Posts tagged ASQ

Continuous Improvement Development for Leadership and Professionals

CIC Process Improvement

Train your leaders first to change the culture

Oftentimes we get leadership support to an initiative to change the culture, but they don’t have the actual skills to implement the changes they’re supporting.  Before you can expect your front-line employees to live a culture of continuous improvement, you have to develop your leaders, managers, and professionals.  Everything we’ve discussed over the past six blogs have built to this.  See how building a culture of continuous improvement starts with developing leadership and professionals.

http://ngs.edu/2014/06/20/building-culture-continuous-improvement-continuous-improvement-development-leadership-professionals/

Speaking

Stop Jumping to Do

Business Consulting Meandering Genius Speaking 1 Comment

SpeakingLast night I provided the Keynote Presentation to a packed house for the local ASQ Section.

Thanks to all that came out…I hope you enjoyed the presentation and took away some good information and a helpful tool.

Here are the slides for your review:

http://www.slideshare.net/johnknotts1/asq-keynote-presentation-pdca-planning-approach

Please take my survey and let me know if I was successful at anything.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/527XFXK

Remember to Follow my Blog and join with me on LinkedIn…those Tweeters out there can hook up too!  🙂

Culture, most important aspect of establishing continuous improvement

Meandering Genius Process Improvement

We talk about “culture” all the time and there is often a misconception of what culture is.  According to Gallup, 30% of the US workforce is can be considered engaged in their work.  A Continuous Improvement Culture depends on an employee based that is engaged.  Building and Sustaining and Quality Culture had over twice as many sessions as three of the other theme and focus areas at the recent ASQ Conference, which presents it as one of the most important aspects in quality today.  Continue on my journey with National Graduate School as we explore my Continuous Improvement Culture Model and discuss ways to drive this culture into your organization.

http://ngs.edu/2014/05/08/building-culture-continuous-improvement-culture-building/

ASQ Conference Recap–Day Three

Meandering Genius

Have you ever heard of the saying, “saving the best for last?”

Well, that pretty much sums up the last day of the ASQ Conference. It’s unfortunate too that some of the best sessions were on the last day of the conference.

Why is that you ask?

See, yesterday when I blogged about day two, I said I expected the attendance to drop on day three because it is only a half day, the exhibit hall is closed, and their isn’t a lunch. I was right.

The two presentations I sat through yesterday were the following:

– Leading Your Business Forward for Sustainable Success, Shane Yount
– Engaging Employees as Change Agents, Alan Shaw and Gautam Mehra

Shane turned out to be the best public speaker, aside from the keynote speakers I saw, that presented at the conference. His message from his book, Leading Your Business Forward, was very good. His public speaking skills were great! It’s just too bad that only half the room was filled–given the nature of his topic, if it were Monday or Tuesday, that room would have been filled to capacity.

Alan and Gautam were good presenters, but that wasn’t the highlight of their presentation. They, along with BMC Software, have done what everyone is looking to do–build a culture of continuous improvement owned by the employees. Their story/message was well presented, but it was only given to a crown about a quarter of what should have been there. For anyone reading this that attended the conference, get the videos and watch their video!

I guess successful quality journey’s don’t apply to everyone. The guy in front of me had filled out his evaluation form and I caught a glimpse of it. He gave highest marks to the presenters, but when it came to meeting his expectations, he scored them very low.

Why do I think that could be?

Well, the guy I went to the convention with, Ken, told me the reason he didn’t attend this session was because it was a software company and he thought it was going to be a presentation about software as a service that leads a quality deployment. I have to say that the thought had crossed my mind as well, but the write up did sound different–it was. So, maybe that guy was looking for a software solution.

My hat is off to the Wednesday session presenters that I saw.

Michelle Rhee rounded out the event with her closing keynote address. But before that was the recognition of the Quality Team Award. I’ll talk about the award in a second. Michelle was great…her message was very powerful, but extremely political. She was using the podium to send her political message with a very weak tie to quality. Not that her message wasn’t important, just that it was what it was.

Michelle talked about the importance of public education and how the US needs to improve it. Let me add my two cents, which I will probably blog further about in the future. Educational Quality is much needed! Quality in Healthcare is hurting, but Quality in Education is pretty much no where to be seen. This made me stop and think for a moment. I did not see one session that addressed any quality in education topics at this conference and don’t ever remember one from last year or anything the the Lean and Six Sigma Conference a month ago. ASQ has an Education Division and I plan to learn more about what they do, but I think this is a huge opportunity for the US, not just because of Michelle’s message.

However, Michelle’s message was specifically on public education and dealt very specifically with government and political issues reading education, which are probably huge in themselves. If government run education is any example of every other government run organization, quality isn’t in their language.

Back to the Quality Award…

Last year in Indianapollis, I remember sitting in a much reduced audience group watching all the teams parade down the aisle and I was sad that many of the people had already left the conference early. I remember now commenting on that in my trip report back to work. Again, I saw the same effect. The room felt full, but there were many empty chairs. Not at all like day one!

Since ASQ reads these blogs — thank you by the way — I want to send a suggestion. Take it or leave it. I will also share this on my feedback regarding the conference as a whole.

For five years, while in the Air Force, I ran the Chief of Staff Team Excellence Award (CSTEA) Award competition in USAFE–that’s in Europe. I was on the technical review committee every year and then I flew with the two finalist teams to the Air Force Association Conference Exhibition in DC to coach and support the teams through the competition.

The storyboard presentation is interesting, but this is how the CSTEA did it a bit differently. Each of the teams had an actual booth space in the back of the Exhibition Hall that was paid for by the Air Force. The teams had a couple people manning the booths at all times, except when it was time for them to present for their formal part of the competition. The CSTEA had a technical review score from people like me–one from every command. And there was a presentation score given by a panel of senior officers and civilians at the actual conference.

We didn’t gather a score from the audience that visited the booths and talked to each team, but I think that would have been a great addition. I like that you give out the Storyboard Award. Improvement to that would be to allow viewing and voting via app. Even if they could post a video of their story online that people could watch would be even neater…this allows more people to view and score–even if they are not at the conference. Having the Quality Impact sessions done as open webinars to ASQ members could also generate interest in attending the conference for the future.

But, back to the idea of the booths. Instead of just storyboards, each team has a booth and are expected to man the booth during the exhibit hall hours, unless they are presenting. Put them all in a line against the back wall, so they are all together–perhaps facing each other. This would allow attendees to not just read a quick snippet of what they did, but really stop and ask questions and discuss. Since the Quality Impact sessions all kind of run together in groups, this gives everyone the opportunity to fully understand what every team did.

Just a suggestion.

The three days were well worth it. It is always impressive to see so many quality professionals in one place. So many presentations to choose from provides almost too many options, but that’s great too. As one might expect, you will always end up with a dud here and there, but I’m fine with that. As you can see, there are clearly diamonds in the rough and the videos of each presentation are available for only $49, which is pretty awesome.

Nashville in May 2015…be there and see how things have grown and changed. I suspect it to only get better.

ASQ Conference Recap–Day Two

Meandering Genius

Mike Abrashoff, former Navy and now Founder of GLS Worldwide, opened up yesterday’s conference festivities with some serious shock and awe. Mike is one of those people that when he speaks you capture a lot of profound quotes. His message on leadership was right on point and one of the best I have heard.

His book was sold out before his speech was over if that is any indication of how good he was at the podium.

Like any conference of this type, where you have volunteer presenters, you can always end up with a few duds. I ended up with one where a guy from the EPA was presenting on change management. He had a lot of information and focused his message on writing a change plan, because that solves everything in change management and completely breaks down resistance to change.

I’m not sure what his experience has been with change in the government, but he really needed to read some of the references that he was throwing up on slides, which he admittedly said he did not know–like John Kotter’s 8-step model and McKinsey’s 7-S model.

Well, everything came out in the wash when he was finished presenting and the session was opened up for Q&A. I was able to stay for three questions that he couldn’t answer, but had to leave when he told the audience he had never heard of the term “burning platform.”

I found day two to have a great deal more downtime than the day before. This allowed me to spend some time working on a couple of special projects. I was so engaged in what I was working on, I missed the lunch keynote speaker, but heard that I didn’t miss much.

Word to the wise for future ASQ Conference attendees; if they still do Flip Sessions, ensure you watch the video before hand.

Basically, they are trying out this new concept called a Flip Session where you have to watch a video presentation before going to the presentation–pre-work. Well, I don’t think anyone at the conference actually understood the concept because I went to one of these sessions yesterday afternoon and no one in the entire room had watched the video to include me.

Everything went downhill from there. There was a guy in the session playing stump the chump, and he was asking questions out of some manual that he had brought. There was also this other guy that would ask questions that few could understand, to include the presenter. It was just going from bad to worse.

Near the end of the hour-long session, the presenter asked how many in the audience had ever used a SIPOC, to which about 80% or more of the hands went up. Then she asked what they used it for and what values it brought–she received lots of good answers. Then she proceeded to do a SIPOC example on the white board. I walked out.

So, there were nuggets of goodness in the conference and opportunities for learning. The networking is always great and I even got some work done. All in all, not a bad day.

Day three is short, with two sessions and then a closing keynote speaker. The exhibitors are gone, since the hall closed at 4 last night and they won’t have a lunch for today. I suspect that the attendance will be much lighter today, but will report on my nonstatistical hypothesis tomorrow.

ASQ Conference Recap–Day One

Meandering Genius

Yesterday was the first full day of the ASQ Worldwide Quality Conference.

They actually had a conference kickoff Sunday night with the opening of the Exhibit Hall.

If you have never been to a an ASQ Worldwide conference, let me recommend you plan to attend one–next year will be in Nashville TN. There are many vendors present and over 2,000 attendees fill the conference halls.

The hotel for this year’s conference is uber awesome. Of course, that come with a price–a beer, for instance, at the opening as $8! However, the location is top notch.

Eric Wahl kicked off the conference. All I knew is that he was a “graffiti artist” so I questioned what message he would bring. WOW. If you haven’t seen him on a TED Talk, look him up. I also recommend following him on LinkedIn and Twitter. He was awesome!

As usual, the conference presentations, for the most part, are pretty good. You have so many choices that you would be hard pressed not to find something you wanted to hear.

Being a Service Quality Division member with ASQ, I was invited to their annual meeting lunch. Let me tell you that the food at the lunch was terrific. This was the first division activity I have attended and it was good. I didn’t know the division was doing everything they were doing, so it was enlightening.

I also received a great demo on Sigma Brew, a Six Sigma simulation from Moresteam. That was really interesting and I can’t wait to see more in the future. I am really impressed with their Engine Room and look forward to when Engine Room and Traction is one integrated system.

Our conference was cut short at the start of our last session–one I was looking forward to–because of a fire alarm in the hotel. Since we are staying at the Marriott down the street, we ended up leaving before the fire trucks even showed up.

I’m looking forward to another great day at the conference sans fire alarms!

ASQ Worldwide Conference Opening

Meandering Genius Process Improvement

The ASQ Conference opened with a tremendous presentation from Erik Wahl. I had no idea what to expect, but he did not disappoint!

Erik has some TED Talks out there…I haven’t seen them yet, but I recommend you check him out.

Over 2,000 in attendance here is Dallas and the hotel/convention center is beyond impressive.

 

 

Speaking in May for ASQ

Business Consulting Meandering Genius Speaking Strategic Planning

I will be speaking at the upcoming May American Society for Quality Section meeting.

The location is the South Texas Blood and Tissue Center Donor Pavilion. The Donor Pavilion is up the road behind the Center itself. The date and time are Tuesday, May 13, 2013, at 6:00 to 8:00.

Stop Jumping To Do!

We are all project managers. When you think about the basics of a project, you can see that every day we manage projects. The question is, how well do you plan them?

John will share his simplified project planning methodology he developed when investigating a way of easily turning strategy into action. Not only will he share with you the simplified approach, but he will take you through an example of the approach and leave you with the basic planning tools you’ll need to apply this technique in every project you manage.

Here are the benefits of the approach:
• It’s easily repeatable.
• It ensures project success.
• It allows for simple timeline planning.
• It takes less than an hour the first time you use it.

Hope to see you there.

So you call yourself a professional

Meandering Genius

If you’re a lawyer a doctor, an EMT, and many like professional services, you are required to maintain the professional designation by continuously learning and by participating in professional conferences and associations.

The “career field” I’m in is considered a professional career field. It doesn’t have the same rigorous level of education requirements that you find with doctors and lawyers, but it’s professional just the same.

Even the military has the Profession of Arms and believes there is a level of professional training throughout your career to maintain and consistently build upon your capabilities.

If you maintain a professional certification common in my career, and they are from PMI and/or ASQ, then you have to maintain a level of continuous education requirements. This is true for doctors and lawyers and even as an EMT, I was required to keep the certification current through various activities.

There are, in my career, many (like me) that hold certifications that don’t require continuous education and certification requirements. These certifications, Lean Six Sigma and Change Management are essentially the same as those offered by PMI and ASQ, so, in my mind, they require the same level of dedication.

This brings me to the crux of this blog. If you hold a professional certification or status, then I know there are conferences and organizations that support that. At least some of them probably have local meetings in your area. The ASQ Section in San Antonio meets monthly and takes a break for summer. Additionally there is a Continuous Improvement Professionals (CIP) organization that a friend of mine and I stood up here in San Antonio that is now run by UTSA and meets monthly. Everyone that works in the fields related to this should be attending at least some of these meetings.

When I was actively involved in project management, but didn’t have the certification, I regularly went to PMI meetings and there were easily over 100 people that would attend. I went to the ASQ meeting last night and they had one of their biggest showings with about 32 people. The IIBA meeting in town sees about 10 people on average.

I work with over 70 others that call themselves Process Engineers…many of them are certified in Lean Six Sigma. Additionally, there are easily 30 to 50 Change Managers, most certified in Prosci. Add in Business Managers, Business Architects, Business Analysts, Business Support Analysts, and the list goes on. All total, there are probably easily over 1,000 professional positions and their leadership running around my 26,000-person company.

At most, I have seen four (including me) attend the local ASQ Meetings. Three of those (including me) regularly present at the meetings.

So, you call yourself a professional?

Holding a job title and just doing a job does not a professional make. I think there are a few very specific things that all professionals should do:

1. If you are in a professional role, you should have an appropriate level of education and certification. Personally, not only do I have have a Master’s Degree, but it is in Quality Systems Managment–way beyond a basic MBA, but very focused on what I do every day. Very few people in the world have this degree–it’s from National Graduate School, which I’m now adjunct faculty with. I have earned a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, Black Belt, and Master Black Belt in my career. Additionally, I have a Master’s-level Certification from Georgetown University in Change Management and I am certified in Change Management from Prosci. Although not a project manager, I’ve been fully trained in Project Management through PMI. Over the next few years, I plan to get my PhD in Industrial and Organizational Psychology.

Now some of you might be looking at that paragraph and thinking, “Really, do you need all that education and certification?” If this is your job, how much is “good enough?” Is that the type of person you are…a good enough person? This is my job and if I’m not constantly learning, then I’ll grow stale in my position and not be able to effectively perform my job. Personally, I have a desire to be the best at what I do. If you think what you have is good enough, then obviously, you are not interested in being the best at what you do.

2. Be well read. Every month, new business books come out on the professional types of jobs that I work in. Officially, my position title is process engineer, but daily I do much more. I bring to the table strategic planning; change management; strategic communication; organizational design; strategic human capital; education, training, and development; program and project management; performance management; as well as process management and improvement. So, to stay current in all these things, many of which don’t even have a career certification, I read a lot. As a matter of fact, I probably have a third more books than I have read. I’m always buying books that relate to what I do. Some I read cover to cover and some sit on my shelf for future reference or reading. To this end, I’m building a full wall built-in bookshelf in my office at the house. Additionally, I receive many business magazines that I review and sometimes read and review many blogs and websites dedicated to the above fields. I guess I have a desire to be as up to date in current technologies and practices as possible so what I’m doing is current. What’s good enough for you?

3. I started this blog with a discussion about professional organizations. I was in the military for 21 years and I am a life member of every professional military association that one could normally join for my branch. I’m not even in the military anymore (retired) and those associations keep me current and up to date with what is happening to the military. Some of them even fight for my benefits on the Hill. In my profession; however, I belong to several organizations and I have popped in and out of others, like PMI and SHRM based on the current work I was doing. I have been an ASQ member for over ten years–after I returned from overseas–and today, I am a Senior Member of ASQ. However, I’m not just a member, I often attend local meetings and when possible attend conferences. Many times I have funded my own way to these conferences. In some cases, I have held leadership positions. For the Air Force Sergeants Association, I have held some of the highest nonprofit leadership positions. So, joining is great…you get to list it on your resume, but participating in professional organizations is where you grow.

I know I’m the oddity in this because I belong to so many and participate all the time. But, why am I the oddity? Why am I one of the few that thinks it’s important to have a great network, to stay current, to hear differing views and approaches, and to actively professionalize my career field? Is what you’re doing good enough?

4. There could be many other things I might recommend to being a true professional, but the one I’ll end with is sharing your knowledge. Day in and day out you do the job…that’s what you’re paid for. But how to you share what you know? Do you regularly teach others on things they need to know, even if you don’t know it that well yourself? Do you not only attend professional meetings, but offer up to regularly present at the local meetings? Do you set up impromptu lunch and learns for teams at work? Are you involved with local educational programs teaching others coming into this career field? Or is doing your job good enough?

Obviously I could have called this blog “good enough,” but really it’s about what it means to truly be a professional. Doing the job every day isn’t enough. If you aren’t constantly growing and sharing, then you aren’t learning you’re just doing. If you really want to be a professional, stop saying that what you’re doing today is good enough and start saying that it’s never enough.