[The following article appears in _The_Community_Quality_Forum_, Special 1994, pages 1 and 3.] PRINCIPLES OF QUALITY by Stephen R. Covey The paradigm of total quality is continuous improvement. No person or company should be content to stay where they are, no matter how successful they now seem to be. And very few people or companies could possibly be content with the status quo if they were regularly receiving accurate feedback on their performance from their stakeholders. Quality begins with an understanding of our stakeholders' needs and expectations, but ultimately it means meeting or exceeding them. Total quality is an expression of the need for continuous improvement in four areas. Let's examine them one by one. Personal and Professional Development Character and skill development is a process of on-going improvement or progression, a constant upward spiral. The person- al side of total quality means total integrity around your value system--and part of that value system means you are always getting better, personally and professionally. The common denominator of success is a strong, empowering, guiding, inspiring, and uplifting purpose. If you have it clearly set in your mind, if you begin with the end in mind, that purpose will guide everything. It will unleash your creative capacities; because of it, you will tap into your subconscious mind. You begin to work from your imagination, not your memory. You are not limited or tied to the past but have an unlimited sense of what is possible in the future; your mindset is prophecy, not just history. Many business executives lack the internal security to seek and take feedback from stakeholders--they are threatened by it. And yet feedback is the breakfast, lunch, and dinner of champi- ons. Champions are continuously getting feedback, and they listen and learn from it. They use it to improve their performance day by day. Personal and organizational improvement programs are built on accurate feedback, not on inaccurate social data. Interpersonal Relations Total quality on an interpersonal level means continually building good will and negotiating in good faith, not fear. If you create an expectation of continuous product or service improvement but fail to deliver on that expectation, you will see a build-up of fear and negative forecasting. Good will can evaporate fast--particularly when expectations of continuous communication and improvement are violated. If communication doesn't take place, then people begin to tap into their memories and into their fears and spin off negative scenar- ios and start planning based on those scenarios. Managerial Effectiveness Managerial quality is basically nurturing win-win perfor- mance and partnership agreements--making sure they are "in sync" with what is happening inside that person and what is happening inside the business. These win-win agreements are subject to renegotiation at any time and open to all the dynamics and vicissitudes of the market. Win-win thinking creates interfunctional teamwork. Win-lose thinking creates interfunctional rivalry. Rivalries are common in established systems and are very natural when people have limited resources; they perceive their professional world as a limited pie, and they gradually develop win-lose approaches. We need internal unity to get win-win cooperation, loyalty to the mission, constancy of purpose. People must know that they are being managed by principles and due process. You can't manipulate people's lives arbitrarily. If you must cut costs to remain economically viable and competitive, see that it's done according to due process; otherwise, fear gets into the culture, and everyone wonders what is going to happen to them. Organizational Productivity Proactive leadership springs from an awareness that we are not a product of our systems, that we are not a product of our environments, that those things powerfully influence us, but we can choose our response. Proactivity is the essence of real leadership. Great leaders sense that they are products of their value systems, attitudes, and behavior--things they control. The heart of continuous organizational improvement is problem solving around stakeholder information. Most organi- zations do problem solving around financial data and analysis. But the best organizations in Japan and in America are constantly getting information from all stakeholders--all those who have a stake in the welfare of the enterprise. They listen intently and fully and then develop solutions based upon that information. This is why they are in a constant state of improvement. If our paradigm is one-time, seasonal, or unsystematic improvement, we are not moving toward total quality. I recommend that every organization develop a stakeholder information system--a feedback system or database on what share- holders, customers, employees, communities, suppliers, distribu- tors, and what other parties want and expect. If done systemati- cally, scientifically, and anonymously, using random sampling of the population, this information will have the same accuracy and objectivity as financial accounting. We should be able to see at a glance the progress we are making with our suppliers, custom- ers, and so forth. I suggest that within five years, any business that does not do human resource accounting systematically and scientifically and then do problem solving around this data will not survive the competition. I also suggest that every organization develop synergistic partnerships with customers and suppliers. There is a place for competition, but it's not in areas where you need to cooperate. If you're in an area that requires independent teamwork, do everything you can to get rid of competition and to get synergy; reward people for cooperating, for teamwork, for giving their best ideas. Diversity in ideas, not just gender and race, is very powerful, especially when people respect and value the difference in perceptions, feelings, opinions, and backgrounds. Without the roots, we don't get the fruits. Without the governing principles of total quality, the methods and techniques alone rarely produce quality products, services, or relation- ships. Quality will give any individual or organization a long-term competitive advantage. And if that quality is in the character of the individual and in the culture of the organiza- tion, it can't be duplicated.