The Game of Quality

The rules that govern the actions of players and the game's response to the actions are called Game mechanics. Game mechanics specifies how the game will work for the people who play it. The interactions of game mechanics determine the complexity and level of player interaction in the game's environment and resources.

Any organization in business depends on customers to buy their product or service because, without customers, there is no business. The lack of customers for an extended period causes the organization to go 'out of business.

Gameplay is the primary aim of the game. For a racing video game, the objective is to win the race without crashing the vehicle. For the game of quality, the primary goal is to satisfy the customers' requirements, and expectations through the product or service offered. The reward for playing the game well is more business and profits (for immediate and future needs).

If you must play, decide on three things from the start: the rules of the game, the stakes, and the quitting time. -Chinese Proverb

David Hoyle's book Quality Management Essentials states that there are other stakeholders (players) with a vested interest in the organization than customers. They also have needs from the organization even though they do not receive the product or service. These players are owners, employees, contractors, suppliers, investors, unions, business partners, and society. All players in the game have requirements. The definition of quality is relative to requirements, not to the customers.

Keeping up with the game analogy, then, is quality a single-player game or a multiplayer game? At first thought, the answer may seem straightforward, but it is quite the contrary.

The customer certainly is the only one who can decide whether the quality of the product and services you provide is satisfactory. So the customer brings in revenue and therefore is the final arbiter of product quality. Meeting or exceeding customer needs is the common goal of all the other players in the team.

In a team, each player is just as important as every other player. Suppose each player provides outputs and makes complementary plays. In that case, it enables the other players to do their job right the first time, thus helping them achieve their goal. Phil Crosby's observation that "quality is ballet, not hockey" is on point. Hockey participants do not treat each other as this player and that player, but as team members, they do their best. The results are primarily unpredictable. Ballet participants also do not treat each other as individual players but as artists playing predetermined roles. The goal is to achieve predictable results. The design of organizational processes is to deliver specific outputs. To do so, individuals need to perform their part in the same relationship that ballet dancers have to ballet.

Back to the single-player or multiplayer question, the game of quality is both. Externally, it is a single-player game between the business owner and the customer. The better the owner gets at playing the game, the bigger the customer base gets to increase the game's complexity. Internally, it is a multiplayer game because the customer does not know how many people are "holding the joystick" on the other side. When one stakeholder has played their part, they hand over the joystick to the next stakeholder, who continues playing the game until achieving the goal.