ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, October 6, 1996 TAG: 9610040082
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: WORKING IT OUT
SOURCE: CAMILLE WRIGHT MILLER
Q: Our boss is considering implementing Total Quality Management. The rest of us are concerned with the cost, loss of employees, the time involved and the high failure rate.
A: TQM isn't necessarily the only way to ensure a company retains a stable or growing market share, but many TQM fundamentals aid long-term survival and profitability. Jim Linsenmeyer, founder of the Roanoke-based Management Consulting Services, says that TQM, in its ideal form "means higher quality of products and services at lower costs. It makes a lot of common sense once you understand its ideals."
Underlying TQM is a belief that "the economy is becoming market driven vs. product driven. The consumer is becoming a smarter and more demanding buyer. TQM means that your primary focus is placed on meeting or exceeding the demands of the customer."
He adds that "organizations must be able to continually improve products and services and the processes in which they are made or delivered. TQM means constantly scrutinizing our works, measuring our results, and never being satisfied with less than zero defects."
For TQM to work, employees and owners need to see themselves as part of the same team, overcome "resistance to change" and "commit to a two- to five-year process." As a result of our impatience, Linsenmeyer often sees TQM being prematurely "abandoned or not properly implemented."
When considering companies that failed in their TQM attempts, don't take the most efficient route and blame TQM. Evaluate the full process to determine if the process, the program or a combination brought about the failure.
TQM will mean additional costs early on and it will require full commitment to years of change. It does not have to fail and it doesn't have to bring unemployment. Properly implemented, benchmarking, continuous improvement and commitment to quality make good sense. According to Linsenmeyer, "the greater risk is to do nothing and risk losing your market."
Q: I've been promoted. Along with a salary and position increase, I have an increase in the number of breakfast meetings I'm expected to attend. I'm in breakfast meetings at least four mornings every week. I'd like to pull back.
A: There are several advantages to meeting before regular business hours. You can jump-start your work day and you can conduct business without workplace distractions. The disadvantages include taking away from family time, from exercise time, and extending the work day - often without senior management's awareness of your efforts. Not all breakfast meetings can be avoided, but you can assert greater control over the number of meetings you schedule. As with every meeting invitation, review the agenda and what will be accomplished. Ask yourself if similar, or better, results can be achieved in a different forum. If so, take the initiative and suggest alternatives. If a meeting isn't necessary and wouldn't benefit your networking efforts, suggest how similar results can be achieved without the meeting.
Keeping your focus on work, you need to accomplish and evaluate invitations to determine if the results will support your goals and will help improve your performance even more.
Q: My office is filled with files, folders, papers, reports, lost telephone messages, and other stuff. I'm no longer sure what's there. I've tried several different systems for organizing and they've failed. What's the secret to being organized?
A: "Organized" is a process, not a goal. Individuals who wait until the end of the week or set a date to become organized guarantee they'll never reach their goal of having order. Consider how you work, what comes across your desk, and what interrupts your work flow. Understand how you work in order to establish a system that works for you - not one that has you working for it. Once you've identified your work patterns, determine how you could conduct on-going work in an organized manner. Set aside uninterrupted time to rid your office of clutter. What remains should be filed or ordered to allow you to tackle it the next work day. As you begin working in your reordered office, ask yourself - with every task, paper, or message - how you'll handle it now to avoid a repeat of your massive cleaning effort. At the end of each day, reflect on what did or didn't work. Then modify.
Camille Wright Miller, an organizational behavior sociologist who works in Lexington, answers questions from our readers about workplace issues. Please send them to her in care of The Roanoke Times, Business News Department, P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke 24010.
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