Monica Green: Creating & maintaining a culture of quality

We’re the best! Nurturing an organisational culture of quality

• In a fire, you’d like to know how to escape and to have access to a fire extinguisher.

• If your child was in the care of another adult and hurt themselves you’d want them to have access to first aid.

• When you pay for a service from a company you expect the same level of quality regardless of whether the person serving you is part time or full time.

• If you sit in a conference room for several hours, you expect the temperature to be comfortable.

Do you agree?

Quality Issues

1) Health and Safety/Fire Evacuation/First Aid procedures

2) Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures for staff

3) Documented complaints procedures

4) Unqualified teachers

5) Inconsistent staff development, appraisal and observation (Part timers, freelancers on very few hours a week. No performance management for administrative staff.)

6) Physical environment – too hot/too cold, classrooms in disrepair.

A culture of quality

“…an environment in which employees not only follow quality guidelines but also consistently see others taking quality-focused actions, hear others talking about quality and feel quality all around them”

Srinvasan, A & Kurey, B – “Creating a Culture of Quality”, HBR, April 2014

A culture of quality – why?

Companies surveyed who scored in the top 25% for staff engagement were more profitable and more productive than companies with a less engaged workforce.

Gallup

A culture of quality – what?

What have you done – or what could you do - to engage your staff with

your school’s values and commitment to quality?

The 4 attributes of a culture of quality

1. Leadership emphasis

2. Message credibility

3. Peer involvement

4. Employee ownership

Managers must decide that a culture of quality is worth pursuing….

In an environment where customers’ tolerance for quality problems is declining,

a workforce that embraces quality as a core value is a significant competitive

advantage.

The next step….

If you’re any good at all, you know you can be

better Eric Clapton