I’m sure you have all heard these statements before.

Worker #1 “Why are we doing all this extra paperwork?”

Worker #2 “It’s just to keep the auditors happy.”

What’s going on here? Unfortunately, this response indicates a lack of understanding about the true purpose of the quality management system. The workers see it as an external requirement rather than a tool for improving their work and the company’s performance.

This brief exchange reveals several important issues:

• Lack of employee buy-in: The employees don’t see the value in the new processes.
• Misunderstanding of purpose: They think it’s just for audits, not for improving their work or the company.
• Potential for malicious compliance: Employees might follow the letter of the new processes without embracing their spirit.
• Failure of communication: Management hasn’t effectively conveyed the importance and benefits of the quality management system.

These issues point to a fundamental challenge in quality management: the gap between implementing a system and cultivating a true quality culture. While achieving certification is a significant milestone, it’s only the beginning of the journey.

A robust quality culture goes beyond paperwork and audits; it’s about embedding quality into the very DNA of an organization. It’s when every employee, from the shop floor to the C-suite, understands and embraces their role in maintaining and improving quality.

This is where the concept of organizational quality culture comes into play – a mindset where quality isn’t just a department or a set of procedures, but a shared value that drives every decision and action. By focusing on building this culture, we can transform those reluctant sighs into enthusiastic engagement, turning quality from a burden into a source of pride and continual improvement.

I think of the difference between a quality system and a quality culture like learning a language. My family is Dutch, but my parents never taught me to speak the language. Later in life, I tried learning Dutch through an app and an online course. I made some progress, learned some basic words and phrases – much like how organizations might implement quality procedures and pass audits.

I always joke that I know how to count and swear in Dutch, which is a bit like a company that can recite its quality policy and fill out forms but struggles to apply quality principles in everyday operations! However, it wasn’t until I spent two months in the Netherlands with my family that I truly started to pick up the language.

Living day-to-day immersed in the language with my family, our local village, catching the train and doing the shopping, I began to understand not just the words but the context too. I was even able to order my takeaway in Dutch one night when I realised that they didn’t speak English. This is showing that learning a language slowly becomes a natural part of daily life – just like a well-developed quality culture.

But here’s the thing: when I came back home, away from all that Dutch influence, I quickly forgot most of what I’d learned. This is just like what happens in companies where quality isn’t a big part of how they do things. Without keeping it up and having the right environment, quality practices can slip away, turning into just another forgotten project.

Creating a real quality culture in a company is like bringing that Dutch environment to your workplace. It’s about making quality such a big part of everyday work that it becomes as natural as speaking your first language. It’s not about memorizing quality procedures for audits, but about getting why they matter and using them in everything you do.

When we get to this point with quality, we change those annoyed sighs of “Why are we doing all this extra paperwork?” into team members who are keen and really get why their role in quality matters. Just like I easily picked up Dutch sayings and cultural bits during my stay, employees in a strong quality culture naturally take on and champion quality practices. They don’t see them as annoying must-dos, but as a key part of how they work and help the company do well.

The Cost of a Poor Quality Culture

The impact of a strong quality culture extends far beyond intangible benefits, significantly affecting an organization’s bottom line. A Harvard Business Review study revealed that organizations with a highly developed culture of quality, spend on average, $350 million less annually on fixing mistakes compared to those with a poorly developed one.

This substantial difference represents the “cost of poor quality” – expenses related to rework, returns, warranty claims, and lost business due to customer dissatisfaction. The study highlights that investing in a quality culture is not just about meeting standards or improving processes; it’s a strategic business decision with considerable financial implications.

By fostering a culture where quality is everyone’s responsibility, companies can shift from costly error correction to more efficient error prevention, leading to improved customer satisfaction, increased efficiency, and ultimately, a stronger competitive position in the market.

Quality Culture Development Cycle

It’s important to acknowledge that building a culture of quality isn’t a simple “tick and flick” task. Unlike implementing procedures or achieving certifications, cultural change can often seem subjective or intangible, making it challenging to measure and achieve. However, this doesn’t mean it’s impossible. By breaking down the concept of quality culture into specific, observable behavior and measurable outcomes, we can turn this seemingly abstract goal into something concrete and achievable.

Here are six key activities to make quality culture more tangible and measurable:

1. Define Cultural Indicators: Identify specific behaviours that represent your ideal quality culture. For example, “employees proactively reporting potential quality issues” or “cross-functional teams collaborating on quality improvements.”

2. Establish Quantifiable Metrics: Create metrics that reflect these cultural indicators. This could include “number of employee-initiated quality improvements per month” or “percentage of employees who can articulate how their role impacts quality.”

3. Conduct Regular Assessments: Use surveys, interviews, and observational studies to gauge the current state of your quality culture and track changes over time.

4. Set Clear Targets: Based on your metrics and assessments, set specific, measurable targets for cultural improvement. For instance, “increase employee-initiated quality improvements by 25% over the next year.”

5. Link to Business Outcomes: Connect your cultural metrics to tangible business outcomes like customer satisfaction scores, defect rates, or cost savings from quality improvements.

6. Create a Cultural Dashboard: Develop a visual representation of your quality culture metrics, updated regularly, to make progress visible and engaging for all employees.

By taking these steps, you can transform the abstract concept of quality culture into a concrete, measurable initiative. This approach not only makes the task of building a quality culture more achievable but also allows you to demonstrate its value to stakeholders across the organization.

This article first appeared on Auditor Training Online‘s Lead The Standard newsletter and is published here with permission.