Organization’s Diseases (Obesity, Depression, Cancer and more…)

“Organization’s diseases” was a metaphor used in a keynote presentation delivered at the headquarters of the Saudi Commission for Health Care Specialities, in the quality forum in Riyadh, KSA.

The presentation was titled “Organization’s Doctor” — a new designation proposed for quality professionals. The Organization’s Doctor performs the same process as a normal doctor: assessing and treating patients. The main difference is that instead of a human body, we assess an organization’s system.

That system consists of a physical part (the management-system hierarchy and documented information) and a spiritual part (continuous improvement), represented in the organization’s growth.

Five diseases were introduced — Obesity, Depression, Cancer, Blindness and nervous breakdown — each explained in a systematic way: the complaint and how it develops, its symptoms, and then the proposed treatment.

At the end of the presentation, a fatal disease was highlighted for the Organization’s Doctor himself or herself: a lack of communication — failing to speak the language top management understands (money and risk).

The presentation offers a new approach: developing a shared language for an organization’s “diseases” to ease and simplify the organization’s system — while introducing a new designation we may see more of in the future: the Organization’s Doctor.