The Art of Quality (a.k.a. A Cheat Sheet for Improvement Programs)

While this exciting nine-part series is in production for publication, I thought I’d give a unique tickler to a new dashboard I wrote for a consulting opportunity out of Charlotte, North Carolina.   

The real backbone of quality programs has a diverse team tackling wicked problems. It’s more intricate than plugging a leaking levee, oiling the most squeaky wheel, or jumping to attempt knee-jerk patches. Quality is an ongoing mindset and mechanism of higher-level cyclical activity targeting rocks in the corporate shoe; it requires a team to deploy a structure that will organize people or things to be used for a particular purpose as well as improve operations of an organization.

Before anyone is engaged to make changes, the team needs to consider its corporate culture because it influences available internal resources as well as gaps and any work-arounds to get the job done.  In fact, it’s smarter to have a more efficient operation and that’s what quality programs create: a better solution for internal and external customers.  

Frequently, buzzwords are used and without proper understanding, the team can run off the rails because they use their own definitions around the activity, which should all be centered on a simple application and adapting features to create relentless improvement.  In this case, the buzzword used for this would be disruptive innovation as the quality program takes a product, makes it better, increases demand by customers, and this causes growth.

Once any physical barriers or ideological hurdles are identified, a quality program uses two phases to find opportunities to improve: 

Preparation  The activities centered on “getting rid of rocks” through either natural problem identification (the old school water cooler complaints or the new school text messages) or blinded problem identification (allowing anonymous pointing of fingers to protect the identifier of a pet project or dumb idea from blame) contribute to the preparation phase, which has three stages to address the hard topics.

1. Strategy  The framework of deployment and discovering the “why are we doing this” by using assessment techniques to identify the areas with the highest potential for improvement.
2. Program  The targeted plan and steps for change by selecting the right methodology that fits your company’s needs in both upstream (such as perceptions, creative or innovation team idea generation, training opportunities) and downstream (which could be advertising, manufacturing line changes, order software).
3. Project  The actionable and manageable units to improvement, knowing that these may be small ideas or big changes, but they will reach across multiple departments as well as identifying what improvement you anticipate as you enter the next phase.

Management  It’s easiest to start by saying the second phase of management is not a trigger-pulling directive style, but the collective administration of an activity. It is the review of interrelated facets of an organization (in this case as parts of the quality program) to see an improvement in resource utilization by using three additional phases to achieve successful outcomes.

1. Leadership  More important than picking someone with the biggest title on the highest rung of the ladder, experience is the most valued commodity, and provides the key stakeholder requirement for supporting these changes. Leadership includes selecting the right participants from all areas of the company as well as opening doors or removing ideological obstacles. 
2. Process  Focusing on improvements, this phase looks at the entire supply chain that touches the facets to be modified. The nitty-gritty is where the quality team disintegrates the rock into dust by using innovation, cyclical review during ongoing championing of new solutions in a series of actions to improve the identified process.
3. Measurement The only way to know if you’ve reached the goals of the quality program is not by finishing the process phase, but by evaluating every intention of this quality program with links why an action was taken. Setting the right metrics reminds the team that improving experiences of internal staff and external customers is the keystone of an effective quality program.

People like solving problems; it’s in our nature. Knowing why we are solving a problem and how that solution “came to be” makes it all the more interesting to look at the results. We can produce answers to wicked problems vaguely touched by those knee-jerk directives and bring long-term solutions for sustainable improvements. 

Stay tuned for the links to the detailed information, including “how to” pieces as well as case studies!

Heather M. Hilliard is Principal and Chief Strategist for R. Roan Enterprises, LLC, a professional services consulting firm supporting businesses in pointed areas of expertise as well as with individuals for targeted projects or career development. For more articles like these, visit her posts on LinkedIn or G+. 

#seizetheday, #makeithappen

Five Ways to Handle a Toxic Work Environment That is Hostile to Talent

The most successful leaders have not had an obstacle-free path to leadership, yet so many workers have a delusion that reaching the top of the ladder is pain-free and the “right” way to great achievement. News abounds of “not so perfect” work situations, with many people looking for a way out. However, only looking for a door can mean you are shown the exit before you’re prepared with another opportunity - or prior to absorbing all the good parts the current employment can give.

When you are goal-oriented (vision minded) rather than task-oriented (rungs of the ladder), you grasp not for the ever-moving next rung, but the fact it’s unrealistic to think that success arrives without having to experience growth opportunities along the way. (It would also be boring, and if you are boring with no “tests” of your mettle to show what you know while ascending the corporate ladder, the rungs will stop appearing.)  But what makes those rungs appear?

Consider these leaders’ strong personal values systems while facing a wide range of toxicity.  There are those well known—Bill Gates (whose first business failed yet now runs the largest human rights foundation in the world), Sir Richard Branson (controlling over 400 companies while leading through dyslexia) and Fredrick Douglass (born into slavery, yet became one of the leading abolitionist leaders as well as a preacher). 

And other notable leaders in the world, too. Sharon Ebadi is an Iranian lawyer and was the first female judge in Iran, winning the Nobel Peace prize for democracy and human rights.  Ursula Burns (CEO for eight years and now chairwoman of Xerox) was raised in a housing project. Aung San Suu Kyi, a Myanmarian civil rights leader who had been imprisoned for fifteen years, earned the Nobel Peace Prize for her peaceful leadership on human rights while imprisoned. Telling the real story of the disappeared (while fleeing from those who wanted to kill her, just as they had her family), Rigoberta Menchú Tum is a Nobel Laureate Guatemalan author. Dr. Mae Jamison, a physician, is the first African-American female astronaut and has to deal with two worlds of complexity!

Each one of these visionaries experienced a variety of toxicity in their professional lives. There are many people who have described the bad vibes underlying toxicity, including research by Amy Scholten, MPH, who says, “Toxic workplaces are fueled by immature, dysfunctional leaders.” While I would call those types of people in management anything but leaders, the tone rings true as she describes their lack of morality, hypocritical nature, high aggression, scapegoating, unreasonableness… I’m sure you are already adding to this list from what you’ve seen. 

While preparing my upcoming presentation for a national conference, I realized resilience fuels the fire of those who excel.  Adversity comes in many forms for all businesses, and frequently it presents in the form of a nasty co-worker.  Learning to handle those situations gracefully (not ignoring them) will propel your standing with those around you, enabling you to handle more as you progress in your career and rapidly extricate your from toxic areas.

To bring more meaning to your workplace and facts to your portfolio, regardless of the concentration of toxicity, it really is all about you and how you use obstacles to lift yourself. One area of professionals call this self-deployment: “to arrange in a position of readiness, or to move strategically or appropriately (Dictionary dot com) ” or “move something in an effective way (Cambridge English Dictionary)”  

This is how you need to tackle your current situation; modifying your perspective is how you begin right now.

1. Identify the real meaning in the madness. One of my former colleagues loved to use the term “crazy-making” for other people’s reaction to a situation instead of action toward resolution of the problem. When the implementation of a solution is out of reach, you still retain control of the lesson you can learn as well as retaining your own focus on problem-solving instead of problem-enhancing.
2. Establish concrete goals. There is a reason for the toxicity - your own attitude and approach are your responsibility, and no one else’s. This is a job and does not define your being, your soul, your future. You know where you want to be, so start using your energy for a plan to get there.  Gossip about the “evil” in the office does not help though having activities and goals away from the office keeps you centered, and developing goals for your exit keeps you healthy as you focus on the ways you will leave on your own terms in a positive way.
3. Refine your filter.  This is a two-way process, for inbound messages as well as your outbound communication. The information coming to you will have spin and be framed with the toxic agenda. When you find the real meaning and know your goals are to achieve efficiency, creativity or productivity, you can strain the distraction and see the true bottom line.  Likewise, when you are sending out information, you can craft your meaning with intentional word choices that will neither inflame an ego nor draw negative attention to your talents.
4. Remove project overreach. Undoubtedly, this is the environment that pushes staff to work all hours of the day and night for unrealistic ends.  When you begin to not only define, but hold fast to boundaries that encroach upon achieving what you’ve outlined in step number two, it allows you to use energy on your own time to get to a better space.  Your time away forth office is all positive, so leave the negative things there (even if you telecommute - there are boundaries that now you have your exit plan in process, you can more safely enforce). 
5. Get moving. You are more important than “them.”  Don’t question your abilities; step one shows you how to identify the source of the incapability so you don’t repeat the problems as a leader and don’t find another place that has the same issues. The fifth step is using your hand to wave goodbye without burning a bridge, while embracing thankfulness that you’re moving forward.

Handling toxicity and adversity is a process, not an event, when you need to continue performing while seeking improvements. This involves identification, planning, timeframe scope of action and launch - the same steps in good project management. You can treat your exit just as you would a new product launch, where you are the product taking your skills to somewhere more valuable and in line with your mission.

Positive attitude in negative situations… gives abilities including natural success.  PAINS to GAINS. You can get there.

Heather M. Hilliard is Principal and Chief Strategist for R. Roan Enterprises, LLC, a professional services consulting firm supporting businesses in pointed areas of expertise as well as with individuals for targeted projects or career development. For more articles like these, visit her posts on LinkedIn or on G+. 

#seizetheday, #makeithappen

How To Identify Broken Business Infrastructure Before It Bombs

You think you are ready to tell the world who you are and what you do.  Articles I've shared here lately about sales funnels, branding and communications have helped you fine-tune your launch. Heads up: you need to understand you aren’t there yet.

Are you ready to respond to demand? What if you have too many inquiries and are overextended? Is there a way out if you have product just sitting in your storeroom because it isn’t moving like you hoped?

The method behind your madness goes well beyond planning. Infrastructure is the typically unseen make-or-break skeleton that lifts you toward success.  You can’t grow if you can’t meet demand, but if you don’t spend valuable time early, your reputation and brand likely will suffer greatly.

Sure, you can spend time and create a coastal restoration infrastructure plan (but watch the live link doesn’t end up saying “ilovepdf” like this one) that names features that need extra support and why, with prioritization of projects.

Or, there could be a third party infrastructure review like our nation recently had completed for homeland security (and really our weaknesses, to show where someone or some entity really missed the ball)  

Somehow, your fabulous design for end-to-end control fails due to reliance on a supposed expert internal opinion that online sales won’t change your business model (because you never saw brick-less stores as a threat).

If you aren’t asking the right questions, you have a self-made obstacle that wasn’t a problem (i.e. the mountain out of a molehill syndrome) instead of solving the consumer’s dilemma.

The best course of action is thinking through your own business model before you launch new options, so search for the obtuse “then a miracle happens” moment in your plan. This is what you need to fix before irate customers show you it’s broken.

• Use tools that make life simple(r) - also known as operations. In days gone by, having a watch was critical for on-time customer delivery. Now, it’s knowing when the shipment is picked, packed, leaves, transports and arrives. Use software systems that track things that need monitored or keep other things secure (literally e-lock/e-key or encryption), but don’t let them run the show alone. Sometimes software is called IP architecture, but it’s still infrastructure to your business. Invest in programs that are customer-facing so your brand’s touch is personalized.
• Have backups of life support systems - call this process management. This may be telephone lines for other area codes (Katrina taught me to always have a backup with another city area code; they get through when power goes out); perhaps it’s having multiple internet services (even in the same location, hiccups don’t run through all routers) or off-site e-storage for files (some states require this if you are a government contractor/supplier)—the point is that one is never enough and it’s easily readied before the crisis that will inevitably come. 
• People power is priceless - the value of humanity. If you don’t have someone to answer that email or take the client call, everything else is meaningless. I suspect not a single person reading this article has always had glowing success with every customer service interaction. Use your own experience with flaws in other businesses to ensure you have backup to help with calls if there’s a snowstorm and staff get stuck (even if it’s a retired neighbor woman with your cell phone to answer the phone to say you’re in a meeting and will call back). Be creative!

No matter what line of business or service, everyone can improve. There is no replacement for smart human to human interaction. Your infrastructure is a significant component of your in-house communication process. Just as with your words, your success depends on the structure’s thoughtfulness and inclusiveness; context and timeframe influence perspectives through all areas of business (as well as government). 

There’s a reason you don’t skip rungs on a ladder. It applies in business functions, too.

Heather M. Hilliard is Principal and Chief Strategist for R. Roan Enterprises, LLC, a professional services consulting firm supporting businesses in pointed areas of expertise as well as with individuals for targeted projects or career development. For more articles like these, visit her posts on LinkedIn or on G+. 

#seizetheday, #makeithappen