Here’s a shocking finding from the most recent “ASQ Global State of Quality” report: The higher you rise in your organization’s leadership, the less often you receive reports about quality metrics. Only 2 percent of senior executives get daily quality reports, compared to 33 percent of frontline staff.

A quarter of the senior executives reported getting quality metrics on a monthly basis, at least. But just as many reported getting them only on an annual basis.

This is simultaneously scary and depressing. It’s scary because it indicates that company leaders don’t have good access to the kind of information they need about their quality improvement initiatives. More than half of the executives are getting updates about quality only once a quarter, or even less. You can bet they’re making decisions that affect quality much more frequently than that.

It’s depressing because quality practitioners are a dedicated, hard-working lot, and their task is both challenging and often thankless. Their efforts don’t appear to be reaching the C-level offices as often as they deserve.

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