How to: quality - from compliance to performance

Exploring how quality professionals can help organisations shift from mere compliance to enhanced performance, also enhances opportunities to drive greater productivity. 

The concept of ‘top management’ 

I frequently have this conversation with other quality professionals when we discuss business issues. In many cases, the language used is inherited from ISO standards.  

My issue with this type of language is that it might infer that top management is ‘them’ or ‘others’, and quality professionals are, therefore restricted. I find it difficult to accept this type of argument in many cases. A culture of committing to what is right, and improving the outcome of processes in an organisation requires strong leadership.

Looking at all the definitions of leadership and management, you will see a distinct focus:  

• managers help organise work  
• leadership inspires and leads with a vision others can believe in 

My question is always: do leaders have to be top management, or can leaders be anyone in the organisation?

Rashad Issa, Chair, CQI Board of Trustees

I believe that leaders can be anyone in the organisation. While some decisions can be difficult or restrictive if you are not involved in organisation-wide decisions with other leaders and process owners, this challenge can be overcome with the right skill set. The difference between compliance and quality and how to drive performance beyond the compliance ‘tick’ is key here. 

Compliance versus improvement

The definition, ‘compliance is how to ensure policies, procedures, laws and regulations are adhered to and monitored’, represents the importance of adhering to regulations and your commitment to them.   

Business leaders understand policies and procedures are not always written to represent the most efficient approach. And even if they were, organisational context changes would require improvement in policies and procedures to reflect that shift.  

The fact that policies and procedures require revision to reflect the current status could indicate that complying with your policies and procedures is not necessarily enough to drive improvement. Improvement, however, enforces the definition of quality and helps organisations take it to a different level.    

The PDSA Cycle (Plan, Do, Study, Act) is a systematic process for gaining valuable learning and knowledge for the continual improvement of a product, process or service. The PDSA definition provides an operational framework that goes beyond compliance.

When work is planned, the compliance aspects of regulations, legalities and customers become one part of the entire process. When you incorporate the how, why and who in each process and a methodology to capture knowledge and learning, you are moving far beyond the status quo of compliance. 

Engaging people to drive performance  

But how do you get to that stage? While there is no simple path, the starting point is not difficult at all. If you are to do one thing only, start by engaging with the teams you are working with.   

Engage and ask teams if that is the best way to do a particular step or part of the process – or can we do things differently? 

Rashad Issa, Chair, CQI Board of Trustees

You will be surprised by the response you will get. Of course, do not ask this question on a whim; you need to create an environment that encourages time and thought before responding. If you are already working within a team for a period of time, you should be able to access previous reports, internal audits and external audit reports.

These will provide valuable insights into whether the business is close to high performance or just at the start of that journey to drive quality excellence.