I ran across a thought-provoking post at Modern Servant Leader about how social media has shifted job responsibilities in the corporate world. Actually, I think calling it a shift in job responsibilities is an understatement. It is more of a shift of mission and strategic direction.

Most of these are obvious:

  • Marketing shifts from push to pull.
  • Public relations shifts from faux to frank.
  • Customer service shifts from fact to feel.
  • Human resources shifts from policy to people.
  • Quality assurance shifts from par to peak.

That last one caught my eye. What does it mean to shift from Par to Peak? (Actually, if I could get my golf game up to Par, it would be my Peak. His definition of Par is more in line with popular use of the term – the minimum acceptable level.)

In the old world…

Most companies considered Quality Assurance’s role to be achievement of “acceptable” quality levels. Organizations sought to minimize failures rather than excel in quality. Through social media channels, consumers easily identify the product and services with highest overall quality. Therefore, Quality Assurance now seeks less to achieve par performance and seeks more to achieve peak performance over competition.

So what is Peak Performance in this new model?

Companies operate at peak when they consistently delight customers. They’ve gone beyond compliance. They’ve gone beyond reacting to problems and solving them. They’re listening carefully to their customers. They’re mapping the key quality indicators. They’re analyzing their risks using tools like FMEA. And they’re proactively driving peak quality performance because, in the words of W. Edwards Deming, they “Reduce, Reduce, Reduce Variation.” This is block and tackle stuff.

We’re seeing an increased interest in those aspects of our GainSeeker Suite SPC Software that support peak performance: real-time data entry alarms, drill-down analytics, our unique analysis wizard, real-time dashboards, and so forth. I wonder how much of this is driven by the rise of social media.

How does that jive with your experience? Are you seeing a shift to what this author calls a Peak Performance culture? Is it driven by the advent of social media? Use the ShareThis button below to mark this page, leave a comment, schedule a conversation, or call 800-958-2709.