QUALITY OF PERSONAL LIFE
As I enter my senior years (65+), more than ever quality of life captures my interest toward continual improvement in all domains of existence: my physical health, aging, and emotional health; relationships with family, friends, and colleagues; community and societal responsibilities and actions; spiritual concerns; and recreational and restorative activities. No doubt remains whether quality in all current forms applies to work and productivity, services, education, health care and mental/behavioral health. I suggest we can do the same with our personal lives, to all personal domains mentioned above.
To that end, I have just started a private practice offering services in support of this idea (qualityhumansystems.com). I am very interested in the thoughts and work that any of you may be contemplating and/or pursuing in this regard. Gunther and Hawkins in their book, Making TQM Work, Quality Tools for Human Service Organizations (1999) detail the application of quality to management of the social services context, as did Lawrence Martin, Total Quality Management in Human Service Organizations (1993). Like business and industry, paying attention to the customer and to the worker are strongly emphasized. As we know, Deming emphasized what could be referred to as quality of life for the worker: drive out fear, create trust, create a climate for innovation; and remove barriers to pride of workmanship.
Over the course of my career in human services, often in management as well as clinical work, the standards and principles set for professional staff to follow were, and are, quite similar to those of quality. And, I noticed similar difficulties that continually challenged full implementation, maintenance and constant improvement. Lack of leadership, human frailties, political and financial pressures; all played a part just as in all other organizational settings.
The general field and business of personal development or self-improvement as we know it today has grown from seminars, retreats and trainings in the late 1960s to a multi-billion dollar industry, ranging from esoteric offerings such as aura reading and past lives to life coaching, the latest exercise class or machine, and super anti-oxidants . Like those taking advantage of alternative medicine (billions of dollars also and more than Western medicine) many people are seeking services that improve their lives, along with or instead of religion, and often after or in concert with counseling or therapy. A large percentage have included psychotropic medication, instead of alcohol and tobacco. Quality of life encapsulates the remedies sought, using the concept broadly to describe the pursuit of purpose, meaning, joy, health, and comfort.
The danger of many offerings concerns the lack of data backing a particular method, and no science applied in support of outcome evaluation. Those unaware of facile responses to marketing claims, anecdotal information with unknown validity, and the power of placebo effects and cognitive dissonance become in effect marks (in a carny or carnival sense) to almost any claim purporting to have relevance. From my perspective, Quality principles and practices would help manage on-going personal development of almost any description and blend; providing a way to please the primary customer: Oneself.
The approach I have taken in developing what for now I call a private consultation practice is to first provide a confidential and ethical setting, similar to that of attorneys and counselors for my clients. While Life Coaching appears on the lists of growing markets, in my view life coaching, personal advisor, confidant, strategist, life design consultant among others in the current market place qualify for the most part as tools in the toolbox of methodologies to be applied based on the merits of the client's life circumstances and desires. What I deeply appreciate about Deming is his focus on principles. When one understands the philosophy as well as the how to apply the principles, then broader and deeper applications can obtain for the benefit of the client.
Judgment, creativity, innovation, and wisdom gained through analysis of experience and openness to constant learning and improvement takes center stage. Art and science have a chance to interact and compliment each other. Customers receive empowerment (and respect) as they adopt PDSA cycles to develop and improve their primary customer's quality of life.
Each human life can be viewed as an organization unto itself, with many sub-systems both internal and external. With complexity and choice increasing daily in a sea of information, principles and methods to winnow a personal path become very important. Deming's approach could also be viewed as a good way to develop critical thinking skills, or what Piaget termed formal operational thought. Wisely, Deming put together a model that can improve any system, organizational and human, and simultaneously.
