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The concept of
Continuous Improvement or Total Quality Management (TQM) is one of
excellence; that is, finding ways to enhance employees’ productivity and
contributions to increase the company’s “bottom line”. Managing
diversity takes this concept one step further – enhancing productivity and
contributions by developing each individual’s unique skills, talents, and
ability to contribute. The goal is to leverage 100% of each and every
employee’s skills and talents, 100% of the time. Organizations that
succeed in integrating the concepts of Continuous Improvement and Managing
Diversity have customer-based outcomes that provide an improved chance of
survival in today’s competitive global marketplace.
One company I’ve worked with, a 100-employee bakery in Memphis, developed a
diversity initiative in tandem with Continuous Improvement efforts, with
great success. Their efforts began as a component of the bakery’s
strategic plan, which was designed to address the dynamic advances in
technology and ever-escalating customer demands. The primary emphasis
has been on changing the culture by pushing decision-making down to the
floor level and addressing process improvement via cross-functional teams.
If this idea is one you’ve been considering, I have a caveat: this process
requires skill building for employees and supervisors. Employees
should be exposed to statistical process control, brainstorming techniques
such as affinity diagramming and nominal group technique, and consensus
building within the context of diverse teams. Individuals must learn
how to put aside their individual positions, respect the insights of their
team members, and search out win-win solutions to meeting customer needs and
preventing problems.
Supervisors must learn to intervene in the process improvement cycle only
when called upon as experts to provide a history of past practices or
technical knowledge. They’re most successful when they let team
members learn, take calculated risks, make mistakes, and ultimately make
contributions not even the employees thought they could make.
The key ingredients for the integration of Continuous Improvement and the
bakery’s diversity efforts have been:
- A Mission Statement
that drives the organization’s strategy and objectives
- An objective,
consistently followed performance management system that rewards team
involvement
- Management education
around ways to tap the talents and skills of each and every individual
within the organization
- Recognition and
celebration of successes
Within the individual
process improvement teams, individual members have learned not to stereotype
or assume that others do or do not have skills and abilities. In one
initial team meeting, the team was discussing roles such as recorder, team
leader, and timekeeper. One of the male team members said, “Marie can
be the recorder – women make better secretaries.” Marie assured the
team that she did not have good record-keeping skills and wasn’t interested
in serving in that capacity. However, Bill, an 18-year employee who
stands about six feet tall and has the hands of a quarterback said, “I know
how to use a laptop – I’ll be the recorder.” Much to many team
members’ amazement, Bill is an excellent recorder whose fingers fly across
the keyboard!
I firmly believe that continuous improvement efforts must be aligned with
diversity efforts – one supports the other to ensure success with both
initiatives.
If you have questions or comments about this article, please email me at
Linda@gravett.com.
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Dr. Gravett is founder and Senior Partner of Gravett and Associates, an
international organization development consulting firm headquartered in
Cincinnati, Ohio. Her email address is
Linda@gravett.com.
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