Category: Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs

The focus of articles and blogs here would be relating to the Quality as a Profession and as Way of Life.

Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs – Volume XI – May 2023 Edition

Welcome to May 2023 edition of the XIth volume of Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs.

The theme for the XIth volume of our Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs is The Defining Trends of Quality Management – An Analytical Survey.

Presently, we take up the concept of Moving From Continual Improvement to Continuous innovation …..

A textbook definition of Innovation is the successful conversion of new concepts and knowledge into new products, services, or processes that deliver new customer value. For instance, all the time and effort invested in trying to make a candle that burns the brightest would still yield a candle only. Innovation will convert the concept of using electricity to a create a bulb.

Continuous Improvement (CI) is a method to identify opportunities for streamlining work and reducing waste in operational processes.

While Innovation is about creating new value by materializing on effective ideas, Continuous Improvement strives to strengthen an existing value proposition to make processes efficient. Innovation effectively improves the outcomes and Improvements yield efficient processes. The mental model in improvement focuses on optimizing existing systems and eliminating defects. Innovation requires a different mental model — creation of something fundamentally new and different from what we’ve experienced before. A different process or end-result that can then be further optimized using improvement.

Presented here above is a set of eight essential attributes that are present, either in part or in full, at every big company that’s a high performer in product, process, or business-model innovation.[1]

The key to being a good innovator is being observant. Look for those things that are positive or negative deviants. Find the outliers that are remarkable or give you some insight into a system. Identify a process that will allow you to make a system better.

In the daily life, when you go to a restaurant or queue up in the line at the airport, notice the things that you think are being done extremely well or, conversely, extremely poorly. Those examples may hold the lessons to help you solve the problems you’re facing right now. If we pause to be observant and then reflect on those observations — in our daily operational practice or in our lives outside the workplace — we can make meaningful, important improvements or innovations to our existing practice. Innovative thinking can go beyond those simple yet revealing observations and become a new mindset and even an organizational function ― a pivot that leads to progress.

A typical structured innovation approach generally rests on these four themes:[2]

      • Resource and Knowledge Repurposing
      • Embracing Full Innovation Lifecycle
      • Data-Driven Approach to Decision-Making
      • Customer Centricity

We plan to take up a detailed look at the Full Innovation Lifecycle and the Structured Innovation Approach in our next episodes.

We will now turn to our regular section -.

We now watch ASQ TV episode on –

      • Innovation and Process Approach – Jack” West – a long-time member of the U.S. Technical Advisory Group to ISO Technical committee 176 (TAG 176) and a former TAG 176 chair – discusses innovation and the process approach as they relate to ISO 9001:2015.

Next, we take up the article, From Vision to Reality: How to Implement a Continuous Improvement Program (Next Gen Quality Analytics section of Quality Magazine) – Implementing CI programs requires more than just tools and technology. It necessitates a cultural shift that involves training and educating stakeholders to be a part of the operation and monitoring process.

When starting from scratch must first establish a clear vision and set of goals. This involves identifying areas for improvement and setting specific, measurable goals that align with their high-level goals.

Next, they should involve all the relevant staff, from across the organization.

Identify the sources of accurate and reliable data that needs to tracked and analysed w. r. t. the area(s) of improvement.

Finally, it’s crucial to ensure that the continuous improvement program is sustainable over the long term. This involves creating a culture of continuous improvement, where ongoing improvement efforts are part of the fabric of the organization.

Clear objectives, a strategic approach to getting team buy-in, a mindful approach to data —and a sustainable approach — can help manufacturers accomplish substantial improvements in efficiency and profitability.

I look forward to your views / comments / inputs to further enrich the theme of The Defining Trends of Quality Management – An Analytical Survey.

Note: The images or video clips depicted here above are through courtesy of respective websites who have the copyrights for the respective images /videos.

[1] Innovation and creativity, wherein McKinsey principal Nathan Marston explains why innovation is increasingly important to driving corporate growth and brings to life the eight essentials of innovation performance.

[2] Structured Innovation 2.0: Four Themes Driving Innovation Success During the Pandemic – JoLynn Smith

Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs – Volume XI – April 2023 Edition

Welcome to April 2023 edition of the XIth volume of Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs.

The theme for the XIth volume of our Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs is The Defining Trends of Quality Management – An Analytical Survey.

To delve a little deeper into the subject of Future Competitiveness we take up Sustaining Long Term Competitive Advantage.

Sustainable advantages fall into three categories: size in the targeted market, superior access to resources or customers, and restrictions on competitors’ options.[1]

The dissipation of long term competitive advantage can be readily explained by Porter’s Five Forces Model.

The study of available literature on how to build sustainable advantage ultimately seems to boil down to just one area – Continuous innovation needs to be a core capability of the entire organization.

We will take up this aspect of continuous innovation in the next episode…..

Further study resources @ History’s Greatest Strategists.

We will now turn to our regular section -.

We now watch ASQ TV episode on –

Till writing of the present episode, new additions to Jim L. Smith’s Jim’s Gems.

So, we take up the article ‘From the Editor’ (of Quality Magazine) – by Darryl Sealand:

    • Iterations: From manufacturing to personal growth. – 2.0 signals a new and improved version of the last. Industry has grown from Industry 1.0 to Industry 4.0 with its subsets Quality 4.0 and so on. Do we live still live in our 1.0 or have moved to 1.01 and so one, or 2.0?

I look forward to your views / comments / inputs to further enrich the theme of The Defining Trends of Quality Management – An Analytical Survey.

Note: The images or video clips depicted here above are through courtesy of respective websites who have the copyrights for the respective images /videos.

[1] Sustainable Advantage – Pankaj Ghemawat

Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs – Volume XI – March 2023 Edition

Welcome to March 2023 edition of the XIth volume of Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs.

The theme for the XIth volume of our Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs is The Defining Trends of Quality Management – An Analytical Survey.

Our first topic for a detailed look at the theme is Short Term Competitive Advantage.

There are two basic types of competitive advantages: cost leadership and differentiation. When combined with the scope of a firm’s activities, they give rise to three generic business strategies:

    • cost leadership – where the firm seeks to become the low-cost producer in an industry.
    • differentiation – where the firm seeks to position itself uniquely along one or two dimensions that the customer values; and
    • focus – where a firm tries to optimize its strategy by selecting a segment or a group of segments in the industry, and seeks to achieve competitive advantage in the target segment(s).

The VRIO framework[1] is a tool for identifying the competitive advantages of an organization (if they have any). The VRIO (Value, Rarity, Imitability, Organization) is the four-question framework used to evaluate the resources and capabilities of an organization. The VRIO framework categorizes the organization’s tangible as well as intangible resources into one of the following groups: competitive parity, temporary competitive advantage, unused competitive advantage, or long-term competitive advantage.

The process of analysing organization’s  internal environment (internal analysis tools)[2] as well as the external environment (external analysis) is extremely important in the strategic planning process. Typically, the category that usually poses the biggest potential for improvement is the Unused Competitive Advantage Category.

The resources in the Unused Competitive Advantage category don’t have the support, processes, and culture in place to completely utilize their value. The next step is to develop a strategic plan that takes these unused competitive advantages into account and works to support these resources through strategic management will allow companies to transform their resources into sustained competitive advantages. A well thought-out and crafted strategic plan[3] will align the processes, people, and structure needed to support these resources and turn them into sustainable competitive advantages.

In a world where a competitive advantage often evaporates in less than a year,[4] strategy is still useful but not by sticking to the same old playbook. In order to seize the transient advantage, the organization needs a new playbook which positions the organization’s current working between two statements of assessment – Focused on extending existing advantages vs. Capable of coping with transient advantage.

Defining where you want to compete, how you intend to win, and how you are going to move from advantage to advantage is more critical than ever in the critical in the times of the digital revolution, a “flat” world, fewer barriers to entry, globalization, when the competitors and customers have become too unpredictable, and industries too amorphous.

That should keep organization always thinking about is it possible to restore a balance between durability and variability of the organization in terms of strategy?

We will take up the possible answers in our next episode. Till then, download a free guide and canvas to identify organization’s sustainable competitive advantage(es).[5]

We will now turn to our regular section -.

We now watch ASQ TV episode on –

Till writing of the present episode, new additions to Jim L. Smith’s Jim’s Gems.

So we take up the article ‘From the Editor’ (of Quality Magazine) – by Darryl Sealand:

      • Riddle Me This – A man is walking down the middle of the street dressed in all black. There are no streetlights. No moon. At the same time, a car is driving down the same road with no headlights. At the last second, the car swerves to avoid hitting the man. How can this happen?

(Alert: Please do not read further till you have figured out the answer.)

The tactic deployed in riddle like this is called extraneous detail. The story overloads the reader with imagery of darkness and descriptions of things associated with night—streetlights, headlights, the moon—to distract the reader from what is not being said.

Most of the times, our knowledge and experience can potentially lead us to poor assumptions, and hence poorer outcomes. Poor assumptions are part of what is called a syllogistic fallacy.

Don’t feel bad if you have ever participated in a syllogistic fallacy, as the greats like Shakespeare have been called out for a syllogism that falls apart in the end. And don’t feel bad if you didn’t figure out the riddle. With millions of points of data, we can be overwhelmed by what is important and what is not.

By the way, answer to the riddle was: It is daytime.

I look forward to your views / comments / inputs to further enrich the theme of The Defining Trends of Quality Management – An Analytical Survey.

Note: The images or video clips depicted here above are through courtesy of respective websites who have the copyrights for the respective images /videos.

[1] What is the VRIO framework?

[2] Internal firm analysis: Understanding a firm’s resources and capabilities

[3] How to Write a Strategic Plan: The Cascade Model.

[4] Transient Advantage – Rita McGrath

[5] https://onstrategyhq.com/competitive-advantages-guide-download/

Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs – Volume XI – February 2023 Edition

Welcome to February 2023 edition of the XIth volume of Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs.

The theme for the XIth volume of our Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs is The Defining Trends of Quality Management – An Analytical Survey.

Our first topic for a detailed look at the theme is Future Competitiveness.

Competitive advantage is the favourable position an organization seeks in order to be more profitable than its rivals, in the short as well as long run. To gain and maintain a competitive advantage, an organization must be able to demonstrate a greater comparative or differential value than its competitors and convey that information to its desired target market.[1]

“If a man…make a better mousetrap than his neighbour, tho’ he build his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door.” Attributed to one of Emerson’s lectures in the nineteenth century, these words seem to have anticipated the exhortations of the twentieth: manage for uniqueness, develop a distinctive competence, create competitive advantage.[2]

Tweaking a management system based on old rules will no longer be effective. It is time to act now to start building an organization in accordance with the new principles.[3]

The three main types of competitive advantages are differentiation, cost advantages, and focus advantages.[4]

McKinsey outlines how companies can reimagine themselves for the future by asking: Who we are? How do we operate? How do we grow?[5]

Further reading: Future of work

We will continue in our next episodes with more detailed insight into the subject of competitive advantage.

We will now turn to our regular section -.

We now watch ASQ TV episode on –

    • Effective 21st Century Quality Leadership – Mike Turner, Managing Partner, Oakland Consulting, discusses the business challenges of the 21st century, and how quality professionals should respond in order to meet them.

Till writing of the present episode, new additions to Jim L. Smith’s Jim’s Gems and From the Editor’ (of Quality Magazine) – by Darryl Sealand have yet to come up. So, we take up

    • The Multi-dimensionality of Quality – Speaking of Quality | Duke Okes – People outside the qualify profession see it as a potentially negative, narrow focus on just trying to find things wrong. Meanwhile, those who have made it a profession are more likely to see it as one with endless opportunities to learn and contribute to the success of the organization and its employees, customers and suppliers. … Quality is not a single field, but in fact the integration of knowledge from many fields of science, technology and management. … At its foundation, quality is about managing organizational processes that will meet stakeholder needs and expectations. … This is complicated by the fact that each customer or player who encounters the product during its life cycle may have different definitions of quality.  .. This multi-dimensionality then allows each quality professional to find a niche that suits their level of interest in technology and/or management roles, enabling them to have satisfying work that will yield a more productive environment. …Evolution of industry will require adaptation of known quality principles and technologies to new products …Technology will help improve many aspects of quality management. …Like many other support functions, quality personnel not only manage several critical processes such as calibration and corrective action, but they play a technology transfer role that embeds quality philosophies and methods into core functions. …Whether one wants to be a technologist, facilitator or leader, the opportunities for contribution and growth are immense.

I look forward to your views / comments / inputs to further enrich the theme of The Defining Trends of Quality Management – An Analytical Survey.

Note: The images or video clips depicted here above are through courtesy of respective websites who have the copyrights for the respective images /videos.

[1] competitive advantage – Nicole Laskowski, Rachel Lebeaux

[2] Sustainable Advantage – Pankaj Ghemawat

[3] Organizing for the Future: Why now? – Elizabeth Mygatt, Richard Steele, Mitya Voloshchuk

[4] 3 Main Types of Sustainable Competitive Advantages

[5] Organizing for the future: Nine keys to becoming a future-ready company

 

Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs – Volume XI – January 2023 Edition

Welcome to January 2023 edition of the XIth volume of Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs.

The theme for the XIth volume of our Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs is The Defining Trends of Quality Management – An Analytical Survey.

The aim for the present episode to overview the major trends already identified in the first two years of the present decade that are expected to shape the working philosophy for the quality management professionals. We shall look at some of the critical trends in a little more details in the subsequent months.

In order to identify the first step is carry out the trend analysis.

The trend analysis can be carried out from either the perspective of past data or from the potential changes that can take place in the future.

The real, lasting, and positive change to happen from implementation of CAPA[1] (from the past trends) or from the actions emending out of strategic planning – based on appropriate risj management approach -may require rethinking on the organization’s approach to trend analysis w. r. t. the quality management philosophy. These three questions provide a good beginning before taking up new trend analysis areas or tools/ modifying the existing ones.

  • What is the primary objective of the trend analysis? – One fundamental guiding principle is that a meaningful trend analysis should identify, evaluate and eliminate or prevent the issue that is having negative effect on product quality or customer expectations or to enable the organization to maintain / improve / sustain its competitive edge in the future.
  • What method to choose? – Primarily this driven by the basic purpose of the trend analysis exercise.
  • Is the data being analysed timely and adequate? – The timeliness of the data would mean that data neither should be outdated or should be irrelevant for the purpose and period of the trend analysis.

We now try to enlist major trends as identified in the presently documented literature:

    1. Changes in quality perceptions and approaches in terms of product and system quality as well as customer expectations.
    2. Evolving of management of risks under constantly changing business practices
    3. Knowledge sharing within and across the departments as well with outside stakeholders.
    4. Increasing significance of decision intelligence
    5. Improving the quality and reliability of the supply chain.
    6. Defining quality standards and related job roles in view of increasing need for seamless blending of technical and cross-functional skills.
    7. Increasing significance of integration of QEHS
    8. Increased importance of quality management approach with enterprise-level strategic planning

Apart from these generic issues, there are industry-sector specific trends analyses that can also help bring more generic issues under the radar.

The subject of trends analyses for very specific areas like  quality /environment /occupational and health and safety standards, geo-political-economical-social micro level and macro-level realignments, business performance measurement practices, micro- and macro-level racial and cultural changes etc.

There would be more trends identified in areas of Sustainability, Social relevance and Business continuity or Use of Quality 4.0 technology vis-à-vis Industry 4.0 technologies and IT technologies and the like.

Some of the Sources used as references:

We will now turn to our regular section -.

We now watch ASQ TV episode on –

We have taken up one article from Jim L. Smith’s Jim’s Gems:

  • Motives Are Important in Everything We Do – The success of our endeavors depends not so much on the endeavors themselves but, rather, on our motive for doing them. …. The key to success of The greatest writers, the greatest quality professionals, the greatest companies – the greatest men and women in all walks of life –is to be found in the fact they were motivated more, at least in the beginning, by what was important to them, what society needed, or by what they felt they had to do, rather than the thought of profit. This is the actual secret – the key to success… True success comes from working on things we really care about.

From the Editor’ (of Quality Magazine) – by Darryl Sealand, we have –

  • Knowledge is Power – From Sun Tzu to Chuck McGill – Why do we remember the past, and not the future? It is a perplexing question with no tangible, concrete answer. The question stems from, or at least often follows, Albert Einstein’s famous utterance, “Time is an illusion, although a stubbornly persistent one.”  …. We can even go as far as to replace the notion of memory with that of knowledge. Knowledge, after all, is facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education, i.e. the memories of that experience and education. So now the question becomes, “What if we had knowledge of the future?” … No matter your answer, the question points to the accuracy of an old, but particularly apt adage—Knowledge is power! ….As Sun Tzu states in the Art of War: “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.” … In the real world and on the “battlefields” of good business, particularly regarding the field of quality, knowledge lies in training. As contributing editor Genevieve Diesing writes, “As the pandemic and advances in technology impact the field, education and training remain paramount — especially for newcomers.”

I look forward to your views / comments / inputs to further enrich the theme of The Defining Trends of Quality Management – An Analytical Survey.

Note: The images or video clips depicted here above are through courtesy of respective websites who have the copyrights for the respective images /videos.

[1] Management of an Effective CAPA

Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs – Xth Volume – December 2022 Edition

Welcome to December 2022 edition of the Xth volume of Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs.

The theme for the Xth volume of our Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs is inspired from the editorial of the January 2022 special Issue of Prabuddha Bharata (The Awakened India) – Living a Meaningful Life in a Digital World.

For our present episode, we take up the article, What Remains by Srinivasan Raghuraman.

Here is an excerpt from the article:

The bottom line is that we have not been able to meet in person, talk in person, watch movies, go for fun trips, and the like. All these limitations have been imposed upon us by this, so-called, digital world.

So what remains in this new world? What are those things that we can still do?

The first and foremost, and probably the most important, thing that remains is our ability to help each other and ourselves. Not that people do not do this.

However, focus of many remains on limiting the changes that the digital world has bestowed on us.  In general, we focus not on what isn’t but what is. Not on what was not but what was.

Some more readings:

Don’t Focus on What You’re Not. Focus on What You Are. | Judy John

Stop Chasing Purpose and Focus on Wellness | Chloe Hakim-Moore

Such a predisposition may not be entirely our doing. But, nonetheless, it is our duty to correct this predisposition of ours. Focus not on what isn’t but what is. Not on what was not, but what was. Not on what won’t be but what will be. Not on what one cannot, but on what one can. Not on one’s limitations, but on one’s strengths. Not on life’s sorrows but on life’s joys. Not on what has gone but on what remains.

This, indeed, is not to paint the picture of the ideal callous individual who cares not for any faults and simply revels in the simple pleasures. What is implied is that rather than brooding over the negatives may not be a good, and sufficient or necessary, way for o[possible motivation to turn them into positives. Love for something for what is, what it was and what it can be, what remains?

Some more readings:

Focus on what remains, not what we’ve lost – Samantha Dosso

At varying stages in one’s life, many ponder the purpose of their existence, of their role in this macrocosm, on what will outlast over one’s mortal being. Memories fade, wealth diminishes, fame is fickle. what is that really remains? Would it not be more purposeful to lead as more meaning life, now, in the present.

Such a thought has buried inside the potential for leading, not just a more practically joyful life, but s much deeper, spiritually stronger and meaningful life. That, in turn, would draw our attention to a little close to the word ‘remain’ This tiny two-syllable packs within itself a host of implications, the most notable among those being that of TIME.

Indeed, for something to remain, firstly there must have been something that did not really remain. For that something else not to remain, there must have been else must have been in the state of being for some amount of time, and then, at some other point of time, transitioned into a state of non-being.

So, let our search for what remains, let us strive to live a meaningful life as we work towards our goals and aspirations in the new normal, just as we did, just as we have always done and will always do, independent of the TIME.

We will now turn to our regular section -.

We now watch ASQ TV episode on –

We have taken up one article from Jim L. Smith’s Jim’s Gems:

  • Megafamous – The problems with being superfamous or megafamous are varied and persistent:

First, it can corrupt the work. By ignoring the smallest viable audience and focusing on the masses, the creator gives up the focus that can create important work.

Second, the infinity of more can become a gaping hole. Instead of finding solace and a foundation for better work, the bottomless pit of just a little more quickly ceases to be a stimulus and becomes a burden instead.

Trust is worth more than attention, and the purpose of the work is to create meaningful change, not to be on a list.

I look forward to your views / comments / inputs to further enrich the theme of Living a Meaningful Life in a Digital World.

Note: The images or video clips depicted here above are through courtesy of respective websites who have the copyrights for the respective images /videos.

Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs wishes everyone the year 2023 to provide the Meaningful Life in the new normal of Digital World.

 

Please click the hyper link to read /download January 2022 to December 2022 articles on the core subject of Living a Meaningful Life in a Digital World @ Xth Volume of Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs

Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs – Xth Volume – November 2022 Edition

Welcome to November 2022 edition of the Xth volume of Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs.

The theme for the Xth volume of our Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs is inspired from the editorial of the January 2022 special Issue of Prabuddha Bharata (The Awakened India) – Living a Meaningful Life in a Digital World.

For our present episode, we take up the article, Sailing Unprepared in to a Storm Called the ‘Digital Age’ by Anikethan Ramakrishna V.

Here is an excerpt from the article:

Over the time the transitions that human civilization has undergone have been with increase pace of change. But drastic changes were ‘mostly once a generation’. That gave the people necessary time to eventually reorient themselves with the change.

The digital age has been a revolution like no other in human history. Every dimension of the human society is now in constant state of rapid churn.

Our ability to find meaning in life greatly depends on the reasonable stable set of principles and ideas with which we can work towards and an identity with we can relate to. However, abundance of mostly unreliable and irrelevant information is a challenge to us in our quest for an identity and meaning. And hence the challenges in integrating the right amount of digital presence and information.

  • The ‘societal’ and ‘individual perspective – Every significant change in the society has impacts at overall societal level and other at the individual level. The human tendency has always been to go with group, despite having possibly having and exact opposite point of view, at least to begin with. In the process, we tend to forget the freedom of choice that an individual has. This freedom of choice and our ability to exercise it, in many a case, is the difference between a meaningful life and one that is otherwise. Thus, the first step towards ensuring meaningful life in this digital age is through exercising the choice to participate in the digital world to the extent that is necessary and optimal for an individual.

Further readings:

Growing up in a digital world: benefits and risks

Leading concerns about the future of digital life – Kathleen Stansberry, Janna Anderson and Lee Rainie

  • The challenge of ‘How much to’ and ‘How to’ communicate and participate – Historically, owing to geographical and technical constraints, a person’s interactions on a regular basis were mostly limited to the people one would meet in person or could communicate via traditional mail or telephone services. More the level of interaction, stronger was the overall sense of community. However, the seamless communications that the digital world have rapidly ushered in has trivialised the inter-personal communication.

Further readings:

How to overcome 14 common communication challenges in the workplace – Aleksandar Olic

  • The challenge of ‘What to’ and ‘What not to’ be influenced by – A unhealthier aspect of information overload is to influence our ideas and actions, generally without much contemplation. Consequently, the ability to critically dwell on the idea, internalize it if relevant and then if necessary to act on it gets lost. As result, Attention Deficit and Satisfaction Deficit have gained prominence now.

Further readings:

The Challenges of Countering Influence Operations – Elise Thomas,  Natalie Thompson,  Alicia Wanless

How to Increase Your Influence at Work – Rebecca Knight

ADHD:  Symptoms, Causes and Natural Support Strategies – Dr. Jockers

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs – Saul McLeod, PhD

In the end, one must remember that society and individuals will have to live with the on the unending exposure to the information in the digital era. It is for the individual to exercise the choice of the extent and type of information that he would like to be exposed to and how he wants to act on it.  Leveraging this choice is the only means to ensure that we make life meaningful, on the daily basis as well as overall.

We will now turn to our regular section -.

We now watch ASQ TV episode on –

New Job Opportunities for Quality Professionals in Cloud Management – Alka Jarvis is the co-author of Successful Management of Cloud Computing and DevOps (ASQ Quality Press) with Prakash Anand and Johnson Jose. Along with discussing the benefits of cloud storage and how to align your cloud computing strategies with the business objectives, Alka discussed important skills quality professionals already have for getting into this new field.

We have taken up one article from Jim L. Smith’s Jim’s Gems:

  • The Real Value is in the Effort: The effort that we expend to reach a goal or a target is critical to our growth, both professionally and personally. Whether we accomplish the goal or target, perhaps is not the point-it is the learning, strength, confidence and fulfilment that is gained on our journey that is the real value to us and to those who surround us.
    • Anything worth accomplishing usually takes long, difficult and sustained effort to accomplish
    • The real value of accomplishment is in the journey toward reaching our goal.
    • No matter how difficult the journey may be, it makes all the difference in the world when that journey is leading to a destination we have chosen.
    • The commitment, discipline, focus and effort are indeed their own rewards.
    • It is precisely the effort and the value we put into the accomplishment that gives it value to us.
    • We need to commit to make the most of every opportunity and to give our best effort, and we’ll find ourselves surrounded by real, lasting value.

From the Editor’ (of Quality Magazine) – by Darryl Sealand, we have –

  • Roko’s Basilisk: The Scariest Thought Experiment Ever – This thought experiment[1] posits that the creation of an artificial intelligence will lead to an all-powerful, future artificial intelligence that will retroactively punish anyone who did not help bring it into existence. It’s been described by many as the scariest thought experiment ever. The really scary part is that it is grounded in actual rational thought and game theory. … It has been associated with Blaise Pascal’s argument that one should believe in God, even if God’s existence cannot be proved or disproved through reason. Taken to what some would agree is a satirical extreme, it has also been referred to as “Believing in and searching for kryptonite on the off chance that Superman exists and wants to kill you.” ….. Whether bolstered by a legacy of fantastic stories or not, because of the progress of the technology, these kinds of arguments have thrust themselves into real-world discussions of late…. For quite some time in manufacturing, the question was, “Are robots coming to take our jobs?” The answer, then and now, is that robots and AI stand ready to do the job side-by-side with humans, who can relinquish the mundane and repetitive jobs to concentrate on the aspects of the job machines just cannot do. Which means that addressing the skills gap is just as important as it has ever been for manufacturers.

Further readings:

How to Defeat Roko’s Basilisk – Kyle Hill

I look forward to your views / comments / inputs to further enrich the theme of Living a Meaningful Life in a Digital World.

Note: The images or video clips depicted here above are through courtesy of respective websites who have the copyrights for the respective images /videos.

[1]

Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs – Volume X – October 2022 edition

Welcome to October 2022 edition of the Xth volume of Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs.

The theme for the Xth volume of our Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs is inspired from the editorial of the January 2022 special Issue of Prabuddha Bharata (The Awakened India) – Living a Meaningful Life in a Digital World.

For our present episode, we take up the article, Collapsing Separateness by Gitanjali Murari.

Here is an excerpt from the article:

The development of science over last couple of centuries have dramatically broadened the playfield of the human being, serving to emphasize the universality of human life experience in every region of the earth.

Swami Vivekanand explains the miracle of scientific innovation in this illuminative statement: ‘The greatest force is derived from the power of thought. The finer the element, the more powerful it is. The silent power of thought influences people even at distance because the mind is one as well as many. The universe is a cobweb; minds are spiders.’ This has become the reality in the digital age, in the form Internet. People from all parts of the world meet virtually in a matter of seconds in a way that all barriers to knowledge have collapsed.

According to theory of butterfly effect[1], the flap of butterfly’s wings can create a hurricane halfway across the world. The modern internet travels much faster than that, not just over the physical distance, but over the mental distance too. As a result, the distance between minds have collapsed. More than a hundred years ago, in his lecture on ‘Vedanta and Its Application to Indian Life’, Swami Vivekanand had prophesied: ‘Even in politics and sociology, problems that were only national twenty years ago can no more be solved on national grounds only. They are assuming huge proportions, gigantic shapes. They can only be solved at the broader light of international grounds.’  How true this holds even today!

The Internet is continually expanding to accommodate variety. It seems to mimic nature which celebrates variety. This principle applies to humans as well. Not only we look different, but each has unique fingerprints, unique personalities, likes and dislikes, behaviour pattern, our own Gods. In his letter to Justice Subramanya Iyer, dated 3 January, 1895, Swami Vivekanand writes, ‘Jati means creation. I am one, I become many. Unity is before creation, diversity is creation. Now if this diversity is stops, creation is destroyed. So long as species is vigorous and active, it must throw out verities. When it ceases or is stopped from breeding varieties, it dies.’

In the pre-digital era, while the man was thrilled to discover cultures beyond his ken, he also used his power to subjugate indigenous tribes., he either excised or ‘civilized’ them for the sake of maintaining the social status quo. The degree of separation experienced by different societies then, literally and figuratively, spanned oceans. In the same letter to Justice Iyer, referred to earlier, Swami Vivekanand goes on to add, ‘The present caste system is not the real Jati, but a hindrance to its progress. It really has prevented free action of Jati, i.e., caste or variation.’

In the digital age, our interconnectedness – constant sharing of thoughts and ideas – is helping many to find their voice. What was tolerable or acceptable a decade ago is now under minute scrutiny.

The ever-changing nature of human values is reflected in scientific developments. As our need for greater satisfaction evolves, so does technology. Like Maslow, whose hierarchy of needs leads to self-actualization at the very top of the pyramid, Julian Huxley, a biologist and philosopher, believed that man journeys through levels of temporary satisfaction, transcending them one by one to ultimately reach a state of complete and eternal fulfilment. Swami Ranganathananda described this journey as adventure with many heights to conquer’, calling all the people ‘a great line of pilgrims. …. You give up something because you have got something better, something higher, something more valuable. And the highest value is spiritual realization.’.

As humanity continues to chase fulfilment, technologies of future will even be more sophisticated. The gap between inequalities may diminish, but new forms of injustices may also arise. Since we will be more intricately meshed together, the repercussions of these injustices will be swifter and harsher.

To attain equality and freedom, i.e., absolute well-being, is our birth right. Swami Vivekanand emphatically states that this can be acquired only through the knowledge of the Self. All other attempts to achieve absolute welfare, though well intentioned, will be short-lived.

Our struggles for a life full of purpose and consequent everlasting happiness hinges on refining our experiences by sacrificing sole self-interest and moving closer to the source of our absolute well-being.

If there is at all a possibility of a permanent end to our problems, then it lies in being as expansive and as inclusive as the Internet that we have created in being curious about our internal nature and understanding our external nature and allowing the ‘splendour’ within to collapse separateness forever.

More reading:

Man’s Search of Meaning[2] – Victor E. Frankl – While Freud speaks of a “will to pleasure” and Adler speaks of a “will to power,” Frankl focuses on a “will to meaning”, as the primary motivational force in man.

4 Keys to your life’s meaning – Dr. Viktor Frankl

We will now turn to our regular section -.

We now watch ASQ TV episode on –

  • Data Storage And Analysis – With big data comes great responsibility. Quality professionals have the knowledge and the and skills to help manage the challenges.

We have taken up one article from Jim L. Smith’s Jim’s Gems:

  • Organizations Need Committed People to Succeed – To be blunt, if anyone finds they cannot recommit rapidly when the organization must make changes, they should probably go somewhere else where the culture fits their approach. … This is not the same as asking that you be blindly loyal to the organization. That would likely strike you as rather hypocritical anyhow. Some leaders, however, seem to recognize the importance of two-way loyalty. … It is not surprising that employees who trust and respect the organizational leadership often feel more empowered and motivated to do their best – they become a highly committed workforce…. Organizations with a highly committed workforce generally outperform their competitors. However, the worker must get something in return, with both tangible and intangible benefits.  … Commitment is a gift you should give yourself, your family, your friends, and your organization. It can become contagious! Being committed will make your life, and those who surround your life, much more rewarding.

‘From the Editor’ (of Quality Magazine) – by Darryl Sealand, we have –

  • Prepare for the Worst, Hope for the Best – a mantra, made popular by poet and activist Maya Angelou and sales wizard and speaker Zig Ziglar – In its most elaborate form, it is part of exposure therapy, a cognitive behavior therapy.  … In essence saying, even if the worst happens, we will know how to deal with it. … Exposure therapy takes it a step further and, in a very controlled way, turns the activity which one fears doing of into a reality. As we experience doing that over and over again and realizing it does not result in our death, our discomfort with that activity begins to subside. …Individuals, businesses, and governments do roughly the same thing. Have you ever tested an unfamiliar chair by pressing on it to get a sense if it can hold your weight or pulled on a door after you’ve locked it to make sure it is secure? … Possibly nowhere else is this preparedness more evident than in manufacturing, particularly in quality… …. Quality processes not only increase our confidence in the products produced, but also in the health of the organization producing them.  .. One of the processes helping us tackle these risks is Lean manufacturing.  … So, check out Genevieve Diesing’s article, “Why Lean Principles Stand the Test of Time”  …….

I look forward to your views / comments / inputs to further enrich the theme of Living a Meaningful Life in a Digital World.

Note: The images or video clips depicted here above are through courtesy of respective websites who have the copyrights for the respective images /videos.

[1] Chaos: The science of butterfly effect

[2]

Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs – Volume X – September 2022 edition

Welcome to September 2022 edition of the Xth volume of Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs.

The theme for the Xth volume of our Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs is inspired from the editorial of the January 2022 special Issue of Prabuddha Bharata (The Awakened India) – Living a Meaningful Life in a Digital World.

For our present episode, we take up the article, Nature Connectedness: An Avenue to a Meaningful Life in the Digital Age by Sravanti Thutupalli.

Here is an excerpt from the article:

Cleave not the sky. Injure not the mid-space. Be in the harmony with earth.
This sharpened axe has led you to the great good fortune.
Therefore, O you divine Lord of forests, grow with your hundreds of branches.
May we also grow with thousands of branches.

(Yajurveda 5.41)

Beneath the forest floor, lies a network that connects – often called as Wood Wide Web – that connects nearly all the plants on the earth. This network, made of mycorrhizal fungi, shares resources preventing neighbouring plants from dying and other parasite resources.

This example that reminds us of inextricable links between all of life, is strongly similar to the internet of the present digital world. This natural network is repository of huge amount of data that emanates from, and controls, the exact cyclical happenings in the nature. So is our generic makeup in the form of DNA. As far as we know, DNA is the source code for all life. Like binary coding in the digital technology, DNA has four constituent digits – A, T, G and C. This digital nature of DNA code enables us to take genes from one and transfer it to another organism. This unifying language of DNA is translated into the wondrous diversity of life on earth.

However, there is an inherent interplay between the underlying digital character of nature and our experiences with its many analogue forms.  Although our experiences with the innumerable analogue manifestations of natural phenomena are being recorded as information stored and transmitted in the digital form, these cannot be always broken down into the simplifying codes.

The Panchakoshas elucidiated in the Taittriya Upanishad mediate our experiences –

    • Annamaya Kosha – expreinces of our gross body
    • Pranayama Kosha – our life energy
    • Manomaya Kosha – our mind
    • Vijnanamaya Kosha – the intellect, and
    • Anandmaya Kosha – the state of eternal bliss

Nurturing and transcending the Kosha from the grosses (Annamaya) to the subtlest (Anandmaya) provides the path towards meaningful experiences into a subtler and more pervasive substratum until all are resolved into the pure awareness.

Thus, our body and its senses, are valuable sources of knowledge of the material world and as the vehicles for action that provides the means to travel inwards more meaningful experience.

The sustained engagement with nature (gardening, family-get-togethers etc.) and digital technology (long hours of work on digital devices) require our total attention and hence lead to some degree of temporal dissonance causing us the lose the track of time.

However, there are important cognitive and neurocognitive differences between the two experiences. There are some activities during which happen with ‘smooth and accurate performance with an acute absorption in the task’ to the point of time dissociations and dissociative tendencies. Such a state is also called the ‘flow state’ and is achieved during self-fulfilling activities.

Flow experiences strongly diminish identification of Self with the body and thereby provide the means to transcend the Aannamaya Kosha.

The challenge of our present lifestyles lies in getting rid of the constant distractions (social media notifications) that require low levels of skills and challenges.

Truly identifying the unity of nature’s mycorrhizal fungal network and the digital internet can provide the route to transcending the material and physical world and nurture the pranamaya kosha.

It is this loss of nature connectedness – identification with nature – that is said to have led to the disconnect with the purpose of our life. Ecological self-theory proposed that nature connectedness and spirituality are strongly linked.  This positive link is what leads us to attain optimal psychological functioning and our true potential. The nature connectedness helps in removing our false notion of dualism – looking upon God and the world as two distinct or different things – to realise our true nature, to realize that basis of human existence is not set apart from the nature.

When the digital technology seems to intrude into every nook and corner of our lives.  It becomes imperative that we do limit ‘digitisation’ of our many experiences simply for the sake of either ease of doing something otherwise felt difficult or for the sake of storage of information.

Such a perspective lends itself to cooperation and harmony – both found in abundance in nature – with the nature. The conflicts of interests also do exist in the nature, but nature operates by ‘a set of rules for negotiating conflicts in a way that resolve them’.  Unfortunately, as the mankind has made more scientific progress(?!), it has led to conditioning of its Vijnanamaya kosha that demonstrates in our investment in our bodies and lower mental functions, further manifested in the self-perception that nature is for the us to exploit. It has been growing so unchecked that we have brought the nature to the point of extinction. The inventions and innovations that solve today’s problems create more complicated problems of tomorrow. If one needs any corroboration, just look the way digital technology uses rare metals and, in the end, creates mountains of most hazardous wastes.

The way human creativity is cultivated, the self is positioned in the heart of the object (the entire external reality), and yet stands outside it. However, the fact is that creativity is a thread in the very fabric of what it means to be human and a path to the subtlest of the koshas – the Anandmaya kosha. While making any new developments, we need to ask ourselves a simple question – whether we are bringing ourselves to the nature. If we put it spiritually, the question should be – our nurturing our creativity to further nurture the sheaths of Panchakoshas to ensure our progress from gross to the subtle.

The nature’s nature has so incredible, awe-inspiring experiences to offer, that we ‘stand on the shoulder of the giants.’ It is for us to find the meaning of our lives that support the giants of tomorrow on our shoulders.

Further readings:

We will now turn to our regular section -.

We now watch ASQ TV episode on –

  • Cloud Advantages And Aligning To Business Objectives – Alka Jarvis, the co-author of Successful Management of Cloud Computing and DevOps (ASQ Quality Press), sat down with ASQTV to discuss the benefits of cloud storage and how to align your cloud computing strategies with the business objectives.

We have taken up one article from Jim L. Smith’s Jim’s Gems:

  • Elusive Quality: Quality Doesn’t Just Happen – it’s time we got back to basic quality principles. We talk about getting to the root cause of problems. Well, we need to get to the root results of our actions by ensuring all projects include measurements to ensure quality. It’s critical to measure the level of customer satisfaction, improvement in mean time to failure (MTTF), reducing percent defective, preventing product recalls, and lowering return rates – not just focus on dollars saved, inventory turns, or process performance.

Quality just doesn’t happen; it must be nurtured every day with every action and project. The real quality objective is to achieve increasingly better products and services. As many organizations have discovered, without focusing on quality, the wrong measures can lead to negative results!

I look forward to your views / comments / inputs to further enrich the theme of Living a Meaningful Life in a Digital World.

Note: The images or video clips depicted here above are through courtesy of respective websites who have the copyrights for the respective images /videos.

Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs – Volume X – August 2022 Edition

Welcome to August 2022 edition of the Xth volume of Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs.

The theme for the Xth volume of our Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs is inspired from the editorial of the January 2022 special Issue of Prabuddha Bharata (The Awakened India) – Living a Meaningful Life in a Digital World.

For our present episode, we take up the article, When Virtual gets Real: Screening Life in Digital Era by Kanchan Gogate.

Here is an excerpt from the article:

Today life moves so much at our fingertips, literally, that sans social media we feel out of touch, not only of outside world, but with us as well.  However, the penetrative and far-reaching technology has caused alarms for its impact on mind, brain, consciousness, and the overall quality of life.

The ‘actual’ problem of the technological era is not just limited to digital addition, but the understating of what it means to live in a time where life is technology-driven.

The Covid-19 pandemic pushed the school-going children as well as working class adults in the service industries to the increased use of internet for their studies and work respectively. In another parallel development, the teens and adults in all age groups also have turned to internet for the use of their leisure time through the streaming media content.

The net result was that these internet users got addicted to the screen of a digital device. On one hand the excessive usage of digital devices drove these people away from the human contact, making them vulnerable to loneliness, escapism, poor sleep quality and even depression but also to cyberbullying and at times to even addition to pornographic sites.

(The virtual reality of) internet technology came up a solution to constraints of location and time, but lack of poise also seems to be creating it into (a reality of) a problematic solution.

Another side effect is what is now known as Google Syndrome, wherein patients google the syndromes and also conclude not only the disease but the treatment well before the official diagnosis. In turn, they also have started distrusting the official diagnosis of a proper doctor.

This can still be termed as tip of the iceberg, with AI, VR technologies increasing digitization and automation coverage of homes, personal and social entertainment and work. Even though AI technologies can be superior and competent to a human brain on several parameters, it does not have the capability of the brain to evoke that consciousness which takes the mind beyond the material process.[1]

How can we understand our true self if we are disconnected even from our functional reality.

The solution lies in the practice of tapas / discipline to recognise that however intelligent or qualified, Time is the only resource that we can never get back once its is lost. The pertinent question that we need to ask ourselves is – is our use of digital technology improving the (real) quality of our life?

We also need to question ourselves – what is the change you want to make in this world?

The way we answer these questions will guide us towards (self)discipline/ swadharma and a meaningful life of contribution – towards the self-first, and then to the society.

Some more readings:

    • THE BRAIN WITH DR. DAVID EAGLEMAN (w.t.), six one-hour episodes that tell the story of the inner workings of the brain and take viewers on a visually spectacular journey into why they feel and think the things they do.
  • @ TEDxAlamo 10/29/09, Dr. Eagleman gave compelling examples of how reality is a matter of individual perception and how Nature’s adaptions function as “plug ins” for the brain.
  • David Eagleman, in conversation with Sadguru as they discuss a variety of subjects, ranging from different parts of the mind, the concept of time, quantum mechanics, religion, and meditation.
  • Mind the Gap Between Perception and Reality | Sean Tiffee | TEDxLSCTomball

We will now turn to our regular section -.

We now watch ASQ TV episode on –

We have taken up one article from Jim L. Smith’s Jim’s Gems:

Tips for success (Part 1 and Part 2) – focus on important actions:

  • Focus on end goals.
  • Make crisis an ally
  • Solicit input
  • Do not trust non-statistical metrics
  • Focus on vital metrics
  • Cost of Poor Quality (CoPQ) must be known
  • Improvement does not always centre on hard assets
  • Enhance employee worth
  • Take action

‘From the Editor’ (of Quality Magazine) – by Darryl Sealand, we have –

  • Focus More or Less – In science, Focal Point is the point at which rays of light, heat, or sound meet after being reflected. In geology, it is the place inside the Earth’s crust where an earthquake originates. … When applied to the human brain, focus is defined as a centre of activity, attraction, or attention, or a point of concentration. … However, the same amount of fanfare surrounds a somewhat diametrically opposed idea, that of multi-tasking – the opposite of hyper-focus. … A rather famous experiment – called The Invisible Gorilla – attempts to address some aspects of hyper-concentration versus multi-tasking by revealing the numerous ways that our intuitions can deceive us.[2] The authors, Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons, concluded that the experiment reveals two things, “that we are missing a lot of what goes on around us, and that we have no idea that we are missing so much.” … Some recent studies… suggest that our brains don’t really have the ability to concentrate on many things at once, but some of us are better at turning our concentration quickly from one task to the next and are simply better at organizing the thoughts and attention to be able to “bounce” from one task to another and back again with seemingly more ease than others.

Further Reading:

    • Seeing the world as it isn’t | Daniel Simons | TEDxUIUC
    • TEDxUIUC – Daniel Simons – Counter-Intuition

I look forward to your views / comments / inputs to further enrich the theme of Living a Meaningful Life in a Digital World.

Note: The images or video clips depicted here above are through courtesy of respective websites who have the copyrights for the respective images /videos.

[1] Swami Sarvapriyananda | Consciousness — The Ultimate Reality | Talks at Google

[2]