A True Culture of Quality

A lot of companies talk about a quality culture, but don’t really look at all the facets it takes to truly shape that culture.  In an article from Harvard Business Review (Creating a Culture of Quality, April 2014) authors Ashwin Srinivasan and Bryan Kurey looked at the bottom line effect of a company and their culture of quality.  According to the article, a company with a highly developed culture of quality spends, on average, $350 million less annually fixing mistakes than a company with a poorly developed one.  Companies that take more of a grassroots, peer-driven approach to develop a culture of quality, result in employees making fewer mistakes, and consequently a firm spending far less time and money correcting mistakes.  The four factors that drive quality as a cultural value:  leadership emphasis, message credibility, peer involvement and employee ownership of quality issues.  Aren’t those the four factors critical to ANY cultural change? Sadly, only 38% of employees surveyed reported high levels of peer involvement, and only 20% said that their company has created a sense of employee empowerment and ownership for quality concerns.  As a leader– how do you emphasize to your team what is important and how do you engage them?  It is the difference between talking about the importance of quality and really making it happen.  For more on helping your team feel more engaged and creating that culture of quality look at my previous blog:  Love What You Do!

Ann Banning - Wright