Improvement Insights Blog

If your leadership isn’t committed to Quality, you only have one choice and it will be great for your career.

“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified”.

“I talk to people very often and they’re frustrated because their leadership team really isn’t committed to quality. What I want you to do is think about what do you do if your leadership team isn’t committed to quality?

“Simple answer: Start improving. Do it anyway, right? Maybe you’re just working inside of your department, you can’t work cross-functionally. Maybe you collect some data that says that somebody who supplies you with stuff is causing you problems. You can go back to them and their manager and say, “Here’s the data that proves that we’re having some problems. Could you help us solve that?” “I can help you solve that.” Right? Then just start doing that.

“Eventually, leadership teams notice good behavior. I’d encourage you… I don’t care what the leadership team’s doing; you be the leader. You lead quality, and when you lead quality other people will notice and you’ll be a lot more hireable, I believe. People may even try to poach you, simply because you’re good at it. You’ll make more money; you may not work for the company you work for, but you’ll end up working for somebody who cares.

“So that’s my Improvement Insight for this week. Let’s go out and improve something, regardless of who’s in charge.”