I have helped develop and promote the Behavior Based Quality approach because of my belief that having a strong positive Quality Culture is good for business and generally good for the human condition. I believe that deep-down people truly want to do what is right. It is just “other stuff” that gets in their way.

Quality Needs To Follow Safety’s Lead

Industry has done a tremendous job in improving safety. This has been hugely helped by the use of Behavioral Based Safety. Behavior based Quality is predicated on behavioral based safety and was first conceived as an idea in March 2007 when I attended a Quarterly Operations review at a Covidien site in Galway, Ireland. We were reviewing safety data and the presenter was being congratulated for the number of safety observations and opportunities to improve and that over time were increasing. The general feeling around the table was that great progress was being made and that this was a good thing.

I could not help thinking that if a member of the Quality team got up to present the fact that the number of opportunities for Quality improvement were increasing that the question would be asked “Why are we getting worse and what is the plan to addressed the poor performance”? It became clear to me that a no blame and more mature approach to quality improvement and opportunities was required if companies were to emulate the success of safety improvements in the quality area. Uncovering and finding better ways improve safety or quality should be supported and encouraged and seen as a big positive for an organization.

Not Always Employees Poor Attention to Detail

Many companies have spent much time and effort improving Quality. This is usually addressed by improved systems, remediation plans and training. Over time these usually produce improvements. However, in many cases a trend of underlying Quality issues persist. They often appear resistant to all efforts at removing them.

Many of these get attributed to employees poor attention to detail or quality behavior but most of these are triggered by deeply ingrained at risk quality Behavior. Behavioral based quality addressed these by making use of proven management techniques which almost always result in positive step change in Quality Performance and Quality attitudes.

80% of Quality Incidents Triggered By Risk

Although there is no hard data published to support it I believe based on my experience that greater than 80% of all quality incidents are triggered by at risk quality behaviors. Because BBQ focuses on particular sets of at risk quality behaviors, people tend to be more aware of their potential to cause quality issues. In turn this gives people the mechanisms by which they can control their own Quality Behavior and that of their colleagues.

Risk Quality Behavior

Focusing on risk quality behavior also provides a much better index of ongoing Quality performance than incident rates for two reasons. Firstly, incident rates are the end result of a causal sequence that is usually triggered by an at risk quality behavior. Secondly, at risk quality behaviors can be measured in a meaningful way on a daily basis.

Prevention is Better Than Cure

By focusing on the at risk quality behavior you are therefore focusing in a proactive and preventative manner rather than a traditional reactive manner. This reactive manner typically means companies look at the negative lagging Quality trends and only react when a limit is broken or dramatic rise in incidents occur. When the issue appears to be under control or resolved, management’s attention and resources are diverted to other more pressing issues until such time as the incident rate rises once again, and so on. This is regularly referred to as fire fighting. As a result the focus tends to be reactive rather than proactive.

The Takeaway

Because Quality Behavior is the unit of measurement, a collaborative, problem-solving approach involving management and employees is adopted to identify a set of Critical to Quality (CTQ) and at risk quality (AR) behaviors in the form of a list or inventory. These become the basis for employees to systemically monitor and observe their colleagues on-going Quality Behavior, on a daily basis, in an empowering environment.

Using the first few weeks of peer monitoring the employees set their Quality Improvement Targets (QIT’s). Information feedback is then provided on a weekly basis to allow the workgroups to track their progress in reaching QIT’s. Companies that adopt this approach are usually rewarded by fewer Quality incidents, consistent Quality Management, Improved compliance, better communication and greater employee involvement and engagement. These all result in improved business and bottom line profits.

Coming Soon

If you enjoyed this article and would like to learn more about BBQ my next article will be discussing what exactly is BBQ and how it can improve your quality culture.

Please leave any comments below, I would be more than happy to answer any questions you may have on this article.