Fantastic TQS Team - What's the secret?

My series of posts on the TQS team has generated some discussion in TQS training sessions we have been running.

The issues are always about that secret ingredient that makes one team successful and another team – well, less so.

I’m not sure there is a secret, but there are a few things that really help.

Check out if your TQS team would benefit from doing any of the following.

Focus on systems and processes, but also think about their deployment.

It’s important to work on the systems and processes you know you need, and it’s necessary that you do this. You will need an organisational needs analysis (ONA). You will need a way of measuring the impact of what you do in employer organisations. You will need a system for managing the employer’s relationship with your organisation.

It’s essential to your TQS success that you have sound systems and processes for managing your work with employers in place. It’s also important make sure they are used consistently.

The organisations we have worked with which make most progress with the TQS most quickly think about their new or revised systems and processes and how they will be implemented at the same time.

In TQS terms they think about getting sound systems and processes set up, but they think about the deployment of those systems and processes, too.

On quite a few occasions I’ve seen assessment dates put back and applications stalled because the work has been done on getting the right systems and processes devised, but little or no thought has been given to getting them used. As a result, take-up of the new ways of working is piecemeal.

Therefore, the secret ingredient in the TQS mix is not related to getting the right systems and processes in place. It’s about having a plan in place to ensure they will be used

Get the principal/CEO on the TQS team.

If the person at the top on the organisation is actively involved in your TQS development work, progress towards certification will be faster than if it is left to people with less authority to ensure that things happen.

With the most senior person in the organisation on the TQS team things just happen faster. If you have the authority of the person who leads your organisation behind you, it works wonders when you have to deal with the pleas from people who want to carry on doing things as they always have, or to devise their own way of working with employers in their department, or faculty or on a particular site.

If it’s not possible to get the most senior person involved in making sure that your organisation does embrace change, then the second best option is to have someone on the TQS team who can act with the most senior person’s authority.

Check out if you really have senior management support.

Doing this boils down to a very simple question.

Can the TQS team insist?

In lots of provider organisations the TQS team is not in a position to insist the new approaches to managing employer engagement are used.

If this team can’t insist, if the team members can only exhort, then some people will adopt the new approaches, and some won’t. Some will make use of the new CRM system. Some will keep their employer database to themselves. Some people will use the new ONA. Some will just carry on talking to employers about training.

Check out if you have the support that will allow you to insist. Then make sure you insist on changes where they really are necessary.

What do you need to do now?

It’s easy really.

Be clear about what you can do and what you can’t.

Separate the tasks linked to devising new ways of working from the tasks of implementing them.

Get on with the developmental work.

When it comes to implementation and to making sure the systems and processes are embedded, stand back.

Look to the highest levels of management to take the lead here.

Remember that the TQS team knows how to steer the ship, but there aren’t enough team members to man the oars, too.

See also: Your route to TQS certification: adopt a realistic timetable.