Eid Al-Adha, Gita and Quality

Today is Eid-Al-Adha, and even non-muslims in India know that this festival is about sacrifice and its role in human evolution.

But how does that connect to the other two elements of the title, Bhagavad Gita and Quality?

Well, that is the purpose of this article.

The trigger is an article in the July 2019 edition of Quality Progress or QP, the monthly publication of the American Society for Quality or ASQ.

The article is under the theme MY QUALITY STORY and titled 'Keep the Spirit Alive' by a certain Mr. Pedro Rafael Garcia-Diaz and subtitled "Has ISO 9001 really changed over the years?"

But first the motivation, for which i need to establish correspondence between the term sacrifice as we associate with the sacrifice of sheep (one form of wealth) by Abraham or Ibrahim to a verse or verses in the Bhagavad Gita. To my mind this verse is the Verse no. 28 in Chapter 4 of the Gita quoted below for easy reference -

द्रव्ययज्ञास्तपोयज्ञा योगयज्ञास्तथापरे। स्वाध्यायज्ञानयज्ञाश्च यतयः संशितव्रताः।।4.28।।

4.28 Similarly, others are performers of sacrifices through wealth, through austerity, through yoga, and through study and knowledge; others are ascetics with severe vows.

Thus, between verses 24 and 31 all types of sacrifices and their end purpose is extolled in the Bhagavad Gita - the correspondence being established I now move to the relationship to Quality!

Now, the above mentioned article, a snapshot of which I reproduce while apologising for its poor resolution as well for any unintended offense to the author or publishers, as the purpose is purely my version of a sacrifice (knowledge sacrifice) on this pious occasion.

While the article is very informative to the lay reader, there is a small error here, in my opinion, which could be more because of the generalized and simplistic nature of the narrative adopted in the article.

This comes from the bullet point which mentions the statement 'Prevention is the main driver of the system - it's just called "risk" now.'

To my petty mind, risk can be broken into 3 distinct categories for any organization including the individual (who is but an organization of various systems that we are yet to understand in full!)

1) Known Risk (preventable) 2) Unknown Risk (unknown to the organization but known elsewhere)

3) Unknowable Risk (that risk which is by nature not knowable)

Now, by the above sentence, the author implies that all risk of the three types, are included in a sweeping simplification or generalization of the term 'risk' and this is the small error!

However,it implies a larger consequence that comes from the sense that such risk might be preventable!! This leads to over-confidence and belief that every organization fully knows whatever it requires to know to be in the business that it is in!!

The surprising aspect of the threefold categorization of risk as enumerated above, is that while the 'known' risk and the 'unknowable' risk can be mitigated, the unknown risk cannot be mitigated!!

The reader might want to ask, 'How unknowable risk is mitigated?', Then, the answer would come in terms of 'Force Majeure' clauses that are applicable in every business!

But the 'Unknown Risk' is a bit of here and there, because if those underwriting the risk are aware of the risk and the organization is not, then this 'unknown risk' being unmitigated can lead to dire consequences! Besides, the organization itself not knowing the existence of that risk or risks is tremendously exposed!!

Herein also lies the key to the definition of 'market' for the consultants! To bring knowledge of risk unknown to the organization but that which is known to the consultant and also its mitigation thereof!

This salient categorization is my sacrifice - knowledge sacrifice - on this holy day and since it brought to me a new understanding of the term as well as a beautiful connection between the three words of the topic, this blog is devoted to you, the reader, to take this further in the interest of error reduction which in a similar simplification is nothing but Quality Improvement!