Monday Morning Motivations Improve Processes and Improve Quality

Published by Robert A. & Vicki L. Prentice of Professional Development Systems
July 10, 2006 Issue 206

From the Desk of Bob

Improve quality and you improve your life! Personally, I enjoy purchasing quality goods and services. I get a major kick out of it. I like the value I get from quality goods and services. Money is not an object if and when I can confirm quality somehow in the process of purchasing an item.

In business I am committed to the delivery of quality goods and services on every project. You might say I have a quality mindset that permeates every aspect of my life. In fact, I admit, I am a little goofy about processes and quality.

How about you? Do you appreciate quality? Do you have a quality mindset? Read on!

To Your Success! Bob

In this week's issue

Life Attitudes

Seeds of Success: Improve Processes and Improve Quality

There's Always A Better Way!

The Prairie Beacon

Mr. Attitude's Life Tested Tools

Life Attitudes

"Everything can be improved.”
~C. W. Barron~

“Quality has to be caused, not controlled.”
~Philip Crosby~

"Almost all quality improvement comes via simplification of design, manufacturing, layout, processes, and procedures.”
~Tom Peters~

"Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives."
~William A. Foster~

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Seeds of Success: Improve Processes and Improve Quality

By Robert A. Prentice

I have told my children many times that if a job is worth doing it is always worth doing correctly and with a quality mindset. It seems they have listened. (I get reports from their employer.)

The word PROCESS is often defined as a series of actions, changes, or functions bringing about a result, such as the process of digestion or the process of obtaining a driver's license.

If you desire to improve quality in your job, your business, or in your home, you must first understand that there is a process and system for everything. You may have to take time to thoroughly analyze every aspect of something–even roll up your sleeves and really experience the task or jump in and do the job–to ultimately discover the process.

All job tasks have some sort of process to them. Whether it’s as simple as baking a cake or as complex as building a house or a business there is a process to it. There are processes to writing a newsletter, a book, or a letter. In fact, everywhere you look you will find processes. Identify and exploit those processes and then find ways to improve them and over time you will improve quality.

With a quality mindset, simply break down every experience, step by step along the path to completion. Take a note pad and jot down your discoveries along the way. If you really want to improve something there is a way to it.

If you want the result to be top-notch in quality, you need to find the right people for the right jobs. Everyone brings a little something to the table. Some people are really good at detail work, while others are better at talking and selling an idea. I utilize process management as a training tool and I have for years had great success with it. Once I have identified the processes I find people who will excel in a specific task in that process, and as they learn the step-by-step process, we are able to discover ways to improve job quality.

Action steps we can take today include these:

Organization is a key process for effective leadership. It follows in priority to planning. As you think, and then plan, organization is the next logical step. Get organized and watch those minutes magically turn into hours of found time for you to enjoy your life to the max!

• Watch and listen for and identify processes in the specific tasks in your life.

• Analyze the existing processes to discover specific methods to improve them.

• Implement the new processes.

The result of improving your processes will always be improved quality.

There's Always A Better Way!

A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said: “I am blind, please help.” There were only a few coins in the hat. A man walking by took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words and put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.

Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, “Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?”

The man said, “I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way.” What he had written was: “Today is a beautiful day and I cannot see it.”

Do you think the first sign and the second sign were saying the same thing? Of course both signs told people the boy was blind. But the first sign simply told people to help by putting some money in the hat. The second sign told people that they were able to enjoy the beauty of the day, but the boy could not enjoy it because he was blind.

The first sign simply said the boy was blind. The second sign told people they were so lucky that they were not blind. Should we be surprised that the second sign was more effective?

There are at least two lessons we can learn from this story.

The first is: Be thankful for what you have. Someone else has less. Help where you can.

The second is: Be creative. Be innovative. Think differently. There is always a better way!

Bob "Mr. Attitude" Prentice is available for Keynote, conference engagements, and in-house company training assignments Call to schedule Bob TODAY! 800.437.9715

Read on...

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My training sessions consist of the principals, attitudes, and skills that I have discovered over the course of my life, and that I aspire to practice in my day to day living. These are the Life Tested Tools that I have to offer:

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Feel free to pass your Monday Morning Motivations on to a friend.

What a great way to let them know you are thinking of them!