Author: Waldir Ciszevski
It is worthwhile to identify some basic components in our health check-up process, which are also present in a business diagnosis process focused on both health and quality.
We have observed in the market in general an almost “massification” of the need and desire to optimize health – in its broad sense – within organizations. This is the good side of the equation, but the side that leaves something to be desired is the implementation of truly effective actions, which irrefutably demonstrate the good, measurable consequences of this important health for top management and the entire company.
Thus, it is advisable for some Corporate Health vectors to be measured to enrich the top management's own vision, namely:
What is the organization's vision in terms of health (and quality) in business?
- From the very top of the corporate pyramid;
- For the organization at all its levels;
- To clients and partners related to the business;
- By “professional scouts” (e.g., specialized consultancies) with an external perspective to the organization in focus.
From these four observation prisms alone, it can be concluded that there will be a significant tendency towards common views – perhaps the majority – but also scattered and even antagonistic views elsewhere in this survey.
A good way to reduce such potential dispersions and, consequently, foster a better (less biased) image of business health and quality is to promote an organizational diagnosis/checkup.
Unfolding a bit of critical analysis on this so-called organizational diagnosis, like any good diagnosis, there's nothing better than starting with statements and questions, to then reach conclusions. We believe this to be a good and almost inevitable path to excellence, focused on better results, in the sense of a new (and better) business management for 2003.
Affirmative
Getting a complete checkup (personal health diagnosis) is very important, because after all, we rarely know how to correctly assess our full physical condition on our own.
Questioning
When was the last time you had that really important checkup? Did you happen to get a battery of medical tests done in 2002?
Initial Conclusion:
If you have never done it, or if it has been a while, or even if you have only done it partially, I believe it is fundamental to reassess the coherence of your thoughts with your actions.
Note: If your case falls under those requiring periodic checkups, have you scheduled your next one yet?
With this reflection, we would like to draw a parallel between personal physical health and a company's business health, whether in industry, commerce, or services, for large, medium, small, and even micro-enterprises.
It's worth identifying some basic components in this health checkup process, which are also present in a business diagnostic process focused on health and quality.
Thus, we highlight below 10 basic steps inherent in a diagnosis:
Expert Method
To perform a good checkup, it is a prerequisite to have a high level of expertise in the subject by the diagnostician, obviously superior to our own knowledge, thus providing greater consistency, depth, accuracy, and reliability. This context applies analogously to companies, which are not specialists in diagnosis, but in their respective businesses.
Tools
Clinical laboratories have a range of analytical equipment and/or procedures. This also applies to the business world, as since this “toolkit” is not internal, it must be sought externally.
Symptoms
In an exam, the doctor will ask you about symptoms and “screen” for others that you might not even interpret as problematic. Not feeling unwell sometimes does not guarantee that your health is fine. In companies, we should also analyze what we feel and screen for what we don't perceive as well.
Objective Exams
Clinically, contrasting effects are observed, measured, and promoted to better gather a set of measurable variables that indicate the real physical condition. In an organization, this technical procedure should be similar.
Medical Board
Some specialists join forces to create synergy in identifying the problem and/or in its subsequent treatment, corrective or preventive. In ventures, creating this synergy, this partnership, is fundamental.
Comparative Data
Laboratory tests normally present ideal “rates,” allowing us to understand the distance between one situation and another. In business, the use of benchmarks is similarly crucial to understanding the real situation.
Causes
If the exams do not allow us to arrive at the probable causes or at the likely cause, the objectives of the checkup may lack support, as they will not permit actions for health improvement. A similar situation occurs in companies, where causes are often confused with consequences. By only addressing consequences, palliative therapy is promoted without effective results for cure and/or real improvement.
Conclusion
After this “battery of tests,” we have a good arsenal to evidence, with cutting-edge technology, the proper conclusions, which will broaden the top brass's view of their own company's quality.
Prescription
Based on the symptoms, facts, examinations, comparisons, causes, and conclusions, the most indicated therapy is prescribed, respecting the “diagnostic culture,” for both personal health and business.
Results
In this way, we will be ensuring, within human limits, a reversal of the current situation to a better condition, by systematically and periodically controlling the basic health variables.
Some people don't want to get a checkup due to a lack of knowledge; or due to inflated self-esteem; they may also think they are perfectly healthy and even believe it's expensive to have these exams done, forgetting that not preventing and/or treating illnesses is much more costly, some of which can even lead to death.
Let's pause to think more deeply: the first step to solving a problem well is to know it in depth, and if this doesn't happen, something very serious can happen to us: nothing, continuing without improvements, in a process of physical and/or business atrophy.
Waldir Ciszevski is the general director of Qualitivity Consulting & Business Management and Productivity, examiner for the National Quality Award and instructor for the Federal Government Quality Award, as well as a columnist for various media outlets such as the newspaper O Estado de São Paulo.
Email [email protected]
Esse artigo foi publicado também no portal HSM e cedido pelo autor para o blog da Stratec.
