Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs – Volume XII – April 2024 Edition

Welcome to April 2024 edition of the XII^th volume of Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs.

The theme for the XII^th volume of our Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs is The Defining Trends of Quality Management – Raising The Bar.

For the present episode, we will take up knowledge sharing within and outside the stakeholders.

Knowledge sharing is capturing, managing, and distributing key information within an organization.

The gap between what the organization knows and what it needs to know to succeed can be reduced by:

• by encouraging communication between teams and departments.
• By creating central repository for knowledge and best practices whereat the employees document their knowledge and any essential information about their job
• By creating a centralized tool whereat all data is so stored that employees don’t waste time looking for what they need.[1]

A prerequisite to understanding the economics of Knowledge Management is to define the typical stakeholders in a corporation in the midst of a KM initiative.

The four levels of knowledge management[2]:

Level	Activity
1	Information Management
2	Knowledge Sharing
3	Sensemaking, Decision Making & Innovation
4	Agency and Communityship

While the difficulty of sharing knowledge is in transferring knowledge from one entity to another, it may prove profitable for organizations to acknowledge the difficulties of knowledge transfer and adopt new knowledge management strategies accordingly

Further reading:

What is knowledge management?

Becoming a knowledge sharing organization

Essentials of Knowledge Management by Bryan Bergeron

The Ultimate Guide to Organizational Knowledge Sharing

Next Level of Knowledge Sharing – Insights from an SME

We now turn to our regular sections.

Finally, we take up the article Lean with Lazarus: Don’t Close the Door on the Most Basic Quality Principles – If the culture in your organization is essentially “do the best you can,” then you really need to take a closer look at these methods – Airplane travel is indeed the safest way to get from point A to point B, with a 1 in 11 million chance of being involved in a fatal crash. But when the chair of the NTSB suggests the airline industry has a “quality control problem,” it’s fair to demand that the industry ensure some of the most fundamental practices are not just acknowledged, but put into practice every day. Here are a few practices that might benefit a process known to produce missing bolts.

Fewer handoffs: Labor intensive processes are already error-prone, and the likelihood of an error increases exponentially when one worker is handing off responsibility to another. Perform a thorough value stream or swim-lane analysis to reveal all the handoffs in your process. Then redesign the process to eliminate or at least minimize them. Solve this problem for the last time.

Error Proofing. Envision a process that is incapable of producing an error, and you have the right mindset to start. In actual practice, the goal is to “make it easy to do the right thing,” and that takes the form of unambiguous job aides, visual controls, and forced functions.

Mindfulness.  The purpose of mindfulness is to be in the present moment, free of distractions, with full concentration on the task at hand. Multi-tasking is inconsistent with mindfulness because while computers may be able to multi-task efficiently, human beings cannot. We ultimately sub-optimize most of the activities we are trying to accomplish when we are either multi-tasking, or otherwise not fully present.

Only a relentless quality team can ensure that when it comes to the bolts, they are in the right place, at the right time, and at the right tension.

 

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

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] 7 Best Knowledge-Sharing Tools in 2024

[2] Four levels of knowledge management

Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs – Volume XII – March 2024 Edition

Welcome to March 2024 edition of the XII^th volume of Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs.

The theme for the XII^th volume of our Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs is The Defining Trends of Quality Management – Raising The Bar.

For the present episode, we will take up managing the enterprise risks in the changing environment.

With the implementation of ISO 9001:2015, risks and opportunities have become the cornerstone of ISO standards. These standards define risk as “the effect of uncertainty on objectives, whether positive or negative.” This definition shifts the understanding of risk away from the possibility of a negative outcome and toward the uncertainty itself.

The world today is in the throes of permacrisis – a world in permanent crisis, grappling with profound, persistent, ongoing challenges.[1]

In the present-day world, the uncertainty comes not only from the changes but the rate at which these changes happen. The firms able to effectively deliver change will thrive and are more likely to emerge stronger from these changes. Effective change boils down to directing energy and aligning efforts toward three key elements:[2]

• The strategy and thinking (The Head)

• The people and behaviors (The Heart)

• The underlying infrastructure (The Guts)

The types of risks are normally classified as:

Of these risks, financial, economic and technological risks are the domains of specialists in the respective field. So, we will not include these in the discussions here. We ill take up the other three types – strategic, compliance and operational risks for brief discussion in the next episodes.

And, of course, the one related to climate change risks, too.

Further reading:

• • Risk management – Harvard Business Review
  • Managing risks in changing market landscape
  • Business Resilience – The world is experiencing a level of disruption and business risk not seen in generations. Some companies freeze and fail, while others innovate, advance, and even thrive. The difference is resilience. : Institutional Resilience | Financial Resilience | Operational Resilience | Technological Resilience | Organizational Resilience | Reputational Resilience | Business Model
  • The future of risk: New game, new rules
    • Resilience – When disruptions are ever present, organizations need the ability to respond to and recover from unforeseen challenges to get back to thriving. This resilience has become a key organizational attribute—and a skillset in its own right.
  • Risk management and compliance can do more than mitigate threats and safeguard a company’s operations and reputation—it can create value.
  • Future of Risk
  • Risk Management Forecast for 2024: Defining Trends and Ways to Prepare

We will now turn to our regular sections –

@ ASQ TV, we will listen to 2023 Most Viewed. The top one was Quality Culture.

More Material on the subject @ Culture

Finally, we take up the article Quality Headline: ISO now REQUIRES management to consider “climate change’ in your MSS By Roderick A Munro – Effective immediately, all MSS requirements have added two new statements to organization’s current registration.(These can be found across 35 standards with the notation of “Amd 1:2024 (amendment)” and are free to download..)

The additions are:

4.1 – Add the following sentence at the end of the subclause:

“The organization shall determine whether climate change is a relevant issue.”

4.2 – Add the following note at the end of the subclause:

“NOTE 2 Relevant interested parties can have requirements related to climate change.”

It appears that ISO has also released several free publications talking about how ISO is working with worldwide stakeholders to address climate change. Some of the free downloads include:

PUB100449 Climate change adaptation

PUB100271 Environment Climate Change mitigation

PUB100067 ISO and climate change

ISO Climate Action Toolkit

Climate action toolkit: case studies

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

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] Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) Trends in 2024

[2] Managing change risk – Ramy Farha, Chris DeBrusk, and Antonio Tugores

Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs – Volume XII – February 2024 Edition

Welcome to February 2024 edition of the XII^th volume of Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs.

The theme for the XII^th volume of our Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs is The Defining Trends of Quality Management – Raising The Bar.

In 2023, we had taken up the quality perceptions relating to competitiveness, continuous improvement and business purpose. For the present episode, we will take up quality perceptions in terms customer expectations.

The most important change in the customer expectation is that it has moved away from product quality as the differentiator of customer satisfaction to an increase in value as well as right performance, service, design as the basis of meaningful experiences that resonate with their values and aspirations.  The customers expect an experience – fast delivery, impeccable service, and a seamless, personalised user journey from start to finish.

The customer expectations are no more static now; they are perpetually evolving, influenced by a host of factors including technological advancements, social dynamics, and increased access to real-time information.

Further reading:

• • Customer Expectations: 10 Key Expectations to remember to have happy and loyal customers.
  • Learn why customer expectations are important to understand as a game-changer – Päivi Meriläinen – key takeaways found in the original Part 1: Chapter 3 of Services marketing: integrating customer focus across the firm, 3rd European edition.
  • Understanding customer expectations: Types, management tips, and examples – According to the Zendesk Customer Experience Trends Report 2023, 73 percent of consumers will switch to a competitor if they have multiple bad experiences. Prevent your customers from running for the exit by positioning yourself as a customer-first company.
  • The Hacker’s Guide to Customer Experience – The handbook for detailed understanding of Customer Experience – What it really is, how to implement it and above all, how to increase it using tested and concrete methodologies.
  • How Customer Expectations Are Shaping the Future of the Supply Chain – The modern supply chain is no longer merely a behind-the-scenes operational necessity; it has become a critical strategic asset for companies.
  • The Future of Supply Chain Quality Management – Use Quality 4.0 to enhance your customer experience – for quality leaders to understand the connection between shifting customer expectations and Quality 4.0.
  • (Customer) Experience is everything – Speed. Convenience. Consistency. Friendliness. And human touch—that is, creating real connections by making technology feel more human and giving employees what they need to create better customer experiences.
  • The secret ingredients of great hospitality – Will Guidara|TED@BCG – Restaurateur Will Guidara’s life changed when he decided to serve a two-dollar hot dog in his fancy four-star restaurant, creating a personalized experience for some out-of-town customers craving authentic New York City street food. In this funny and heartwarming talk, he shares three steps to crafting truly memorable moments centered in human connection – no matter what business you’re in.

We will now turn to our regular sections –

• • @ ASQ TV, we will listen to Customer Expectations: Quality and Technology.

More Material on the subject @ Customer Experience

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

• • By Hook or By Crook: We often hear phrases like “gaining a competitive advantage,” or even words like “leverage,” which, along with “by any means necessary” are often ambiguous. It can often be difficult to determine where the line is between a positive advantage and cheating.

Quality—whether described as the measurement and inspection of parts and products or as process control and continuous improvement in manufacturing—can help before, during, and after such events. It can even go as far as to protect reputation, particularly with the ambiguity around the term competitive advantage.

It reminds me of yet another popular proverb. We need to go back even further than 13^th century England to the Roman Empire.

“Caesar’s wife must be beyond reproach.” It was said of Caesar’s wife, Pompeia. In her case, it meant, “If one is romantically involved with a famous or prominent figure, one must avoid attracting negative attention or scrutiny.” It is also true of the people and processes close to, or part of, a well-known entity, like a manufacturing operation, and those people and processes should be beyond reproach, far beyond merely protecting the brand, but especially if the “unthinkable” were to occur.

In fact, quality can even help in clearing up the ambiguity of cheating versus gaining competitive advantage. Take, for instance, DeflateGate: “Unraveling the Tom Brady DeflateGate” .

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

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 XII – January 2024 Edition

Welcome to January 2024 edition of the XII^th volume of Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs.

The theme for the XII^th volume of our Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs is The Defining Trends of Quality Management – Raising The Bar. It in fact is the extension of the 2023 theme – The Defining Trends of Quality Management – An Analytical Survey.

The 2023 remained under shadows of uncertainty caused by changing work place culture on account of latent and unforeseen effects of work-from-home practices, fluid global geo-political scenario, recession dominated thinking of the economic issues, etc. These issues remain even more relevant as we enter 2024. The unpredictability continues to define the trend.[1]

Predicting how things will evolve is challenging, and much will depend on the choices we make throughout the year. To mitigate this uncertainty, the world of quality management increasingly emphasizes the importance of the ‘best practice’ concept. Best practices refer to methods or techniques proven in practice as the most effective solutions to address specific problems. The constant pursuit of improvement and the ability to anticipate changing conditions and processes are key components for maintaining and refining these best practices. It’s an ongoing process, something we’ve become accustomed to, as quality management is inherently an ongoing process.

At the beginning of 2023 we had identified the following trends:

1. 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

We had covered the quality perceptions relating to competitiveness, continuous improvement and business purpose during 2023. We shall now take up more topics from the foregoing trends with a view to explore the inputs to the enhanced abilities of quality personnel to be able to anticipate the changing conditions and to maintain and refine the best practices related to it.

More reading:

• • • • • “What does quality management look like in 2025, and how do I prepare for it?” – Gartner webinar

We will now turn to our regular section -.

We take up Greta Cutulenco’s article – Shifting Left in Manufacturing Quality: The future of quality in manufacturing is predictive – this month:

Increasing pressures such as supply chain disruptions, accelerating product cycles, the greying workforce, and increasing consumer demand for complex electronic products mean that manufacturers must do more with less… and do it faster. Manufacturing quality teams are put in a tough position; they must improve quality while maintaining or increasing production volumes.

The truth is, quality teams are working with tools that were not designed to handle the speed and complexity of today’s manufacturing environment. In order to affect critical quality metrics like scrap, rework, or First Time Yield, they need a new method to manage quality. Not only that, but this new method must make enough of an impact to offset the cost of implementing it.

The methods used to manage quality today were largely introduced in the 20^th century. Incremental improvements have been made in areas such as the improved application of statistical process control (SPC), vision inspection, and automation, but the foundation – ? managing the quality primarily by detecting defects – of quality management is still the same.

A product is manufactured with no defects occurring, passing both quality gates.

A Product is manufactured with a defect occurring at Operation 3, and failing the final quality gate.

There is a lot of waste happening in the way quality is managed:

• • • • • Defects are often discovered long after they occur, wasting power and materials
        • Defects detected too late result in unnecessary scrap and rework
        • Data is being collected and stored from testing and process but it isn’t fully used
        • Resources are put toward root cause analysis but it doesn’t always improve the process

A new method to manage quality must not only offer improved value in the form of improving quality, but it must address these areas of waste. That new paradigm is called predictive quality. With predictive quality, quality management happens in real time during the manufacturing operations, not after it.

Traditional quality model vs Predictive quality model

With the help of predictive quality model, manufacturers will be able to see defects coming and intervene even before they happen. If a defect still managed to occur, the solution could also leverage the process data to run an automated root cause analysis report, reducing the time spent solving an issue by hours or days.

There are three critical Industry 4.0 technologies which, when combined, can bring the dream of predictive quality to life: data collection, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing.

In order to offer practical value, a predictive quality solution needs to be actively integrated into the shop floor ecosystem.

Like it or not, predictive quality is coming.

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

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] Unpredictability continues to define the trend

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

Welcome to December 2023 edition of the XI^th volume of Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs.

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

In an effort to skim a little deeper into the “purpose” of the business, we have tried to understand ‘Why’ of the purpose of the business. In this episode we will look at The Purpose of the Business in the Context of Future with The Basics of What of Defining the Purpose w. r. t. The Golden Circle initiated by Simon Sinek.

The purpose” is used in three senses: competence (“the function that our product serves”); culture (“the intent with which we run our business”); and cause (“the social good to which we aspire”). Any exploration of purpose begins with recognizing that these agendas are valid inputs to the process.

Although every company needs a cause for the purpose, not every cause of purpose must take the form of a social cause. Improving ESG performance (especially in areas that are most material in your industry) is good for business. But it is distinct from the purpose of a business. [1]

Further reading: Spotlight Series / Making Purpose Real

The Purpose of “Purpose” typically should pass the tests that:

• It feels unique to the company,
• there are facts, and details to support it by showing what it looks like in action, and
• all employees can have a sense of how they are contributing directly to something that is bigger than the company itself.

This brief discussion makes it evident that finding the purpose is a lifelong journey. When you develop your core values and stop seeking external affirmation, you’ll find that the question of “What is my purpose in life?” is much easier to answer.[2]

Some more readings:

• • Four ways to put your purpose to work in 2021 – Monica Dimitracopoulos
  • Creating a Meaningful Corporate Purpose – Hubert Joly
  • Quality 4.0: The Future of Quality?
  • Business is about purpose: R. Edward Freeman at TEDxCharlottesville 2013
  • Articles @ Purpose and Values

As a part of efforts to define ‘what’ of the purpose for the quality management of business, during 2024 we will continue to explore various defining trends in the way quality management shapes up to brace the future challenges .

We will now turn to our regular section -.

We will revisit the major events in 2023, @ASQ, so as to look forward to these events in 2024 with a view to remain abreast with current thinking in so far as quality management is concerned:

• •   2023 Women in Quality Symposium
  •   2023 Audit Division Conference
  •   2023 Innovation for Excellence Summit 
  •   2023 Improving Measurement Confidence and Reducing Risk
  •   2023 ASQ Quality Innovations Summit (formerly named Quality 4.0 Summit)
  •   2023 World Conference on Quality & Improvement

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

• • Puzzles and the Art of Solving Them – Like other puzzles—and any other endeavour—the key to a solution is an understanding of the rules and the tools to lead you to the solution. However, the strategy is much like a Swiss army knife, the more tools you have at your disposal, the better opportunity to complete tasks.

For further reading:

“The Force of Decision Rules,”

“Multisensor Metrology Systems: Quality’s Swiss Army Knife,”

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Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs wishes everyone the year 2024 to smoothly remain abreast with the Defining Trends in the way Quality Management shapes up to brace the future challenges.

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Please click the hyper link to read /download January 2023 to December 2023 articles on the core subject of The Defining Trends of Quality Management – An Analytical Survey @ XI^th Volume of Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs.

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I look forward to your views / comments / inputs to further enrich the theme of the Defining Trends in the way Quality Management shapes up to brace the future challenges.

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 Purpose of Your Purpose? – Jonathan Knowles, B. Tom Hunsaker, Hannah Grove, Alison James

[2] What is my purpose? – Team Tony

 

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

Welcome to November 2023 edition of the XI^th volume of Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs.

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

In an effort to skim a little deeper into the “purpose” of the business, we have tried to understand ‘Why’ of the purpose of the business. In this episode we will look at The Basics of How of Defining the Purpose w. r. t. The Golden Circle initiated by Simon Sinek.

Companies and people know HOW they do what they do and can typically communicate these processes clearly. HOWs are often utilized to explain that a product or service is better than a competitor’s—but HOWs can be so much more than that.

Our HOWs are the actions we take when we are at our natural best and are living out our WHY. It’s HOW you bring your WHY to life that makes you and your company unique. As a result, the combination of your WHY and HOWs is like your organization’s fingerprint.[1]

The classic dilemma of balancing profit and social goals is further complicated by the implications of too rapid changes caused by the advances of the digital technology. The resulting confusion raises doubted about ‘why’ of we had defined our business purpose before the tidal waves of technological changes had started hitting (what we then understood as) our ‘core purpose’. Fortunately, a ‘how to’ playbook has stated emerging as more and more companies have started reflecting over the ‘purpose gap’ seeming to get wider because of the disconnects between public perceptions of business and its potential for good, or between employees’ desire for meaning at work versus what they experience.

The precursor to action to put purpose at the core of the future business model is embracing the emotion and complexity associated with hard work on purpose. In order to realize this everyone for top leadership to every relevant stakeholders have to align their individual and collective thought processes personal and emotional. Reflecting on the questions presented at Side Bar to the article Corporate purpose: Shifting from why to how: Questioning The Purpose can help them test whether they are acting with the necessary authenticity and boldness

Pushing the company to define and live its purpose consistently means challenging the status quo in ways that may be unsettling. Championing such change requires leading with empathy means developing a broad future vision that extends beyond the problem at hand, inspiring and building trust with others by finding common ground and leading by example.

At this let us accept that there are no definitive and complete answers to these difficult questions. One thing we have to be convinced of, though, is that the only way to bridge a purpose gap is to embed everyone’s reflection, exploration, discussion, and action in the heart of your business and your organization. Also, let a necessary precondition for any of that, and then taking up the steps for moving ahead, be undermined: sizing up where you are, including your vulnerabilities; clarifying how your purpose connects with your company’s “superpower”; organizing with purpose in mind; and measuring and managing purpose so that it really becomes part of your core DNA.[2]

Additional Reading:

• • How to define your business purpose, models and strategies
  • Understanding Your Why In Business Through The Eight Purpose Archetypes – Stan Phelps
  • Creating a meaningful Corporate Purpose – Hubert Joly
  • How do you communicate purpose effectively – Chris Andrew
  • Your business purpose: How to discover your organisation’s compass – Nick Butler

In our next episode, we will end our discussion on The Purpose of the Business in the Context of Future with The Basics of What of Defining the Purpose.

We will now turn to our regular section -.

We now watch ASQ TV episode on –

• • Effective Communication Using Quality Tools – Sam Yankelevitch, CEO, Xpress Lingo Solutions, discusses the importance of using quality tools to improve invisible processes like communication to positively impact our physical processes.

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

• • Where Does it End? Usually Depends on Where You Start

There is an old saying: Garbage in, garbage out. It is a reference to the need for any creative, quality end product to start with quality, reproducible material. Imagine the Mona Lisa being painted with used motor oil and an old sponge. There’s a chance it wouldn’t be hanging in the Louvre, even if Da Vinci’s vision was that of the most beautiful woman in the world.

These sayings exist to help us remember that the end is dictated by how we start and carry the process through. But what happens when something in the process does go wrong? In manufacturing, we have root cause analysis and process monitoring.

As Carl Bramley writes, “Any physical manufactured product is made of something—its fundamental material is the baseline on which its functionality and usefulness are built. Neglecting materials testing can be the root cause of final product failure in service and damage a brand’s profitability and reputation. Quality materials are the route to quality products.”

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] The Golden Circle – Simon Sinek

[2] Corporate purpose: Shifting from why to how :McKinzey and Company

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

Welcome to September 2023 edition of the XI^th volume of Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs.

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

In an effort to skim a little deeper into the “purpose” of the business, we had paused in our last episode at why should  we think about and understand the question “why” in the first place before How of  ‘Moving from Why to How’. Presently, we take up:  Why We Need to Understand Why? ….

A human being is a curious creature. In fact, it is curiosity is one of those basic characteristics that differentiates the human being from the other animals.

Let us revisit The Golden Circle concept initiated by Simon Sinek. There are three parts of The Golden Circle: Why, How, and What.

Very few people or companies can clearly articulate why they do what they do. This isn’t about running a profitable company—that’s a result. Why is all about your purpose. Why does your company exist? Why do you get out of bed in the morning? And why should anyone care?

The Golden Circle matches the way our brain operates.

Limbic Brain: The middle two sections make up our limbic brain and are responsible for all of our feelings, like trust and loyalty. This roughly corresponds with the “Why” level. This area of the brain is responsible for all human behavior and all our decision making.

We want to be around people and organizations who are like us and share our beliefs.

The “Why” does not come from looking ahead at what you want to achieve and then figuring out an appropriate strategy to get there. It is not born out of market research or for that matter even extensive interviews with customers or employees. It comes from looking in the completely opposite direction from where you are right now. Finding the “Why” is a process of discovery, not invention.

Behind every “Why” type of leader, is a “How” type of leader who brings the “Why” to life. The vision is the founder’s intent, “Why” the company was founded. The mission is a description of “How” the company will create that future.[1]

To find your “Why” you need to begin a practice of self-awareness. Everyone’s “Why” is hidden in a different place and can be uncovered in many different ways. Here are the most common areas of your life to start looking:

• • Your Values
  • Your Motivations
  • Your Passions
  • Your Strengths [2]

The top reason employees resist change is because they lack awareness about the purpose and reason for the change.[3]

The Prosci ADKAR Model

More Readings:

• • Causal Inference
  • 10 Things to Know About Causal Inference – Macartan Humphreys
  • What is Causal Inference? – Steven Kleinegesse highlights some of the main aspects of causal inference, including average treatment effect estimation, the difference between causal inference and Bayesian inference, and some concepts from Judea Pearl’s do-Calculus.
  • What is causal inference, and why should data scientists know? – Ludvig Hult – Causal Inference is the art of drawing robust conclusions from nonexperimental data.
  • Causal Analysis
  • The Types of Thinking
  • Causal Inference: What If (the book) – Hernán MA, Robins JM (2020) – Boca Raton: Chapman & Hall/CRC
  • Causal Analysis vs. Root Cause Analysis: Detailed Comparison – Eliza Taylor

We will take up How of ‘Moving from Why to How’ in our next episode.

We will now turn to our regular section -.

We now watch ASQ TV episode on –

• • • The Cause-and-Effect Diagram – In this episode we take a closer look at one of the most essential quality tools everyone should master: the cause-and-effect diagram. Also please read: ASQ’s “Learn About Quality” Fishbone Diagram

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

• • • Data Mining: Making the Right Connections – Discriminating thoroughness: Data mining is a useful, and well used, tool in many industries. More useful, however, is a targeted and concise analysis of the data collected.

In fact, making meaningful connections is now a reading comprehension strategy, strangely enough called Making Connections, which is being taught to grade school students. The strategy involves linking what is being read to what the reader already knows whether it is from their personal experience or from other things they have read. While personal experience may have a greater impact, both reference to personal experience and other text is said to increase comprehension in what is being read, particularly in early childhood development.

In the auto industry, another step forward in this idea could be connected worker technology. As author Eric Whitley writes in his article, “5 Important Ways Connected Worker Tech Benefits the Automotive Industry,”: “As our world becomes increasingly influenced by digital innovation, the rise of connected worker technology[4] marks a significant turning point in our approach to industrial operations.”

Particularly for the quality industry, it’s not only about analyzing data, but also the analysis of our systems and operations.

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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] A 12-Minute Summary of “Start With Why” by Simon Sinek

[2] Find Your Why to Get Unstuck – STEPHEN WARLEY

[3] Understanding Why People Resist Change – Tim Creasey

[4] The connected worker

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

Welcome to September 2023 edition of the XI^th volume of Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs.

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

In an effort to skim a little deeper into the “purpose” of the business, in our last episode, we had paused  at ‘Moving from Why to How’. Presently, we take up the first part:  Why the Purpose of the Business Matters? ….

Milton Freidman wrote that there is “one and only one social responsibility of business – to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits, so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud.” (Capitalism and Freedom, Milton Friedman, 1962)

In five and a half decades since that declaration, the global economic centre of gravity has shifted. The rules of the game of business, the game itself, and the arena in which it is played no longer bear any resemblance to what it was just a decade before.

“Investments in people may have short-term costs,” says Mark Weinberger, Global Chairman and CEO, EY, “but that kind of long-term thinking is critical in a world of inclusive growth. Indeed, one of business’s most important contributions to society is driving sustainable, long-term growth while investing in solutions for the challenges of tomorrow.”

This is why “Friedman’s perspective and the prevailing views of the world today aren’t entirely in conflict,” says Weinberger. “In fact, businesses today are finding that doing good also means doing well. For instance, companies with an established sense of purpose – one that’s measured in terms of social impact, such as community growth, and not a certain bottom-line figure – outperformed the S&P 500 by 10 times between 1996 and 2011.”

In the context of the corporation, this mindset essentially reflects a growing desire by stakeholders at all levels in organizations to have a purpose beyond the balance sheet: one that contributes a positive impact in the wider world.

6 reasons why purpose is becoming more important:

1. 1. Trust deficit – across the public in general, and employees, investors, customers and other supply chain stakeholders in particular
   2. Sustainability – With climate change currently high on the societal agenda, more companies are under public and regulatory scrutiny about their environmental impact.
   3. Social inequality – Of the world’s population, 1% now controls more than 50% of the planet’s wealth. The anger at this inequality being expressed at ballot boxes around the world.
   4. Diminishing brand control, rising social media – The public has proven adept at harnessing social media to propagate their influence and opinions on unfulfilled brand promises around the world in seconds – faster and more effectively than any news organization could.
   5. Demand for longer-term thinking – growing number believe that companies have an obligation to address long-term global environmental and social challenges – the so-called Triple Bottom Line.
   6. Digitization – Threats and opportunities – The instantaneous inter-connectedness between stakeholders and the increase of powerful, real-time data analysis will create new opportunities for businesses to know and serve customers better. But it will also bring in new ways for customers to spot any gaps between a company’s image and its actions in reality.

Combined, these six forces mean that many employees, customers, investors, communities and other stakeholders are asking profound questions about the structure of society and the role of the corporation within it. And while change is a perpetual feature of life and business, technology and science are pushing the pace and extent of change like never before.[1]

In the image above, two things happen:

1. 1. Individuals supply their talents and skills (labor) to businesses in exchange for compensation.
   2. While businesses use this to create goods and services which are then bought/availed by individuals

When a customer pays for a product or service

1. 1. The customer receives value he/she is looking when he/she gets the product or experience the service.
   2. The organization receives value in the form of the payment of the customer.

Without this cycle (exchange of value from the organization to the customer and the customer to the organization), you and your organization will cease to exist. [2]

Purpose has always impacted people and business, but the disruption of the types that Covid pandemic caused magnify its importance: When we weren’t able to go out as much, when we were isolated from our people and when our lives were turned upside down, we were reminded of what really mattered to us. Through their absence or discombobulation, we were reminded of what we needed and desired for a full life. Purpose has been brought to the top of mind for people.[3]

Further reading:

• • Business Purpose Unveiled: Drive Success and Transformation – Stefan F. Dieffenbacher
  • Why We Need a Why: The Importance of Purpose to Business Strategy
  • Why Purpose is Important to your Business
  • A Sense of Purpose: Start with why
  • How Do You Find the Why of Your Business Story? – Joe Dudeck
  • Purpose in Business to get to the bottom of the question of how much hype and how much transformation potential there is in purpose – Whereas in the past, the mission statement and the vision were at the centre of business strategy and corporate communication, today the #purpose determines the discourse. As a #counter-trend to shareholder value maximization, business models focused on purpose are at the centre of this change.
  • Why Do Businesses Exist? – Simon Sinek

However, before we move on to ‘How’ part of ‘Moving from Why to How’, it would be more appropriate to delve a little more into the question: why should  we, as humans, and more particularly as quality professionals, think about and understand the question “why” in the first place!?[4]

We will now turn to our regular section -.

We now watch ASQ TV episode on –

• • Quality and the Digital Workforce – this episode takes a quick look at the digital workforce and how quality fits in.

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

• • A Phenomena Called The Mandela Effect – Rock or alligator? – the Mandela Effect fits into the psychology of false memory, studied by the likes of Sigmund Freud and Pierre Janet. False memory is defined as “a phenomenon where someone recalls something that did not actually happen or recalls it differently from the way it actually happened. Suggestibility, activation of associated information, the incorporation of misinformation, and source mis-attribution have been suggested to be several mechanisms underlying a variety of types of false memory.”

It is also possible that the phenomenon extends beyond our memory and includes our perception of something right in front of us. Take the viral video from the beginning of this year called “Rock or Alligator?” showing either an alligator in front of a rock or a rock shaped like an alligator. You can try and decide for yourself at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIiKK_jWZNY

According to authors Brian Brooks and Jim Steventon, the same can be said for digital transformation, writing “quality practices can determine if your next step will be a rock or an alligator.”

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] Why business must harness the power of purpose

[2] The Real Purpose of Business: Why Does Your Business Exist? – ariel lim consulting

[3] The Power Of Purpose And Why It Matters Now – Tracy Brower, PhD

[4] Causal Inference: Trying to Understand the Question of Why – Kevin Wang

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

Welcome to August 2023 edition of the XI^th volume of Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs.

The theme for the XI^th 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 The Purpose of the Business in the Context of Future ….

ISO 9001: 2015 introduced the concept of Understanding the Organization and Its Context. That required businesses to determine external and internal issues that are relevant to its purpose and its strategic direction. ISO 9001 required the application of this concept with reference to the present.

We now take up this concept with reference to the future.

While answering ‘What is the Purpose of Business?’, Peter Drucker’s exposition remains the guiding beacon:

…The purpose must lie outside the business itself. In fact, it must lie in society since a business enterprise is an organ of society.”  He went on to say, “Leaders…are responsible and accountable for the performance of their institutions, and that requires them and their institutions to be concentrated, focused, limited. They are responsible also, however, for the community as a whole.”[1]

The framework presented here, and the accompanying rules of thumb will help entrepreneurs analyse the situations in which they find themselves, establish priorities among the opportunities and problems they face, and make rational decisions about the future.[2]

These questions can be approached by another route as well.

A “Picture of the Future” is neither a strategy or a goal. It is a “picture” of what the “life” of customers and a company may look like in the future.

One may visualize the ‘Picture of the Future’ through these six components:[3]

This leads to the next step of addressing the three questions discussed here before :

However, as the organization straps up to answer these questions, it needs to be emphasized that tweaking a management system based on old rules will no longer be effective. The underlying reason is that this is the period of first true information revolution.[4] It needs to be recognized that an era of standardization and predictability that’s being overwritten by four big trends:

The nine imperatives that can separate future-ready organizations, by not keeping modifying the old models but to keep replacing them with something radically better, are :

While trying to reply Who We Are, the future-ready organizations Strengthen the Identity in three ways: they get clear on their purpose; they know how they create value and why they’re unique; and they create strong and distinct cultures that help attract and retain the best people.

While trying to reply How We Operate, the future-ready organizations Prioritize Speed. Operating models need to be fast, nimble, and frictionless to create ways of working that foster agility and simplicity. They need to enable a network of empowered, dynamic teams to find pockets of value, including at the company’s “edges” where employees are closest to customers.

And finally, while trying to reply How We Grow, the future-ready organizations Build for Scale by harnessing a vibrant ecosystem of partners outside the company’s traditional boundaries, building data-rich technology platforms that support growth and innovation, and accelerating learning to fuel the talent engine they’ll need to succeed.[5]

That brings up us to addressing the moving from ‘why’ to ‘how’ in the next episode..

We will now turn to our regular section -.

We now watch ASQ TV episode on –

• • Quality Culture Cultivation – A culture of quality doesn’t appear suddenly. Or develop in a vacuum. Or alongside of the corporate culture. Implementing a quality culture is a dedicated, organization-wide embrace of quality principles and a data-driven model of operations. This episode digs into what a culture of quality is, what it isn’t, and why being able to spot it is beneficial to your organization.

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

• • The Progression of Artificial Intelligence – Technology or Sorcery? – Like a good magic trick, new technology has the ability to put us in awe. This awe can be quickly replaced by dread. Again, if the technology has reached a level of capability, one can envision its role in society and wonder if that role will conflict with our own.

When this question is raised, the best we can hope for is when experts assure us that the technology will not replace us, but make our role easier, and make us more productive, perhaps even happier, particularly in areas where it has become more difficult to find human beings to fill these roles.

Competitive pressure among tech giants is propelling society into the future of artificial intelligence, ready or not. Scott Pelley dives into the world of AI with Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

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 Purpose of Business?

[2] The Questions Every Entrepreneur Must Answer – by Amar Bhidé

[3] Picture of the Future

[4] Organizing for the Future: Why now?

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

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

Welcome to July 2023 edition of the XI^th volume of Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs.

The theme for the XI^th 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 Structured Innovation ….

Normally, innovation is the creative ability of the individual., hence unpredictable and perhaps unique to that individual. Even most creative individuals also follow a structured approach to continually foster their spirit of creativity. Organizations need to be even more structure to sustainably create innovation.

5 reasons for a structured innovation management approach[1]:

1. 1. The weakest link determines performance.
   2. Not urgent today, but important for tomorrow
   3. Inadequate incentives and rewards for success, as well as failures
   4. Need for effective and efficient improvement systems management.
   5. Want to be better than the best.

XXII ISPIM Conference paper, Collaborative Trend Management, suggests the following components of structured innovation management:

ISO has issued ISO 56002:2019 which can serve as Innovation management system to provide guidance for the establishment, implementation, maintenance, and continual improvement of an innovation management system for use in all established organizations. The systems approach to innovation management recognizes that there are several interrelated and interacting elements or factors in an organization that must be in place to ensure innovation success.

Read more about the systems approach to innovation management and how to implement an innovation management system.

Also:

Introduction to innovation management system

The systems approach to innovation management

The Structured Innovation has also been described as a tale of two cultures comprising: front end innovation and back-end exploitation.  Front end Innovation focuses on defining the innovation opportunity or the problem that hasn’t properly been solved and finding better ideas to solve the problem.  Back-end exploitation focuses on taking the strong concepts developed during front-end innovation and developing business model s and adoption strategies to take the solution to market.[2]

BMGI’s Structured Innovation and D4 methodology provides a framework that assists in identifying an opportunity for innovation right through demonstrating value of the embodied idea as a product or service.

A well-thought-out innovation structure is an essential component of the successful innovation process. However, this does not mean that a completely new structure has to be created. A new procedure or a new team composition can already be sufficient.[3]

The structured innovation has to be made a way of the life. The Sustained innovation is a high-productivity state in which an organization strives to innovate in all aspects of its business, including management, divisions, operations, customers, and suppliers. It requires a seamless, structured management approach that begins with board- and CEO-level leadership and connects all the way through technology investment and implementation. Above all, sustained innovation is a journey, not a destination.[4]

More Reading: Shaping the Future of Innovation

Business model innovation is the art of enhancing advantage and value creation by making simultaneous—and mutually supportive—changes both to an organization’s value proposition to customers and to its underlying operating model. At the value proposition level, these changes can address the choice of target segment, product or service offering, and revenue model. At the operating model level, the focus is on how to drive profitability, competitive advantage, and value creation through these decisions on how to deliver the value proposition:

• • Where to play along the value chain

• • What cost model is needed to ensure attractive returns

• • What organizational structure and capabilities are essential to success[5]

Regardless of industry, geography, or size, the organization need to keep innovating its business models[6]:

One of the reasons projects fail miserably is because, we choose to ignore warning signs in early-stage gates and keep pushing it through until it is too late and too big to handle. Therefore, Managing Risk in an Innovation Project becomes imperative. The well-defined risk management process:

1. 1. Identifies the makeup of a review team and lays out the decision criteria upfront,
   2. Provides a forum and timing to discuss and approve any scope changes,
   3. Clarifies and adapts the roles & responsibilities during execution,
   4. Facilitates informed decision making for the continuation of the project based on the availability of resources, business case, and risk analysis, and
   5. Identifies intellectual property and other business protection needs.[7]

More reading: Top 7 Reasons Why Innovation Fails in Organizations?

Some More Reading:

Innovative Organizations: Structure, Learning and Adaptation – Alice Lam

The Credera Brief series – to distil the trends and ideas to meet the toughest business challenges and to share different insights and perspectives across the spectrum,

HBR report: “Business Transformation and the Role of the CIO.”

HBR articles @ Competitive Strategy

Innovation Management website

Innovating India – In pursuit of Global Leadership by IBM Institute for Business Value

We will now turn to our regular section -.

We now watch ASQ TV episode on –

• • 2023 Standards Update – an update on what’s happening—and what COULD happen—this year in so far as some important ISO standards are concerned.

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

• • Maps Have Been Helping Us for a Thousand Years – The concept of the map has not been limited to just physical locations. Just think about any activity that would or should be repeated by others. As the old adage has said, what if no one had followed Columbus’ journey to the New World? As frustrating as it may sometimes seem, what if no one had provided any instructions for putting together that end table or bookcase? What if no one had documented that manufacturing process to help ensure the creation of a high-quality product? What if no one laid out “a road map to achieve organizational excellence and build a culture around it?”

Thanks to the concept of maps, we do not need to ponder these questions, particularly the last one. According to authors Hung Le, Ph.D., and Grace L. Duffy, “Building and improving a culture of organizational excellence requires a systematic approach. A robust model is required to achieve and sustain its performance goals. Organizations must assess the maturity of their processes and organizational readiness to implement such a methodology before embarking on the journey.”

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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.

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[1] 5 Reasons why innovation needs structure

[2] Structured approach to innovation pays off big time – Dimitri Markolides, SCP and Structured Innovation Leader, BMGI

[3] How a structured innovation process creates creative ideas – Brian Fried

[4] How Successful Companies Sustain Innovation – By Faisal Hoque

[5] Business Model Innovation – Boston Consulting Group

[6] Four Steps to Sustainable Business Model Innovation – By David Young and Marine Gerard

[7] Managing Risk in an Innovation Project – Part 2