ASQ Influential Voices Contribution: Quality's Most Needed Answer

In his June 7 View from the Q blog post, ASQ CEO, Paul Borawski wrote about early findings from the ASQ’s Global State of Quality Research.  This research is something ASQ undertakes every three years.  Paul indicates this research and the fact that ASQ is refreshing its strategy for the coming year has given him cause to think strategically and globally about “the dynamic nature of quality.”

Paul also indicates ASQ works to capture strategic insights from a variety of stakeholders collectively know as the global quality community. In his blog Paul poses the following strategic questions to this community:

• “What is the most important challenge the quality community faces in ensuring that the value of quality is fully realized for the benefit of society?”
• “And, what question does the quality community most need answered in order to advance the state of quality practice in the world?”

I don’t mean my answers to be a clever play on words or anything but, I believe “ensuring that the value of quality is fully realized for the benefit of society” is our most important challenge and “How do we ensure this?” is the question the quality community needs answered most.  As a quality professional I have a habit of trying to reduce everything to its smallest common denominator; I aim for simple or pragmatic solutions to problems. 

The simple and pragmatic has not always served me well.  I have missed some opportune, teachable moments to define and resolve problems because the solutions seemed so commonsensical to me that I assumed others also got it.  In this case, however, the strategic question that clearly needs to be answered is: “How do we ensure that the value of quality is fully realized for the benefit of society?”