It may happen that you are in an intermediate position within the organization, and you intend to work to achieve excellence, to increase the quality of the service they provide to their external clients. But many times, the middle managers who are at the forefront of this challenge do not have the support of the highest authorities of the organization, and this project is difficult for them.
A quality manager told us: “What I feel the most is missing is a head that takes everything, because we don't have a local manager. So everything is done through email, a very impersonal communication, it is damaging that a lot. So each department head owns her own truth. The operations manager is urged to give the customer an answer because she is waiting there, but the administration manager, if she does not meet all the requirements of the law, does not release the cash to go to do the operation, then all those things
Does this situation sound familiar to you?
I'm going to transcribe Lucrecia Gordillo's answer for you. Lucrecia is an expert in Quality Management Systems and has had experience in their implementation in different areas, most of them services.
“I think that this last fault that you have detected, which is that of a local manager, is a considerable fault. When making a diagnosis of how much you can modify this situation and how many are given situations, remember that we are managers of organizations, of a system that is external to us, and that conditions us, and affects us. It affects us, we suffer, we invest, but it is a system external to us.
From what you're telling us, you've already solved enough problems. What I want to contribute to you is that you make an analysis of your own management as a quality specialist. It may be to provide an example from what you can do, discounting all the external limitations that you have, such as the lack of a local manager so that he can have a command voice, this lack of coordination between the areas, that each one has its own own truth.
All these things with quality are not solved. I am of the idea that one has to be very aware. When I work in quality I tell my bosses: With quality we are not going to solve everything. On the contrary, quality will make us white on black.
Quality is usually a trigger for organizational issues. This is even said by the technical commissions of the ISO, they are currently working a little on that, that is, they have oriented themselves towards those places. Currently the ISO standards are triggering problems, they are not solving problems. I am telling you this because I have had the opportunity to participate in a technical commission. Now we are talking about project management, instead of quality management, because quality issues have really been a problem detector.
I want to share this experience with you so that you can take stock and calm your conscience. Because also the effectiveness that you can achieve with your interventions in the company in which you are working today depends a lot on your state of mind. So, it is important that you are aware that many of the shortcomings you are having are not quality, they are organizational.
So what does this lead to? To lower the level of expectation of your own management and to be able to identify concrete results with greater assertiveness. That perhaps many times they go through communication, for issues softer than hard, but that they will be able to leave a concrete stamp on that organization. And it will also be an index of satisfaction of your own management.
Because although what brings us together today is customer satisfaction, first we have to satisfy the internal customer. Without this, it is very difficult to satisfy the external customer, and more with the limitations that you have identified. So I, from my experience, would tell you that, that you re-analyze your personal situation, with weaknesses and strengths in front of the organization, and identify only those improvements that you can make outside of these limitations, and that you measure yourself based on that so that also discouragement does not paralyze you. "
I wanted to share this dialogue because I know that you probably go through the same situation. And Lucrecia's answer is very accurate for me.
• You must be very aware of the limits that you cannot change, but this is not an excuse to freeze you.
• There is an area, a “boat” that you can have the helm of, and that is your work team. Work for the excellence of the internal service they provide to the rest of the organization, because this is your field. And you will see that this fact, even if limited, will have a positive impact on the external customer, and will also generate a "contagion" effect to the rest of the organization. Start with what you have on hand, and look for excellence there.
