ISO9001:2015 Quick Wins – No. 2 – Leadership
In this short series entitled ISO9001:2015 Quick Wins, I explore with you some the long-lasting benefits that allow you to maximize your ISO9001 Certification, using some ideas from my experience of helping over one hundred organizations prepare for transition to ISO9001:2015.
Leadership would be so simple…if people would just do what you want!
People are like horses in that respect. They seem to do what they want to do. However, like horses, they usually have very good reasons for doing what they do, like stopping suddenly because they have seen something about to dart in front of them, or taking a decision that you may not have, perhaps because they have more recent up-to-date information.
So Leadership is, as all Leaders of people know, a little more complex than giving out instructions. And this Quick Win explores how ISO9001:2015 can help with Leadership in your organization. Leadership now has its own Clause in ISO9001:2015, and this Quick Win explores what parts of this clause look like in reality. It is, as many of you would expect, a complex issue…
A few weeks ago, I was at what this year was a sunny and again glorious Glastonbury. One of the many acts I had the pleasure of seeing was Liam Gallagher. The video shows how he was able to lead us all to sing the Oasis classic ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’. This simple clip represents the millions globally who have been lead over the years to know intimately (most of) the lyrics of this and other songs. Is this Leadership? Maybe we all just like the song?
Last weekend I was in Sunny, and Rainy (Irish Weather) Mullingar for the Celtic Warrior Challenge. We camped, and in this multi-disciplinary event, we met a friend of a friend on the Friday night, who was competing in the Iron Man event, his first Iron Man. A number of loyal supporters had made the trip with him to provide support during the day, and by the end of it this team of support had grown significantly to include what support we could add, support from the organizers, a number of people ran along with him for a few laps of the marathon, and for the running part we moved our ‘post run party’ from our camp area to beside the course to add what encouragement, motivation and assistance we could each time he made a lap of the 5.3km course.
We were never asked to do anything, so why were we lead to do it? What makes a good Leader? Or what makes creates the circumstances where we are lead?
It was clear from the outset that the Iron Man was his clear goal, and whilst consciously not many people were told about it, the fact that he chose this particular event suited his clear strategic goal, purpose and intention of raising funds for Autism. Somehow the fact that he was doing it had leaked out anyway, and in the end it was well communicated all over social media. I think that all of us present could only but be aware of this goal, from the branded clothing he was wearing to the poster he displayed on the sign of his van, that Autism funding, and in particular the HAND (Helping Autism in Newry and District) is a main driver in his life. This single focus and understanding of his goal certainly helped motivate me towards doing what I could to help.
In organizations, this is represented by their Quality Policy, and ISO9001:2015 includes some ideas as to things to be included, such as: what the organization does, (through its purpose, context and strategic objective); how it will deliver this (through objectives); other things it will also satisfy (e.g., Regulatory requirements); and that it will review QMS Objectives annually (continually improve). As such the Quality Policy can be used as a much more important piece of documentation than many organizations believe.
When it comes to objectives, our friend’s objective was clear, to complete the Iron Man, however this would require some smaller objectives, like maximum times for each section (Swim, and Bike, to make it feasible), how he felt along the way, and what he needed to eat in terms of nutrition along the way. ISO9001:2015 recommends that as far as objectives go, top people in the organization also ensure these relate to their main aim, and a Quick Win is to cascade all objectives from high level (Strategic) objectives to ensure that everything is aligned.
Whilst he may not have completed a strict Iron Man training regime, and that may be putting it mildly, he knew this was an opportunity for him given his fitness level and he was confident that if he got through the cycle part in reasonable shape the running would be doable, as he has a lot of experience and mileage under his feet when it comes to running. And so it proved, he took the educated risk, and it paid off. He knew he would need some form of support, so he had asked his long-time friend to come along, and he also proved a godsend, even running part of the mileage to keep him company along the way. Whilst he had just asked his mate to come along for some backup, without any prompting he had done exactly what was needed at exactly the right time in order to provide the support required. ISO9001:2015 says that top people in organizations also need to base their decisions on Risk and Opportunity (and develop ways to use Risk Analysis (an example of which we will see in the next ISO9001:2015 Quick Wins – No. 3 – Planning) or another form of system that they use to evaluate and make all major decisions based on Risk and Opportunity, and encourage this as a way for others in their organization to operate.
Finally, “Inspect what you expect” is a saying more associated with the manufacturing sector and “old-fashioned” quality control than today’s high-tech world of self-assurance by an educated workforce. Isn’t it? In this context, it is always worthwhile inspecting or checking that whatever process is in place is actually delivering the desired objectives (what is expected). ISO9001:2015 says exactly that when it says that top management needs to ensure the QMS is achieving the intended result. Some form of agreeing measurable objectives with your team, and reviewing these, is ideal.
This has been quite a long Quick Win Blog, demonstrating the impact, the significance and the important role that top management receives in ISO9001:2015
In the next article in the series, ISO9001:2015 Quick Wins – No. 3 – Planning, we look at how to be a better identify Risk and Opportunities, based on the organization’s Context and Strategic aims, and how best to Plan using some of the ideas from ISO9001:2015.
The HAND for Autism Charity is organizing their 10th annual run to raise funds on 7th October 2017. I am certain that they would appreciate any support you can provide.
