Quality - A Never Ending Journey

Here are excerpts from an article by Jim Smith written toward the end of the last decade:

“As the first decade of the 21st century is about to close, the quality movement is still maturing.”….

“The one thing we have come to realize is that quality is a journey, not a destination!”

“We can expect more development and challenges in the decades to come.” 

[Source: The History of Modern Quality by Jim L. Smith, American Society for Quality, July 2009; http://www.peoriamagazines.com/ibi/2009/jul/history-modern-quality ]

The World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report 2011-12 has emphasized the importance of “quality growth” for “sustainable competitiveness” [Source: http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GCR_Report_2011-12.pdf  ] The rank of India in these competitiveness reports has been consistently quite low. This indicates an urgent need for enhancing the quality management practices of most Indian organizations - more so now than ever.

A systems-oriented approach needs to be adopted in ensuring quality performance. 

Note: As mentioned in the above paper: In a TQM-compatible approach:

“…performance management efforts focused on group-level appraisal and rewards will have a greater positive effect on TQM implementation efforts than on efforts focusing on individuals,…”

“…In addition, these effects will be further maximized when coupled with a continuous improvement approach to work systems.”

The role of management is that of a facilitator. Leadership focus, as ever, should be on the “we”, and not the “I”.

Since the quality movement is still maturing and we have the future challenges ahead of us it is important to reflect on the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. See the following blog post tilted On “tolerating” tolerance. [Tolerance, as we know, has an important place in quality. Thus, by appropriately specifying the tolerance limits we can tell whether our present-day systems are geared more towards “control” or towards “improvement”. These systems (mostly technology-dominated) invariably need to be more humanistic in their approach.]  

While adopting a systems-approach, however, organizations can reap greater benefits by simultaneously promoting design thinking. This certainly will help India Inc. to overcome the design deficit.  

On "Tolerating" Tolerance

While the Nation celebrates Gandhi Jayanti, this cartoon clip by Gado dated 27-9-2012 [source: https://www.nytsyn.com/cartoons/cartoons?channel_id=159] says it all.

Here is an article titled “ReplacingKeynes with Gandhi” by Rajni Bakshi, Gandhi Peace Fellow, Gateway House. [Also published in the Guest Column of Economic Times dated 2October 2012]. An excerpt: “Gandhi’s little-known work on what it means to be truly civilized may be crucial to the future of our species. There seems to be an absence of a moral framework – dharma or telos (Greek for “purpose”) - that serves as the basis of our pursuit of wealth & pleasure. Can such a framework guide us through contemporary economic and identity-related conflicts?”

Note the word accredited in the above clip, which has also been published in the Economic Times dated 29 Sep 2012 under the apt header “HE POPS UP AGAIN| Does he have a home in India either?” India is now passing through a phase where individual freedom and autonomy of free thinking individuals is at stake. Here is another excerpt from a recent editorial titled “Develop Zero Tolerance for All Kinds of Intolerance” [The New Indian Express dated 27 Sep 2012]: “A national-level study has found that intolerance has been growing, alas, in all walks of life. The ‘other’ is something that is detested.”

While tolerating the intolerant has been the virtue of the tolerant, it is a sad commentary of our times to see the intolerant claiming to “tolerate” the tolerant. An adapted version of the above cartoon by Gado is shown below. It happened during a presentation on 28 Sep 2012 titled “Performance Management Systems under e-Surveillance of Classrooms”.

[NB: Resemblance to any person living or dead is purely by coincidence. The figure of the Mahatma of course has been immortalized].

It is time now for all accredited bodies in India to do some serious introspection.

I end this post by reminding the readers of Rabindranath Tagore’s poem

Where The Mind is Without Fear:

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;

Where knowledge is free;

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;

Where words come out from the depth of truth;

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;

Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action--

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
                                                                      -Rabindranath Tagore  

Good teaching-learning processes evolve where the mind is without fear.