What Are the Leaders of Congress Missing?

You would think that with one political party in control of both houses of Congress and with a collective public approval rating of 11% (out of a possible 100%), that the people who run the U.S. Congress would eventually take action to get their collective House and Senate in order. Instead, after a continuing series of failures dating all the way back to when the current session began on 4 January 2007, the leaders of the U.S. Congress seem intent on pursuing a course that will not produce the one thing that could restore their reputations: positive results.

At this point of the 110th Congress, the failure of its leaders to produce anything resembling the results they desparately need are so great that we don't even have to identify any particular instance where they've failed. It pretty much applies across the board for everything they've done and the list is so long that we're not even going to bother producing one.

In fact, we can sum up the 110th Congress' problems in just four words: lack of quality leadership.

With that in mind, we're going to set all politics aside altogether. Let's talk quality. Better yet, let's quote quality so you can determine what quality principal applies to our current quality-lacking Congressional leadership. Here are our nine favorite insights from the Quality Gurus that ought to at least cross the minds of the Congress' current leadership, or would, if they were effective leaders:

• If you talk about change but don't change the reward and recognition system, nothing changes.
  
  
  
• There can not be improvement without new ideas, and there can not be new ideas without the participation of all.
  
  
• Waste is like a fog all around us - concealing the truth!
  
  
• What we want is the 5 Why's, not the 5 Who's (to blame.)
  
  
• The worst thing a person can do is to ignore or cover up a problem.
  
  
• What is the use of running when we are on the wrong side? Direction is more important than speed.
  
  
• If you don't have time to solve problems, how come you always have time to do it wrong again?
  
  
• Fix the process, not just the product.
  
  
• Results come from doing the right things, not from doing things right.
  

Did you notice that while none of these things were written with the 110th Congress' leadership in mind, you can never-the-less apply each and every one of these insights to a specific failing or failure of the 110th Congress' leadership?

And what does the failure to deal with the poor quality leadership of the 110th U.S. Congress say about the true leadership ability of the members of the House and Senate who are both members of the majority party and running for U.S. President in 2008? We only ask as our tenth favorite quality insight is: "The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining." What will it say about these individuals if they fail to stand up and take charge now when quality leadership in the U.S. Congress is so badly needed?