day 250: Quality Control

Whatever business you are in, at some point there is a discussion about quality. This can be quality of the product or quality of the delivery of service. Quality is for many companies the number one priority. Ford Motor Company's advertising campaign in the late 1980's and early 1990's was built around the theme of quality with; "Quality is Job One!". We expect quality from products that we buy. We expect quality of service when we engage with a company for services rendered. When we receive quality workmanship or service we equate that to the price paid and if the quality is greater than the price then we feel like we have received a value. But when quality suffers everything suffers. That is why many a CEO and senior management team will go to any extreme to improve quality and ensure that it is one area that they can rest upon firmly. It is very interesting how the consultants who work in the quality area discuss the issue. As they dissect the problem many times what they find is that it is not a major breakdown in process, commitment, or orientation, but rather somewhere in the manufacturing process or in the service delivery standards there is a minor infraction that pollutes the entire process and renders it impossible to have perfection. Many hours and many consulting dollars are spent annually in the search for the tiniest of issues to be identified and rectified. Our lives are much the same. Especially at work. It's a small proportion of the population that have huge gaping holes in their character or their personality. But there are many, myself included, who have many small areas in our lives that need to be changed, improved, or removed in order to be the type of person we want to be. These small infractions and imperfections can be the ones that ruin the whole batch of our being. Our job, as believers, is like the quality control inspectors, to continuously be identifying areas for improvement and then change the standard operating procedures to ensure that these areas are mitigated. This is what God asks us to do in 1 Thessalonians 4:7; "God has called us to live holy lives, not impure lives." God calls us to inspect for the imperfections and then do whatever we have to do to remove those impurities. Today as you think about how you work and live, are there impurities in your life that you just keep bringing to work every day? Is it a choice of language that you use at work, is it how you treat others around you, is it the feelings that you have towards others or your attitude in general that is getting in the way of your personal quality improvement? Is there one thing you could begin changing today that when you did your own quality of person assessment, you would say needs to change? Today would be the day to make that change. Like the garment tags we get with new clothing, what better piece of paper to have in our pocket today than, "This child of God was inspected and approved by the Holy Spirit" That is true quality control.

Reference: 1 Thessalonians 4:7 (New Living Testament)