Avoiding Failure

In the January edition of the American Society for Quality's (ASQ) Quality Progress, Noel G. Caffrey and Candace G. Medina identified 5 mistakes that will cause a quality improvement initiative to fail. These 5 oversights are key items that that wHolistic Change^SM approach ensures are included in your change initiative, to mitigate failure at each point:

1. Lack of leadership
   • wC answer: Gaining sponsorship
2. Overlooking the need for change management and thus not being prepared to handle the resistance
   • wC answer: Overcoming resistance to change
3. Inadequate communication and assumption that change communication is simple
   • wC answer: Executing the change
4. Unstructured resource selection for the change initiative: both projects and people
   • wC answer: Planning the change
5. Assuming the change is predicated on the existence of good metrics and measurement systems
   • "Because good data are the foundation of good decisions, ensuring the effectiveness of your measurement systems is only sound business practice. But for those who haven’t experienced the shock of discovering incredibly variable or even nonexistent measurement systems, this latest mistake is a common one.
   • The time it takes to define metrics and validate measurement systems at the beginning of a project is often considered a waste, and the project is deemed to be moving too slowly. The adage that sometimes you must go slow to go fast is appropriate because measuring the wrong thing (and measuring it poorly) will ultimately lead to errors and rework."
   • wC answer: Defining success. In particular, use value dials to ensure you are measuring what is truly of business value - not just assume that what the business has always measured is truly what needs to be measured now that it is time to change.

I thought it was wonderful that a team of people who have dedicated their lives to the quality profession realized the importance of the people implications of quality improvement initiatives, not just the process or mathematical improvements that are sometimes a greater focus.