{"id":1266,"date":"2012-02-04T17:15:12","date_gmt":"2012-02-04T17:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saasoft.com\/blog\/?p=1266"},"modified":"2012-02-04T17:15:12","modified_gmt":"2012-02-04T17:15:12","slug":"the-line-in-the-sand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/?p=1266","title":{"rendered":"The Safety Line in the Quality Sand"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.improvementscience.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/LineInTheSand.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1269\" title=\"LineInTheSand\" src=\"http:\/\/www.improvementscience.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/LineInTheSand.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a>Improvement Science is about getting better &#8211;\u00a0and it is also about <strong>not getting worse<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">These are not the same thing. Getting better requires dismantling barriers that block\u00a0improvement. Not getting worse requires\u00a0building barriers to block deterioration.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">When things get tough and people start to panic it is common to see corners being cut and short-term quick fixes\u00a0taking priority over\u00a0long-term common sense.\u00a0\u00a0The best defense against this self-defeating behaviour is\u00a0the courage and discipline to say &#8220;<em>This is\u00a0our safety line in the quality sand and we do not cross it<\/em>&#8220;.\u00a0 This is not\u00a0dogma it is discipline. Dogma is blind acceptance; discipline is applied wisdom.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Leaders show their mettle when times are\u00a0difficult not\u00a0when times are easy.\u00a0\u00a0A leader who\u00a0abandons their espoused principles when\u00a0under pressure is a liability to themselves and to their teams and organisations.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">The barrier that prevents descent into chaos is not the leader &#8211; it is the principle that there is a minimum level of acceptable quality &#8211; the line that will not be crossed.\u00a0So when a decision needs to be made between safety and money the choice is not open to debate. Safety comes first.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Only those who believe that <em>higher quality always costs more<\/em> will argue for compromise.\u00a0So when\u00a0the going gets tough\u00a0those who question the Safety Line in the Quality Sand are the ones to challenge by respectfully reminding them of their own\u00a0principles.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">This challenge will require\u00a0courage because they may be the ones in the seats of power.\u00a0\u00a0But when leaders\u00a0compromise their own principles they have sacrificed their credibility and\u00a0have abdicated their power.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Improvement Science is about getting better &#8211;\u00a0and it is also about not getting worse. These are not the same thing. Getting better requires dismantling barriers that block\u00a0improvement. Not getting worse requires\u00a0building barriers to block deterioration. When things get tough and people start to panic it is common to see corners being cut and short-term quick &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/?p=1266\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;The Safety Line in the Quality Sand&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,21,35,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-finance","category-governance","category-reflections","category-safety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1266\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}