Quality Culture Five essential ingredients for a quality culture
Ingredient 1: A mentality of “we're all in this together” (the company, suppliers, and customers)
–The company not just as the buildings, assets, and employees, but also customers and suppliers. The goal is consistently win-win-win for all parties.
Ingredient 2: Open, honest communication is vital
–An important way to encourage truth-telling is by creating a culture where people listen to one another. This is a culture where open, honest communication is understood as necessary for people to function best.
Ingredient 3: Information is accessible
–Information accessibility is at the heart of the work we do. Business leaders should be open about sharing information on the company’s strategic goals because this information provides direction for what we will do next and - more importantly - direction for how to improve.
Ingredient 4: Focused on processes
–Everyone should move away from a "blame the person" mentality to a "blame the process and let's fix it" approach to problems and improvement.
Ingredient 5: There are no successes or failures, just learning experiences.
–An important insight is that failure and success are always value judgments we form after the fact. We can never predict with certainty whether what we do will end up as a success or a failure (or a mistake). We do the best we can based on our current experience, information, and understanding, and something happens.