Quality is Made in the Board Room

Dr. Deming stated “Quality is made in the board room,” page 202 Dr. Deming: the American who taught the Japanese about quality. I believe, once the board and executive leadership has put in place the right management system (one that respects people, continual improves using a standardized improvement process (that itself is being improved), practices evidence based management, focuses on customer value, improves processes rather than blames people, builds the capacity of the organization over time…) then quality is everyone’s responsibility.

image with quote text: "Quality is made in the board room, A worker can deliver lower quality, but she cannot deliver quality better than the system allows… Exhortations not only have no long-term effect, but eventually they backfire"

Executive leadership can’t do it themselves. Making it everyone’s responsibility after the system allows everyone to participate effectively is sensible. That does not, in any way, excuse blaming those stuck in a bad system for failures they didn’t heroically overcome.

Related: The Two Pillar of the Toyota Way: continuous improvement and respect for peopleDr. Deming on ManagementBooks on Applying Deming’s ideas

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