When I lived in Oklahoma, I worked for an outstanding company, Coburn Optical Industries. It is true that there were many very intelligent people that I worked with there, both inside and outside the organization, and that they were dedicated, caring, highly motivated, and generally really good at all the various things that they did. It is also true that I believe in the old maxim, “our people are our most valuable asset”. I not only liked working there, I also looked forward to being at work every day.
While all of this makes for a great place, it is not the reason that I considered Coburn to be outstanding. I have worked many places where the same could be said. What really made Coburn stand out for me was their Quality System and the dedication that all in the organization had to this system.
Coburn Optical Industries subscribed to the Philip Crosby System of Quality Assurance. For me, the reason this quality system made the difference between a great company and an outstanding one were two of the basic principles. There were, of course, more than two principles to this system, but the two that were so important to me were the following:
Definition of quality
Zero defects
By now, you are asking yourself, “What does this have to do with Men of Emanuel (MOE), or men’s issues, or anything that has been referenced or espoused on this blog in the past?” Stay with me. It will become clear.
The Crosby Quality System defines quality as conformance to requirements*. The important things to remember here are that we must know what are our requirements for the product, service, or supply that we provide? In order to do this, we must understand and dedicate ourselves to the needs of our customers. For the Men of Emanuel, the customers include the all of the men (however that is defined), of Emanuel Congregation, the congregation as a whole, the staff, the executive committee and the board, and the other various groups in the congregation. The most important of these are all of the men of Emanuel. Unless we know and fulfill the requirements of the men, we have no reason to exist. While some of the requirements may be to provide service and support to the Congregation, there must be some needs the men have just because they are men. There must be some requirements the men of Emanuel have just because they are men from Emanuel, the difference here being that the needs of Reform Jewish men are different from other men. There must be some things that Emanuel men in Chicago need that we, in MOE, have to take steps to provide. Inside of the men of Emanuel population there are groups, such as by age, profession, or family situation that have requirements that are different from the other groups of men.
The zero defects concept is the attitude of defect prevention. Management must convey to the organization that everyone in the organization must do the job right the first time. This means that we do not accept error as being inevitable. We must make it clear what we expect. In order to do this we must have a well-defined method of communication that is practiced by all, all of the time. “The Zero Defects concept is based on the fact that mistakes are caused by two things: lack of knowledge and lack of attention.”*** For the Men of Emanuel, the lack of knowledge starts with the concepts I mentioned in the definition of quality. We must know the needs of our constituencies, starting with the men of Emanuel. From this knowledge, we can develop statements of our mission, values and vision. Once we have this, we will be able to set up programs, events, and services that all meet the needs of our constituents and we can rework our constitution and bylaws so that they the organization promotes the requirements of our group. From that flows the common attitude that defective activities, that is those that do not meet the needs of the our constituencies, will be changed or eliminated. This attitude will prevent mistakes that are caused by a lack of attention.
Measurement is very important to the Crosby Quality System. For the Men of Emanuel, our success can be measured in our ability to attract participation and in our ability to recruit leaders within the Emanual membership, and in our ability to gain participation of the congregation in general.
In order for the Men of Emanuel to deliver outstanding programs, events, and services, we must make sure that they conform to the requirements of our constituents and if we find that they do not in any way meet these needs, that we are dedicated to adjusting them until they do. We will not be able to do this until we are committed to understanding the needs of our group, down to the core values and the physical and emotional characteristics of Emanuel’s men.
The information about the Philip Crosby Quality Assurance program is taken from a combination of the training I received at Coburn Optical Industries and from the Book Quality is Free by Philip B. Crosby, published in 1980 Mentor, an imprint of New American Library, a division of Penguin Books USA Inc.
* P. Crosby, Quality is Free, (New York: Mentor, 1980), p 39
** Ibid., p 145
*** Ibid., p 14
Endnote: This article was originally published in the Emanuel Bulletin, March 2010.
Return To Other Writing Pieces
