Are you blind with total quality management?

There’s a story about six blind men who heard of a strange animal called an elephant that was brought into town. Out of curiosity, they asked their able-bodied friends for help to bring them to the location of the elephant to feel its shape and form. As soon as they arrived at the elephant’s location, the blind men excitedly groped the animal in different parts of its body.

The first person, whose hand landed on the trunk opined it was like a thick snake. Another one who touched its ear exclaimed that it was a kind of a big fan. The third person, whose hand was upon its leg, said the elephant is like a tree trunk.

The fourth blind man who placed his hand on the side of the elephant felt it like a wall. Another described the tail as a rope. The last felt its tusk and concluded the elephant was like a spear. This story was published as a book titled “The Elephant in the Dark” (1974) by writer Idries Shah (1924-1996).

It tells us that we, human beings, tend to claim absolute truth based on a limited and subjective experience. Conversely, we also ignore other people’s limited, subjective experiences which may be equally true at some point.

For management, the lesson is the importance of listening to all perspectives to understand the whole situation. That’s the reason why total quality management (TQM) must start with the mantra “Respect for People.“

TQM department

That brings us to my age-old question: Are we blind to see the reason why we don’t have many companies with a dedicated, fully functional TQM department, section or unit? I’m not sure about you but I believe that all organizations must have a TQM department that must take the lead in ensuring they deliver quality-oriented products or services.

It’s like having a human resource (HR) department as the internal consultant ensuring a coherent management practice in hiring people, paying them good salaries, motivating them and disciplining errant workers, among other things.

Some blind people argue that quality is a personal responsibility of everyone and not by one department alone. I agree. But what’s the assurance that all workers and their managers understand they know everything about the elephant or in this context, about TQM?

How could they deliver a consistent performance under a framework and standards approved by top management? Depending on the size of an organization, TQM doesn’t mean having a full-blown department like what we have with HR or other traditional functional departments. It can be done as part of the major functions of an existing department.

In the manufacturing sector, TQM is traditionally lodged with operations doing quality control. In the service industry, it’s being handled by HR, at least in some companies that I know. When I was active in the corporate world, TQM was part of my mandate under HR.

That’s how I rationalized a TQM program so that it becomes a template for everyone to follow as a corporate-wide activity. Back then, people follow my lead in promoting TQM. They knew I was authorized by top management, so they reciprocated with their active participation in quality circles, among other initiatives.

I don’t want to toot my own horn, but acknowledgment goes to my direct reports and other employees who were receiving an average of 18 months’ salary per year but were underutilized. The only challenge I tried to solve was to answer the following questions:

Would they be happy working with Kaizen? How about the complicated approach of Six Sigma? Or, would it be better to create a homegrown program like what Toyota did for its Toyota Production System? Modesty aside, I won the crowd with Nike’s formula: Just do it! I did it with some adjustments along the way.

Challenges

Implementing a TQM program is challenging when people are resistant to change, and there’s a lack of commitment, not to mention their lack of understanding, among other issues. But they can be overcome with no-nonsense top management support. That’s what TQM is all about with emphasis on the word “total” meaning total support by the senior management team physically attending every project presentation by problem-solvers.

Indeed, “total” means the active participation of all departments working in harmony with operations, including HR, sales, accounting, auditing and administration.

According to Juran Institute: “The term ‘total’ means the entire organization – all teams, departments and functions – is involved in supporting the quality focus of the organization.”

Let’s build on that. To make TQM a robust program, it must include the participation of the company’s suppliers and subcontractors. Organizations can’t simply disassociate themselves from their external partners as much as they can’t benefit from the term “disclaimer” for obvious reasons.

The basic challenge is how to remove the blinders of top management so they can understand what the elephant is all about. If you’re convinced to create a TQM department or make it a part of an existing department’s functions, one solution is for you to promise the sun, the moon and the stars.

Raise expectations for the things you can control. Those were my vivid lessons as a young personnel manager now being managed by medications bought at a 20 percent discount. Even today, I still believe we can’t do without TQM or its equivalent, but not with Six Sigma, unless you want to punish people with statistics.

Rey Elbo is a quality and productivity improvement preacher. Email [email protected] and get free valuable insights about your management concerns. Anonymity is guaranteed.