Influential Voices: An Aha! Moment from WCQI

I always leave WCQI energized by the people I meet and the new things that I’ve learned. This year, I particularly enjoyed the keynote by Daniel Pink. What he said made a lot of sense. Since I’ve worked largely independently for the past 5+ years, sometimes it has been hard to find the motivation to keep moving forward. However, as my role has shifted more and more towards sustainability, it is much easier to remain motivated. The reality is that not all jobs are full of meaningful tasks all day long. We sometimes need to search for meaning in the things we do. Before my current role, I was directly involved in working with customers in the medical device industry – it is not difficult to find motivation there. I am much more driven in my work when working on tasks connected to a cause, even when the work itself is less challenging.

What do you do to help others find meaning in their work?

Influential Voices: See you at WCQI

I can almost hear the melody in my head… “All my bags are packed, I’m ready to go.” Literally – my bags are in the cube I’ve borrowed in our Rochester office, as I’m heading out today to take in the member leader events this weekend in Indianapolis in advance of WCQI. Paul Borowski shared Scott Rutherford’s post with his survivor guide for the conference. I’d like to share two more tips.

The first one builds on Scott’s first tip, on sitting with folks you don’t know at lunch: Sit with folks you don’t know ANYWHERE YOU CAN. At this point, this is not easy for me. My last year on the board, I challenged some of my friends to see how many business cards they could collect during the networking time before the banquet on Tuesday night. I won hands down. It was really a great opportunity to get different perspectives – I literally met folks from around the globe. Working the room any time you can is a great way to meet new people and expand your horizons.

Second, while this may seem obvious, don’t go to sessions about stuff you already know. Testimony that this is not obvious to everyone – occasionally I’ve heard comments to the effect of “I went to session ABC, but I didn’t learn anything.” If you go to a session marked beginner that is geared for folks who do what you do, and you’ve been doing it for a long time, it is highly likely that you will already know the content. I was amazed how much I started to learn when I started to go to sessions about the things I don’t know. Go to presentations from other industries and look at how you can apply their lessons learned to your job. Learn about a new technique you’ve never heard of. Challenge yourself to learn about something new – I believe that you will be pleasantly surprised by how much you can learn in one conference.

What are your tips for the conference? I look forward to seeing you there!

Quality in Government – who new?

You may not have had a chance to read Paul Borowski’s article on government and quality. My mom happens to live near one of the Baldrige winners that Paul describes. She has good things to say about Coral Springs  and their commitment to excellence. Closer to home, the Wisconsin state government has interpreted a levy that was approved by voters in our district that was intended to bring an increase of 10% in revenues to mean 10% year over year. The district has asked that the levy be interpreted as intended to no avail. Instead, they have voted to live within what they should have gotten. I’m so glad that the state of Wisconsin has their priorities straight. Perhaps the example being set by the city of Milwaukee will drive improvement elsewhere in the state. In the meanwhile, as always, I look forward to voting today. What do you think is the role of quality in government?

Influential Voices: How do you use your Quality Tools

I particularly enjoyed Paul Borowski’s recent post on Quality Solutions in Unexpected Places since this is something I am always looking for. When I was on the board of a local gymnastics club, a non-profit, I worked to try and implement kanbans on the supplies so that we didn’t run out of toilet paper, something that is essential when you have hundreds of kids in the club on any given day. We made it really simple. I’m not sure if they kept it in place when I left the board, though. I’ve used 5S at home to keep our walk in pantry organized. It works well most of the time. I’ve shared the coaches guide developed by the Quality in Athletics Interest Group with the director of the gym where my daughter currently attends, and while I don’t know if he has started to use the guide, I’ve seen a substantial improvement in the coaching since I shared it. It is hard for me to think of any job that wouldn’t benefit from the use of quality. I suppose that is why when folks tell me that they’re not in quality, my typical response is, “Oh, really, what do you do?”

How do you use quality tools in unexpected ways?

Influential Voices: Sports and STEM

At this point, given that is the last day of February and I am just now finishing both of my posts for the month, I almost failed to meet my goal for this month. Realistically, some months I will fail to get in two posts, but I will continue to try. But this isn’t the same as failures at work. You may have read Paul Borowski’s post this month on fear of taking risks and STEM. I read this with interest because both of my kids are showing the potential to be good at math and science. And I watch my daughter overcome her fears at gymnastics, and I wonder how this may shape her future career path. Hannah is a worker. If she fails at a skill, she will do it once, twice, a hundred times until she gets it. When she was working on her kip on the uneven bars, one day she stayed after practice and worked on it long enough to strain her muscles. And, this past week, she finally got it. She has applied this same persistence to the skills she is afraid of – cartwheel tuck dismount from the beam, and flyaway dismount from from the bars. And if she falls, she has learned to laugh instead of cry.

I know that I won’t always get the right answer the first time at work. Sometimes I have to redo work to meet the needs of our organization, but I know that I have to keep going  because it is my job. I am hoping that Hannah will take what she is learning in the gym and continue to apply it in the classroom and in her career. Is sports the answer for every kid? I don’t know that. But I know that the confidence my daughter gets from her success carries outside the classroom, and I’m enjoying watching her explore the possibilities.

Influential Voices: Learning to Lead Again

I mentioned before that I just started to lead a Girl Scout Troop. It is forcing me to apply every time management and organizational skill that I’ve ever learned and then some. But it is exciting when I get to see some amazing peeks into the future of the girls that I have the privilege to lead. I had the opportunity to see a girl who is afraid of speaking in public get up in front of a large group of people and read a paragraph about China for our World Thinking Day Presentation. I saw all of the girls eager to help and learn when we earned our Chinese New Year patch. I saw girls sharing and swapping and doing quality control on our SWAPs (some fell apart). And I saw parents helping make all of these wonderful things happen. I know that not all of these groups will still with the troop through high school, but I am looking forward to guiding them on their journey. More stories to come.

Influential Voices: Developing Leaders

I’ve taken on an enormous, exciting challenge. My daughter’s Brownie troop leader decided that she could no  longer make the time commitment, and I volunteered to take over. After participating in some training and becoming a new Lifetime Member of the Girl Scouts, I am now officially the leader of my daughter’s troop. We have 14 girls, and I am looking forward to working with them over what I hope will be the next 8 1/2 years until they graduate from High School, hopefully while achieving the Gold Award along the way.

What excited me the most about this opportunity was the strong focus on developing girls as leaders. From decision making to planning, and of course the ever famous cookie business, I have the opportunity to help these girls chart their own path to success. Hmm… I may even get to teach them about some quality tools along the way.

So here is the question I’d like to pose for my readers: What leadership advice would you share with 8-9 year old girls?