Question: You have authored or coauthored many books on quality and leadership. Can you share with us the key messages from those books?

Townsend:

The obvious one was the one I just mentioned which is that you do this because it’s a good solid business decision. And done anywhere near correctly, it makes money, conserves resources, that’s the obvious piece, but after that, people first. Pay attention to your folks, pay attention to their aspirations, be clear with them. Don’t just announce, “You people should work harder!” or “You people should make improvements!” You have got to give them a structure that will make it possible for them to take part. You want to change the rules; you have to tell them what the new rules are. So pay attention to your folks, give them tools, be aware of the fact that by the end of the day, you want all your employees to go home after they get in the conversation at home about where they spent their day, they refer to “My company.” There is a natural ownership there that you can capitalize on in all honesty. And you can help them to help you build an organization that you and they can be proud of. You have to get them involved, give them a new set of rules, make sure they understand, and they say “Thank you” a lot.