quality Is a way of life 

The main objective of this experience will be to instill, as Deming puts it, a "prairie fire" in the core of each individual for quality. In today's global economy, product and service quality will simply be the cutting edge in the competitive marketplace - the difference that makes the difference.

Unlike most ineffective quality training programs, which focus on technical tools alone, this seminar will focus on the belief systems change and cultural revolution required of the quality movement. This awareness-building eye-opener will embrace numerous teachings and examples from customer service as well as product development and manufacturing. 

All programs will use NLP as a process, including large group verbal reframes, metaphors, and ownership/identification processes. Our goal is to not only teach but to accomplish behavior change as well. Key methods for people to voluntarily overcome difficult negative (self-identified) habits will be shown to those that wish it.

You'll learn: 

• Two (2) key definitions, 3 key concepts (producer and customer view); why it is misunderstood, examples and techniques to achieve ownership and the guiding principles of quality 
• Corporate quality policies; Deming's 14 principles; recommended goals  
• You'll be able to create a roadmap
• How you will get "there" (recommended steps), including process vs. product/service concepts; definition, measurement, quality control, and quality assurance 
• The roadblocks which you'll learn include the difficulty of change (exercises) 
• What works and what doesn't work in terms of meaningful corporate policy, standards, and procedures 
• How to measure effectively (total vs. statistical quality control relevant to service industry) 
• How to implement skills, startups, communication methods (exercises); Theory X/Y and work effectiveness; Quality Improvement Programs; ISO/9000 and the Malcolm Baldrige Award

Program Description and Detail

We agree with you that the best way of getting bottom-up involvement in lieu of a formal top-down approach is via Quality through Participation. Each of the following steps emphasizes that approach.

• Team will learn underlying quality concepts and major contributors to the field.
• Improving services using these concepts.
• Participative Organization concepts
• Understanding what you do and what others do.
• The risks, benefits, and limits of participation. 
• Partial development and awareness of skills for quality improvement. 
• Tools and techniques to achieve process improvements. 

Program Objectives

Participants will significantly improve their abilities in the following areas:

Team will learn underlying quality concepts and major contributors to the field

• History of quality movement and quality management
• Relation between culture, tools, and management and gurus in each
• Main concepts, definition of quality, terms, producers and customers, cost of quality 
• Cost of Quality exercises (including cost of failure and waste)
• Role of the Baldrige examination and Baldrige winners, what it takes to be world class, with examples and exercises

Improving services using these concepts

• Traditional lack of understanding
• Similarity of the manufacturing role to the service sector
• Similarity of the service sector to the public sector (linkage) including examples and exercises
• In-depth discussion of Deming's 14 points, translated as if by Deming in public sector language

Participative organization concepts 

• How to work bottom-up when (temporarily) top-down support cannot be done
• Trust, true empowerment, accidental dis-empowerment, accidental reward for failure, elimination of blame
• The Herzberg model, the Work Effectiveness Model, job redesign, understanding the analysis of work flows, with exercise

Understanding what you do and what others do

• Organizational self-assessment and measurement
• Filling the "Management Vacuum" - If I can't be super-employee, and delegate downward, what do I do instead?

The risks, benefits, and limits of participation

• Ownership
• Dealing with criticism
• Understanding tangible, intangible boundaries
• The Grace Hopper story
• Demonstrating progress in measurable terms
• Speaking the other's language
• Short term vs. long term progress

Partial development and awareness of skills for quality improvement

• Problem identification vs. problem analysis
• Root Cause analysis - ours is the reason why - Monday Morning Quarterbacking is good - fixing the "how come" rather than the "what"

Tools and techniques to achieve process improvements

• Quality control compared to quality assurance: the Deming workbench
• Introduction to the quality control tools and quality improvement techniques
• Quality Improvement teams, team techniques, problem solving steps, facilitation methods introduction

So, if this is so great, what do I do on Monday?

• Turning concepts into reality
• What happens when the honeymoon is over
• Overcoming your own internal resistance to trust, blame, ownership by others: "letting go"
• Base-lining (benchmarking) where you are, then where to go
• The Quality Pyramid: what to do first, what is next
• Organizational missions, charters, quality policies, quality council, and sticking to it
• Standards and Procedures: when and where
• Commitment analysis
• The Weinberg/Schulman experiment and what to measure safely
• The rumor mill
• The difficulty of change

The Bottom Line

This course will optimize the number of people who will have a passion for quality and excellence. These same people may be repulsed by the thought of poor quality, waste, shoddy workmanship, and lack of innovation. Ability to work within the boundaries, and yet do all that can be done, will be emphasized. Every portion of this course, regardless of the detailed objectives, will reinforce these beliefs. Why should an experience like this do anything else?

It is commonplace for large numbers of people to have this deep level of commitment, after coming from learning experiences with us.