Are you tired of constantly fighting in the Trenches…?

I was talking to a colleague (who’s a Quality Director) and he was sharing his angst…regarding the endless meetings where he’s fighting uphill battles.

He basically said, it’s time to find something else to do – because – it’s almost impossible to get management to listen…when he’s proactively trying to “prevent” a problem.

It’s obvious that…if it isn’t a crisis (or something hasn’t gone really bad) then he’s not going to get executive support.

What are we talking about?

Instead of doing things that are “just good enough” in order to meet their Time To Market goals…let’s go ahead and fully implement Quality Processes which would allow them to ship Higher Quality Products from the beginning…rather than get stuff to market…that they spend months fixing.

Let’s not have our Quality Goal simply to be Compliant – let’s also remember the Intent of Compliance.

It was blowing his mind how, rather than do everything right the first time – even if it ‘appears’ to take longer – they’d prefer to cut corners….shave a little here or there…just for the illusion of getting products shipped quickly.

He also brought up the phenomenon known as: “If an expert from out of town says it…then it must be important!”

In other words, if an expert from out of town, came in and stated exactly what the resident Quality Director was saying – they’d all jump up and say: “Hey – we need to do that!”‘

We talked about all the different ways we thought he could push his initiatives, maybe feed other managers in the company information…that THEY could contribute in the core team meetings…so that maybe if it was someone different, then management would take it seriously…and act on it. But it seems highly doubtful.

The main problem is this: until something breaks…management see’s no reason to change anything. 

They don’t want to unnecessarily delay projects, potentially add development costs, or otherwise alter the status quo.

Meanwhile, since my colleague has worked in Quality for a couple of decades, he knows that sooner (rather than later) their medical device is going to exhibit defective behavior in a clinical environment….that could potentially harm people. And it’s going to come back to haunt his company, his job – and obviously – the patients who are harmed by the device itself.

Meanwhile…the inevitable critical defect clock keeps ticking…until one day – kaboom.  And it’s all preventable.

My colleague’s question: how hard is it to find someone with the requisite experience (and credentials) that his bosses would listen to – so my colleague can get the support he needs?

He believes, with that support, the ugly defects can be prevented (in house) and he can actually enjoy doing his job again…

…I didn’t want to interrupt him at that moment…because…I know some people who could help.   (wink)  😉