Articles by Jim L. Smith

When we are trusted, people listen to what we say and do.

Our expectations will certainly influence the results we get.

Before I get into the focus of this column, I’d venture to guess that many quality professionals reading this column’s title did an about take thinking this guy has lost his mind. To discover the real intent, read on…

If you are trustworthy, it says a lot about your character.

How does an organization get employees engaged?

When you are presented with serious challenges, how do you respond?

During a career in which I devoted a large portion to developing and implementing improvement programs, one thing became crystal clear. Improvement programs with a focus on sustained improvement were more valuable than speed of implementation.

Would you accept a project that paid very little for two years and required you to wait two years for the ultimate windfall? Since quality professionals serve at the behest of senior management, we must do what we can to help them succeed. Quality professionals need to shift to improvement methods that give short-term results.

In my previous column, we discussed timeliness and reliability. This column will continue by discussing three more customer service mainstays.

Discover what your customers expect and consistently deliver. This remains a guiding principle for any quality system and should apply to product- and service-based environments.