The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.

Sometimes we may under-appreciate how impactful Management and Culture can be to our business success. While there is rarely a tangible impact from these aspects that we can see directly, if we dig deep enough, we see that every outcome is influenced by them. It is very important that an organization understands not only the impacts of these aspects, but how they can start to improve them.

A good management team is the backbone of an organization; They account for two important points. First, they are the leaders that manage and direct resources (people, equipment, materials). A management team must effectively assess a situation to determine how to achieve the best possible outcome. In order to do this, they not only have to have insight into the problem, but trust their team with the proposed solution. This first point is vital as members of management may not always have the best insight into the cause-and-effect chains that daily employees are aware of. Gathering this insight from their teams is critical and often overlooked. Many times the solution will only make the problem worse if a manager assumes they always know what is right without trusting the input from their team.

Second, managers represent the values that the organization holds. Each and every decision made by a member of management illustrates the Culture of the organization:

- A decision to cut corners shows personnel that following the correct process falls second to getting it done quicker.

- A decision to regroup or better plan for a potentially bad situation shows personnel that it is more important to get it right rather than get it done.

These decisions soon develop into the organization’s Culture. Culture can be thought of simply as the reason for our decision. It is the unseen force that affects our intentions and drives our actions. When managers focus more on turn-around over outcome as an example, this will often begin to trickle down throughout the rest of the organization. Everyone’s goal will soon be turn-around over outcome; and this culture can become almost irreversible if we aren’t careful.

In fact, these sometimes-overlooked topics are so important that most Quality Management System Standards such as ISO 9001 have proactively tried to address them by adding requirements specific to members of management. These include requirements to always be accountable to the success of the QMS and ensure that the proper resources and people are available when and where needed.

In order for an organization to develop the most successful Quality System possible, it is imperative that their Culture and Management teams are appropriate. Top Management should determine and develop an organizational culture that values planning and teamwork. This results in a company providing solutions that are appreciated by their customers, and often more cost effective in the long term. After that, managers should be selected that represent that culture, rather than work against it.

Most importantly, the organizational culture will drive everyone towards working more cohesively and being proud of the decisions they make, day in and day out. Also, a typical side effect of this approach tends to engage personnel and allow them to feel as though they are a part of the system, not just working in it. That mentality of being able to provide impactful feedback to management and see that their actions are valued by the organization can have a more dramatic impact than we can imagine in our success.