PRINCIPLES OF QUALITY IMPROVEMENT
MICHAEL JOSEPHSON
IT IS IMPORTANT THAT IN TIMES OF UNCERTAINTY, AN ORGANIZATION THAT FAILS TO EVOLVE CAN EASILY CEASE TO EXIST. IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT CONTINUAL IMPROVEMENT OF THE ORGANIZATION BE A TOP PRIORITY.
- You don’t have to be sick to get better. Every system or process and every person can be improved.
- Good enough isn’t. The “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it” mentality promotes mediocrity that evolves to inferiority. If you’re not getting better, you’re probably getting worse. Systems that do not adapt to changing circumstances not only become obsolete, they often become counter-productive.
- There can be no improvement without change and change is scary.
- All change involves risk, but failure to change involves greater risk.
- No system is more powerful than the people who create or manage it are. Systems, like belief patterns, are created by the human mind and they can always be modified or abandoned by choice.
- The quality of service cannot exceed the quality of systems through which it is delivered. Bad processes and confusing, irrational or out-of-date policies will yield bad products and services.
- Changing systems even slight can be costly; not every improvement is worth the cost.
Joe Hunsaker shared the above with the Counsilman - Hunsaker team in 2002