Quality has No Boundaries

I recently attended and chaired the Lowcountry Quality Conference held in Charleston, South Carolina.

This annual event assembles professionals to talk and hear about quality in different work environments.

We seriously thought about not having the event this year. We almost succumbed to the negativity that increasingly pervades our society. We are constantly being told how bad things are and don't hear too many tales of good. Now, I recognize that times are different and difficult for many. I've been impacted by the lull in the economy. But now is the time to do what is right. Now more than ever, we must fight at work to become lean and improve quality. We can't give up on what we believe and know to be true.

With this interjection of positive energy, we forged ahead with the conference and, by all accounts, it was a success.

I learned several things but one thought stuck in my head: quality is everywhere. It is how you live your life. It is how you serve your customers and employees. It is how you greet someone when they enter and exit your business place. It is seeing yourself as something more than the mainstream perceives. It is creating standards for behavior and work and holding all accountable to the standards. It is constantly learning new tools and techniques and networking with people that know more and less than you do. It is anticipating the needs of your customers and being prepared to meet the needs on demand. It is calling your customer by name. It is speaking with objective evidence rather than subjective opinion.

The necessity for quality in our lives and in the workplace is so great right now. This country is grabbing for solutions and I just don't think the government can fix it all. A significant portion of the solution comes from us. How will we improve as people? How will we help our workplaces improve? How will we take what we know and apply it to the myriad opportunities for improvement in our communities?

I pray frequently for God to raise up voices to say what needs to be said right now. We have a tremendous opportunity to improve the way we work in this country. We need to seize the opportunity and not sit idly by waiting for the next economic disaster to occur.

Here is an action I ask you to take: If you have not done so already, please join our discussion group on Linkedin (www.linkedin.com). Linkedin is free to join. Look for the group titled "Lowcountry Quality Conference". This is a forum for us to discuss, share, and collaborate.