The Disturbing Lack Of Quality
This past weekend I went to Chicago to see the Blue Man Group, a theatrical/musical/dance production that has had a long run of success. The success of this production is so significant that it now has companies putting on similar shows in Las Vegas and Europe, as well as previous long runs on Broadway (New York), Los Angeles and Boston. The organization that does the production is now 500 members strong... and that is a significant number for a theatrical production.
The reason for the success of the Blue Man Group is obvious to anyone that has attended the show. The production involves making music using plumbing fixtures in combination with a standard rock ensemble in the background. The players use movement and expression--and very few words or lyrics--to convey meaning to the audience. Every sense organ of the audience member is stimulated during the show, and audience involvement is maximized. Lighting, sound, costume (which consists of very plain brown zip-up suits and blue latex on all exposed skin areas) and other technical aspects of the show are of the highest quality. My only complaints are that theaters are still charging too much for refreshments and the seats were too small to make my fat ass comfortable.
But as I have been sitting here thinking about the production I was struck by the total commitment to quality that went into the production, all stemming from some bizarre ideas bounced off the three originators of the show. These three artists were seeking a venue for their pursuit of excellence and found it in the least likeliest of places. They did not set out to make money, but pursued excellence and the money followed. The Las Vegas venue for the Blue Man Group has a waiting list over a year long... so the money will keep flowing as long as the quality is maintained. Several of the audience members in attendance at the show I went to had been there several times in the past... and it is rare that a play/theater production can tap the same audience members more than once.
But I have worked for a good portion of my life, starting at age 10 working for my father's contracting business. My father insisted that we put out only the highest standards for our business. Other contractors would not worry about the butting of seams on sheetrock, but my dad would take a sheet down if it did not butt within a certainty of specification. Concrete work needed to meet the highest standard... and far too many of our competitors took shortcuts on their concrete work. But sub-standard workmanship or materials were not part of my father's way of doing things.
Sub-standard workmanship is not my way either. That is why I latched onto the TQM (Total Quality Management) philosophy and methodology some time ago... back when Demings was still alive and kicking. While much of the TQM movement focused on manufacturing and production, using statistical sampling to measure quality at all three stages of production, I found that the philosophy could be applied in counseling, social work and education without the invasive involvement of production statistics. Statistics were still included in the process, but the sole reliance upon them was pretty much abandoned.
The use of statistics was used as a metric to assess areas needing impovement rather than success or failure. I applied statistical analysis to student test scores, client outcomes and teacher evaluations. Using my background in standardized, subjective, objective testing, surveying and polling processes, I built questionairres that asked clients and students to provide me with feedback on almost every detail of my teaching, counseling and case work. Before I discontinued with a counseling or casework client, I asked for a survey to be completed. Using a blind system, I submitted those surveys to my supervisor, who then held onto them until he had 10-15 of them. He then scored them for me and provided me with only the raw scores, which I then put into a spreadsheet and applied various statistical analyses to the scores.
I was careful in constructing the survey questionaires. I did not design the survey to measure or report only on positive interactions and feedback. Far too many surveys, questionaires and polls are design to meet a self-fulfilling prophecy. I applied this approach with students at the high school and college level as well.
But there is an astounding lack of quality in our society. During my weekend in Chicago my wife and I stayed at a Super 8 hotel on the north side of the city. We chose the hotel for three reasons: proximity to the theater, availability of free parking and the price of the room. The price of the room was a premium price compared to Super 8 hotels found elsewhere in the US, but being that it was in Chicago, it was a competitive price. However, the accomodations were not premium quality. The hallways smelled of a musty/moldy aroma that seemed to be the result of some sort of sewerage problem. The hallway lighting was poor and the elevator was so small we barely had room to carry our 2 small overnight bags. The desk clerks refused to honor a national discount program of which I am a member.
When we asked for extra pillows, the first desk clerk told us that he could only give us one because the maids had already left for the day and the front desk did not have access to the storage closet. He assured us that we could pick up the ONE pillow on our way back into the hotel from our excursion into town. When we came back to the hotel, the night desk clerk told us we could not have any extra pillows because they did not have any. When we informed him that the day clerk told us he would reserve them for us, he grabbed the key, opened the storage closet and produced two very suitable pillows.
It would be so easy to be racist and prejudice and blame this behavior on the fact that the entire staff of the hotel seemed to be Indian or Pakistani, but I have been to that part of the world and received better quality service and accomodations. So, it isn't because of the staff's ethnicity, it is because this particular owner/operator doesn't care about anything except making the almighty buck.
But even major restaurant chains have the same issue. I love "sliders" from White Castle. They are just about the greatest little burger in the world, providing you are quite intoxicated, it is about 2 o'clock in the morning, nothing else is open and all you have in your pocket is a few dollars. But the local manifestation of White Castle (Chesterton, IN) is horrible. The buns are always stiff, the staff never seem to get an order completely right and I have witnessed several sanitary standards violations while on the premises. As an experienced chef of some renown among my friends and family, and someone who has worked fast food joints way back in my youth, I cannot understand how it could be so difficult to get an order of sliders screwed up so many times... but we stopped going to this White Castle because of these experiences.
Our local Dunkin Donuts offers a similar experience. Walgreens Home Health Care Services (Valparaiso Office) has a similar problem. The staff at this office is attentive and oriented toward quality. My visits their to pick up home health care equipment and DME (durable medical equipment) results in nothing less than the best customer service. However, it seems that all detailed orders must, for some unknown reason, be processed by the Tinley Park (IL) office. As a result, I had to wait for over five weeks for a CPAP humidifier and a year's supply of CPAP filters... and then when I called to try to straighten out the issue I got an excuse-making, uncaring, non-listening person on the other end that wanted to ignore my issues about quality.
Then there is NIPSCO (Northern Indiana Public Service Company) which sent us a shut off notice before we ever got our first electrical service bill. Or Public Service of New Hampshire who built a nuclear power plant with such poor regard for quality that it was forced to shut down... and the lobbyists for PSNH then got the state legislature to pass a law that would allow PSNH to pass along the cost of the loss to customers as a "infrastructure charge" with assurances that PSNH was going to revamp the power grid to the more rural areas of New Hampshire where their service was used. Eight years after the law was passed we moved into our home in Mason (NH) only to find our power went our 34 times in the first 10 weeks of moving in... and when I called to complain the customer service rep said, "Well, you live in the country and back woods. What do you expect?" I eventually was able to talk with the head honcho of their engineering department and, after establsihing that I had signifcant knowledge of the law and electrical engineering for service provision, got him to admit that my area was suffering from a serious infrastructure problem.
Then their is our local "fancy" restaurant known as Popolano's. It has two locations, one in Chesterton (IN) and one in Lansing (IL). My wife and I had been familiar with the Lansing location when we lived closer to the Illinois border and were happy to find a quality place nearby. Many of our visits to the Chesterton location have resulted in top quality dining experiences. But just as many have resulted in less than top notch results, inconsistent food quality and screwed up take out orders. It seems to depend on which crew is working in the kitchen and who is on the wait staff for that day.
It would seem that these problems are part and parcel of the cable television industry. I used to work for RCN and found the customer service end of the business to be completely lacking... which is one reason (but not the only one) why the company went bankrupt before its tenth year of operation. Warner cable was notorious among the residents of the North Shore of Boston for not giving a damn about customer service, outages or poor quality reception. My current provider is Comcast and they are almost as bad as Warner Cable was when I had them many years ago. And none of them have any idea how to deal with customers.
The same must be true of cellular phone companies. Cingular was a nightmare experience for us. We currently use Verizon and weird things occur with their service: My wife and I have identical phones that were bought at the same time. At our house she gets no network available messages and calls that drop all the time. In the same location, at the same time, my network connect is 5 by 5... and they don't seem to care because we agreed to a two-year commitment... and they have us by certain unmentionable parts of the anatomy until our contract is fulfilled.
AOL has recently announced that it is ramping down its Internet Service and focusing more on its content services... which is probably a good thing since they suck at customer service... I am still waiting for a technical service problem to be corrected after spending four hours on the phone with them six weeks ago. Won't they be surprised when they don't get paid... and I have three other clients that are having the same trouble... and I have a lawyer looking to declare a class action suit.
But what we are lacking is the commitment to quality that was the penchant of Deming, Juran, Conway, Peters and others in the Quality Movement.
Commitment to quality requires the following:
Ethics: A commitment to what is right, fair and just in a business transaction.
Integrity: A commitment to providing services or products that work to the highest levels of performance, perform to the best standards of the industry, and meets/exceeds the standards of competitors.
Trust: A commitment to telling the customer, the government and the public the truth in all aspects of operation and conduct of business.
Training: A commitment of time and resources to genuine, effective and meaningful training for all personnel, in all areas of technology, in all aspects of the business.
Teamwork: A commitment of working with, respecting and understanding the workforce built to conduct the business of the business entity. All aspects of the business need to work as a part of the team and all voices of the team must be held in high regard.
Leadership: A commitment of the senior executives, managers, supervisors, key personnel to all aspects of quality and a willingness to stop production and suffer temporary setbacks to fulfill the mission of quality.
Recognition: A commitment to acknowledging the owrk of all members of the team, sharing the wealth of the business entity with those that provide the sweat equity of the business and incentives to assure that each and every employee, vendor and customer values the entity and the products/services/role of the business.
Communication: A commitment to effective communication throughout the organization, at all levels and with all personnel.
Business Citizenship: A commitment to being an active, identifiable member of the community, not only through donations, but also through commitments to community service, accomodation of work schedules to facilitate family needs, providing quality benefits (especially health care) and assisting others to succeed.
Mission: A commitment to a clearly articulated and fully implemented mission statment that is not solely focused on profits, dividends, stock value and the almighty dollar.
But we seem to have poor examples of these attributes at all levels of our society. Businesses seem to be focused on cutting costs, chasing the almighty buck, screwing the worker and screwing the customer. Government seems to be focused on making those that hold office more powerful and wealthy, screwing over the taxpayer, and completely neglecting those that government should be serving... and maintaining power over all things.
The ultra-conservatives harp on family values and the Christian-centered social values. If that is the case, then why do we have so many examples of ultra-conservatives abandoning Christian teachings in favor of the almighty buck... and throwing quality out the window in the process? For a supposed Christian nation--at least according to Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Pat Robertson, Newt Gingrich, et al--we sure have managed to emulate the Pharisees and Sadduccess more than we emulate Christ... but then, Christ was focused on quality as well: the quality of the human experience.
The reason for the success of the Blue Man Group is obvious to anyone that has attended the show. The production involves making music using plumbing fixtures in combination with a standard rock ensemble in the background. The players use movement and expression--and very few words or lyrics--to convey meaning to the audience. Every sense organ of the audience member is stimulated during the show, and audience involvement is maximized. Lighting, sound, costume (which consists of very plain brown zip-up suits and blue latex on all exposed skin areas) and other technical aspects of the show are of the highest quality. My only complaints are that theaters are still charging too much for refreshments and the seats were too small to make my fat ass comfortable.
But as I have been sitting here thinking about the production I was struck by the total commitment to quality that went into the production, all stemming from some bizarre ideas bounced off the three originators of the show. These three artists were seeking a venue for their pursuit of excellence and found it in the least likeliest of places. They did not set out to make money, but pursued excellence and the money followed. The Las Vegas venue for the Blue Man Group has a waiting list over a year long... so the money will keep flowing as long as the quality is maintained. Several of the audience members in attendance at the show I went to had been there several times in the past... and it is rare that a play/theater production can tap the same audience members more than once.
But I have worked for a good portion of my life, starting at age 10 working for my father's contracting business. My father insisted that we put out only the highest standards for our business. Other contractors would not worry about the butting of seams on sheetrock, but my dad would take a sheet down if it did not butt within a certainty of specification. Concrete work needed to meet the highest standard... and far too many of our competitors took shortcuts on their concrete work. But sub-standard workmanship or materials were not part of my father's way of doing things.
Sub-standard workmanship is not my way either. That is why I latched onto the TQM (Total Quality Management) philosophy and methodology some time ago... back when Demings was still alive and kicking. While much of the TQM movement focused on manufacturing and production, using statistical sampling to measure quality at all three stages of production, I found that the philosophy could be applied in counseling, social work and education without the invasive involvement of production statistics. Statistics were still included in the process, but the sole reliance upon them was pretty much abandoned.
The use of statistics was used as a metric to assess areas needing impovement rather than success or failure. I applied statistical analysis to student test scores, client outcomes and teacher evaluations. Using my background in standardized, subjective, objective testing, surveying and polling processes, I built questionairres that asked clients and students to provide me with feedback on almost every detail of my teaching, counseling and case work. Before I discontinued with a counseling or casework client, I asked for a survey to be completed. Using a blind system, I submitted those surveys to my supervisor, who then held onto them until he had 10-15 of them. He then scored them for me and provided me with only the raw scores, which I then put into a spreadsheet and applied various statistical analyses to the scores.
I was careful in constructing the survey questionaires. I did not design the survey to measure or report only on positive interactions and feedback. Far too many surveys, questionaires and polls are design to meet a self-fulfilling prophecy. I applied this approach with students at the high school and college level as well.
But there is an astounding lack of quality in our society. During my weekend in Chicago my wife and I stayed at a Super 8 hotel on the north side of the city. We chose the hotel for three reasons: proximity to the theater, availability of free parking and the price of the room. The price of the room was a premium price compared to Super 8 hotels found elsewhere in the US, but being that it was in Chicago, it was a competitive price. However, the accomodations were not premium quality. The hallways smelled of a musty/moldy aroma that seemed to be the result of some sort of sewerage problem. The hallway lighting was poor and the elevator was so small we barely had room to carry our 2 small overnight bags. The desk clerks refused to honor a national discount program of which I am a member.
When we asked for extra pillows, the first desk clerk told us that he could only give us one because the maids had already left for the day and the front desk did not have access to the storage closet. He assured us that we could pick up the ONE pillow on our way back into the hotel from our excursion into town. When we came back to the hotel, the night desk clerk told us we could not have any extra pillows because they did not have any. When we informed him that the day clerk told us he would reserve them for us, he grabbed the key, opened the storage closet and produced two very suitable pillows.
It would be so easy to be racist and prejudice and blame this behavior on the fact that the entire staff of the hotel seemed to be Indian or Pakistani, but I have been to that part of the world and received better quality service and accomodations. So, it isn't because of the staff's ethnicity, it is because this particular owner/operator doesn't care about anything except making the almighty buck.
But even major restaurant chains have the same issue. I love "sliders" from White Castle. They are just about the greatest little burger in the world, providing you are quite intoxicated, it is about 2 o'clock in the morning, nothing else is open and all you have in your pocket is a few dollars. But the local manifestation of White Castle (Chesterton, IN) is horrible. The buns are always stiff, the staff never seem to get an order completely right and I have witnessed several sanitary standards violations while on the premises. As an experienced chef of some renown among my friends and family, and someone who has worked fast food joints way back in my youth, I cannot understand how it could be so difficult to get an order of sliders screwed up so many times... but we stopped going to this White Castle because of these experiences.
Our local Dunkin Donuts offers a similar experience. Walgreens Home Health Care Services (Valparaiso Office) has a similar problem. The staff at this office is attentive and oriented toward quality. My visits their to pick up home health care equipment and DME (durable medical equipment) results in nothing less than the best customer service. However, it seems that all detailed orders must, for some unknown reason, be processed by the Tinley Park (IL) office. As a result, I had to wait for over five weeks for a CPAP humidifier and a year's supply of CPAP filters... and then when I called to try to straighten out the issue I got an excuse-making, uncaring, non-listening person on the other end that wanted to ignore my issues about quality.
Then there is NIPSCO (Northern Indiana Public Service Company) which sent us a shut off notice before we ever got our first electrical service bill. Or Public Service of New Hampshire who built a nuclear power plant with such poor regard for quality that it was forced to shut down... and the lobbyists for PSNH then got the state legislature to pass a law that would allow PSNH to pass along the cost of the loss to customers as a "infrastructure charge" with assurances that PSNH was going to revamp the power grid to the more rural areas of New Hampshire where their service was used. Eight years after the law was passed we moved into our home in Mason (NH) only to find our power went our 34 times in the first 10 weeks of moving in... and when I called to complain the customer service rep said, "Well, you live in the country and back woods. What do you expect?" I eventually was able to talk with the head honcho of their engineering department and, after establsihing that I had signifcant knowledge of the law and electrical engineering for service provision, got him to admit that my area was suffering from a serious infrastructure problem.
Then their is our local "fancy" restaurant known as Popolano's. It has two locations, one in Chesterton (IN) and one in Lansing (IL). My wife and I had been familiar with the Lansing location when we lived closer to the Illinois border and were happy to find a quality place nearby. Many of our visits to the Chesterton location have resulted in top quality dining experiences. But just as many have resulted in less than top notch results, inconsistent food quality and screwed up take out orders. It seems to depend on which crew is working in the kitchen and who is on the wait staff for that day.
It would seem that these problems are part and parcel of the cable television industry. I used to work for RCN and found the customer service end of the business to be completely lacking... which is one reason (but not the only one) why the company went bankrupt before its tenth year of operation. Warner cable was notorious among the residents of the North Shore of Boston for not giving a damn about customer service, outages or poor quality reception. My current provider is Comcast and they are almost as bad as Warner Cable was when I had them many years ago. And none of them have any idea how to deal with customers.
The same must be true of cellular phone companies. Cingular was a nightmare experience for us. We currently use Verizon and weird things occur with their service: My wife and I have identical phones that were bought at the same time. At our house she gets no network available messages and calls that drop all the time. In the same location, at the same time, my network connect is 5 by 5... and they don't seem to care because we agreed to a two-year commitment... and they have us by certain unmentionable parts of the anatomy until our contract is fulfilled.
AOL has recently announced that it is ramping down its Internet Service and focusing more on its content services... which is probably a good thing since they suck at customer service... I am still waiting for a technical service problem to be corrected after spending four hours on the phone with them six weeks ago. Won't they be surprised when they don't get paid... and I have three other clients that are having the same trouble... and I have a lawyer looking to declare a class action suit.
But what we are lacking is the commitment to quality that was the penchant of Deming, Juran, Conway, Peters and others in the Quality Movement.
Commitment to quality requires the following:
Ethics: A commitment to what is right, fair and just in a business transaction.
Integrity: A commitment to providing services or products that work to the highest levels of performance, perform to the best standards of the industry, and meets/exceeds the standards of competitors.
Trust: A commitment to telling the customer, the government and the public the truth in all aspects of operation and conduct of business.
Training: A commitment of time and resources to genuine, effective and meaningful training for all personnel, in all areas of technology, in all aspects of the business.
Teamwork: A commitment of working with, respecting and understanding the workforce built to conduct the business of the business entity. All aspects of the business need to work as a part of the team and all voices of the team must be held in high regard.
Leadership: A commitment of the senior executives, managers, supervisors, key personnel to all aspects of quality and a willingness to stop production and suffer temporary setbacks to fulfill the mission of quality.
Recognition: A commitment to acknowledging the owrk of all members of the team, sharing the wealth of the business entity with those that provide the sweat equity of the business and incentives to assure that each and every employee, vendor and customer values the entity and the products/services/role of the business.
Communication: A commitment to effective communication throughout the organization, at all levels and with all personnel.
Business Citizenship: A commitment to being an active, identifiable member of the community, not only through donations, but also through commitments to community service, accomodation of work schedules to facilitate family needs, providing quality benefits (especially health care) and assisting others to succeed.
Mission: A commitment to a clearly articulated and fully implemented mission statment that is not solely focused on profits, dividends, stock value and the almighty dollar.
But we seem to have poor examples of these attributes at all levels of our society. Businesses seem to be focused on cutting costs, chasing the almighty buck, screwing the worker and screwing the customer. Government seems to be focused on making those that hold office more powerful and wealthy, screwing over the taxpayer, and completely neglecting those that government should be serving... and maintaining power over all things.
The ultra-conservatives harp on family values and the Christian-centered social values. If that is the case, then why do we have so many examples of ultra-conservatives abandoning Christian teachings in favor of the almighty buck... and throwing quality out the window in the process? For a supposed Christian nation--at least according to Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Pat Robertson, Newt Gingrich, et al--we sure have managed to emulate the Pharisees and Sadduccess more than we emulate Christ... but then, Christ was focused on quality as well: the quality of the human experience.
posted by Jim Downey at 11:48 PM
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