Man and systems: That was the Swiss Quality Day 2016

Presentation impressions: Ruedi Lustenberger, Prof. Dr. Joachim Bauer, Dr. Marc Holitscher, Prof. Dr. Hans Dieter Seghezzi, Pascale Etter & Band, Dr. Peter Kels (Photos: thb)

The pace of technological development is thought-provoking, said SAQ President Ruedi Lustenberger in his opening address. Just 250 years have passed since the first industrial revolution and today we are already talking about the fourth, namely Industry 4.0. Compared to the entire evolutionary history of mankind, these two and a half centuries mean "just the blink of an eye". Despite all the technological feasibility of systems that we are experiencing today, the primacy must nevertheless remain with humans, Ruedi Lustenberger pointed out. But the signs are not so bad: "Fortunately, factors such as motivation, honesty and reliability have recently come to play a major role in companies," said the SAQ president.

How the brain "system" works

Just how unreliable systems can be was demonstrated in the first presentation by Prof. Dr. med. Joachim Bauer from the University Hospital Freiburg i. Br.: He first had to deal with a loose contact on the presentation screen on stage... The topic of his - then in the further course without any problems - presentation was: What drives people? In his presentation he explained basic human motivations from the perspective of neuroscience. He was able to impressively show that appreciation and social acceptance activate the "reward centers" in the brain. On the other hand, exclusion causes pain, i.e. the same brain regions are activated as when touching a very hot object. And another characteristic of our brain: just observing an activity activates those centers in the brain that are necessary for the specific performance of that activity. This can also be used in leadership: If you are motivated yourself, you can infect others with it - you become a model worthy of imitation, so to speak.

Forced" into the home office

Flexible forms of work are recommended for imitation in order to increase innovative capacity. This was the topic of the subsequent presentation by Marc Holitscher from Microsoft Switzerland. He noted that today's organizational models are basically from the age of Industry 2.0: There are clear decision-making paths, all employees have their function and in principle know what they have to do. But what does Organization 4.0 look like? In this respect, we need to think more in terms of "platform models", of networks in which added value is created through interaction between producers and consumers, for example. Microsoft Switzerland itself has conducted a large "field test" to see what this should look like in practice: During the renovation of the company's site in Wallisellen, all offices were closed and employees worked in their home offices or on the road. The experience was entirely positive: unproductive time decreased, as did absences. The working time model also proved attractive for single mothers. Overall, employee satisfaction increased. However, it was not without its challenges. Marc Holitscher pointed out that teamwork in particular has proved to be very demanding. The prerequisite for such a model to continue to function is, above all, trust. "There has to be a system change from rules to values," Holitscher said. He described the increased practice of management by objectives as a possible way forward.

ISO 9001: More leadership required

The conference theme "People and Systems" was further "refined" in three workshops distributed over parallel sessions. Peter Pedross (Pedco, Zurich) spoke about quality in the agile environment and posed the question of how to incorporate agile processes into small and large organizations. In particular, he presented the Scaled Agile Framework SAFe, which is in the process of establishing itself in the industry alongside Scrum. Scrum, from experience, works well in teams developing a specific product. But when it comes to complex projects involving multiple teams, Scrum reaches its limits. SAFe takes this into account and therefore scales the whole thing to levels with larger portfolios. Eva Jaisli (PB Swiss Tools, Wasen BE) focused on the influence of strategy in her presentation. An ideally formulated strategy makes it possible to summarize all behaviors in such a way that goals can be derived from them. She demonstrated this with reference to the revised ISO 9001 standard, using her own company as an example. Finally, Hubert Rizzi and René Wasmer once again pointed out the core elements of this revision. It is aimed in particular at management; management and leadership have been greatly expanded in the new version. One consequence of this is that these points will be scrutinized more closely during an audit.

What STEM professionals expect

The event concluded with a presentation on another effect of digitalization: the shortage of skilled workers, especially in STEM professions. In his presentation, Prof. Dr. Peter Kels from the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts gave the visitors some tips on the criteria that companies can use to better find and retain their STEM specialists. Varied tasks, flexible working time models, attractive development opportunities in the form of new projects and through specialist careers, as well as teamwork, are crucial factors. Salary is also important, but at best as a hygiene factor rather than a motivational one. STEM professionals, on the other hand, find their employers primarily through their personal network, job boards on the Internet, corporate websites and through university marketing. Surprisingly, social networks such as Xing or LinkedIn do not (yet) play a major role, as the speaker noted with reference to a study by his institute.

Honour and promotion

In addition to the presentations, there were two other items on the programme. Prof. Dr. Hans Dieter Seghezzi was honoured for his achievements in the development of quality management and for his many years of commitment to the establishment of the SAQ and the SQS. It is thanks to him that quality management has changed from a purely "control function" to a holistic view all the way to the EFQM model. A musical intermezzo was provided by the young singer Pascale Etter with her accompanying musicians Yannick Aebischer (guitar) and Ghislain Ruprecht (percussion). The SAQ thus continued a tradition of supporting young professionals - this time musicians.

Thomas Bernard