POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES

SAN PEDRO CAMPUS

BRGY. UNITED BAYANIHAN, SAN PEDRO, LAGUNA

Yellow Brick Road

to Total Quality
Management

SUBMITTED BY:
MINGUEZ, IRON MIKE I.
MANILA, CLEOFFY F.
MATENCIO, LORENZ M

SUBMITTED TO:
DR. MINERVA FERRANCO
 Case Study: The Yellow Brick Road to Quality

The Yellow Brick Road to Quality is a case that uses scene summaries from

The Wizard of Oz as a basis for organizational leaders can use as they go down

the performance excellence journey, organizational and culture change.

Below you will find the lessons that organizations can learn in pursuing change

and a performance excellence culture.

Scene 1: Dorothy was not happy with the world, as she knew it. A tornado came along

and transported her to the Land of Oz. The tornado dropped Dorothys house on the

Wicked Witch of the East, killing the witch. Ding, dong, the witch is dead! rang

through-out Munchkin land, but Dorothy only temporarily lost her home support

provided by family back in Kansas. All is not good, however, in the Land of Oz.

Dorothys problem is to find her way home to Kansas. Her call to action was

precipitated by a crisis the tornado that transported her to an alien land.

If organizations want to create change, they will need a crisis to force or

immediately implemented a change in the way they do business and ensure the

organization is changing to the new vision. Unfortunately creating change in an

organization if very, very tough. The organization will have to establish a sense of

urgency to create the right cooperation, behavior and moment to get people

interested in the new vision and mission, which will prevent complacency. Good

actions often create dangerous consequences elsewhere in the system. Dorothy

was a hero for killing the Wicked Witch of the East, but Dorothy had enraged the

dead witchs sister and faced a journey laced with a revengeful broom-rider on
 her tail. Organizations are no different with how they are structured. Functional

organizations can undermine teams in dozens of ways preventing progress, thus

creating roadblocks, frustration, anxiety, lack luster performance, back-sliding

and ultimately failure. Leadership will have to understand this natural human

response and deal with it in a proactive manner by effectively communicating

the vision, mission, values, principles, change is good, lead by example, go

beyond the call of duty to name a few. If we expect to get better results without

changing anything, then we must all be insane. Organizational leaders will need

expect change will never be the same, just like the alien place Dorothy landed is

not the same, and neither should they be satisfied with status quo and want to

create change for the better. Once change is introduced and new processes

developed in an organization, peoples expectations and perceptions change.

The organization can never go back to the way it uses to be, if they want better

results. This means people, teams and departments will need to create change,

but cannot act effectively on assumptions until the group uncovers and

effectively deals with them. They dont know, what they dont know. Leadership

will have to use effective communication methods such as Policy Deployment,

Key Performance Indicators and continuous improvement processes such as Six

Sigma that will use problem solving tools to understand the effects on a process

or system such as 5Whys, fish bone diagram to name a few to uncover the dont

knows, build agreement and determine the right direction for the changes

needed to move the organization forward.

Scene 2: In the throes of a Kansas tornado, Dorothy is transported to an unfamiliar land.

Immediately, she realized her world is different and the processes and people she
encounters are different, yet bear some similarity to her Kansas existence. She is lost

and confused and uncertain about the next steps to take. She realizes she is in a

changed state the Land of Oz and must devise a plan to get home.

Leadership and management will have to recognize the effects change will

have on people and deal with the abnormal conditions when old behaviors

surfaces. Leadership will have to be in tune with every aspect of every changed

process to provide the appropriate change management through training,

celebration, mentoring, coaching and discipline. Communication has to be

done hundreds of times after a change to get people to change their behaviors

and thought processes. If leadership and management do not act on the

wrong behaviors, then the change will not sustain and the old behaviors will be

back in place stronger than before.

Scene 3: Dorothy is a hero for killing the Wicked Witch of the East. Glinda the Good

Witch sends Dorothy on her way to meet the Wizard of Oz who will help her get back to

Kansas. The Wicked Witch of the West tries to get Dorothys newly acquired ruby

slippers, but to no avail. Dorothy and Toto leave for Oz via the Yellow Brick Road.

Along the way, they are joined by the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Lion. Through

their teamwork, they provide mutual support to endure the vexing journey. They

overcome many risks and barriers on the way to Oz, including a field of poppies that

puts them to sleep, flying monkeys, and a haunted forest.

Just like any organizational change or new program, there needs to be direction

set for the group through good and proper communication such as all

employee meetings, town halls, training and other communication means to set
 the stage for the new vision, mission, and values. There are a lot of Public

Relations or Marketing done initially to get everyone on board and motivated,

provide a means to kick off the program or change and set the stage for the

new vision and mission such as a Lean Enterprise Transformation. Dorothy and

Toto started the journey knowing the path was the brick road with an end goal

to get back to Kansas, but they encountered many problems along the way just

as organization do during changes. It took teamwork to overcome the many

interruptions on their journey where they tap into each others strengths to make

the whole stronger. This teamwork helped everyone cope and deal with the

higher than normal stresses making everyone stronger in the end from their

experiences. They worked through the problems through mutual support as

would people in an organization that was off track to their stated goals. There

would be adjustments made through the determination of the proper

countermeasure through the proper problem solving to close the gap.

Scene 4: Dorothy and her entourage finally reach Oz and meet the Wizard. Rather

than instantly granting their wishes, the Wizard give them an assignment to obtain the

Wicked Witchs broom. They depart for the West.

Leadership, managers and groups will have to realize that goals do change

during your journey and will have to make course corrections to get to your final

destination. The final destination may even change as a result of some

unknown information that has come to light during the journey such as new

customer requirements or when projects are not on track and others will have to

change their actions to help the whole. Organizations will have to take time to
 reflect, self- assess and determine if there will be any changes in direction

needed to keep the strategy in place or the strategy has changed and the

vision and policy deployment will have to change to get to the new destination.

Scene 5: Charged with the task of obtaining the broom, Dorothy and company

experience several encounters with near disaster, including Dorothys incarceration

in the witchs castle while an hourglass counts the time to her death. In a struggle to

extinguish the Scarecrows fire (incited by the Wicked Witch), Dorothy tosses a

bucket of water, some of which hits the Witch and melts her. Dorothy is rewarded

with the broom-stick, and returns to Oz.

Organizations going through change will encounter some pretty drastic

challenges as Dorothy did above. Through the teams dedication, thirst to

succeed and innovative spirit, they will come up with some pretty neat solutions

to solving problems, even if has to do with some luck as it did for Dorothy. When

you think of past inventions, they typically happen out of luck from trying and

doing. This means teams will have to go into a higher frequency of action and

not do paralysis by analysis. They will learn so much more from trial and error,

which in turn will cause them to grow and become better scientist for the

organization. These assets will need to be rewarded properly for their work such

as Dorothy is rewarded with the broomstick. Teams should be rewarded in many

other ways than money such more time to do more continuous improvement,

recognition in front of their peers and allow to participate in more responsible

roles to name a few.

Scene 6: returning to Oz, the group talks with the Wizard, expecting him to help

Dorothy return to Kansas. After defrocking the Wizard, they find out he does not know

how. The Wizard tries to use a hot air balloon to return and accidentally leaves Dorothy

and Toto behind upon takeoff. Glinda arrives and helps Dorothy realize she can return

to Kansas on her own with the help of the ruby slippers.

Organizational groups and teams will have to become self-reliant and not

depend on the great Oz to help them every time such as Consultants do for

companies. They will have to be able to see things that are right in front of

them, which will only come from a properly engaged and empowered team

who will have the skills to learn, see, plan and act on their own. This will facilitate

the foundation to support the strategy such as policy deployment where the

breakthrough objectives are made by the whole, not individuals. If teams are

going to make the needed breakthroughs to compete in a global market, they

will have to include enough talent, skills and resources to be successful and

sustain the new processes when the support structure is no longer there as when

the Wizard leaves in the balloon. It will take the appropriate leadership to guide,

mentor, coach and develop people through the change management process

who eventually will be able to be self-directed, engaged and empowered to

make the right decisions as Dorothy who learned this through her experiences

and Glindas mentoring and coaching.

Scene 7: Dorothy awakens from her dream and experiences a new understanding and

appreciation for her home and family in Kansas. Oh Auntie Em, theres no place like

home.
 Organizations will still have a place called home as Dorothy did above,

but they will go through changes for the good and feel better for what

they have done to help improve their organization be more successful.

Successful companies will have the proper leadership who will tap into

their most important asset to make the appropriate changes based on

proper vision, mission, values and principles where they will create a place

that will not compare to anywhere else, if they go and work for someone

else.