I threw away some old briefcases in a loft clear out today and noticed that though worn they had survived quite well. They reminded me of a course I went on long ago about achieving quality based around lessons learned from the manufacturing process for a “quality briefcase” and how and why it differed from an inferior product.
In goods quality is tangible – the product looks good, feels solid and lasts. In services quality is more intangible but just as critical. I flew on Virgin Atlantic to Hong Kong in November. Arriving at the airport there was the usual queue for economy check in and bag drop. I have never incidentally understood how a bag drop after checking in diligently on line takes longer than just turning up and checking in.
Be that as it may Virgin as soon as they had capacity at the premium economy and upper class check in desks simply moved queuing economy passengers over to them. They did the same on the return in Hong Kong. If an upper class passenger turns up they stop checking economy passengers until they again have capacity. So everybody is happy.
It is these small things that make for quality in professional services as well. Aristotle said: "Quality is not an act. It is a habit." Lean practices from the manufacturing industry which encourage and promote service improvement are gradually becoming more relevant and important in conscious effort by the professions to address quality.
And it is the simple things that matter. Dealing with matters in a timely fashion is a critical measure of quality. I spoke to a lawyer earlier this week who had spent time in a commercial role. They said one of the most frustrating thinks about the legal profession when seen from the outside was its inability to recognise the importance of other people’s deadlines.
Quality is also about continuous improvement. In Hong Kong we visited a friend who is a senior medical practitioner. He talked about how they found the compulsory continuous professional development process for doctors to be irrelevant because all the lectures were about rare conditions they never saw in practice. So he and a few colleagues as an alternative set up a small group to exchange ideas about more common concerns which has turned into a big success and been expanded to include some overseas participants.
We may look to some variation of the Six Sigma process to develop better quality in the professions, but this is not a new concept. John Ruskin a leading art critic in the Victorian era summed all of this up quite neatly. He said “Quality is never an accident. It is the result of intelligent effort.”
In goods quality is tangible – the product looks good, feels solid and lasts. In services quality is more intangible but just as critical. I flew on Virgin Atlantic to Hong Kong in November. Arriving at the airport there was the usual queue for economy check in and bag drop. I have never incidentally understood how a bag drop after checking in diligently on line takes longer than just turning up and checking in.
Be that as it may Virgin as soon as they had capacity at the premium economy and upper class check in desks simply moved queuing economy passengers over to them. They did the same on the return in Hong Kong. If an upper class passenger turns up they stop checking economy passengers until they again have capacity. So everybody is happy.
It is these small things that make for quality in professional services as well. Aristotle said: "Quality is not an act. It is a habit." Lean practices from the manufacturing industry which encourage and promote service improvement are gradually becoming more relevant and important in conscious effort by the professions to address quality.
And it is the simple things that matter. Dealing with matters in a timely fashion is a critical measure of quality. I spoke to a lawyer earlier this week who had spent time in a commercial role. They said one of the most frustrating thinks about the legal profession when seen from the outside was its inability to recognise the importance of other people’s deadlines.
Quality is also about continuous improvement. In Hong Kong we visited a friend who is a senior medical practitioner. He talked about how they found the compulsory continuous professional development process for doctors to be irrelevant because all the lectures were about rare conditions they never saw in practice. So he and a few colleagues as an alternative set up a small group to exchange ideas about more common concerns which has turned into a big success and been expanded to include some overseas participants.
We may look to some variation of the Six Sigma process to develop better quality in the professions, but this is not a new concept. John Ruskin a leading art critic in the Victorian era summed all of this up quite neatly. He said “Quality is never an accident. It is the result of intelligent effort.”
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