Quality is being addressed in the United States today by a number of initiatives such as lean manufacturing, 5S, TPM (Total Productive Maintenance), Constraint Management, and Six Sigma teams. All of these improvement systems have positive impacts on an organization’s performance.

However, in order to optimize the resources expended to implement these initiatives, the way organizational members interact must first be considered and improved. How communication occurs, conflict is dealt with, change is implemented, meetings are facilitated, projects are managed, and the overall organizational system is planned, are all important enablers or barriers to quality improvement efforts.

Leaders must effectively engage all employees and get their commitment for the improvement initiatives. In order to gain this commitment, leaders must be aware of how others receive their communication. Verbal, nonverbal, and e-mail communication should be discussed and continually improved. If leaders are able to listen well and incorporate employee input when possible, commitment will grow among all employees.

Another communication requirement is effective conflict management.

Conflicts occur in organizations because people care about their work or their dignity. How they demonstrate that caring is critical. We each have different tendencies for dealing with conflicts. Sometimes these tendencies are useful and other times they are counterproductive. New skills for dealing with workplace conversations are available and desirable. There are ways of asking permission for dialogue that increases openness for both parties. It is helpful for leaders to identify and focus on the underlying needs that drive each of us. Respectful feedback techniques can easily be learned.

Change is one of the biggest barriers to successful quality initiatives.

Oftentimes the required changes make sense to the leaders because they have had many discussions about the needs and considered much data that has convinced them of the value of the change. Employees must be involved in dialogue that helps them choose to change also. Fear of change is usually fear of the unknown. Explain the reasons for the change to employees and involve them in designing the new organizational systems to implement the change. People who are involved in the change tend to buy-in. Those who are left on the outside of the communication channel tend to resist what they don’t understand.

Quality initiatives always increase the number of meetings and projects in which employees are involved. Each meeting costs money and ineffective, boring meetings can kill the desired value from the efforts. There are techniques for planning and facilitating a meeting, and documenting decisions, responsible people, and timelines. Don’t waste your organizational resources with wheel-spinning, train employees in consistent, organized, respectful meeting techniques.

Organizations are a system of processes. A change in one part of the system will likely impact another part in significant ways. That characteristic of organizations requires leaders to look at the big picture, anticipate the change ripple, and plan for it.

Incorporating some of the above techniques will have extremely valuable paybacks in improved organizational performance. Don’t plow into new quality initiatives until you have worked on your leadership of communication, conflict management, change implementation, meeting management, and systems orientation infrastructure. Once you have, your investment dollars for improving your system for producing products and services will realize the true benefit that you as a leader seek. Ignore these elements and you will find yourself and your employees frustrated and angry.

R. Glenn Ray is the president of RayCom Learning, which helps leaders who want to create team breakthroughs. To learn more about RayCom Learning, visit the Web site www.raycomlearning.com. Ray’s third book “You Can’t Push a Pig into a Truck” is scheduled for publication later this year. He can be reached at 1-888-574-5370 or at rayray@raycomlearning.com. Everyday Leadership appears each Wednesday on the Business page.