They’re delivering a one-two punch to defects. They’re ridding the earth of process waste. They’re on the front lines delivering customer service perfection. They’re in leadership striving to make a difference in the world. They’re kicking process improvement butt! The Wonder Women of Quality are here!
This month in the Wonder Women of Quality pantheon we are honored to highlight Dana Wilson!
Dana Wilson is Vice President of Customer Experience Assurance at Comcast Cable. Dana is responsible for leading end-to-end improvement initiatives to transform the experience for Comcast customers. Telecommunications is the 5th industry of Dana’s career. She’s worked in management consulting, the chemical industry, utilities and government. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Drexel University and she’s a certified Six Sigma Black Belt.
Here are Dana’s answers to a few of our questions:
What is your Quality Mission?
- My Quality Mission is to touch the people who touch the people and move the crowds. What that means is I am working to improve the business processes, the experience for our customers and for our employees in a way that gets everyone excited to come along on the journey — that’s the whole “move the crowd” piece of it. My goal is to stay connected to what’s actually happening on the ground — that’s the “touch the people” component.
What is your Quality Superpower?
- I am a bridge for many relationships. I tend to be a diplomat — especially when it comes to bringing opposing forces together. I’m able to influence, but also have folks trust me and trust that when things are a little bit tumultuous, I can bring folks together — even when they don’t necessarily want to come together.
- I am also a “Clean Up Lady.” When things go awry, I get out my bucket and my mop and I become a turnaround person. When there are issues and problems, I’m able to turn them around into successful results.
What do you see as Quality Kryptonite?
- A lack of discipline due to a need for speed. The need to move and be agile in an organization can sometimes cripple people’s ability to truly understand the problem they’re trying to solve and improve. That has been the Kryptonite for Quality.
What are some of your Quality Victories?
- A really big win that I had recently here at Comcast was being able to improve the “Move” experience for our customers. This was an issue because we didn’t have the most successful Net Promoter Score (NPS), but within a year and a half I was able to turn it from a negative to a positive. With that program we were working end-to-end across our entire organization. In order for a customer to move their service with us it involves an ecosystem of every process we have. From an experience standpoint this happens so a customer can upgrade, purchase additional services and transfer their billing, username and password. This way they can see their account and pay their bill but also manage their services. All of that’s happening in one short period of time called a “Move” which requires every part of the organization to do their part in a way that’s successful for the customer.
- Another was more of a cultural win back when I started my first Six Sigma project at Philadelphia Gas Works — a public utility. This was early in my career when was just cutting my teeth on the methodology and I invited a union participant to join the team. We were doing an actual working session and I was probably being too rigid in terms of adhering to the methodology and I got my first push back. I was facilitating an Affinity Analysis and having people put sticky notes on a flip chart and the union member announced, “I’m not doing this ‘Pin The Tail On The Donkey’ BS!” This was in front of a whole team so I said, “Okay, if you don’t want to help you don’t have to, but either you’re in or you’re out, and we’re all in.” He sat there and pouted but eventually participated. Culturally it helped to have some jokes about not having to “Pin the Tail on the Donkey.” it allowed me to be direct with people in a lighthearted way — just firm enough to help them culturally change.
Do you have any Words of Wisdom?
- Don’t Stop. Don’t think the work is too complex. You have to continue your passion for understanding and peeling the onion. If you enjoy it, don’t shy away from the challenges that come your way. Continue to hone your craft. Continue to get creative on how you get people going and “rowing” with you. I love this work. I can’t say enough about it, but it’s not for everybody. If this work is for you then be brave as you face each challenge.
Thanks again to Dana Wilson for her quality thoughts!
