There are many recognized days and months to celebrate quality around the world. Today (the 2nd Thursday of November) is World Quality Day! This is a great opportunity for quality professionals to become ambassadors for quality and spread the word.
There are lots of ways to celebrate this day. Start by striking up a conversation about quality. There are plenty of current events to get the conversation going – the global automotive recall of failed airbag components, a recent failed launch of a privatized space rocket, an ill-prepared response process to the threat of Ebola, etc. Each of these challenges will require quality tools to develop solutions.
Many organizations have quality “promotions” including communication campaigns, giveaways, luncheons and other fun events to celebrate the importance of quality and everyone’s role in improving it! And some organizations even work to celebrate World Quality Day by including their entire supply chain by holding supplier conferences, interactive workshops and plant tours.
I worked with a company for several years who celebrated World Quality Month in a fun way which included training and knowledge sharing, as well as customer outreach. It grew into an annual event that everyone looked forward to and it recruited many people to want to get on board an participate. A team from the company put the program together each year. As an automotive supplier, they would choose a hot topic in quality and prepare a quick presentation and discussion forum. (For example, it may be something like “The Changes to ISO9001:2015”). This was offered to their customers throughout the months of October and November. It was presented on-site along with cider and donuts (as this was, after all, in the Midwest, known for its cider mills and corn mazes). And everyone was invited to attend. As a customer outreach project, it was wildly successful. And it was a great way to introduce people who could work together throughout the year to make the supply chain better.
Today is a great opportunity to promote quality as a central principle for how to “Do Things Right”, but also to “Do the Right Things”. So, how will you celebrate World Quality Day today?
