Latest Thoughts
Evolving With Intention: Embracing Growth in Quality Excellence
I’m happy to share the latest article I co‑wrote for Quality Progress, titled “Evolving With Intention” (July 2025, Vol. 58, Issue 7). This piece draws upon a recent ASQ Pulse Survey and sheds light on how quality professionals are navigating career challenges with foresight and purpose.
Co-writing “Evolving With Intention” allowed me to reflect on what truly motivates us as professionals and how we can chart the course ahead with both mindfulness and flexibility.
Five Creative Ways to Use the CliftonStrengths Team Grid
The Gallup CliftonStrengths assessment has helped individuals and teams unlock their full potential by identifying their unique talents. But while many organizations invest in discovering strengths, I’ve seen fewer take full advantage of the Team Strengths Grid—a powerful tool that can transform how teams collaborate, innovate, and achieve results. The Team Strengths Grid helps teams map out individual strengths in a structured format, revealing group dynamics, blind spots, and opportunities for synergy. Here are a few ways to use the tool: Optimize Team Collaboration with Strengths-Based Pairing One of the most common and effective ways to use the Team Strengths Grid is to strategically pair team members who have complementary talents. For example, if one team member has Analytical (precision-driven) and another has Futuristic (visionary thinking), pairing them together can ensure both data-driven decisions and future-focused innovation. Creative Twist: Introduce a “Strengths Buddy” system where employees pair up for monthly reflection and knowledge-sharing sessions based on their strengths alignment. Spot Potential Blind Spots and
What Quality Culture Teaches Us About Employee Satisfaction
When Max Hansen and I began analyzing data for this year’s ASQ Salary Survey, I expected we’d find straightforward answers about what makes quality professionals satisfied with their work. What we discovered instead was far more nuanced—and has profound implications for how any organization should think about culture, not just quality culture. The central insight comes from distinguishing between two fundamentally different challenges: preventing dissatisfaction and creating satisfaction. These aren’t opposite ends of a single spectrum. They’re separate dimensions influenced by different factors and requiring different organizational approaches. The Two-Factor Reality Our research, conducted with over 1,200 quality professionals, examined 18 different cultural factors and how they related to job satisfaction. We analyzed which factors most strongly predicted high satisfaction when present, and which most strongly predicted dissatisfaction when absent. What emerged was remarkably consistent with Frederick Herzberg’s two-factor theory from the 1960s, which proposed that satisfaction and dissatisfaction are
Recent Project: Building a Quality Culture
Max Christian Hansen and I had the opportunity recently to ask quality professionals questions related to their organization’ culture of quality and how that influenced their job dis/satisfaction. Some theories suggest satisfaction and dissatisfaction are merely opposite ends of a spectrum. In other words, the factors that create satisfaction, if absent, create dissatisfaction. Our finding, on the other hand, echoed Herzberg’s notion that job satisfaction isn’t dissatisfaction, but rather a lack of satisfaction—and vice versa. Among the findings we discovered, key drivers of job satisfaction included engagement, pride, professional development, training, and inclusion in idea generation. Predictors of job dissatisfaction included the inhibition of upward voice (that is, feeling comfortable communicating up the chain about potential or actual quality problems) and the lack of enterprise-wide focus on quality. (Quality professionals believe so strongly in the value of quality that they want it infused into their organization’s culture—its norms, practices, etc.) The short
Nine Tips for Adopting a Lagom Lifestyle
Living a “lagom” lifestyle involves embracing a Swedish concept that is often translated as “not too much, not too little, just right.” This philosophy promotes a balanced, sustainable, and harmonious way of life. Lagom is a journey, not a destination. If the journey sounds desirable to you, here are some tips to incorporate the lagom ethos into your daily routine: Know Yourself: Though not commonly included in the canon of lagom lifestyle content, I argue that the first step toward acheiving more balance is self-awareness. Knowing what is important and what makes you you—like personal values, strengths, and goals—helps calibrate the scale so you know what’s truly out of balance and why. Balance Work and Life: The Swedish work-life balance is a key aspect of lagom, emphasizing the importance of personal time and not overexerting yourself. Easier said than done, I know. This is one of the most common conversations
Recent Project: ASQ Salary Survey
The latest American Society for Quality (ASQ) Quality Progress is now available, bringing encouraging news for quality professionals. The survey reveals a significant 11.3% increase in the average median U.S. salaries compared to 2022. Such salary survey data is invaluable for both employees and organizations, offering a benchmark to measure their standing in the industry. However, the critical question remains: How should this information be utilized? Collaborating with Max Christian Hansen, I delved into the 2023 quality salary data, extracting key insights. But we didn’t stop there. We developed a comprehensive framework to guide quality professionals in translating these insights into practical, actionable steps for career advancement. Discover more by exploring the Salary Survey or by watching our quick video. This video not only highlights the latest updates but also provides a clear outline of our framework, designed to assist you in crafting a successful career strategy.
Gallup CliftonStrengths: The Value I’ve Experienced
The moment I took my first Gallup CliftonStrengths® assessment, I was hooked. More than anything, I was enamored with the underlying theory—that focusing on the good is more productive that dwelling on the bad. The moment I read StrengthsFinder 2.0 (I might have also been influenced by Learned Optimism, which I serendipitously read at the same time), my whole perspective shifted from concentrating on everything I did wrong to appreciating and honing what I did well. CliftonStrengths® is a developmental tool and framework designed to help individuals identify, understand, and optimize their unique sets of natural talents. Developed by psychologist Donald O. Clifton, this approach is grounded in positive psychology and focuses on enhancing what people naturally do best. According to Gallup, a strength is consistent, near-perfect performance in an activity. It often develops from a talent, or a naturally recurring pattern of thought, feeling, or behavior. From a neuroscience
What Is Radical Candor?
“Radical Candor” is a concept developed by Kim Scott, which she explores in her book “Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity.” It’s a management philosophy centered on the idea of creating relationships that are both personally and professionally fulfilling. The concept is based on the balance between two dimensions: caring personally and challenging directly. Here’s a breakdown of the two key components: 1. Caring Personally involves showing that you care about your team members as human beings. This is about building genuine relationships, showing empathy, and understanding individual motivations and challenges. 2. Challenging Directly is about providing clear, direct feedback—even when it’s difficult or uncomfortable. The idea is that people cannot improve if they are unaware of their shortcomings, so it’s crucial to tell them in a way that is intended to help rather than to harm or criticize. Radical Candor, therefore, is the intersection of
