As promised last month, we are continuing the discussion of selling good ideas to management. We quality professionals can inadvertently turn off our management team and, thereby, hurt our chances of successfully promoting good ideas. The following will certainly reduce your idea’s chance of success so be aware of these pitfalls. (These are in no order of importance.)
Don’t speak the language.Dr. Joseph M. Juran, in his Quality Handbook, was arguably the first quality expert to say that the language of management is money. At upper management levels almost everything is discussed in terms of money: income, expenses, dividends, ROI, ROA, life-cycle costing, BCA, etc. All quality professionals, therefore, must be able to monetize quality problems, quality improvements, issues, and benefits in order to effectively communicate them to management.