Voice Of The Customer - Seattle Seahawks "12th Man" Extreme Customer Engagement

Voice of the Customer is a subject within the Quality Body of Knowledge, and in 2014, no voice was louder than that of the "12th Man", namely the collective fan base of the 2014 Super Bowl Champions, the Seattle Seahawks.

Being in the Pacific Northwest, the news is overwhelmed by the Super Bowl Champion, Seattle Seahawks. In addition to their outstanding top-rated defense (again proving the wisdom of the phrase, "Offense sells tickets but Defense wins championships), the players and coaches of the Seattle Seahawks credited their fans, whose record-setting audio interference from their loud cheering contributed to the season of victories.

In a stroke of masterful customer engagement, the Seattle Seahawks organization has branded the collective fan base as "The 12th Man", implying that success can be credited to the ticket-paying or television-watching fan.

Extreme customer engagement makes the customer feel as if they are not only the consumer of the organization's goods and services, they are an essential part of its success.  This is not unique to professional sports.  The musical group, the Grateful Dead, had a following of "Deadheads", in spite of having very little radio play during decades of recording and touring.

The success of extreme customer engagement is a "game-changer", which converts the customer from a demanding adversary to a collaborative participant and partner.

Since Quality is about Customer delight and excitement, elements of Quality should be oriented towards the establishment of a loyal and devoted customer culture.  The enthusiasm and conviction generated by the customer base needs to be cultivated and recognized.

Steve Jobs captured this brilliantly with his branding of potential Apple customers as the "Crazy Ones".  This set apart Apple users as defiant, nonconformist, and demanding.

It is not enough to please the customer; they must be motivated and inspired and brought along for the journey to partake and celebrate as your organization reaches new heights.  Whether branded as the 12th Man, Deadheads, The Crazy Ones, or some other catchy title, the Voice of the Customer must be ever-present and everlasting in order to attain success.

ASQ Fellows - Congratulations, The More The Merrier

I wanted to extend my sincere congratulations to the newly recognized ASQ Fellows.

ASQ Fellows 2014

The list of honorees has been posted and new ASQ Fellows are definitely in very impressive company which includes a past ASQ Chair and Board Members.

I recognized about 4 or 5 of the names from various initiatives, and doing a quick search on linkedin.com revealed the background of other new ASQ Fellows.  The new cohort definitely adds to the prestige and prominence of this membership category.  I am humbled to be included among their ranks.

I have commented before that the ratio of ASQ Fellows to the breadth of ASQ Senior members suggests that even with 10% representation, there should be between 4000 and 5000 Fellows instead of 600-800.  

24 does seem to be a low number of recipients, particularly since the Fellow criteria is not that remarkable for a professional with 15 years of Quality experience.  Here is an example portfolio of an active QA professional that should qualify for ASQ Fellow recognition.

·         Have a responsible QA role or position: 4 points
·         ASQ Certification: 6 points
·         Teach courses regularly at post-secondary institute (or consulting engagements for academics):  7 points
·         ASQ Committee work or member-leader:  4 points
·         Write articles or give presentations: 4 points
·         Participate in an equivalent industrial organization :3 points

If records were properly kept, there is no reason why each ASQ section or division should not submit a minimum of one application for a new Fellow every year.  I personally think that it would be a sign of success and robustness if ASQ recognized 50 or even 100 people in a year with this credential (without reducing or waiving the criteria for acceptance into the Fellow ranks).  I encourage any ASQ Senior Member who fulfills the ASQ Fellow criteria to approach their section or division to prepare and submit an application.

If anyone is interested, I recommend the following Quality Progress article: So You'd Like To Be An ASQ Fellow.  According to the article the ASQ Society Examining Committee receives 40-50 applications each year and nominates 60% of the candidates.  If every section and division were to nominate a minimum of one Senior Member per year (and up to 4 or 5), and if the guidance was followed, increasing the success rate to 80-90%.this would easily result in having over 100 new ASQ Fellows being recognized annually.  

The ASQ Fellow program is very good and I am glad when deserving quality practitioners and professionals receive this recognition and enhance its prominence and prestige. 

Congratulations again to the new ASQ Fellows – see you in Dallas in May.

Manufacturing - You Cannot Be Serious!!!

When I read the outcomes of the Manufacturing Outlook from the View From The Q , my reaction was similar to that of tennis legend, John McEnroe.

YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS !!!

When business leaders blame the economy, they are implicitly absolving themselves from accountability. However it is interesting that in times of prosperity, these same business leaders take full credit for their success and reward themselves disproportionately.

In truth, there has never been a better time to operate a business.  The capabilities of technology, along with the increased sophistication and collaboration of many business participants and stakeholders, should be a source of optimism in the future.

When business claim that they can't find "good people" and can't afford to adopt any of the practices of Smart Manufacturing, one cannot help but identify the relationship.  Good people are attracted to companies and organizations that will have and provide reasonable chances of success and prosperity.  There are many interdependencies that not only attract good staff, but sustain and permit their continual growth within an organization.

According to the survey, almost 90% of those manufacturers surveyed have not experienced the improvements that Smart Manufacturing purports to deliver.  Conversely speaking, those manufacturers have embraced the status quo of retaining uninspired and moderately competent people, using obsolete and detrimental processes and technology solutions, to deliver manufactured solutions which frankly will not be competitive with the 10% of firms who employ good people, adopt Smart Manufacturing practices, and take steps to innovate and grow.

So these firms that are not adopting modern practices expect to hire more staff at higher wages?  YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS!!!  The relationship is clear and should be self-evident.

Consider that top companies like Apple, Honda, and Toyota didn't immediately make premium products.  Their initial prototypes were mocked by the established industry leaders of the day, and many pundits predicted their fall.  However while General Motors was distributing Corvairs with known safety hazards and paying their union employees high wages to literally sabotage productivity and innovation, organizations like Honda and Toyota were redefining the workplace and the expectations of employees.

Quality products emerge from quality organizations and quality systems, which originate from quality governance.  To those who expect a different outcome, YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS!!!

Epiphany in 2014

Today people of many different cultures celebrate Epiphany.

This holiday originates back to the celebrations of Dionysus, and the wine festivals of Ancient Greece.

The Christianized version alludes to the visit of the Three Kings or Three Wise Men, who came to the nativity to bring gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the baby Jesus.

Epiphany also refers to the discovery of a solution.  With that in mind, I wish everyone a delightful Epiphany in 2014.

Start with Why - Sustain with Servant Leadership

In November, I had the opportunity to review comments from the ASQ Board of Directors, who advocated the positive concepts of Sinek and the Servant Leadership approach as a suitable leadership model for Quality.  A significant portion of the content below on Servant Leadership is extracted from the November Quality Progress.  

The purpose of this article is to summarize these ideas in order to build awareness and interest, and subsequently have more quality professionals receptive to these very constructive and collaborative approaches.

Simon Sinek, the renowned business author and communicator, has delivered a series of leadership books and presentations with the theme “Start With Why”.  Leadership arises when the focus is directed to WHY a business or organization exists:

-          Start with WHY, then use that to determine HOW and WHAT

-          Trust is based on common values and beliefs, and is inspired by WHY

-          Our willingness to follow a leader reflects and is an expression of ourselves

-          Leaders must have a vision that inspires others

-          Leadership is a responsibility of service to others for their benefit

According to Sinek, when leading by inspiration, not manipulation, the emphasis is on the shared purposes, causes, and beliefs.  The salient below reflect Sinek’s overview of this approach and its benefits:

-          Groups of people form from having a common set of values and beliefs

-          Inspire from the Inside-Out with Authenticity

o    Clarity of Why

o    Discipline of How

o    Consistency of What

-          Trust is a human condition, essential for our survival

o    Judge the quality of the crew in rough waters

o    Rational brain focuses on What, and controls thoughts and analytical elements

o    Limbic brain focuses on How and Why, and controls feelings, trust, loyalty, behavior, language, and decisions

-          Reliance on symbols to draw other with common values and beliefs

o    Feelings and decisions are not rational but emotional

o    Feelings say something about WHO WE ARE

-          Law of Diffusion

o    First 16% (2.5% Innovators, 13.5% Early Adopters) trust their gut and are intuitive to adopt new ideas and products

o    Last 16% are laggards and the last to adopt

o    Middle 68% majority wait for all early adopters to use the “trial version” and need 20% penetration before becoming engaged

o    Shift from Early Adopters to Majority is “Tipping Point”, and transcendence is “Crossing the Chasm”

-          Leaders prove what they believe – undying belief in a future vision

o    Strategy is adaptable when you have a clear sense of where you are going

o    Outcomes (Money, Quotas, Results) are not the target but arbitrary

-          Leadership is a responsibility, not a rank or position

o    Serving those who serve others provides very high satisfaction and fulfillment

o    Great leaders sacrifice themselves for others

o    We follow those who lead for ourselves (i.e. 250,000 people who came to hear Dr. Martin Luther King came for themselves and their common values and beliefs)

This actually aligns very closely with the Servant Leadership concept advocated by Greenleaf and his contemporaries.   According to Greenleaf et al, servant leadership is a philosophy that emphasizes focusing first on others’ needs. Servant leaders are attentive to the growth and development of their stakeholders, including employees, customers, partners and the community. This approach enriches the lives of individuals, builds organizations that are more customer-focused and that it ultimately creates a more just and caring world:

• Servant leadership is a timeless concept—especially relevant for quality organizations because of its relationship with continuous improvement.
• Organizations benefit from servant leadership because it creates more effective and innovative teams and greater profitability.
• It can be practiced by anyone, regardless of his or her location in the organizational hierarchy.

"The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?
Characteristics of Servant Leadership include:

• Service first: Service to others is the prime motivator of the servant leader, and leadership becomes the way of providing that service.
• Community building: Servant leaders define their stakeholders broadly, focus on the common good and seek to build a trusting community.
• Persuasion not coercion: Servant leaders do not dictate or autocratically exercise power. Rather, they persuade others to agree and to act.
• Followers willingly follow: Followers of servant leaders choose to follow, voluntarily, because they trust the servant leader and own a shared purpose.
• Journey: Servant leadership is a journey—a process of continuous improvement and growth.
• Asking questions: A servant leader values the wisdom of others and therefore addresses any issue by asking questions.
• Listening: Servant leaders are experts in listening. Iarocci and Monroe said servant leaders automatically respond to any problem by listening first.
• Withdrawing and reorienting: Servant leaders are self-reflective and practice the art of withdrawing and reorienting to improve their perspective on the self and the work at hand.
• Exercising foresight: Servant leaders practice foresight by keeping up with current events, scanning the horizon for signals of change, listening actively and looking outside the boundaries of their own organizations.
• Growing others: Servant leaders relentlessly pursue the growth and development of others and create more servant leaders, not more followers.

Organization which practice servant leadership are marked by lower levels of absenteeism, greater customer satisfaction, and higher levels of productivity and performance,  Because servant leaders are attentive to the growth and development of others, individuals who practice servant leadership tend to positively influence those around them and, in turn, create more servant leaders.

Seven key dimensions of servant leadership were defined:

·         behaving ethically,

·         emotional healing,

·         putting subordinates first,

·         helping subordinates grow and succeed,

·         empowering,

·         creating value for the community, and

·         conceptual skills.

These researchers found servant leadership to significantly enhance commitment to the organization, job performance, and community citizenship behavior.  These studies demonstrated that servant leadership led to team performance through its positive influence on trust. When subordinates feel psychologically safe, they are willing to take risks associated with being creative, are willing to challenge the status quo (which leads to better decision making), and are motivated to perform well as a way of reciprocating for fair treatment by the leader.

Servant leadership was shown to positively influence the relationship between goal clarity and team potency. Servant leaders gain team member trust and build long term relationships by showing genuine concern for all team members.  And because it is the leader’s team, follower trust in leadership acts to elevate team members’ trust in the capabilities of their team to be effective. Servant leaders, who are fair, and honest with team members, promote open and problem-driven communication within the team, resulting in enhanced team member confidence in their team’s capabilities to be effective even in the face of uncertainty and obstacles. Servant leaders cultivate personal integrity among team members to create a spiritual climate within the team, which elicits team members to cooperate with and care about each other and enables them to be optimistic about their team’s capabilities to be effective.

Servant leadership was researched by academics (Piccolo & Colquitt, 2006), (Liden et al., 2008) , (Neubert, Kacmar, Carlson, Chonko, & Roberts, 2008) and ((Mayer, Bardes, & Piccolo, 2008) to demonstrate its impact on organizations and satisfaction.  The full reference list is below.

References

Simon Sinek – YouTube presentations (multiple)

Ehrhart, M. G. (2004). Leadership and procedural justice climate as antecedents of unit-level organizational citizenship behavior. Personnel Psychology, 57, 61-94.

Graham, J. W. (1991). Servant leadership in organizations: Inspirational and moral. Leadership Quarterly, 2, 105-119.

Greenleaf, R. K. (1970). The servant as leader. Newton Centre, MA: The Robert K. Greenleaf Center.

Hale, J. R.,& Fields, D. L. (2007). Exploring servant leadership across cultures: A study of followers in Ghana and the USA. Leadership, 3(4), 397-417.

Han, Y., Kakabadse, N. K., & Kakabadse, A. (2010). Servant leadership in the People's Republic of China: A case study of the public sector. Journal of Management
Development, 29(3), 265-281.

Hu, J., & Liden, R.C. (2011). Antecedents of team potency and team effectiveness: An examination of goal and process clarity and servant leadership. Journal of Applied Psychology, 96, 851-862.

Liden, R.C. (2012). Leadership research in Asia: A brief assessment and suggestions for the future. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 29, 205-212.

Liden, R.C., Panaccio, A., Meuser, J.D., Hu, J., & Wayne, S.J. (in press). Servant leadership: Antecedents, processes, and outcomes. In Day, D.V. (Ed.) The Oxford handbook of leadership and organizations. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

Liden, R.C., Wayne, S. J., Zhao, H. & Henderson, D. (2008). Servant leadership: Development of a multidimensional measures and multilevel assessment, Leadership Quarterly, 19, 161-177.

Mayer, D. M., Bardes, M., & Piccolo, R. F. (2008). Do servant-leaders help satisfy follower needs? An organizational justice perspective. European Journal of Work
and Organizational Psychology, 17, 180-197.

Neubert, M. J., Kacmar, K. M., Carlson, D. S., Chonko, L. B., & Roberts, J. A. (2008). Regulatory focus as a mediator of the influence of initiating structure and servant leadership on employee behavior. Journal of Applied Psychology,93(6), 1220-1233.

Peterson, S., Galvin, B. M., & Lange, D. 2012. CEO servant leadership: Exploring executive characteristics and firm performance. Personnel Psychology, 65: 565-596.

Piccolo, R. F.,& Colquitt, J.A. (2006). Transformational leadership and job behaviors: The mediating role of core job characteristics. Academy of Management Journal, 49, 327-340.

Schaubroeck, J., Lam, S. S. K., & Peng, A. C. 2011. Cognition-based and affect-based trust as mediators of leader behavior influences on team performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 96: 863-871.

Van Dierendonck, D. 2011. Servant leadership: A review and synthesis. Journal of Management, 37: 1228-1261.

Walumbwa, F. O., Hartnell, C. A., & Oke, A. (2010). Servant leadership, procedural justice climate, service climate, employee attitudes, and organizational citizenship behavior: A cross-level investigation. Journal of Applied Psychology, 95,517-529.

Yukl, G. (2010). Leadership in organizations (seventh edition). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Absurdity of Canadian Senate

There is currently a scandal in Canada concerning the controversial expenses that were submitted by several recently appointed senators.  Without going into detail, I will outline this as a scenario of a Quality System failure, and use the lessons learned to determine appropriate process improvement steps.

The first failure was the fact that two of the senators involved were not policymakers nor administrators, but broadcast journalists with decades of national exposure.  These senators were not elected, but unilaterally appointed by the Prime Minister for a duration that would likely extend beyond his term in office.  In Canada, senators are not elected but are appointed and entitled to remain as Senators until death, poor health, or their 75th birthday.

To use an American equivalent, imagine the public outcry if a Democratic President was able to appoint sympathetic journalists and broadcasters from MSNBC to the US Senate, or alternatively if the Republican President could select from the many sympathetic voices at Fox News.  There would definitely be a conflict of interest, as journalists would have explicit incentives to compromise the factual accounts and communicate government propaganda (to claim that they do already would be pure conjecture :) ).

The second failure was that the expense policies were not clarified and explicitly enforced.  By relaxing the standards, these rogue senators could claim expenses for housing and travel costs that were unrelated to their duties.  While the senators were designated as representatives of rural, outlying provinces (Prince Edward Island and Saskatchewan respectively), both had established their primary residences in central Canada.

While these senators have since been suspended for their deficient expense submissions, the true breakdown was in the administration of these expenses.  Normal corporate governance requires that expenses above a certain level are reviewed and approved before being paid out.  If there are discrepancies or the expenses are against policy, that should be known in advance before reimbursement.  The senators are being penalized and publicly reprimanded, while the true breakdown is in the expense administration, which was either grossly negligent or morally complicit by providing excessive payments to these "celebrity senators".

The third failure is the fact that the Senate in Canada primarily serves as an advisory body to the House of Commons or elected Parliament.  Phrases like "sober second thought" explain the extra legislative oversight that the Senate has on new or revised changes to bills, laws, or regulations.  Essentially, the Senate functions as a quality control mechanism, where older and wiser participants can influence the politically charged and often polarized parliamentary environment to prevent radical and irrational legislation.

Given the advances in information technology and access to expertise in every domain, is there truly a need for a distinct body like the Canadian Senate to provide oversight?  There is no relationship between the salaries and benefits of Senators and the time and materials expended to review and provide recommendations on legislature.  Even if this body was deemed the appropriate forum for legislative oversight of federal laws, that would require a specific set of criteria to ensure Canadian Senators are adequately qualified and capable of their roles.  Sympathetic appointments like Frank Mahovlich (a legendary hockey player who won Stanley Cups with the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens, and was part of the winning 1972 Team Canada squad) would not be adequately qualified for this function.

So based on the lessons learned from these scandals, my recommendations to address the Absurdity of the Canadian Senate are:
- Redefine the role of Senators, and modify the compensation to reflect the actual time and materials devoted to addressing federal Canadian legislation, and other pertinent duties.
- Establish objective qualifications for senators to ensure their capability and successful performance of their roles and responsibilities.
- Define eligibility requirements to disqualify celebrities, sympathetic figures, and political participants (i.e. journalists, regulators) who may be induced to compromise the integrity of their work for a quid pro quo appointment to the Canadian Senate.
- Deploy and sustain a financial governance system that fairly and accurately provides proper remuneration and reimbursement in accordance with the established government policies.  If administrative errors occur, these should be addressed quickly and discreetly to avoid the embarrassment of a national scandal.

I welcome opinions, as well as examples from other countries on the management of their bicameral parliamentary systems.

Quality - Defend Our Professional Scope

The View From The Q article this month addresses Quality beyond its normal comfort range.  I particularly like the orientation towards Innovation.  Traditional impressions of Quality focus on correction and prevention (Defense), but with the adoption of Innovation, we can be instrumental in accomplishing breakthrough products and services (Offense).  As the old sports adage proclaims, "Defense wins championships, but Offense sells tickets".  Innovation brings attention and revenue which will sustain us in the long-term.

So while our profession starts to divert towards the promises of Innovation and Social Responsibility, a portion of our natural domain is left "undefended".  Consider the IT industry (software, systems, technology, automation, etc.).

In this field, Quality is still synonymous with Software Testing.  A job posting for a QA role seeks someone with testing experience or product development capabilities in various programming languages - a very tactical role.  Often, developers or analysts are relegated to testing in order to build their skill set to a point where their product familiarity qualifies them to develop or conduct analysis for product development.

Those positions which relate to management systems or continuous improvement, areas which should be the natural constituency of Quality, are instead earmarked for those with Project Management or IT Governance backgrounds.  The Project Management Professional (PMP) designation is explicitly required for many Quality roles within the software industry, even though Quality comprises less than 10% of the PMP Body of Knowledge.

While the Quality profession embarks on new pursuits, it must also reinforce and fortify its areas of competency.

• Limiting ourselves to tactical roles is not an option, as it will prevent our profession from the necessary advancement and growth to attract long-term involvement.
• Pursuing speculative and loosely defined competencies like Innovation and Social Responsibility will build a foundation for future endeavors, but will not address present and immediate needs for career and professional development.

As professionals it is not enough to possess knowledge.  We must assert our presence and reposition our role to take on greater influence and responsibility, moving from tactical control roles to more influential executive and governance responsibilities.  As Quality Professionals, we have the capability and skill set to raise our profile, embrace those areas which should be within our natural scope, and fulfill the promise and potential of our noble profession.