Last post on ASQ blog –first one of our new CEO Bill Troy, gave us the awesome news that ASQ has been awarded with the Excellence level of achievement for the 2014 Wisconsin Forward Award. The Wisconsin Forward Award is essentially the state-level equivalent of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in the U.S.
And the topic to discuss with the Influential Voices is: Have you been part of an organization that has embarked on an excellence program? In the end, such a program is really not about the award, but about improvement. What has been your experience with this exercise in organizational self-examination?
First of all, a big CONGRATS to everybody who keep working hard every single day to maintain ASQ in the quality improvement path! Cheers for that!
Regarding the topic, I would like to share a thought that I always keep in mind and put on practice in my life. As I have shared few times, I have been part of a team who implemented and successfully achieved a CMM (Capability Maturity Model) Level 2 in a software development company, back in 2005. Even when CMM is not an excellence program, the concept of being rewarded was there: the moment when the CMM Judge told to the entire company that we successfully had passed the assessment and achieved CMM Level 2, everybody felt extremely happy because of the hard work we had put into improve the company effectiveness, efficiency, and QUALITY. The company got a plaque with the achievement and every member of the team a diploma for being part of that.
But, the big question after that was WHAT IS NEXT? And that is my point.
Any company, in order to keep moving forward into the excellence and to keep being alive in this competitive business world, do not have to rely on the fact that “we got the award and that is it“. The real meaning of any award/reward/recognition is that a company must consider it as a milestone accomplished AND the initial point on the new journey toward the next one; it is a never-ending continuous improvement cycle.
So, any company -and even in your personal life, after you accomplish your goals, you always have to ask What is next?; and the answer has to be lead with your PASSION, what really MOTIVATES you and what makes you HAPPY.
That reminds me a book I read from Daniel Pink called Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. In that book he said that “Most of us believe that the best way to motivate ourselves and others is with external rewards like money—the carrot-and-stick approach. That’s a mistake, the secret to high performance and satisfaction—at work, at school, and at home—is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world“
Here is a video that shows, in an awesome way what Daniel Pink said on his book. Enjoy it.
He said: “The monkeys solved the puzzle simply because they found it gratifying to solve puzzles. They enjoyed it. The joy of the task was its own reward.”
What do you think? Share your thoughts!
Info: Daniel Pink website.
