Managing Expectations
One condition is vital for initiating, implementing and sustaining a viable quality initiative: management support. Surprisingly, very few articles and books on quality even mention this need, let alone what to do if support isn’t there....
Career Corner: A Win-Win Situation
The ASQ Fellows Mentoring Program is a no-cost opportunity to sharpen your knowledge and skills and focus your management, consulting and career coaching experience on helping a person wants and appreciates guidance....
Building From the Basics
Quality control is about models, methods, measuring and managing. It’s about uncovering a problem and finding the solution. It’s about using the right techniques at the right time to make things better....
Career Corner: Something Worth Catching
CAGS stands for capability + adaptability + growthability + sustainability. It’s a formula for success in any field....
Volviendo a los Fundamentos: Logros y Resultados
When project objectives are set, the term “deliverables” is often used to specify those tangible things produced by the project. Two key factors, however, are often overlooked....
Online Westcott
When project objectives are set, the term “deliverables” is often used to specify those tangible things produced by the project. Two key factors, however, are often overlooked....
Back to Basics: Outputs versus Outcomes
When project objectives are set, the term “deliverables” is often used to specify those tangible things produced by the project. Two key factors, however, are often overlooked....
Career Corner: Do You Deserve a Raise?
Do your homework: Know what metrics your boss is measured by, the financial status of your company, the factors in the external environment that are impacting the company, your personal worth to the company (past, present and future) and how your personal...
Career Corner: Use Business Cards Effectively
I'm shocked at the number of people who don't carry a business card. Even more amazing are those who don't even have cards....
Back to Basics: Have You Adequately Defined Your Situation?
The is/is not matrix is a simple yet powerful tool that enables a planner or investigator to more clearly define the problem, decision or situation being addressed. The matrix can be extremely useful in problem definition and root cause analysis, but...
Volviendo a los Fundamentos: ¿Has definido adecuadamente tu situación?
Uno de los criterios más importantes en la toma de decisiones o en la resolución de un problema es la necesidad de definir claramente la situación....
Quality in the First Person: Continual Innovation and Reinvention
There is often a pattern to one's work life, a pattern that might not have been immediately evident or intended. Call it an inclination that ultimately morphs into a strategic plan....
10 Quality Basics
In an overview designed to give quality newcomers a glimpse of the knowledge they need to succeed, ten regular Quality Progress contributors write on 10 basic quality topics that are fundamentals essential to surviving in a quality role. Topics covered...
Completed Staff Work Revisited
The principle of completed staff work gives your bosses what they need to do their jobs....
Career Corner: Maximize the Use of Your Abilities
In the December 2005 edition of Quality Progress, former editor Debbie Phillips-Donaldson asked, “Does your organization make full use of your abilities?” If the answer is yes, good for you and your organization....
Career Corner: How To Become an Internal Consultant
This article is not about how to become an external consultant - it is about enriching your quality job by assuming a role of internal consultant....
Your Customers Are Talking, But Are You Listening?
Few companies have a process to listen to their customers and act on the information. Without a method to measure how satisfied customers are, the door is left open to the competition. The listen, collect, analyze, learn, improve (LCALI) process can...
So You Want To Write?
Do you ever think you have something important to say or know how something could be done better and want others to hear you? Your colleagues, friends and relatives tend to tune you out....
Lecciones Aprendidas
Las "lecciones aprendidas" son apenas un nombre para el penultimo paso que ocurre antes de cerrar una mejora de proceso o un nuevo proyecto del desarrollo....
Lessons Learned
"Lessons learned” is just one name for the penultimate step that takes place before closing a process improvement or new development project. Other names include:...
Mini-Scule
Forty-three people from diverse industries, with a wide range of credentials and work experiences, were hired to form an internal consulting unit within a large organization. From the outset it was obvious the individuals' egos would be problematic....
Return on Investment
Return on investment (ROI) is a powerful tool to add to your repertoire of skills. It will help you sell quality improvement initiatives and enable you to demonstrate the benefits from such improvements....
El Retorno de Inversion
El retorno de inversion (ROI) es una herramienta poderosa para agregar a su repertorio de habilidades....
Relocation Blues
Assume you've been downsized or are about to be. What word evokes a flood of emotion? Relocation....
Corrective vs. Preventive Action
Quality professionals frequently express confusion about the difference between corrective and preventive action. Corrective action deals with a nonconformity that has occurred, and preventive action addresses the potential for a nonconformity to occur....
Accion Correctiva vs. Preventiva
Una accion correctiva se ocupa de una inconformidad que ha ocurrido, y una accion preventiva se ocupa de el potencial para que una inconformidad ocurra....
How To Handle References
Should references be provided when making your initial contact with a prospective employer? In almost all situations the answer is, no....
The Metamorphosis of the Quality Professional
Over the next decade, quality professionals can expect to see their roles increasingly absorbed into project management and other areas. To survive in this environment, quality professionals will have to acquire new competencies....
What's in it for me?
If you?re reading Quality Progress, you are most likely a member of ASQ. If you attend your local section?s meetings, you no doubt constantly hear about the need for volunteers to help with the section?s activities....
Column: Career Corner: What's In It for Me?
If you're reading Quality Progress, you are most likely a member of ASQ. If you attend your local section's meetings, you no doubt constantly hear about the need for volunteers to help with the section's activities....
Column: Career Corner: Jacks and Jills of Many Skills
A significant conclusion I've come to after reading reams of newsprint about downsizing, layoffs, plant closings and the like is that people who have developed multiple skill sets have a unique advantage. These folks are either asked to remain with the...
Column: One Good Idea: Process Identification
If your organization has had a difficult time describing its quality management system (QMS) because it believes the system must be process mapped to satisfy the ISO 9001 requirements, then listen up....
Column: Career Corner: Sell Your Contribution To the Bottom Line
Don't be too polite to blow your own horn. Telling people what you have accomplished is good for them as well as for...
Column: Career Corner: Fired? Tired? Mired?
Your professional development is your responsibility. You have to seek the right environment and then proactively make professional development happen. The Mutual Investment in Individual Development model has been successfully used for more than 30...
Customers: A Love/Hate Relationship?
Q U A L I T Y P R O G R E S S I J U L Y 2 0 0 2 I 37 12 Ways To Determine What Customers Want Insofar as is feasible for you and tolerable for the customer: 1 Probe for the reasons specific parameters and product or service characteristics are important ...
Column: Career Corner: Really Want To Attend a 2002 Conference?
Some do's and don'ts for getting...
Column: Career Corner: Has Your Work Life Plateaued?
What helps when a career doesn't seem to be going anywhere
When you've reached a level period in your work life - or have been there for a while - you've plateaued. It's time to consider a career change or realignment. Being plateaued isn't bad. It could even be the best thing that could happen because it...
Who is responsible for your career?
Two perspectives on professional development
Concurrently, employers stopped emphasizing employee loyalty when it became evident that they themselves failed the loyalty test with their employees. Employees move from employer to employer (some with portable benefits, most without) as they struggle to...
Column: Career Corner: Who is responsible for your career?
Plans and actions that distinguish the quality professional of the future:Environmental scanningVision and mission statementsGoals and objectivesAction plansImplement plans, monitor progress and reward accomplishment....
