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The Right Approach: Making Quality Initiatives Fun

How do you overcome resistance and gain employee buy-in when implementing a new initiative, especially one that is generally seen as dry and boring, such as a quality management system? Follow Law 2 from Quality 101 Handbook: The Biggest Little Book on Quality You’ll Ever Need. For the sake of continuity, Law 1 states, “Never fear an unexpected customer visit.” If every employee lives and breathes the quality system every day, there will never be a need for an audit-prep panic. In this column, I will focus on Law 2.

Law 2
Law 2 claims, “When things are fun, things get done.” Here are a few additional reasons to make quality initiatives fun.

Fun, you see:

• Is free

• Enhances communication and builds relationships

• Makes people want to perform well at work

• Energizes creativity and problem-solving abilities

• Pleases customers, team members, and co-workers

• Makes boring tasks easier to do

• Breaks down enormous undertakings into manageable tasks

• Allows people to relax and perform better while under audit/customer pressure

Create an Environment of Excitement
I am a firm believer in making work as fun as possible, and this is the perfect situation for that approach. A quality management system is not a topic often associated with being interesting, much less fun. But a cultural change as significant as this presents the opportunity to smooth the transition by creating an environment of excitement around the change. The key is to foster ownership in the effort with every employee, and one of the best ways to engage people is to make it fun.

To read this entire column, which appeared in the November issue of PCB007 Magazine, click here.