Implementing a Quality Ambassador Program

Quality ambassadors can influence their peers to prioritize quality, thereby strengthening the culture of quality in the organization. Quality leaders can use this guide to develop a quality ambassador program by identifying, training, and engaging ambassadors.

Utilizing Kotter’s eight accelerators for change, we can implement a Quality Ambassador program like this:

Accelerator	Actions
Create a strong sense of urgency around a big opportunity	Demonstrate the organizational value of Ambassadors by performing a needs analysis to assess the current state of employee engagement with quality.
Build and evolve a guiding coalition	Bring together key stakeholders from across the organization who will provide input in the program’s design and support its implementation.
Form a change vision and strategic initiatives	Identify the key objectives for implementing a Quality Ambassador program and outline the lines of effort required to successfully design and pilot it.
Enlist a volunteer army	Reach out and engage informal leaders at all levels of the organization. Find your current informal Ambassadors and draw them in.
Enable action by removing barriers	Be vigilant for factors that impede progress. Work with your Ambassadors and senior leaders to give teams the freedom and support to succeed.
Generate and celebrate short-term wins	Pilot the program. Create success stories by looking at the successful outcomes of teams that have Quality Ambassadors and by listening to team members and their customers for evidence that quality culture is improving. Your goal will be to create an environment where teams that do not have Quality Ambassadors are asking how they can participate.
Sustain acceleration	Scale the impact of your program by implementing it more broadly within the organization.

Define the Key Responsibilities of Quality Ambassadors

What activities should Quality Ambassadors focus on?	Example: Reinforce key quality messages with co-workers. Drive participation in quality improvement projects. Provide inputs to improve culture of quality. Provide inputs to improve and maintain data integroty
What will Quality Ambassadors need from their managers?	Example: Approval to participate, must be renewed annually
What will Quality Ambassadors receive from the Quality team?	Example: Training on ways to improve employee engagement with quality. Support for any questions/objections that ariseTraining on data integrity
What are Quality Ambassadors’ unique responsibilities?	Example: Acting as the point of contact for all quality-related queries. Reporting feedback from their teams to the Quality leadership. Conveying to employees the personal impact of quality on their effectiveness. Mitigating employee objections about pursuing quality improvement projects. Tackling obstacles to rolling out quality initiatives
What responsibilities do Quality Ambassadors share with other employees?	Example: Constantly prioritize quality in their day-to-day work
Expected time commitment	Example: 8-10 hours/month, plus 6 hours of training at launch

Metrics to Measure Success

Type of Metrics	List of Metrics	Direct Impact of Ambassador’s work	Recommendations
Active Participation Levels	Percentage of organizational units adopting culture of quality program. The number of nominations for quality recognition programs. Quality observations were identified during Gemba walks. Participation or effectiveness of problem-solving or root-cause processes. The number of ongoing quality improvement projects. Percentage of employees receiving quality training	High	Ambassadors should be directly held responsible for these metrics
Culture of Quality Assessments	Culture of quality surveys. Culture of quality maturity assessments	Medium	The Quality Ambassador program is a factor for improvement.
Overall Quality Performance	Key KPI associated with Quality. Audit scoresCost of poor quality	Low	The Quality Ambassador program is a factor for improvement.