“There are two models of quality control, or quality assurance in the catering business.
One of them is standardising; and that is the model that informs the growth of the fast food industry. So if you have a favourite fast food outlet, you know whichever one you go to, wherever it happens to be, it will be exactly what you are expecting and exactly the same as all the other ones. It will have the same burger, the same buns, the same chicken wings; it is all guaranteed. It is all horrible but it is
guaranteed and it is also contributing to the worst epidemic of diabetes and obesity in the history of the earth, but it’s guaranteed.The other model is like the Michelin Guide or the Zagat Guide, or Egon Ronay. Now what they do is establish criteria for excellence, very high standards, much higher than those of the fast food people. But they don’t tell you how to do it. They don’t tell you what to put on the menu. They don’t tell you who to hire and they don’t tell you what the place should look like. You figure it out.
And the way they work out if you are any good, they send people along who know all about it to see if you are doing it. If you are doing it you are in the guide and if you’re not, you’re not. And the result of that is that every one of these restaurants is great and they are all different. They are different because they use local produce, appeal to local markets, local circumstances and they are customised.”
To my mind this seems to encapsulate the problem for projects in most organisations. They prefer predictability over quality. This shouldn’t be an either or choice but the management methodologies used by most people focus more on process than outcome. Too often a project is focused on sticking to the methodology and not in achieving its goals.
We need to learn that successful and innovative projects don’t come from people who are wearing straight jackets. To be creative, projects need to be flexible and to be able to adapt to changing circumstances and ideas. This means using methods like SCRUM which embrace change and rely on self organising teams to achieve goals.