Consistent quality work is possible

You can only skip steps on a staircase as long as your legs are.

You can only jump steps on a staircase as strong as your legs are.

You can trip and fall down a staircase no matter how long or strong your legs are.

When working, it’s natural to aim for the quickest path to your desired destination.

This tendency is often praised as a hallmark of a great employee:

"John already turned in his report this morning!”

Some work thrives on speed, while other excels through care and patience. However, neither of these approaches directly implies quality.

The quality of your work output is measured by you and your company, regardless of the industry.

However, this doesn’t mean you possess the ultimate judgement of final quality.

The customer is the arbiter of that.

You must decide which processes in your company require speed, and which demand patience.

Merely stating that your company prioritizes one over the other is insufficient and a lazy generalization.

Perhaps you want communication to prioritize speed, except when it concerns intra-company presentations.

The simplest approach is to simplify or codify the process and incorporate it into a company knowledge base.

This practice should become ingrained in the working culture, evolving over time into something intuitive that new team members readily adopt.

What you mustn’t do, however, is attempt to shortcut your way to quality.

This underscores the importance of defining what quality means to you.

Quality is a noun that gauges things relative to a standard, and you have the power to set that standard.

It has a distinct definition apart from the adjective of “quality”.

If I asked you to deliver a quantity of work, you’d inquire, “How much?”

Similarly, if I asked you to deliver a quality of work, you should also inquire, “How much?”

One common mistake companies make is not having a yardstick for quality.

Consequently, the quality of work output is often seen as a subjective function tied to the individual.

However, this is just part of the equation.

In the military, for instance, everyone must be capable of doing 35 pushups.

Yet, soldiers evaluate each other in relation to the group average.

Those who fall below the group average sense the pressure to catch up.

Unless pushups are a company-wide practice, establishing a measuring standard can be challenging, except for specific, measurable roles like sales.

Yet, because of this, it's even more crucial to set standards for activities involving all team members.

Set benchmarks for common areas such as messaging, presentations, knowledge sharing, and timelines.

Every person in your company wishes to gauge how well they’re performing.

Your team members greatest fear is being judged by an invisible standard they can't comprehend.

Your customers are on the second floor.

Make it as clear as possible how your employees ought to go up the staircase.