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Note from the
Newsletter editor
: This is the second of a three part article submitted by ASQ
Montreal
Section 0401 member Hélène Giroux who is an
Associate Professor in Operations and Logistics Management at HEC
Montréal.
By
Hélène Giroux, Associate Professor, Operations
and Logistics Management
HEC Montréal,
Senior member
People skills
Being able to get along with people is an advantage in almost any type
of work. However, for quality professionals, interpersonal skills are a
key success factor. All too often, quality professionals are the ones
who uncover problems: defective products, out of control processes,
systems failures, inefficiencies, non-conforming documentation, and so
on. Detecting these flaws, however, is the (relatively) easy part of
the job. As one interviewee pointed out, “frequently you are in a
position of telling people what they don’t want to hear, that all
their hard work was for naught.” This is where communication
skills and a good amount of diplomacy become essential. You need to be
able to get the message across in a non-threatening way if you want to
be able to help those ‘responsible’ for the problem find
solutions, and then make sure that the solutions are implemented and
that the changes are enduring.
The best quality professionals are good listeners, and have
successfully established relationships based on trust and honesty. They
have slowly built their credibility and reputation as people who are
there to help, not as policemen lurking in the dark corners to catch
other people’s mistakes. They may also get caught between parties
attempting to blame each other. One interviewee used the analogy of the
Blue Berets (the United Nation’s peacekeeping forces), whose role
is not to conquer but to act as on-the-ground diplomats, to try and
foster reconciliation and change in the direst of circumstances.
Good communication skills are also required to convince management that
quality matters, a feat that cannot be taken for granted and must be
repeated on a regular basis. A convincing case for quality is backed by
solid data, but it seems that many quality professionals –
particularly those who are more technically oriented – have a
hard time getting out of their own world to present information in a
way that is both palatable and useful for decision making.
Juran’s exhortation to learn how to speak the language of money
still applies: to most executives, no argument is more convincing than
dollar signs. Moreover, several interviewees suggested that successful
quality professionals are good strategists who know how to pick their
battles and when to spend their personal capital. “A little touch
of being clever doesn’t hurt,” says one, while another
contends that “you have to be a little sly to bring about the
necessary improvements without ruffling feathers or rattling the cage
too much.”
A good balance between flexibility and meticulousness
Being rigorous is one of the staples of quality professionals,
particularly for those with roots in statistics and quality assurance.
Good quality practitioners are meticulous and pay attention to details.
As a couple of interviewees put it, “you have to be a little
anal.” Precision and conscientiousness are particularly important
when you’re trying to build a case: the credibility of quality
professionals is founded on their ability to provide accurate results
and analyses and to avoid ‘management by impressions.’
Quality professionals are also expected to have integrity and to act as
gatekeepers – even though they are often resented for doing so.
However, there is such a thing as too much rigor. Several experienced
quality professionals that I met have noted that excessive rigidity is
a major flaw in some of their peers. Procedures and quality manuals
must provide clear guidelines, but they should also be commonsensical,
not punctilious. Here again, you have to pick your battles and focus on
what is essential. Don’t aim for perfection. Sometimes,
it’s okay to settle for ‘functional’ or
‘reasonably good’, even though you know that things could
be much better. Flexibility goes a long way in establishing your
credibility and making allies instead of enemies. This is where good
knowledge of all aspects of your organization is useful: to decide when
to compromise and where to invest your time and efforts.
Hélène
Giroux can be reached at: helene.2.giroux@hec.ca
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