Why is “ISO” so baffling to so many?

At last! October is upon us once again. Living in tropical Florida, I cherish the rare day there is a brisk breeze in the air when I can wear a sweatshirt befitting of the season and watch football all weekend. I gleefully put up my Halloween decorations (including hiding plastic spiders in my college kids’ rooms, anxiously awaiting their next visit home). As I went through this annual ritual this year, I started reflecting on the mystique of this scary, spooky and spine chilling season.

I thought, “What’s so scary about ISO?” In all the years I’ve worked with ISO9001, ISO14001, AS9100 and other standards, the most common theme is people’s discomfort (due to unfamiliarity) with the language. Some companies restate, verbatim, what is in the standard on their own letterhead to try to build a bridge between the standard and their own company’s identity. (We all know how successful that seems to be).

Time after time, whether in an internal or external audit, I hear the same thing. Auditees have anxiety because, they “never seem to know what the auditor is going to ask”. I have heard this from people for years in all kinds of industries in all parts of the world. How can companies be “ISO Certified” as people like to say, and have so many people baffled by what’s inside?

In part, it’s probably a language barrier. Though it appears to have been written in plain English, many people just can’t understand what the standard says. People really struggle with “management review”, “product realization” and now “risk based thinking” (introduced in the draft of ISO9001:2015 will really stir the cauldron because the language is so laced with vague references and ambiguity).

A second factor is the race to compliance. Just like every other quality methodology, our pursuit of achievement often spoils the journey. Companies whose compliance journey consists only of the appointment of a management rep, the selection of a registrar and a target date for registration, rarely have their team members fluent in the language of ISO. Time must be taken to lead EVERYONE in the company by the hand through the standard – stopping to translate each clause with what it says versus the intent – to ensure a real understanding of “why” we seek compliance in the first place!

Too often, however, the race is on! The management rep churns out documents furiously to beat the initial audit date. S/he then serves as an interpreter at the crucial times of internal and external audits. After the crisis of the audit is over, the interpreter is gone, and people still have no idea what’s in the standard. So they still have anxiety. And they still duck into the restroom if they see an unfamiliar face, escorted toward them because they know they’re about to be ambushed with a question like, “What’s your quality policy?” and they will have no idea what a quality policy is.

Again, how can this be? ALL companies spend time training on this topic, don’t they? How many luncheons are thrown? How many t-shirts distributed? How many posters and handbills are printed to ensure that EVERYONE knows about the quality policy? Alas, so many have been “trained” and yet have no understanding of not just the quality POLICY, but of the quality program and all of its tools, methodologies and objectives. The quality program becomes a mystifying creature understood by few and feared by many – requiring witchcraft and black magic to master and influence.

Albert Einstein said, “If you can’t explain it simply, then you don’t understand it well enough.” I would submit to you, my readers, that ISO should take note of that one for sure! The “shall” approach in the language of the standard is nice – it’s very straightforward – there is no wiggle room with regard to a “shall”. It’s all the other stuff between the “shalls” that gets messy. If the intent of the standard cannot be easily surmised by the audience, another edit may be in order.

But it’s not just the confounding language in the standard, it’s the best-intentioned gobbledygook that sometimes gets written in pursuit of compliance. Oscar Wilde said, “I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word of what I am saying”. Be careful not to be too clever as you’re defining your quality program. I’m not an evil person, but as a compliance auditor, I am enormously amused by quality professionals who sometimes struggle to explain something they themselves have written. Speak plainly, or don’t speak at all. I mean, really, I’m loving the innovations I see in training – flow charts, pictograms and videos replacing narrative work instructions. Woo hoo – make it simple so a simple person like me can understand!

If you speak the language of quality, make it your mission this month to teach a few words/concepts to someone close to you. If you DON’T speak the language yet, make it a point to chat someone up and ask them to help you tame that boogey man by helping you understand what quality and ISO are all about. You should be getting the heebie jeebies from horror movies, scary trick-or-treaters and things that go bump in the night – NOT YOUR QUALITY SYSTEM.