How can you build a successful Quality Management team with diverse backgrounds?

To build a successful and diverse Quality Management team: Embrace diversity. Foster collaboration. Promote continuous learning. Encourage effective communication. Balance skillsets. Stimulate innovation. Lead by example.

At first, it is important to develop a data matrix (similar to a skill matrix) and divide that among three majors: Quality Engineering, Quality Assurance and Control, Quality Improvements & and Problem Solving. Under these three categories, try to define the required skills, qualifications, expertise and experience. Then mention the level of each available team member and then look at how you want to develop each candidate if you do not have a particular niche in available ones, then you may need to hire the one from outside. This way you can develop a diversified team. Remember, always plan for the future and not for the present.

One thing I found helpful is training the people that believe in quality management principals.The focus point will be always motivation to apply and make it better.

A team comprising of people with different backgrounds strengthen the QMS. Training those personnals not only provide strength to the organization but also helps them to grow in their profession. I think providing the correct team with sufficient training and fixing the individuals for this audit task results in a successful audit.

Strive to build a team that is as diverse and inclusive as possible. You want a team with members from different backgrounds and disciplines to provide your organization a diverse set of perspectives. Including seasoned, mid-career and fresh-out-of-school viewpoints will help strengthen your team's ability to leverage time-tested experience and emerging, innovative approaches.

One thing I've seen fruitful as an auditor is that the department for which you are gonna do audit must contain a person from it as well. For example, I am a Quality Control personnel, i will definitely know the lackings of my department and will ensure the improvements against such shortcomings if i am a part of internal audit team (especially). So roles should be defined in a way that each auditor has sound knowledge of the department for which he/she is gonna do audit.

Basically, it is stated here some leadership principles that works in general, not only to a quality management team. When focusing specifically to the QM topic, it is important to save some time by hiring people with the basic for the position like Excel skills, familiar with databases and maybe some tools like SQL, PBI and/or Tableau, basic understanding about quality analisys, statistics and important frameworks like ISO standards.