Quality: Art or Science?

Why is it that some people are checklist people, and some aren’t?

I was once in a room full of people to whom a presentation was being made. The findings of a root cause analysis that had been done on a recent defect in the company’s product were being presented. A couple of young people were enthusiastically presenting how they had identified the root cause of the problem and suggesting how we could prevent the problem in future.

As I gazed around the room, I saw some people clearly fascinated by what was being presented. However, there were others who yawned or played with their mobile phones. Evidently, the second group didn’t find the proceedings very interesting.

You may ask if the topic being presented was important to the company and relevant to everybody in the room. This answer is absolutely yes. The particular problem being discussed was causing customers to complain, and the company had already lost several customers because of the problem. Moreover, only relevant people had been called to this meeting.

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Disciplined Practice

Dear Arun,

As I learn about psychology and neuroscience I develop incremental insights into the questions you pose. Those insights seem to converge first on conscious awareness about the thing in question: do you consider that thing a signal or is it noise?

If a particular signal has been repeatedly identified but ignored, for all intents and purposes it isn't a signal. If many such signals are repeatedly identified but ignored, then all signals are treated as noise. The things that would otherwise have been identified as signal slip from awareness. We automatically discount them.

So it is no surprise to me that experienced professionals yawn and twiddle with the smartphones during a root-cause-analysis presentation. Their brains, from long experience, have already discounted the thing being discussed as signal. It is also no surprise that the newbies, who haven't yet desensitized, are excited about their work. It is still a signal for them.

I think common understanding will lead to common definitions of what thing is to be considered a signal and what is to be thought of as noise. Disciplined practice to address identified signals will turn it into subconscious habit. Quality science offers powerful tools for doing this.

Thinking of quality as art makes it seem as if it is intangible and mysterious; something that people either have a mindset for or don't. For me it is less art and more disciplined practice of science. Easily learned by all.

Best regards, Shrikant Kalegaonkar (Twitter: @shrikale, LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/shrikale/)