The Culture of Quality

A few days back few of my friends got into a casual conversation over someone’s posting on his Facebook wall on this slogan ‘Make in India’.

I commented that our country will continue to remain hopeless if there is general feeling and accepted belief that to excel in one's chosen field, he has to leave his own country. Because we have not produced anything worthwhile after giving ‘0’ to humanity, hence we do not get the world’s investment attention. To which a friend quipped, quality is available to people who Value quality, and we don’t value quality. 

Don’t we value quality? Don’t we expect quality? Yes, we do.

Most of our cribbing hovers around the falling standards in every sphere around us. From relationships, the education system, organizations, and society at large. Start any discussion on quality everyone jumps into this trip – how they only see mediocrity and averages around them. This blame narrative is mostly heard in the academic communities which now are infamous for their dangerously falling standards.

When everyone expects high quality, then why don’t we get it?

If our chat on Fb both of us were talking about the same thing - about the culture of the society which values quality, but I additionally was hinting at our behavior which contributes to the collective societal value system. Around that time, I chanced upon a video snippet by the author Simon Sinek where he was breaking down the society with its Culture as Value + Behaviour. 

Though the value can be at the collective and individual level, the behavior is always individual. I had this personal experience recently which is relevant to this issue of individual behavior and how it evolves in its ecosystem.

I had written a small note on my project as a primer. Though I felt that this is good enough for the immediate needs, something deep inside told me that this needs improvement. And only experts from this field can help. I sent it across to two academician friends who work in the related space; expecting them to find that elusive scope for improvement.

One sent back after few hours with few corrections which were nothing more than typos - was expectedly disappointed. The other sent it back a day later with detailed comments and suggestions. Enthused by the feedback, I joined the editing effort and made changes as suggested and sent back hoping that it’s the end of it.

No! she sent back with more comments. That went on more than 4 times.

If one compares the product with the first version; he can see two different documents – both classes apart. The end-product bore the signature of that habit of someone to naturally push things for excellence and not to stop before achieving it.

Was the former insincere? My answer will be no!

Both are the product of two different cultures. One culture values quality and the other does not. Because the former does not let average pass the gate; she has grown in the culture of striving to achieve excellence in her work and that has formed into a habit that now manifests in her behavior. Thousands like her are produced in that culture and contribute back to the culture through their behavior. Quality is a by-product of what our Society collectively values and nurtures and the discipline to which we individually agree to submit ourselves to.

Let us face the truth and bite the bitter pill. To expect a culture of quality or excellence in our own lives, in our organizations we need to start practicing it ourselves. It can only happen by first not accepting the average quality just because there are people around us who accept it. Let us submit ourselves to the grind of polishing our work through umpteen iterations till it reaches a higher level of excellence. When we expect it from our employees, our clients would be expecting it from us.