Twenty Quality Years--Part Two
Pat Townsend & Joan Gebhardt
Last month, we began a two-part
commentary about our 20-year involvement in the quality
world.
Assuming the work is done well, being in charge of a quality
process is the second best job in an organization. Being
the president of an organization is the best job; power
is a thrill. But being the chief quality officer is a close
No. 2. Because you’re involved in every aspect of
the company, you normally deal with people who are on a
high because they’ve just accomplished something they’re
proud of, and you have the satisfaction of knowing you’ve
had a positive influence on your company, your customers
and your fellow employees.
The first book we mentioned at the end of last month’s
column was our ticket to the speakers circuit--mostly for
Pat, who did the solo speeches. When we received a request
for a workshop of some length, both of us did some talking
and teaching.
Pat was also fortunate to have participated in the original
committee that, led by Dr. Curt Reimann, initially defined
the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Over the years,
the Baldrige Award has become the preeminent quality award.
For two years, Pat also served as an examiner for the Baldrige
Award.
While going from company to company giving speeches and
following the literature for a dozen years, we noticed some
interesting trends. USA Today gave the Baldrige Award a
great deal of positive coverage during its first several
years whereas the Wall Street Journal decided early on that
quality in general had no value and the Baldrige was a particular
waste of time.
Of more long-term affect was the reaction within the quality
community to the Baldrige Award and the approach to quality
that it represented. It signaled a major change in how quality
should be practiced. Measurement was a vital piece, the
Baldrige acknowledged, but there were other concerns: leadership,
human resources, business results and planning.
Just when it looked like the focus of the quality community
was shifted toward the Baldrige Award, the International
Organization for Standardization arrived. Initially little
more than a European trade barrier to keep American and
Japanese quality-driven companies at bay, ISO 9000 offered
long-time quality control professionals a well-regimented
framework for the charts and graphs they favored over dealing
with the variables of human personalities. In fact, ISO
9000 added even more pre-defined charts and rules. The American
quality revolution began to slow down.
The next step backward was Six Sigma. Like ISO 9000, Six
Sigma is a tool of great potential and, if recognized as
one tool in the tool kit, it can bring significant value
to the table. Once either ISO 9000 or Six Sigma becomes
the only tool, however, it points a company down the same
path to trouble that reengineering paved a few years earlier.
While watching these trends unfold, we wrote five more
books and continued to try to convince folks that long-term
progress requires acknowledging that work is done by humans
and humans are both rational and emotional in their makeup.
The only logical approach to employee involvement is to
start at 100 percent and stay there.
In late 1999, Pat got a call from a headhunter, offering
an opportunity to leave the speakers circuit and return
to the second-best job in a company. He had had several
such calls over the years, but this one sounded like it
was worth a consideration. Pat’s interviews went well,
and he became the chief quality officer of a health insurance
company in Texas.
Several months later, after getting a complete quality
process rolling, Pat noticed a nine-page write-up in an
insurance industry magazine about another health insurance
company that had hired a couple of GE veterans to bring
in a Six Sigma process. Remembering the early days of quality
when quality professionals felt comfortable calling each
other, he attempted to contact the woman named as the head
of the acclaimed Six Sigma quality effort.
Her secretary explained patiently that she didn’t
have time to talk to anyone but offered the phone number
of the company’s consultant company. So, Pat returned
to the article, read it with a more critical eye, and compared
the company’s results with those at his new company.
Even if the Six Sigma-driven company completed its goal
of $100,000,000 in savings in the first year (after eight
months, it had confirmed a bottom line of $3,000,000), the
finances at Pat’s company would still--when numbers
were normalized due to the difference in the sizes of the
companies--be 3.3 times greater. In addition, the other
company had 170 Six Sigma professionals (plus administrative
support) for 140,000 employees while Pat had a total of
three (himself included) folks overseeing a quality process
for 800 people. A year later, the Six Sigma-driven company
went under.
Pat has been in Texas for almost four years and will probably
be there for a few more. After all, he has the second-best
job in the company. After that? We would be headed for 25
years in the quality world by then . . . it would be time
for a new book. And perhaps a speech or two.
Pat Townsend and Joan Gebhardt have written more than
200 articles and six books, including Commit to Quality
(John Wiley & Sons, 1986); Quality in Action:
93 Lessons in Leadership, Participation, and Measurement
(John Wiley & Sons, 1992); Five-Star Leadership:
The Art and Strategy of Creating Leaders at Every Level
(John Wiley & Sons, 1997); Recognition, Gratitude
& Celebration (Crisp Publications, 1997); How
Organizations Learn: Investigate, Identify, Institutionalize
(Crisp Publications, 1999); and Quality Is Everybody's
Business (CRC Press, 1999). Pat Townsend has recently
re-entered the corporate world and is now dealing with “leadership.com”
issues as a practitioner as well as an observer, writer
and speaker. He is now chief quality officer for UICI, a
diverse financial services corporation headquartered in
the Dallas area.
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