When I was a child, my grandfather used to take me to a garden. On one such visit, I saw the gardener watering and tending the plants and trees. I noticed that he took care to water them at the roots. Out of childish curiosity, I asked him, “Why do you water only the roots? Why don’t you water the leaves and fruits?” The gardener looked up from his work and told me, “If I water the roots, the leaves and fruits are taken care of. If I water the leaves and fruits and forget the roots, the plant will die—fruits, leaves, and all.”

Years later, the gardener’s words come back to mind when I see some companies’ and their people’s attitude toward quality.

Are you a root person or a fruit person? Fruit people tend to focus exclusively (or disproportionately) on end results—particularly financial outcomes. Their view is often historical (e.g., last quarter’s profits), and their future perspective is usually limited to the immediate short-term (next quarter’s numbers). Fruit people have neither the time nor, so they think, the patience to worry about the roots that, if nurtured well, will give them fruits year after year.

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