I felt it might be of interest to continue the discussion from my previous column on organizational culture. It is not easy for some organizations to convert to a culture that is truly focused on establishing a robust culture of quality.

Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa, creator of the Japanese Quality Circle movement and the cause & effect diagram, commented that an organization’s transition can range from two to five years. However, from my experience, this transition has no firm timetable. It is consistently evolving toward a finish line that cannot be crossed.

An organization’s culture can have a profound impact on the quality techniques and standards it implements. Having a strong organizational culture allows a company to drive improvement and add value to its products and services.

To expand on last month’s column, a quality culture is, arguably, a set of practices for improving quality continuously that encapsulate the ideology of the organization. To be fully effective, it should be a fanatical commitment to meeting customer expectations. These practices should be part of its culture, not a separate effort.

Many quality experts have stressed that a culture of quality is critical to an organization’s foundation. It must be obvious that management is ultimately responsible for establishing the culture. However, it was Dr. W. Edwards Deming, the late statistician and management consultant, who is credited with saying “Quality is everyone’s responsibility.” He emphasized this in The Fourteen Obligations of Top Management (commonly referred to as his 14 Points).  

A culture of quality is one in which everybody in the organization, not just the quality controllers, is responsible for quality. A central feature of such organizations must conform to what Dr. Ishikawa referred to as “Next operation as customer.”

This is where every internal process acts as both a provider and a customer, ensuring high-quality, defect-free, and timely output to the next step in the process. It treats internal receivers of work as customers who deserve the same quality as external clients. When done correctly, this forms an unbreakable chain of internal customers and suppliers to the outside world of consumers.

A quality culture starts with managers who understand the systems view and know the necessity of serving customers to succeed. The result of that understanding is a culture in which a positive internal environment as well as delighted customers go together. It is a culture that naturally emphasizes continuous improvement, one that results in a healthy workplace, satisfied customers, and growth and profitability.

A great strength of total quality management and the systems view is that it shows that growth, profitability, customer satisfaction and a healthy work environment are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they are necessary for an organization to succeed.

The behaviors of top executives and managers are the “drumbeat” of the organization. A qualitive culture starts with senior management that know the value of satisfied customers to the organization’s success. Executives and managers must be in ‘lockstep’ if the ultimate goal is to be achieved.

I personally know of a large division in a company who, when faced with managers not willing to make the transition after months of training, replaced leaders in one ‘clean sweep’ before the real transition could begin. Traumatic, but necessary for effective change.

Management is responsible for creating a culture that encourages identifying quality issues and problems. Inherently, people are reluctant to call out issues, especially those that stem from human error.

Management should send the message that it is acceptable to identify issues by creating an open environment in which failure is not punished but considered a steppingstone to success. Again, it might be advisable to consider Dr. Deming’s 8^th point, which is to ‘drive out fear’ in the workplace so that everyone may work effectively for the benefit of the company and the customer.

Per Deming, fear is both a motivator and a demotivator. Fear motivates, only to the extent that the “job” is done to avoid repercussions. It serves as a greater demotivator as it oppresses individuals’ creativity. Ultimately the organization suffers in such a negative atmosphere. Deming stressed the economic loss from fear is appalling. Only when people feel valued and secure will an organization transition to one that produces better quality, productivity, and customer satisfaction.

Quality culture flows from the current, established, organizational culture. There can be no quality culture if the current organizational culture is toxic. There is no doubt that organizational culture must come first.

The inflection point is a quality transformation occurs when people begin to see quality in a different way (i.e., as a vital strategy for improving safety, production, profitability and sustainability).

Creating a winning culture takes time. It is a big task, but organizations must not get discouraged as their efforts will pay off if they persist.

Success is guaranteed if an organization focuses on values, quality and its people! By doing so, studies show that an organization’s culture can account for a significant portion of its growth and profitability.