UPSIDE DOWN EXCELLENCE Quality that's simple Hey Reader We’re nearing the end of our Paul O’Neill series. Two more weeks, and the holidays are here. A fitting time to talk about alignment—because alignment is a leadership gift that keeps paying dividends. O’Neill anchored his entire approach to one value: Alcoa will be the safest company in America. It wasn’t a motto. It was the operational spine. Hiring, firing, processes, conversations—everything tied back to safety. The Mexico story: At a...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
UPSIDE DOWN EXCELLENCE Quality that's simple Hey Reader Week 3 of Paul O’Neill’s Playbook: Make It Visible We’re continuing our study of Paul O’Neill (the leader whose approach 7x’d Alcoa in the 90s) and why his principles work far beyond safety. If you strip away the labels, safety and quality follow the same pattern: Understand what could go wrong. Create a plan to prevent it. Teach the plan. Audit the plan. Different department names. Same muscle groups. This week’s focus: visibility. Week...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
UPSIDE DOWN EXCELLENCE Quality that's simple Hey Reader Paul O’Neill’s next lesson: measure like you mean it. When O’Neill led Alcoa, his reporting systems weren’t bureaucracy. They were clarity. Measurement, reporting, tracking. Clear expectations for everyone. We’ve already covered his first move: choose common ground. Safety was the one improvement no one could argue with, and it spread through every corner of the company. Now we look at the second piece of his playbook: measurement....
2 months ago • 2 min read
UPSIDE DOWN EXCELLENCE Quality that's simple Hey Reader We're continuing looking at Paul O'Neil's story at Alcoa. One of the first things he did was to find Common Ground that everyone, from VPs to Union stewards, would agree with. When Paul O’Neill became CEO of Alcoa, he opened his first press conference with a line that surprised everyone: “I intend to make Alcoa the safest company in America.” Analysts expected talk of profits and efficiency, but O’Neill understood something deeper....
2 months ago • 1 min read
UPSIDE DOWN EXCELLENCE Quality that's simple Hey Reader I used to dislike safety systems. They felt like edicts: “Do it, or else.” Quality standards (ISO) always seemed friendlier — more latitude, more room to shape the how. Then I read Paul O’Neill’s story at Alcoa, and my thinking shifted. He turned safety into the company’s North Star and grew the business by 7x! Paul joined Alcoa in 1987 and scared every investor by declaring he would focus only on safety. He used something no one could...
3 months ago • 1 min read
UPSIDE DOWN EXCELLENCE Quality that's simple Hey Reader When I was working at an automotive plant, a large OEM bought our plant and brought a mature quality standard and a lot of new requirements. Some fit our operation. Many didn’t. However, the problem was simple. The standard wasn’t optional. The company tied bonuses to audit scores, so compliance mattered at the director and VP levels. Ignoring certain clauses could cost people real money. So I made these seemingly “useless” requirements...
3 months ago • 2 min read
UPSIDE DOWN EXCELLENCE Quality that's simple Hey Reader A new quality tech once proudly handed me a process he’d just written. It tackled customer returns, identified a key risk, and laid out a solid corrective action. He’d pulled in the right people and done his homework. Then he said, “I’m done.” The Difference Between Fixing and Embedding That’s where we separate acceptable quality systems from great ones. I asked him a few simple—but uncomfortable—questions: Who’s going to do this...
3 months ago • 1 min read
UPSIDE DOWN EXCELLENCE Quality that's simple Hey Reader Setting Expectations: Begin with the End in Mind Recently, I’ve had conversations with three executives from three different companies. None of them knew each other, but every one of them began our meeting with the same question: “What does success look like?” Within the first five minutes, they had already defined what success would mean for that conversation. They knew what they needed to do to succeed, and by doing so, they...
4 months ago • 1 min read
UPSIDE DOWN EXCELLENCE Quality that's simple Hey Reader Prioritize and Execute This phrase comes straight from the Navy SEALs. And it’s just as true for quality as it is on the battlefield. As quality professionals, we face 1,000 competing priorities from every direction. The successful ones know how to do two things: prioritize and execute. I’m not going to lie and tell you there’s a magic bullet—because there isn’t. But I’ll share what has worked for me, in real-world quality terms. Hearing...
4 months ago • 3 min read