MONDAY, JANUARY 9, 2023 - QUALITY STARTS HERE

 MONDAY, JANUARY 9, 2023

I was on the Malcolm Baldrige National Board of Examiners for the American Quality Award.  Companies and organizations submit their documentation in order to win or be a finalist for the National Quality Award winner.

In the Austin area, K & N Management owns several Rudy’s Barbecue and Mighty Fine Burger locations.  They also franchise Rudy’s Barbecue.  In 2010, K & N won the Baldrige Award.  I had seen the sign at Rudy’s Barbecue that they were a Baldrige winner and was impressed.  (And, eventually, I applied to be an examiner).

As a professor, I studied quality.  For me, I first studied TQM - Total Quality Management.  I studied quality aspects in computing, such as Agile Quality Management, and Six Sigma.  I looked at certifications in project management (PMP - Project Management Professional), and related programs.  

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Related.  In Japan, after World War II, manufacturing was abysmal.  W. Edwards Deming, an American engineer stressed quality concepts in manufacturing and was a consultant to Japan automakers (and others).  The highest quality award in Japan is called the “Deming Award”.  A parallel in the United States is the Malcolm Baldrige award.  Deming’s work included his 14-point plan (see: https://deming.org/explore/fourteen-points/) 

Here is the first point: “Create constancy of purpose toward improvement of product and service, with the aim to become competitive and to stay in business, and to provide jobs.”  The objective is to always improve.  In most developmental areas that aims for “zero defects”.  Software with no defects, manufacturing with no defects (especially cars), and if we extrapolate we can look at our lives with NO defects.  

Let’s say you have trouble loving everybody if you are trying to follow a “LOVE WINS” program. You would start where you are at and then work so you love more people, and hate fewer people.  (Or, no defects in your love)

Or, if you have trouble losing weight, you start where you are and work your way to ‘no defects’ - no sugary snacks, no eating before bedtime, no ice cream.

It isn’t magic, but it is based on mathematics - how many defects did I have two months ago, seven weeks ago, six weeks ago, five weeks ago, four weeks ago, three weeks ago, two weeks ago, this week, and how many “defects” today.  Mentally this puts you in charge - and every time you snack inappropriately, that is a ‘defect’ and it needs to become part of who you are. The concept is always and forever working for no mistakes, no slip-ups, better quality, and better numbers.

I remember a sign at a fitness facility “A Slip is not a Fall”.  An error, a mistake is not a total failure.  We can (and we should) learn from our mistakes.  

Yes, some mistakes are more significant than others.  In the space program some years ago, a simple O ring caused a terrible (and fatal) crash.  NASA could have stopped their work, but they learned from the problem.  At cooler temperatures, the O ring failed. 

Maybe we worked at a business and got fired.  Did we analyze why we were fired?  Did we learn from it?

In the LOVE WINS concept, what if there is someone who I really can’t love.  A friend was telling me about her drunk father dragging her out of bed and beating her when she was young.  She said “I can’t forgive him for that”.  I do understand the sentiment, but might there be a way around the hate she carries?  

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I am taking on a title - “Evangelist for Love Wins”.  

So, this week, I’m setting out my mission, vision, and values as an Evangelist for Love Wins. 

MY ABIDING PRINCIPLES:

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, and it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres.

Love never fails. 

And now these three remain faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

 Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister[b] is still in the darkness. 

“I really only love God as much as I love the person I love the least.”

 

Tomorrow, my mission statement

Wednesday, my vision statement

Thursday, my values statement and summary

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LOVE WINS

LOVE TRANSFORMS

KAREN ANNE WHITE, ©, JANUARY 9, 2023