It can be said that 2020 has been a year of paradigm shifts in both our personal and professional lives. Friends, families, and co-workers have had to make big changes to stay connected; so too has the world of Quality Management System (QMS) audits.

Before January 2020, if you had asked an organization whether they had considered a pandemic as a risk to the organization, most would have answered no. 

A paradigm shift, identified and coined by American physicist and philosopher Thomas Kuhn, is a fundamental change in the approach, concepts, and assumptions of a practice. 

Whether we realize it or not everyone’s job, including the quality professional, comes down to one thing; helping our companies, at least those in business to be profitable, make money! 

My introduction to quality commenced at a manufacturing plant where I started at an entry-level product packaging position. 

Throughout my career I have seen the power in recognizing people’s efforts. Additionally, numerous studies have shown that when people feel appreciated and get recognized, they are more engaged, motivated, and productive. 

After learning something truly exciting, there is something extraordinarily satisfying in sharing it with someone else. Children do this all the time. They take the new information directly to an adult—usually a parent or caregiver—and the words pour out of their mouths, torrents of energy and pride.

A merchant has a fox, a rabbit, and a head of lettuce and sits on the edge of a river. He has a small raft capable of carrying only himself and one item at a time, but without his supervision, the fox will eat the rabbit, and the rabbit will eat the lettuce.