Basic ways to approach problems and issues in life and to learn in high quality way are the first steps towards solving environmental problems. Ours is the world of organisations. An individual without any organisation can achieve very little. Serious alleviation and solving of problems requires also Continual Quality Improvement of organisations, work, processes, products, services etc.

Before you read any more about the book, please construct your own tentative personal theory about the issue which we ponder in the title of this chapter.
First think by yourself what is quality, work, process, an organisation, your most important organisations, why there ought to be continual quality improvement going on. Or you may think that it is only a fashion, no real need for any quality improvement. You may think that continual quality improvement does not concern environmental problems and solving of them.

After you have constructed your answer, only after that, please compare you conception, your tentative theory to the ideas presented in this book on the following page(s).
 

Continual Quality Improvement as an approach to Environmental Education, Sustainability, Good Environment and Good Life

It is certain, that in the future as long as we can think and forecast, citizens of scientific-technological societies will have 1) environmental problems (e.g. climate changes, ozone holes and corresponding problems of excess UV radiation, diminishing drinkable water, erosion etc.) and 2) problems of quality, continual improvement of quality in order to remain competitive in global economy. There are similar movements which use a term ‘continuous’ instead of ’continual’. The difference is that ‘continuous’ means uninterrupted, ‘continual’ is more realistic: there can be interruptions, resting, a temporary crisis etc., but anyhow the strategic intent is that quality will continually improve. It is more realistic to talk about continual quality improvement, because people must rest and sleep, and sometimes quality may even drop a little, but in long run it hopefully continually improves (e.g. Åhlberg 1996 and 1997b; Fisher and Torbert 1995, 5 - 7; Starkey 1996, 73 - 74).

Many teachers and practical people in the field of Environmental Education are hostile towards research, evaluation and all connections to economy and business organizations. They do not understand importance of research as a tool to quality assurance and as a tool for continual quality improvement. They do not understand that the interests of modern greening business are in long run the same as are those of environmentalists: less energy use, less raw materials use, less or no pollution at all (e.g. Azzone & Bertele 1994, Azzone, Bertele & Noci 1997, Hutchinson & Hutchinson 1997, Welford (ed.) 1996). Approaches to this kind of business management are called Total Quality Management, Environmental management, business process reengineering, benchmarking etc. I have suggested on basis of the title of Fisher and Torbert (1995) that the best covering expression is Continual Quality Improvement.

Work is activity by which human real needs become satisfied. It is an essential aspect of good environment and good life. Schumacher (1979, 3 - 4) is one of rare authors who has high-lighted this. In good work:
Necessary goods and services are produced
Skills are used and improved
Other people are served and cooperated with. Hutchinson and Hutchinson (1997, 54) infer from Schumacher (1979): “An enlighted and motivated workforce is, perhaps, the first prequisite for sustainable development.” People become enlighted by continual learning and education and they become motivated in good organizations and good societies. It is necessary to try continually improve quality of work life, organization and societies.

Because of lack of space only the outline for a theory of Continual Quality Improvement is presented (based on Åhlberg 1997b):

1) We need a worldview, a theory, a philosophy, which is consistent with continual quality improvement efforts.

2) Some version of systems theory is a necessary ingredient in all main quality improvement efforts.

3) On basis what is known about own core competences, about the world, both global and local environments, and probable future trends, a vision must be constructed. The vision ought to be strongly motivating, a shared positive view of the future. It ought to stand continual scrutiny, constructive criticism, intellectual cross-examination again and again. Always you ought to come to conclusion that this is the best vision to your organisation in prevailing conditions and future prospects. A good vision is based on what you can do better than others in your region, in your country, in the world. That is how it ought to guarantee your survival and success.

4) A strategy ought to be constructed on basis of vision and what is known about the world, local and global environments. A strategy is a general plan how to continually implement your vision as a plan.

5) In every organisation there are core processes. E.g. in universities the core processes are: a) high quality learning, b) teaching/education facilitating learning, c) research, d) administrative processes and e) support processes.

6) For each process there are process owners. E.g. students are process owners of their own learning process. Nobody can do learning for them.

7) Process owners ought to be empowered as well as possible. It means that they ought to get available and necessary resources to do their job. Process owners ought to be educated to improve their processes continually.

8) Quality of products and services is often the best when a team takes care of a process. Each individual has different abilities, together the team probably produces better quality than any of its members alone.

9) In each process and in each organisation there are both producers/suppliers and customers. There are both internal and external customers. The paying external customer for universities and schools is often the state and municipalities which support its school system in order to survive and succeed. Inside schools there are supplier-customer- chains and networks. Everybody who produces something to another is in the role of supplier, everybody who receives is in the role of internal customer. All students/pupils, teachers, administrators are internal customers to each other. Other people in organisation are organisational, social environment for each of us. The quality of social work environment, depends how we interact with other people.

10) It is often said that customer satisfaction is a measure of quality. However quality is best defined in relation to fulfilment of real human needs. These are different from wishes, wants, requirements, fancies, fashions, whimsies etc. Uninformed customers can be temporarily satisfied also with products and services which are against their real long term needs. There is a real need for continual long term learning and education about what is really worthwhile, what people really need to have a meaningful and good life.

11) Customer commitment, employee commitment and loyalty are best gained when interests are the same in long run. This is connected to win-win -principle: All solutions to problems ought to be constructed so that all partners win in long run.

12) High quality communication is direct, authentic, polite, tactful, no games, no playing.

13) Emotions are important in Continual Quality Improvement.

14) Employees ought to be educated continually to continually improve quality of their work and their organisation, and their life.

15) There is no use to blame individuals for bad quality. Processes must be constructed so that from them only high quality products and services can emerge.

16) Continual improvement of core processes by small steps is often called by Japanese term ‘kaizen’. It is the most common form of continual quality improvement.

17) Sometimes it is best to reconstruct processes totally. This is called process reengineering.

18) It is always wise to learn from the best in the field. A systematic version of this is called benchmarking.

19) It is important that members of those organisations which want to survive and succeed are studying future, and actively taking part in construction of better future.

20) Those who are active in continual quality improvement, apply its ideas to their life. They walk as they talk. They act according to their teaching.

21) The chances for continual quality improvement are best if the highest bosses of the organisation are committed to it.

22) If the highest bosses are not committed to continual quality improvement, it is possible to start from grass root level. Lower employees can themselves start to improve continually those parts of their work and life, which they can without permit of their highest bosses.

23) In all societies and in all organisations there are change barriers, change resistance. In order to get more power to continually improve quality of one’s work, the best solution is to construct informal networks with those who believe in continual quality improvement and its role in promoting sustainable development. The same-minded employees can have necessary ‘critical mass’ to start larger scale continual quality improvement program.

24) Networking for sustainable development, good environment and good life, between individuals and organisations is important, because individual persons and organisations alone have relative little power to solve problems (individual, social, environmental, those of sustainable development, good environment and good life).

25) Continual quality improvement is based on facts, and often but not necessarily on measurements. Facts about what members of organisation are thinking, and how they are learning, can be obtained e.g. by concept mapping. Facts about employees’ actions are best observed informally and/or systematically.

26) Numerical goals are often harmful for continual quality improvement.

27) It is important to try to find out causes for variation in processes, products and services.

28) Waste of raw materials and energy are bad for continual quality improvement. The worst kind of waste is unemployment, when skills and abilities of people are wasted.

29) Continual quality improvement as its best: Right things are done just at right time and right in the first time.

30) It is not dangerous to make errors, but it is dangerous if people do not learn from their errors. Continual quality improvement demands theory-based, not random, experimentation. With planned experimentation there is always a possibility to make errors, but also good chances to learn both from errors and from success.

31) It is important to make research on organisation culture (quality culture) in order to develop better organisational quality culture for continual quality improvement.

32) In continual quality improvement it is important to try to create a learning organisation, a learning society, a learning region. This is how we can learn our way to sustainable development, good environment and good life.

33) The economy is globalizing. Competition is becoming harder. The whole nation ought to be educated to promote continual quality improvement.

34) Continual Quality Improvement has been started first in business corporations. The ideas have been successful also in other fields if adapted in the proper way. It is win-win -situation to co-operate with business organisations in continual quality improvement. Healthy, competitive, ecologically sustainable economy produces resources for democracy, good environment and good life.

35) The history of quality improvement has three stages:
At first quality of products and services was the most important issue. This was time of quality control.
Then it was learned that quality cannot be controlled into products and services. The core processes and the whole organisation ought to be continually improved. From high quality processes only high quality products and services can emerge.
Finally it was learned that every organisation and its members need a good society and good environment. Healthy happy people produce better quality than unhappy members of the organisation.

36) In Continual Quality Improvement both quality theory and quality tools are needed for high quality practice.

37) Because each organisation is different, each of them ought to construct its tailored individual quality theory and policy, vision and strategy.

38) This tentative theory ought to be tested continually both theoretically in thinking and empirically in practice. Better version ought to be constructed all the time.

Practical suggestions:

Apply this theory of Continual Quality improvement into your own life, work, organisation, community. Test is continually both theoretically and empirically.

Try to construct your own and better theory of Continual Quality Improvement. Take as parts of it those aspects of earlier theories of Continual Quality Improvement which stand continual critical cross-examination.