Studies show that between 20-40 percent of the
operating costs for most North American organizations
are — usually unknowingly — consumed by poor quality.
This includes redoing work, warranty claims, handling
disgruntled customers or employees, scrapping defective
materials ... in other words, fixing things that weren't
done right the first time. On top of this horrendous
waste, many organizations are not close enough to their
customers to know when their products or services are
missing the mark. That not only means that great
opportunities for revenue generation are lost, but it
also means that millions of dollars are wasted
delivering or supporting products or services that are
no longer useful.
A large — and growing — number of executives and
managers now recognize that the quality of their future
depends primarily upon the quality of the products and
services their organization delivers. Producing
consistently high service/quality demands a radical new
closeness to customers and a level of
employee-management, trust and partnership unlike
anything most North American organizations have ever
experienced.
Firing on All Cylinders is based on the
experiences of hundreds of public sector and business
organizations improving their service/quality to master
a rapidly changing world. This book brings together
three organizational performance fields that have, until
now, been distinct and separate. These are:
- Customer Service — developing high
perceived value and responsiveness
- Quality Improvement — reducing defects
and mistakes while increasing productivity through
improved process and system control
- Organization Development — building
leadership skills and sustaining cultural change
Firing on All Cylinders moves quickly from why
service/quality has become the major concern of
executives and managers to how organizations can
significantly improve their performance. The Three Rings
of Perceived Value provide a simple, clear means to
define "service" and "quality". The Seven Deadly
Service/Quality Improvement Assumptions outline the all
too common traps that waylay many a well-intentioned
improvement journey.
The heart of the book are the twelve key
service/quality improvement areas or "cylinders". These
are Signaling Commitment, Listening To Internal/External
Customers, Education and Awareness, Hiring and
Orienting, Personal Skills, Coaching Skills, Team
Skills, Systems, Reward and Recognition, Improvement
Activities, Standards and Measures, and Marketing
Strategies. Each cylinder contains an outline of the
keys steps to improving that area, a number of short,
"real life" examples of what other organizations have
done, and a brief discussion of the common pitfalls and
traps to making significant progress.
Firing on All Cylinders "ends with your
beginning". The final chapters lay out the roles,
responsibilities, and steps to planning and beginning a
long-term implementation process. These sections answer
such critical questions as: