organization.  This  means  combining  quantitative methods and human resource leadership techniques to improve  customer-supplier  relations  and  internal processes. This cultural change in leadership practices has certain basic elements: Leaders must clearly state the organization’s mission. This is stated clearly and made available to all employees, suppliers, and customers. A clear,  public-mission  statement  prevents individuals from generating their own definitions of work priorities. Leaders and supervisors must ensure their actions clearly support the organization’s mission. This support includes setting priorities and assigning tasks. Leaders  must  focus  their  efforts  toward  a common goal. This focus is an important part of team building. Leaders must make a long-term commitment to quality improvement. Individual leaders must set an example by providing consistent, focused leadership. LEADERSHIP INVOLVEMENT The essential ingredient of TQL success is leadership involvement. Management controls the process that accomplishes the mission. Quality, however, is in the hands of the workers who do the job. Management, therefore, has the responsibility to drive out the natural fear of change and innovation that is part of  most  people’s  basic  psychology.  TQL  requires support from the top down. This does not mean the department head level. TQL must start with SECNAV/CNO-level support and be supported and implemented all the way to the bottom of the chain of command. From admiral to deck seaman, TQL requires a total effort. A popular myth among military leaders holds that increased  quality  results  in  increased  costs  and decreased productivity. In reality, improved quality ultimately results in decreased costs and increased productivity. How can this be? A focus on quality extends the time between failures of equipment and improves the efficiency of our operations. It reduces rework requirements as well as the need for special waivers of standards. It also reduces mistakes and produces monetary savings through more efficient use of scarce resources. Direct benefits of TQL are as follows: Increased pride of workmanship among individual workers Increased readiness Improved sustainability due to extended time between equipment failures Greater mission survivability Better justification for budgets due to more efficient operations Streamlined  maintenance  and  production processes SUBORDINATE CONTRIBUTION The focus of TQL is the process by which work gets done. The person most familiar with this process is the individual worker responsible for making it work. Often, a process is either unwieldy or just plain unworkable. In a rigid bureaucracy, for workers to persuade upper levels of a need to change a procedure is nearly impossible. Under TQL, leadership is responsible for making the job as easy as possible for workers. Supervisors and leaders should monitor the work process and be responsive to suggestions from the work force concerning unworkable procedures. Sailors in particular are infamous for coming up with nonstandard (but workable) solutions to problems. In some cases, this results in unsafe practices. However, these solutions are often extremely practical. We must develop the ability to ferret out these improvements and incorporate them into standard procedures. This serves a dual purpose. First, it ensures the recommended improvement is usable and meets all applicable standards. Second, the improved method is made available to everyone involved in that process. This is a practical application of “working smarter, not harder.” TQL achieves results by focusing on the procedures and processes that get the work done. Under TQL, leadership must strive continuously to improve the work process. The primary emphasis of this effort is the prevention of defects through quality improvement rather than quality inspections. Quality cannot be inspected in, it must be managed in from the beginning. Conforming to established specifications is only part of quality improvement. Leaders must not be satisfied with minimum standards. As standards are met, we, as leaders, must look for new ways to improve our product. Find the means to further tighten standards and improve quality. That is your job. 4-16