A colleague of mine emailed me a long, thoughtful message. She wrote to describe how our discussions on management and quality were helping in her current role. She listed several things that she thought were helping her make a difference. None of these small items are necessarily new or original but they work and help drive good results in the business. Think about, apply, and observe these small things constantly to make a big impact on quality and performance in your organization.
- Focus on the small things and the big things will take care of themselves.
- Be strategic, thoughtful, and methodical in the changes you make.
- Some things require immediate action. But not everything.
- Give things a chance to work.
- Suggest different ways to get things done and let people experiment to find what works.
- Housekeeping. Every day. Use the 5S method.
- Be persistent. Be decisive. Get stuff done.
- Before you try to fix "broken people", fix broken processes.
- Know what's important, what's urgent, and what's urgent and important.
- Seek to understand.
