INSIGHT
COMMUNICATION
MAKES QUALITY WORK
Saartjie Duvenhage is a member of the Aspasa
technical committee.
By Saartjie Duvenhage
In a weaker economy, it is quality that separates the wheat from the chaff. When money is scarce,
quality becomes the deciding factor. No one can afford to redo anything.
U
nfortunately, quality is not
something that happens at the
snap of a finger. And no one
person can make quality work on their own.
To move from being a mediocre quarry to a
quality quarry, takes a culture change and a
team effort.
John C. Maxwell lists communication as
one of the 17 indisputable laws of teamwork
in his book of the same name. The
subtitle of the chapter on communication
states, Interaction Fuels Action. In other
words, when people start talking to one
another, they start doing. This is true of
every aspect of running a mine, whether
production targets, health and safety, or
environmental targets. It is also true of
quality management.
If communication is so important
and plays such a vital role in quality
management, it is important that we
should understand what it is. A look
at the definition of communication
from the Google Dictionary tells us
that communication is “the imparting
www.quarryonline.co.za
or exchanging of information by”
various means. Let’s just think about the
“imparting” bit of this definition. Have
you ever dialled one of those 086 numbers
because your Internet service isn’t working,
or your car is broken, or there is a problem
with your medical aid, and you end up
at the call centre? And then you have to
hold and hold and hold and hold and
hold … and hold and hold and hold …
But think objectively about it: they are
communicating — they are imparting
information.
Now, think about the classes that you
enjoyed most during your formative years,
whether school, college, or university.
Which were the classes that you enjoyed
the most? The interactive classes. Those
classes where there was an exchange of
information; where you could contribute to
what was happening, whether it was just a
joke or even some insight in the lecture.
Please keep this in mind: communication
is much more effective when there is an
exchange of information and not just an
impartation. Communication must be in
place both to the inside (internally) and to
the outside (externally) of the quarry for the
quality management system to work. Let’s
first look at internal communication.
Internal communication
The foundation for communication in
any organisation lies with management.
Management should define their vision for
quality. The first step in realising a vision is
to talk about it and to tell others about it.
This is where the exchange of information
should start. Get others’ input to help you
refine the vision. The best suggestions often
come from unexpected sources.
Although talking is the first step in
bringing a vision to fruition, management
cannot stop at talking. The road must
be mapped out. This is another instance
where consultation is important. Too often
management descends on their people with
an idea to implement and then there are
small practical things that were never taken
into consideration that turn into stumbling
QUARRY SA | MAY/JUNE 2019_37