Tuesday, August 19, 2025

Posts from a Business Class

I recently completed a course in total quality management (TQM), and here are all my writings from that class. This was only my second business class, and these classes have one thing in common: their adherence to the "happy path." By this I mean that the textbooks and course material assumed that all involved individuals are perfect angels (except for those of us who reject TQM), and that the world is adorned with sprinkles and populated by unicorns that fart Skittles. For example, advocates of TQM call for "employee engagement," but managers are not prepared for when that truly happens.

Despite this, I do not consider this class to be a waste of my time. When someone asks me "when am I going to use this?" I counter with: "when is it going to use you?" This holds even for business management classes. Plus, those classes have a perverse entertainment factor: there is enough that is correct about TQM that when it goes wrong, it is worth observing, like a slow motion car accident.

To put a bow on all this, I present this list of posts. They are grouped by topics, and are also placed in the order they were written during this eight week course. There are some new ideas, some humor, and some criticism. Mostly, though, these posts are about connecting business management topics to the concepts I find interesting.


General Criticisms of TQM


New and Interesting Concepts


Humor


Military/Militia-Related


Voice of the Customer (VOC) and when Vox Populi is not Vox Dei


Just-in-Time Manufacturing


Leadership and Management

  

Week 1

Getting Started with Total Quality Management

Week 2

Culture, Ethics, and Strategic Alliances

Week 3

Leadership, Customers, and Employees

Week 4

Teams, Communication, and Training

Week 5

Quality Tools and Programs

Week 6

Continual Improvement Methods

Week 7

Benchmarking and Implementation of TQM

Week 8

Application of Quality Theories

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