Greetings, List - Oh dear, I must strongly object to John Bing's comment, as follows: "5. Project Management is my field and it, like the museum consists of producing individual activities or projects, (in my case design and build chemical plants). TQM in its purest sense, does not apply, however, that does not mean one cannot improve quality in doing one of a kind projects. " of course, I do not object that project management is his field ;-)........ Total Quality Management most certainly applies to processes, specifically project management, as well as products and services. Museums are replete with processes, not the least of which are all the service activities performed for the public. In fact, TQM focuses on the myriad processes that result in a product! The fundamentals of TQM are: establish, for your organization, what "Quality" looks like. Every museum has an enormous host of processes and outcomes that will define it as either achieving customer satisfaction...or not! From exhibit fabrication to fundraising, to media presence, to phone answering, all the above can be done with quality. TQM requires that you, as an organization, define what good performance looks like. Then write it down. Measurement is another plank of the TQM platform. Once you define what a label, a phone call, a meeting, a project management plan looks like when it is done with quality, then you must define meaningful measurements. For simplicity's sake, lets use the phone call. This one easily comes to mind because I called 11 museums that are members of this list last week, and the phone answering certainly has a wide range of quality....by my personal measurement :-) Imagine that the standard is : answer within 5 rings, voice mail present if no human available, if human, then answer identifying museum and department reached, no audible food or gum chewing, clear elocution, appropriate use of hold or mute such that caller does not hear museum staffer hollering around the office for answers to the questions. TQM requires that the person to perform the task is given adequate training on what good performance looks like. This is vital! Notice of regular assessment is made. Then that assessment is in fact made, with regularity. Establishing the standard but not measuring performance is wasted effort. A staff person calls the museum, and evaluates performance. So, if phone answerer misses two of those points every week, then a performance improvement plan is established. Training is repeated, with an improvement schedule established. "You now miss two of these checkpoints at each assessment. Within 4 weeks, you need to have reduced it to one point, within 6 weeks, no points missed, or you will be considered not meeting the performance requirements for your position, which may result in termination. " Ok, that last seems a bit harsh, but it is the basic reality of TQM. Define Quality, document your agreement, create meaningful measurement, then plan/effect continuos improvement. ....Then set the bar a tad higher... Obviously this is vastly simplified explanation. I have been using TQM practices for 12 years, and found that their application was worth the effort. In some cases it resulted in dramatic improvement of customer satisfaction, efficient staff operation (read:improved bottom line), and surprisingly, after the initial resistance by employees, actually became an attraction to new staff. One prospective employee told me that she wanted to join my department because she had heard that under my management she would learn more about her profession and become a better employee than in any other position available to her! Understanding of TQM in its various flavors, can be gained through reading (see list of books below), attending the hundred of seminars, or through hiring a consultant to facilitate through an initial assessment, then proposed implementation plan. Personally, I believe that some judicious reading, then a limited consultant engagement is the most efficient way to implement. Without the consultant, you can spin your wheels and lose focus, damaging the initial acceptance by management and staff. If you would like to discuss your particular circumstance and goals, please feel free to call or email off list...I have had many years experience in bringing TQM and Demmings processes to a variety of staff types. Good luck to you in your search for excellence and efficiency! They are admirable and fulfilling objectives for any organization, certainly, museums, galleries and science centers among them. Beth Macdonald Big Head Interactive 415/752.6511 www.bigheadinteractive.com Books on TQM Quality Without Tears : The Art of Hassle-Free Management; Philip B. Crosby Quality Is Free : The Art of Making Quality Certain; Philip B. Crosby Running Things : The Art of Making Things Happen; Phillip B. Cosby, Juran on Leadership for Quality : An Executive Handbook; Joseph M. Juran A History of Managing for Quality : The Evolution, Trends, and Future Directions of Managing for Quality ~ J.M. Juran Keeping Score : Using the Right Metrics to Drive World-Class Performance by Mark Graham Brown Vital Signs : Using Quality, Time, and Cost Performance Measurements to Chart Your Company's Future; Steven M. Hronec The Balanced Scorecard : Translating Strategy into Action; Robert S. Kaplan, David P. Norton Measuring Performance; Bob Frost The Basics of Performance Measurement; Jerry L. Harbour ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://museums.state.nm.us/nmmnh/museum-l.html. You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).