A good friend and mentor of mine said, “We should eat the bread that we make.” He is James Wardlaw, now of Summit Engineering Solutions, and he reminded me of this piece of wisdom during a recent conversation.

It means that we should live with the consequences of our own work. We should deal with and correct our own mistakes. We should manage our own designs after they are released. We should live with the fallout of our decisions.

When we do, we’re naturally more concerned with the quality of our work, the integrity of our choices, and the long-term sustainability of our plans and designs. Holding people accountable for their work is the best way to drive a culture of quality performance, because that mindset becomes a natural concern. Everyone in the company knows it and works toward it.

Unfortunately, most organizations aren’t designed to do this. Let’s use the product-development process to explain.

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