Quality-Empowerment at THNC

What leadership skills do we use to help THNC become a Quality-Empowerment company? To start with these concepts is logical, and it seems simple yet unbelievably difficult at the same time! All of the existing information is focused on helping people introduce these concepts into organizations which have previously used other methodologies.

Our task is to avoid problematic business failures and to go directly to excellent leadership techniques. We will begin in the middle – so to speak – training our employees and expecting them to use these management systems. “In the middle” refers to asking each new employee (and volunteer) to apply lessons they have learned from previous work and life experiences to this Q-E environment.

The objective is to combine the quality management philosophy of W. Edwards Deming with the Zapp! Empowerment of William C. Byham. Stated simply, our goal is to use Byham empowerment to implement Deming quality management. You probably have noticed common elements in both systems. And it is probably true that full dedication and implementation of either system will help THNC become a world-class organization.

Since both management systems are well-established, THNC may be able to discover basic components for a successful startup from existing organizations.  We will approach organizations like The Deming Institute and Development Dimensions International (DDI), ask if they are accepting new clients, and see if they are willing to help us.

There may also be information available elsewhere to help new organizations. The challenge for THNC is to avoid the pitfalls of bad management practices and begin with full implementation of both systems. Purity may be compromised, because even young employees will carry into our organization some residue from previous employment with companies dedicated to quantity management concepts.  Such environments are not Zapp! and not Quality Management.

Whatever else we learn from the Institute and DDI, they will certainly remind us that implementation of Zapp! and quality management is ongoing. Every day and every new situation are opportunities to apply again these concepts.

Wood Badge training (advanced adult leader training, Boy Scouts of America) includes many ideas about empowering young leaders to share their leadership opportunities with others. THNC will use these methods, too. Although not age-specific, the challenge is to replace poor, less productive habits with better ones and “grow” better leaders.