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Tag: quality

Communication for improvement and growth

Many, many years ago, the managing director of the company where I worked accused me of being disloyal to said company. I had participated as technical secretary in a regularly scheduled meeting with all the technical managers where we had the usual agenda of evaluating or planning past, current, and future projects or events. A problem came up that concerned my department. Deliveries were delayed or incorrect in too many cases, and support and customers were complaining. This was duly reported in the minutes of the meeting. All participants, plus a few higher placed managers or directors received a copy of the minutes. One technical manager distributed it to his support staff. This is where the managing director got angry. All participants at the meeting got a reprimand about being disloyal for discussing such problems. One other manager (why him, I cannot recall) and I were especially singled out and…

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Quality and Zen

Did you ever think that the book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, was about quality? While transferring my bookmarks from my Opera or Firefox browsers to my del.icio.us bookmarks, I came across the XIO ideas toolbox. Many of the links in my browsers are old, and I cannot remember why I bookmarked them in the first place. As usual, I investigated this link to see what it was all about. One of the ideas in the toolbox set my braincells into high gear. Gumptionology 101. Wow. The article shows how the author, Robert Pirsig, discusses quality in Zen. This is what I consider “a sign”. I never read the book when it first came out, despite good friends raving about it. I put it on my Christmas wish-list a few years ago, trying to catch up on the books “one ought to read”. I keep it dusted while…

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