survey is available online. Most online surveys offer the convenience of completing one question at a time throughout the day as you get the chance. This way as you are ruffling through papers to find something, or taking a 5-minute coffee break you can answer a question and move on.

3)      Ask if the survey can be mailed to you and completed.  Again in this way, you do not have to spend all of your time on the phone, you can then take your time to refer to each question and consider the best answer.

4)      Ask for a reward for your time.  This is hard for many people to do, often the company performing the survey has been outsource by a bigger company. The outsource company is being paid to provide the survey results, you are entitled to a piece of that pie for your time.  Often there may be a prize draw you can enter or a small token of $1, $2 for your time.  The list below are some survey sites that offer small rewards or prizes just for completing surveys.  You will probably not get rich, but at least you will get something for your time, and you have the pride of knowing that your answers will help companies improve the products they provide to you.

 

    Some Surveys that pay you: Sign up and make a difference !

 

    Lightspeed.com ->  Got Opinions? Take an online survey today for a chance to win $5,000. Click Here

    SurveyCenter.com -> Offeres in instant 'survey' manager that will notify you of new suveys, pays $1 - $2, or more per survey !

5) Ask what the purpose of the survey is.  Survey’s should never require you to answer questions, you can always choose not to answer specific questions that bare little or no relation to the survey itself.  The most common question you may be asked is your total household family income.  Most research companies use this information to categorize results by income level.  This may seem valuable information to the company performing the survey but often it is not as valuable as might be expected.

5)      Have Fun !, Once on a survey about the lottery I was asked the question, “How can the lottery help serve you better?”, To which I responded, “They could fix the system so that I win more often !”  When the survey is completed, let the operator know how ‘enjoyable’ the survey was to complete, if there were particular questions that seemed ridiculous or pointless, ask the operator to include this comment in the results back to the parent company so that they can create better surveys in the future.

In Part 2, I plan discuss tips for people tasked with writing/implementing surveys and suggest ideas for improving the effectiveness of your survey.

Brad's Personality Paradigm

Brad's Personality Paradigm

I am emotionally connected to people delivering results on time.

When I feel that a commitment is made to me, especially one with a date
attached to it, I expect it to be respected and honored.

I feel strongly that when I commit to a date I am either willing to a)
do whatever it takes to meet with my commitment or b) give the person I
made the commitment to advance notice that I will be unable to make my
commitment, apologize, and face any condquences, as well as try to work
out a new commitment date and time.

It urks me when others don't do there part or pass there part at the
last possible minute, when they have made the commitment

It doesn't take much observance of this activity from be of another
person before I begin o assume they are someone to 'never does anything
at time' or is a really bad procrastinator, and assume they will not
deliver on commitments.

Make a commitment, Achieve your commitment, don't wait till the last
minute and point to things outside yourself which make you 'not
responsible' for making your commitment.

Workgame

Let's suppose that work is a game.

The winner of the game is ??

To be successful in the game you play it such that regardless of the
'randomess of the roll' in the end 'you' ie: The company comes out
ahead.

The key to success involves the ability to be charasimatic and help
others overcome the resistance of change.

The Goal - indentifies the 'processes' or thinking processes that allow
a plant based industry to improve. This process of ongoing improvement
is a 5 step process that was centered around the idea of physical
constraints or 'bottleneckes'. Rather then elminate bottlenecks they
are actually exploited so that their potential increases productivity.

What is productivity ?

Let's start at the beginning ?

What is the Goal ?

Before one can begin to improve upon something, he/she must determine
what the number 1 Goal is. What is the purpose for the improvement ?
What is hoped to be accomplished ? Why is it being done ?.

The goal may not be just individual. To suceed as more then the 'sum of
individual' parts. The Goal must be common to those parts.

The Goal of a For-Profit business simply stated is to 'make money'.

The Goal of a For-Profit business can be expressed in more than one way

Eg: To make money we must 'sell' more than it what costs to produce.

Terms: Net Profit, Gross, Revenue, Acid Test, etc, all measuremens used
to express whether or not a company is making money.

In 'The Goal's' case, the goal was expressed as the ability to

Increase Throughput while simultatinously decreasing Inventory, while
simultaniously decrasing operating expense.

Just like above, these 'terms' are measurements of success and it is
important that they have a clear definistion.

Productivity is any action or set of actions which move the company
closer to the expressed Goal

High Productivity means the actions/tasks being preformed are easily and
directly related to the goal.

Low Productivity means the actions/tasks being preformed do not move the
company towards it s goal.

Start each morning as if it was intentional - Hitch