Quality Improvement Dilemma?

There is indeed a Quality improvement dilemma in many organizations.  This dilemma is faced by organizations that need Quality improvement the most. It is simply stated:

We need to improve, but there is no time.
We are too busy fighting fires.

You have heard it hundreds of times. You may have uttered this very statement hundreds of times. It is both true and false.

Notice, we are referring to Quality with the big Q here.  This is beyond product and service quality.  It is Quality in every aspect of the organization both financial and operational.  It is that continuous improvement, excellence, the was the foundation of Total Quality Management that we rarely refer to these days.

"We are too busy fighting fires to improve" is certainly true if you believe it is true. It is then true for you and true for your organization... especially if you are the leader of the organization. It is from a larger perspective false. There are numerous examples of organizations that have tackled and solved their Quality issues and improved their operational performance. It is completely possible.  Hence the dilemma. 

There is a square one prerequisite: you have to really want to change.

Oddly, actually not oddly at all if you really think about it, this is the same absolutely necessary prerequisite for an individual to overcome an addiction be it smoking, drinking, or overeating. Nothing will change if you are not really serious about change. Of course, everyone says they want to change. Smokers, drinkers, and the obese among us all say they want to change. Owners and leaders of companies plagued by Quality problems all say they want to change. But, until they really mean it. They will not change. Experts in personal change tell us that we only change when the pain of not changing is greater than the pain involved in changing or reforming. The same applies to organizations. In the case of organizations, this applies to the leader or owner.

Really wanting and truly deciding to change is a necessary first step. This true willingness to change is just the first step. It is necessary step but not sufficient.

Clearly, organizations must overcome their addiction to the status quo and they way things have always been done. There are two aspects to this:

1. The organization is used to and totally engrained to doing things they they have always been done. OK, recently been done as organizational memory for most organizations was reset and began again with the Great Recession. 
2. There are people in the organization that thrive on the adrenalin surge of firefighting. They are very good at it and love the notoriety of being very good at it.  They get promoted for this special and valuable skill. These valiant warriors may not be so good at deliberate planning and methodical improvement activities which might be mundane by comparison.

OK then... there is a lot of organizational inertia to overcome to change and improve. The leadership who wants to change have to be resolved and relentless. They have to demand and hold their managers accountable for both embracing the changes and making it happen. They may have to let people go who do not embrace the initiative.

The leadership has to have what W. Edwards Deming called: Constancy of Purpose. For if there is no constancy of purpose, the people in the organization that believe in and are fighting for Quality improvement with then evoke Kaoru Ishikawa's great quote:

If there is not leadership from the top, stop promoting TQC.