You can install a new desk, or a new carpet, or a new dean, but not quality control.Did you ever read Alfred Bester's "The Stars My Destination" about a society accommodating itself to 'jaunting' - that is, teleportation. If you wanted to be somewhere, you just conjured up a picture of your destination in your mind and you were there. No journey. Arrive immediately at your destination. (People had to visualize their destination in some detail in order to 'jaunt' there.)Deming, Out of the Crisis, MIT Center for Advanced Engineering Study, 1986.
When we go to visit relatives, my spouse and I have to spend a good part of the day traveling. I often wish that I could just snap my fingers and be there. I think it is human nature to be more interested in the destination than in the journey. We imagine an end and wish we could just arrive there without worrying about the means or solving the problems along the way. When my family travels to Philadelphia, I have a very clear idea of the journey and the destination. I have a road map that shows me multiple ways that will take us there. Even with the road map, there are still many decisions that have to be made: what to pack, where to stop for gas and food, what to do after the car dies on the Jersey Turnpike in the express lanes just opposite the Newark airport.
When we don't have the destination clear in our mind with all of it's details and knowing how every thing fits together, it's the journey that fills in those details along the way. A journey is a learning experience. While we are more interested in the destination, it is the journey that gets us there. And, none of us have the ability to just snap our fingers and be there.
A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.ISO 9000 is not prescriptive. It does not attempt to tell us how to do quality. It only tells us what requirements an ISO 9000 organization fulfills. It doesn't tell us how to do software. It tells us to document the process that we are currently using and then improve it. It doesn't say to install the process that we think would be best. If we believed in such a process, why haven't we already implemented it? If we conceive of such a process, we believe in it, and we make it work, great. Nothing succeeds like success. But if we take a giant leap and miss...Lao-tzu
If a man begins with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.There is no destination that is quality. There is only the journey of continuous improvement. ISO 9000 is not the destination; it is a vehicle. We only need to get in and go. We will learn along the way where, exactly, we are headed.Francis Bacon
Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within, How to Take Immediate Control of Your Mental, Emotional, Physical, and Financial Destiny, Simon & Schuster, 1992.