The Key to Quality: Consistency
My daughter can whip into a Starbuck’sTM drive-thru and order a grande caramel macchiato vanilla latte frappuccino with cold foam something or other and two pumps of this and one and a half pumps of that. And a puppuccino for her sidekick, Sasha. The barista happily says, “Great! I’ll get that ready for you!” Here’s the thing…She can repeat that order at any StarbucksTM and happily drive away with the drink of her dreams. Why is that? Why can you also rest assured when you order a Big Mac on vacation in California, it will be just like the Big Mac you order at home in Detroit? One word: CONSISTENCY. Consistency in your quality practices will create a culture of excellence in your program.
Consistency Leads to Quality
We can define consistency as always acting or behaving in the same way. We commonly use this in a positive sense such as “consistently good food” or “consistently on time”. When you can visit a restaurant or other place of business and know that you will get the same good product time and again, you can understand that consistency leads to quality. How does this translate into your program? To start, think about these things:
All managers enforcing the policies.
All teachers using the same lesson plan format.
All teachers using the same curriculum as a foundation.
All staff using the same discipline strategies.
All classrooms being cleaned to the same degree.
At any point, while reading those items, did you think to yourself, “Ah, that would be nice.”? Our brains are pattern-seeking. We look for the consistency, the known, the expected. Our brains adapt well to habits. The more consistently things are done, the more our brains are freed up to focus on other things such as new projects, solving problems, being creative, and building relationships.
Consistency over Creativity?
It is important not to confuse consistency with lack of creativity. When there are solid, consistent foundations and structures in place, teachers and leaders are free to imagine, think outside the box, and otherwise be creative in their work while still maintaining the level of excellence that is expected.
Many accreditation standards represent the program’s processes being consistently good. We don’t wash our hands properly some of the time, but rather all of the time. Our teachers don’t follow their daily schedule some days, but rather every day. Our parents don’t receive their infant’s daily report only when the teacher remembers; they receive it every. single. day.
I tell my staff, “We are five-star, nationally accredited every single day.” We don’t wait until the week before our annual licensing visit or the month before our reaccreditation site visit to start cleaning up our act. We make our quality practices an everyday habit. It is the consistency of following quality practices day in and day out that will create a culture of excellence in your program.
If you are interested in learning about quality practices in detail, watch for my training on how to build quality into your everyday business operations.