the business plan requires constant reevaluation by

The founders of a Massachusetts community-based adult literacy program, with backgrounds in both developmental psychology and reading theory, based their program on the best available research in both areas. They made sure that the educational and support elements of the program fit together properly, and trained staff with that in mind. Initially, since it was doing something that hadn't been done with adults before, the program was severely criticized by others in the field. The founders were accused of cheating their students by not using a strict, phonics-based approach to reading, and by paying too much attention to other matters - students' concerns, community issues, etc. As time went on, however, and the program's drop-out rate remained extremely low and its students' success rate extremely high, others began experimenting with similar ideas. 15 years later, the program is a model for the state, but it keeps changing, responding both to student needs and feedback and to new research findings.

Long-Term Commitment: The best work in the world is ultimately useless if it's not maintained. Quality is a long-term concept: you have to keep striving for its improvement, even after you've achieved an acceptable level of performance. "Acceptable" is never good enough. In fact, you're never really at an endpoint, because the level you're trying to reach is "the best that can possibly be."

The Deming Cycle

The assumptions above underlie the "Deming Cycle," which is really a process for creating and selling a quality product. We'll revisit the Deming Cycle later to examine how it can be used in an advocacy, community development, health, or human service context.

It is important to note that the principles of TQM were designed for the business sector, so while some aspects are relevant to organizations concerned with advocacy, community development, health, and human services, other aspects may be contrary to the goals of those organizations.

Some elements of TQM that would work toward quality in any environment include:

Some elements which may not work toward quality for your organization are those that assume that the goal is the success of a business, such as:

Using the Deming Cycle while keeping some of the basic TQM principles in mind can help you design, deliver, refine, and maintain an effective program or initiative.

Conduct consumer research and use it for planning the product. The "product" here is the actual program you intend to conduct, and the "consumer research" is an examination of actual needs of the target population, the community, and others who will be affected.

Thus, the "Plan" part of the cycle might include the following:

Produce the product. The "production" part of the process is the actual design of the program, outreach effort, treatment strategy, etc. that will meet the need determined in the "Plan" part of the cycle. Much of the actual work here depends not only on TQM principles (teamwork, employee involvement, scientific approach, obsession with quality, and customer focus), but also on common sense and organizing principles.

The following are important elements of designing an effective program:

Check the product to make sure it was produced in accordance with the plan. Compare the details and overall shape of the program or initiative to the plan. Does it align with the needs assessment? Does it look like it will address the desired outcomes in desired ways? Is it inclusive? Was everyone involved in its development? Is it feasible? Is it ready to go?

Market the product. "Marketing the product" here means actually running the program or initiative that you've planned.

If it's going to work well, there are some non-TQM standards that need to be applied:

Analyze how the product is received in terms of quality, cost, and other data. Analysis in this context - looking at what you're doing, evaluating it, and trying to improve it - needs to be conducted on the basis of the original plan, with discussions among participants, staff, and others.

Although the two are usually congruent, ethical is not always exactly the same as legal. The exercise of civil disobedience may be profoundly ethical, while being, at the same time, inarguably illegal. The civil rights marches and actions led by Martin Luther King and others during the 1950's and 60's often fell into this category.

Restart the cycle

Your analysis should naturally lead into a new planning sessions, and where necessary, lead to rethinking and reworking the program or initiative, or even the task of the organization itself.

While the maintenance of quality is, to some extent, built into the Deming Cycle, it requires some particular commitments and action.

Institutionalization of dynamism

An organization needs to be dynamic , always moving and always seeking continued improvement, and to institutionalize its dynamic character.

This means:

Organizational support for education includes providing, or coordinating with another organization's provision of, professional development or university courses, training, certification, etc., that help staff and volunteers to build their skills. If financial resources are not available, other means of institutional support -- release time or leave time, special recognition, a library for the organization, study circles or reading groups, etc. -- need to be considered. Everyone in the organization, including administrators and Board members, should be encouraged to take advantage of learning opportunities and to model learning behavior.

Administrators and Board members need to model such openness by being willing to reexamine and change procedures, policies, etc. when needed. Staff and volunteers should be given room to try out even things that others may be skeptical about, as long as they can justify the attempt ("It worked elsewhere" and "I learned about it in a course" are both reasonable justifications.). If such an attempt is honestly carried out, it should be seen as a positive even if it fails: it provided new information, and is another building block in the construction of a quality program.

Long-range strategic planning

To maintain quality, an organization needs to continually look at itself over and for the long term.

It needs to ask some questions about its role and its future:

SWOT Analysis

One way to explore these questions is through the use of another device partially borrowed from TQM: SWOT analysis . SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Each of the questions above can be examined in the light of SWOT analysis. What are the strengths and weaknesses of your organization in regard to each question? What opportunities exist for the organization in each area of its functioning? And what threats or challenges will the organization have to overcome if it is to continue to be successful, and to maintain quality performance?

Strengths and weaknesses : Strengths and weaknesses may be trends, rather than specifics. A level of service that is currently appropriate, for example, is not a strength if it is more or less than will be needed in a year. A new program that's not ready to implement yet is not a weakness if it's unready because the developers are taking the time necessary to make it effective.

By the same token, strengths and weaknesses don't necessarily lie only in the success of programs or the skills of staff members, but in such areas as relationships, contacts, and reputation. An organization running a great program may still be have serious weaknesses because it lacks some of these other features, no matter how well it carries out its day-to-day activities.

Opportunities: Opportunities can take many forms.

Taking advantage of any opportunity can have both positive and negative consequences for your organization, so it's important to analyze the situation carefully before committing yourself.

Threats (Challenges): Some of the challenges that go along with any opportunity can be truly daunting if they're not thought through carefully. Many of the opportunities above require some sort of organizational restructuring or growth, processes that are always difficult, and require a lot of planning. Some even represent rethinking the purpose of the organization, which may become a different organization in the process. In becoming larger or more accepted, for instance, an organization may forget its roots or its guiding principles, and lose much of its effectiveness.

Other threats may come unaccompanied by opportunity. Your organization may experience difficulty finding -- and keeping -- ongoing funding and other resources, including competent staff; sustaining continued effort in all areas of functioning (advertising, recruitment, public relations, programming, evaluation, etc.); dealing with controversy; and addressing antagonism from individuals, other groups, or the community.

Applying SWOT analysis to all the areas your organization has to deal with makes it easier both to anticipate and prepare for the negative, and to remember to identify and build on the positive.

Other facets of the planning process

Some specific areas that long-range strategic planning needs to address at regular intervals:

Keeping at it

The single most important thing to understand about maintaining quality performance -- or maintaining an organization, for that matter -- is that you can never stop working at it. No effort at maintaining quality will work any longer than it is applied. No matter how institutionalized dynamism becomes, no matter how good your planning process is, they take constant care.

The Fourteen Points Deming used the key elements listed above in "Basic principles of TQM" to define the "Fourteen Points," fourteen things that he felt businesses needed to do in order to achieve quality performance. Create constancy of purpose toward the improvement of products and services in order to become competitive, stay in business, and provide jobs. Adopt the new philosophy. Management must learn that it is a new economic age and awaken to the challenge, learn their responsibilities, and take on leadership for change. Stop depending on inspection to achieve quality. Build in quality from the start. Stop awarding contracts on the basis of low bids. Continuously improve the system of production and services to enhance quality and productivity, and thus constantly to reduce costs. Institute training on the job. Institute leadership. The purpose of leadership should be to help people and technology work better. Drive out fear so that everyone may work effectively. Break down barriers between departments so that people can work as a team. Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the work force. They create adversarial relationships. Eliminate quotas and management by objectives. Substitute leadership. Remove barriers that rob employees of their pride of workmanship. Institute a vigorous program of education and self improvement. Make the transformation everyone's job and put everyone to work on it.

Achieving and maintaining quality performance is important to the target population, to funders, and to the community.

Using some TQM principles and, specifically, the Deming Cycle ( Plan, Do, Check, Act, Analyze ) can be helpful in getting to a high level of quality and continuing to improve.

In general, achieving and maintaining quality is a result of:

If you can carry out and institutionalize these steps, especially the last, success is in your grasp.

Online Resources

ASQ: The Global Voice of Quality is a global community of people passionate about quality, who use the tools and their ideas and expertise to make our world work better.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) publishes International Standards which ensure that products and services are safe, reliable and of good quality. For business, they are strategic tools that reduce costs by minimizing waste and errors and increasing productivity. They help companies to access new markets, level the playing field for developing countries and facilitate free and fair global trade. ISO 9000 WWW Pages , provided by Simply Quality , lists websites that provide information on ISO 9000. The ISO 9000 family of standards is related to quality management systems and designed to help organizations ensure that they meet the needs of customers and other stakeholders while meeting statutory and regulatory requirements related to the product. ISO 9000 deals with the fundamentals of quality management systems.

Little-Bitty Quality Steps is an article on small steps to quality on the website of Bacal & Associates, management and training consultants to the public sector in Canada.

Publich Health Quality Improvement Exchange (PHQIX) allows people to submit short explanations of their initiatives and observations/lessons-learned.

Total Quality Management provides a dictionary of TQM terms.

Print Resources

Deming, E. Out of the Crisis . (1986). Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Center for Advanced Engineering Study.

Deming, E. Quality, Productivity, and Competitive Position . (1982). Cambridge, MA: M.I.T., Center for Advanced Engineering Study.

Goetsch, D., & Davis, S. Introduction to Total Quality: Quality Management for Production, Processing, and Services , 2nd Edition. Merrill, an imprint of MacMillan Publishing Co.

Hunt, D. (1992). Quality in America: How to Implement a Competitive Quality Program . Homewood, IL: Business One Irwin.

Latzko, W., & David, M. Four Days with Dr. Deming: A Strategy for Modern Methods of Management . (1995). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co.

Sashkin, M., & Kenneth, J. (1993). Putting Total Quality Management to Work . San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.

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Mark Twain Quote: “Success is a journey, not a destination. It requires constant effort
Mark Twain Quote: “Success is a journey, not a destination. It requires constant effort

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COMMENTS

Entrepreneurship Flashcards
Successful entrepreneurs treat the business model itself like an opportunity to innovate T of F ... The business plan requires constant reevaluation by:.
Entrepreneurship Flashcards
The business plan requires constant reevaluation by: the team. Which of the following is a question that would be answered in the "Risks" section of the
Review your business performance
Businesses often fail because of poor financial management or a lack of planning. Often the business plan that was used to help raise finance is put on a shelf
Reassessing Your Business Model
The first item to consider when reassessing the business model is to look at the current business plan. Review the plan with a discerning eye
6 Ways To Reevaluate Your Business Plan This Month
A business plan should not be set in stone—it should be a living, breathing document that helps your company achieve its goals and overcome
Revising and Refining Your Strategic Business Plan
A thorough update should be performed at least annually, but financial reviews may need to be done monthly or quarterly. Bottom line? Planning is a continuous
Business Plans in New Ventures
believing that I could be a scholar, and for your continuous support ... How are new ventures influenced to write business plans, and what sources.
Toward a Model of Contingency-Based Business Planning
Despite the ubiquity of business planning education in entrepreneurship, there is little ... of formality and conviction often required before.
Critical Success Factors in Business
Consider internal critical success factors when positioning your company for ... and require a constant re-evaluation of motives and measures of success.
Section 1. Achieving and Maintaining Quality Performance
Planning carefully, monitoring your work, and constant reevaluation and ... Education and Training: Achieving quality requires constant learning for