... Product of Process

You are the Product of the Process!

While teaching at NCA&T, the issue of testing was always of high interest to students. What type test, what will you put on the test, why do you use essay questions?

I tried to get the students to thinking outside the box, by words similar to the following: "You are Customers, because you or someone is paying for this education, so I must think of you as Very Important Customers. You are also Partners in the learning Process, since you contribute to the learning process and environment. But most important is you are the Product of the Process and your investment is dependent on your Ownership of the Product. So if you concern yourself with the Product you shouldn't have to worry about the tests." Each class would get a variation of this.

No matter what process we find ourselves part of we are partners in the process and contribute to the Product of the process; this may be Services or Wares for a Customer Solution to his needs. By being a partner in the process we at the same time are developing our own product, ourselves. This is why it is so important to think on a higher plane and see development of the product by thinking inside and outside the box.

I would hope that this type of thinking will improve Services & Wares for the the Customer and in the process will enhance your product, yourself.

Quality comes from ....

"Quality comes from Ownership with Integrity and appropriate Resources in a healthy Paradigm - lhb"

An "O" and an "I" make a "Q". Ownership, Integrity and appropriate Resources are like a three legged stool, lack of any one will result in the stool toppling over. These three were my beginning thoughts on Quality; for a couple of years, they seemed to be the essence of Quality. However, it dawned on me in the 1990's that you could have all three, but still not achieve Quality. Whenever you have an unhealthy paradigm, where the various facets are at odds with one another, Quality suffers. It doesn't take a lot of smarts to recognize an unhealthy paradigm, where the various agents and resources are not in sync working toward the common objective. This insight revised my view to what it is now; where it has remained as a solid and robust metaphor over two decades.

In terms of math this can be represented as Q = Function(O,I,R,P)
where:
Q = Quality,
O = Ownership,
I = Integrity,
R = appropriate Resources
P = healthy Paradigm

I have shared this view of Quality with many people inside and outside the US over the past couple of decades; they have confirmed the above is the essential ingredients of Quality. It doesn't replace the many approaches to Quality, but it complements them and allows it to be thought of in the simplest terms.

It is interesting to observe how a high Quality paradigm is operating in a well oilled manner can almost suddenly become unheathly by the deteriation of Ownership, Integrity or appropriate Resources. To return it to a healthy Paradigm takes considerable effort and time. During the time my Dad spent several years in long term care facilities, I observed a very Quality operation deteriate into an unhealthy paradigm. Usually it was because of deficients in the Ownership, Integrity or appropriate Resources. To get it back on track took considerable efforts and time.