Chart the Course to Quality with MAPS

My whiteboard is a big summary of discussions I have with colleagues.  Most of those discussions center on matters of quality and how we build on our progress.  One of the keys to our progress is in the center of the whiteboard.  It's been there a long time and it's the key to team member engagement.  It looks like this:

M - mastery
A - autonomy
P - purpose
S - support

The people and teams in an organization are the key to quality.  Developing mastery of skills in a profession, autonomy to make decisions and create, and having a purpose super-charge individuals.  This in turn leads to high quality and performance that benefit the business and its customers.

The "S" in MAPS was added recently.  In a conversation with Rajiv Amar, he identified one more part that was playing a role in our success; Support.  You can have mastery, autonomy, and purpose, but if you don't have the support of your organization - peers, colleagues, executives, board, cross-functional partners - your quality will still be at risk.  That support has to be there not just when the results are good; the support has to be there when things get tough.

MAPS is fuel for discovery, collaboration, execution, and a culture of quality.  Practice MAPS in your organization and watch your teams take the business to new levels of quality and performance.