Case study: Powys County Council in Wales, motivational impact
Quality management system courses for non-quality managers had a powerful impact in Powys County Council in Wales. Course participants have developed high enthusiasm for, and taken ownership of, their own systems and processes.
Powys County Council’s management system has been steadily increasing in size within the same certificate for some time but most managers and officers were failing to become fully engaged with the system, relying heavily on the quality management team. Dr Yuan Shen, performance and quality manager at the council, says: ‘No one apart from the quality managers had grasped what it was about’.
Having attended a training course for new quality managers run by the CQI in London, Yuan decided that ISO 9001 training for managers/officers across the council would be valuable.
A tailored two-day course was therefore developed and scheduled for February 2008. The course was open to anyone in the council with a relevant interest – those who wanted to gain ISO 9001 accreditation for their systems or those who already had accreditation but wanted to improve their systems further. The varying levels of existing ISO 9001 knowledge meant that the course needed to cater to all participants’ varying needs.
So great was demand for this initial course that a second was held in April. About 32 people from across the council completed the training, which was provided by Tony Lintern, a CQI-approved trainer. He explained the theory and practice of ISO 9001 in an easily understandable way, using a variety of exercises and activities.
‘Tony made the subject easily accessible to everybody,’ Yuan says. ‘These managers and officers don’t have a background in quality, but they want to use the quality system to improve the way they run the business. So the course was jargon-free and the trainer made it interesting for everybody. Everybody felt very motivated.’ Feedback from course participants found that their fears and preconceptions about the quality management system had been removed.
The training has had a clear impact within the council. ‘It has really helped to facilitate understanding of our management culture,’ says Yuan. ‘People can now develop their own systems. Our team members go along to work with them, but the managers and officers claim the responsibility.
‘We [the quality department] are still here to help, but you can see how people’s attitudes have changed and their confidence. People see that ISO 9001 is not that mysterious and since the training everybody has got excited. It’s wonderful; it’s inspirational. There has been a big change here.’