Posted by Dawn Marie Bailey Anyone can name his/her customers-whether they are the people who buy products and services from you or internal customers such as your boss or the next person in the supply chain. But does your organization have an absolute, integrated, razor-sharp focus on the end-users of your products and services and what they really need? 2012 Baldrige Award recipient Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control (MFC) does. The manufacturer and defense contractor not only has staff embedded with its primary customer, the Department of Defense (DoD), but MFC literally has staff embedded in combat environments to learn exactly what Warfighters need. Speaking at the 25th Annual Quest for Excellence Conference®, Bart Davis, MFC’s vice president and general counsel, said the contractor’s main purpose is to protect the Warfighter by producing superior products and services. There’s simply no other choice, as MFC’s products must have life or death reliability, perform in extreme environments, have extended product life cycles, and incorporate leading-edge technology, he added. "For the Warfighter, marginal incremental differences in performance can truly be the difference between life and death," Davis said. MFC’s products must "work the first time, every time, even in extreme environments, whether they are in the Arctic Circle or the deserts of the Middle East. . . . It’s hard to imagine a more difficult operating environment that must be there or lives will be lost. Quality and performance become paramount." Davis said the customer requirements of the DoD, and especially of the Warfighter, dictate business priorities. But MFC goes beyond simply aligning its mission and principles to that of its customer. In a highly regulated industry with a small number of repeat customers, MFC has developed intensely integrated customer relationships that are based on total transparency; this includes embedding the customers’ personnel in MFC’s offices and on product teams where they work together on corrective action boards. Jeff Hall, MFC’s director of business planning, said that MFC’s staff members are also embedded in its customers’ locations, both at U.S. locations and overseas. "Field service reps. are embedded in Afghanistan with Warfighters," he said. "Developing these key intimate relationships helps us know their problems and issues. . . . This is all about customer intimacy for us because of the nature of what our customers do out there, putting themselves in harms way, using our missiles and sensors systems to complete their missions. For us, it’s all about meeting that mission with them." In addition, MFC works closely with Capitol Hill to help ensure funding to support the Warfighter, Hall said. MFC works with its customers from the very beginning of product development to help them understand technologies. It also works closely with customers before the enactment of a new defense budget to avoid surprises, and a competition debrief is always held, whether or not MFC was awarded the contract. This intense focus on customers can be accomplished by understanding their requirements, disseminating these requirements to employees, accepting universal accountability, and adapting as needed with mid-course corrections and feedback mechanisms, Davis said. He added, "The customer whom we disappoint today is the same person who is going to be evaluating our product next month, next year, ten years down the road." According to Hall, MFC has a multifaceted process to collect the voice of its customers; some processes are formal, such as program reviews, and some are informal, such as interacting with customers at trade shows and conferences. In addition, MFC’s president, vice presidents, program managers, multifunctional engineers, materials and procurement staff, and others all interact daily and in person with their customer counterparts. And the contractor has developed multiple ways (e.g., a customer relationship index and report card) to assess how well it is doing. Hall said one of the key pieces of the overall assessment is that the customer is required to say whether or not it will do business again with MFC. Over the last couple of years, 100% have said yes. Starting with its end-users, MFC’s focus on its customer is simple: "We never forget who we’re working for.®"  

Posted by Christine Schaefer This post is about a concept that others have called leadership with heart. Ultimately, it’s about workforce engagement too, because I believe leading with heart supports and inspires such engagement. In particular, it’s about the kind of leadership modeled by the long-time and soon-to-retire director of the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, Harry Hertz. I don’t mean this to be merely a tribute (though everyone who knows Harry well knows he deserves the kudos). Rather, I want to start a discussion here about what may be key to effective leadership in relation to workforce engagement, particularly in organizations where large structures may weaken human ties and obscure a shared vision and sense of purpose among employees. To describe the leadership that has undergirded the Baldrige Program for many years, I will start with a personal example: I’ve been dealing with a deep sense of loss lately since my older sister was killed in a car accident. In the aftermath of the tragedy, I haven’t always found it easy to confine my experience of grief to my limited hours at home; yet I have managed to maintain a strong focus on my work while in the office. For this I credit an exceptionally supportive environment. And for that, I credit Harry for actively fostering a culture of kindness through his personal actions for years. In speaking of a supportive workplace environment, I’m referring in part (but not wholly) to workforce-focused policies and benefits. Those are important, of course, as affirmed by the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence’s inclusion of them among the questions that constitute "Workforce Climate" requirements within category 5. For instance, I’ve found it reassuring to know that my organization has an employee assistance program should I find myself distracted by acute grief. And I am fortunate to have family-friendly sick leave—and senior leaders and peer colleagues who would encourage me to use it—should I need to take time off to tend to my own or family needs. Above all, what has made my workplace environment supportive to my full engagement in my job in a time of deeper turbulence is the kindness of the people with whom I work. Each and every one of my coworkers has acknowledged and expressed condolences for my loss; they’ve written kind words in a group card, and individuals have offered hugs and tangible help in one-to-one exchanges since the tragedy. Is this extraordinary? Not here! If I were the only one—or one of just a group of people in the office—who’s received a compassionate response from supervisors and peers at my workplace in times of personal need, I wouldn’t have written this post. As one more among countless examples of office compassion I’ve observed, my coworker a cubicle away benefitted from an outpouring of support from the staff last month after her grandmother’s death. It may be worth noting that when she returned to work soon after her loved one’s funeral, she opted to work late to meet deadlines around several key events that our program hosts this time of year. (And had she not been able to do so, no one would have held it against her, of course.) This is what seems to happen where there is a culture of kindness. Under Harry’s leadership, compassionate communications, accommodations, and other forms of kindness have been offered to meet the needs of all who work for the program, including external volunteers. So I think it’s worth considering where such kindness starts (with leadership; in this case, with him)—and what good it does. I’m speaking of good on multiple levels. As suggested above, I see practical and economic benefits of boosting and ensuring workforce engagement and productivity. At a deeper level, I see such kindness as meeting the immeasurable but essential needs that human beings have to feel deeply connected to and fully acknowledged by each other. Lately—as grief can cause one to shed a skin, so to speak, increasing sensitivity to the transcendent, or fullness of reality—I recognize that the good that kindness does at all levels is of great importance to a high-performing organization. It transforms a workplace climate into one where all human beings can experience the personal respect that helps us thrive individually and collectively. Thus I see that it is as appropriate (and good) for kindness to permeate a culture in a business workplace as it is for it to undergird the social climate of places of prayer, of learning, and of play. And now I want to consider the question of how leaders can act to foster a culture of kindness, which (per the requirements in the first area to address of Baldrige Criteria category 1) starts with setting organizational values. Here I think it’s relevant to stress that the culture of kindness in my office is not a fluke—not the serendipitous result of chance hiring of nice people. Instead, this culture is seeded by and reinforced through the personal actions of our senior leader. You’d be hard pressed to find someone who will say Harry has been unkind in his personal interactions with them. Supported and inspired by the ethical and humane behavior that Harry regularly demonstrates, his employees are highly engaged in the work of the program despite any difficulties in or outside the office. We care about the work at a greater level than what might be ordinary, I believe, because we care about each other. In no small part, that is because Harry shows—has always shown—that he genuinely cares about the individuals who work for and with him. So I want to suggest an action or two. Harry has been the primary author of the Baldrige Criteria for years. In this role, he’s been a brilliant synthesizer of the input of many practitioners of performance excellence and other program stakeholders, as well as a perspicacious miner of a multitude of ideas and insights from business publications and academe. It’s early to suggest a revision for the next set of Criteria booklets (the latest editions were just published this year), but here’s one I’ll put forth anyway: add leadership with heart and/or a culture of kindness as the 12th of the Criteria core values and concepts. Or make specific reference to these concepts in the descriptions of the Criteria core values visionary leadership and valuing workforce members and partners, so that organizations striving for performance excellence can learn from Harry’s own effective leadership practices. Beyond that suggestion, whenever I read the leadership category, particularly item 1.1, I will think of Harry’s leadership of the Baldrige Program as an example of excellence. He has systematically set, deployed, and demonstrated in his personal actions his commitment to the organization’s (and his own) value of kindness. Thank you, Harry! Your legacy to the Baldrige Program is not limited to brilliant ideas; your kind leadership has brought out the best in many people behind the program for years. Serious work, with a side of laughter: As depicted in a birthday card, the Baldrige staff doesn’t take itself too seriously. And Harry doesn’t mind humor at his expense either.

Posted by Harry Hertz, the Baldrige Cheermudgeon This is a two-part blog, each about just one day. Part A Just one day…. after four weeks of examiner training ended for 2013 it happened. I had a customer service experience that would have made a great story for the customer service tales I usually recount at our Wednesday evening sessions. My wife and I frequently buy our poultry at a butcher that has fresh chicken and turkey products, naturally fed, etc. We went this past Saturday and made a purchase for $29.22. We gave the service person our credit card and wondered when she called the owner over to the credit card machine. He subsequently came over to us and apologized profusely that the "2 key" sticks on their machine and we had inadvertently been charged $22,292.22. The service person had not checked until the charge was accepted and the receipt printed. They immediately entered a credit for the same amount, but they thought we may want to call the credit card company while in the store, in case there were any questions they had to answer. One might first wonder why the charge was even accepted by the bank. People don’t generally spend $22,000 at the butcher; it certainly was an unusually high single purchase for us; and, as we later found out, put us over our credit limit. Nevertheless, when we called, after five minutes on hold, the first thing I was asked was why did I agree to the purchase. I countered that they have questioned less unusual purchases in the past before approving them and that I had never agreed to the purchase, that this all happened before the merchant ever told me about the error. I was informed by the bank that the purchase appears immediately, but that credits take two days to process and therefore I was being billed an "over limit" charge. After much complaining, I was transferred to the security department and then a supervisor in that department. The butcher got to talk to all of them as well. After an hour (including when they inadvertently disconnected us, so we had to start over) I believe all is finally resolved and we will supposedly not receive any over limit charge. I don’t have room here to tell all the gory details, but you would certainly be amused at our banking system foibles. The good news is that I now have the cell number (in case of any issues) of my new best friend, the butcher, and he was so embarrassed and concerned that the meat was given to us as a gift! Part B Just one day… a few days from now, I will sign the final papers and be retired after 40 years at NIST and 21 years with Baldrige. Just one day, like any other. But what a day of change…not a good-bye, just a change. After a mandatory (government rules) month away, pending government approval, I plan on returning to NIST on an intermittent appointment in the NIST Director’s office. In addition I would have the opportunity, as Director Emeritus, to help the new Baldrige Program Director in a support role. I also look forward to having the privilege of continuing to interact with all my friends and colleagues in the Baldrige community. In the interim, and after returning, I will spend more time with grandchildren and family, hopefully do some teaching, and relax a little more. The past 21 years have been a true delight and privilege. The privilege to work with and represent all of you is more than I could have ever dreamed. I am thankful for the most warm and supportive colleagues in the Baldrige staff. I have been amazed by the dedication and outpouring of love from the Baldrige volunteers and Award recipients. And I have been doubly blessed by a loving wife and family who have been  there for me at every turn. So, just for a day….I say good-bye, recognizing that saying good-bye is necessary before you can say hello again. And meeting again whether in a month or a year, is a certainty for friends. Bless you all!

Posted by Bob Fangmeyer It is obvious to most folks in the Baldrige community that the next director of the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program has a tough act to follow! Harry Hertz’s leadership ensured our program’s sustainability during his long tenure and, in particular, during the initially uncertain transition to a new business model in recent years. With Harry’s retirement this week, our staff has been feeling both appreciative of and inspired by the legacy he has left us. Since I am serving as acting director of the Baldrige Program until Harry’s successor is named later this month, I am taking this opportunity to briefly introduce myself to those who may not know me and reassure you that the Program is still going strong. Our fantastic team will continue to provide the service you have come to expect, and continue to implement our business plan as we transition to new leadership. With the completion of examiner training last month, we have over 400 examiners prepared to support program needs, including the annual Baldrige Award process, the new Baldrige Collaborative Assessments, and/or the development of the next Baldrige case study. In addition, the Baldrige Program will continue to offer the 2013-2014 Criteria for Performance Excellence booklets and online publications and tools to help organizations in every sector improve their performance. Now in its third year, the Baldrige Executive Fellows Program will continue to provide senior executives the opportunity to share best practices and problem-solving solutions applicable to their organizations developed in face-to-face meetings at award recipient sites and with other CEOs and executives. And we hope you’ll continue to visit this blog and our home page (at www.nist.gov/baldrige) to keep current with program news—as well as offering comments here and participating in the various LinkedIn discussion groups for the Baldrige community to share examples of and insights on performance excellence. We all look forward to the imminent announcement of the next director of the Baldrige Program. Until then, we continue our improvement journey and expect to serve you all better as we grow and learn together with the entire Baldrige Enterprise.

Posted by Dawn Marie Bailey Times U.S. recently ran a story "A Better Return On Investment" about Georgia’s Fort Stewart Army post’s Baldrige journey. Baldrige staff and stakeholders that I’ve heard from have varying opinions of whether the article has a negative or neutral spin. Regardless, in my opinion, what we need to continue to do is educate organizations on the return on investment inherent in Baldrige-the value proposition, if you will. And to borrow something I heard a Baldrige stakeholder say, "Government is spending money to save money-that sounds paradoxical." I contend that the military is saving money investing in Baldrige. Here’s the letter that we wrote to the editor: Thank you for your recognition of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and its value to military and other organizations. We’d like to share with your readers the heavy return on investment experienced by military and veterans’ affairs organizations that invest in the resources of the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, including the Baldrige Award, in which each applicant receives an evaluation by up to 18 trained Baldrige examiners whose expertise spans the entire U.S. economy. Let me offer a shining example from within the military ranks. Through investment in the Baldrige Criteria and feedback gained through its application for the Baldrige Award, 2007 Baldrige Award recipient Army Armament Research, Development, and Engineering Center (ARDEC): Increased overall revenue from $640 million in fiscal year (FY) 2001 to over $1 billion in FY2007, with an overall cost avoidance of $3.22 billion from 2001 to 2007. Furthermore, in the same period, ARDEC saw revenue from non-Army customers grow from $60 million to $140 million; Achieved overall improvements in quality (91 percent), cost reduction (70 percent), schedule (67 percent), and risk management (84 percent), with an overall cost avoidance of $3.22 billion since 2001; and Increased overall customer satisfaction ratings from 3.48 (on a 4-point scale) in FY2000 to 3.75 in FY2007, exceeding both government and industry benchmarks. Education and award programs based on Baldrige at all levels of the military also have reported significant returns on investment. These include the Army Communities of Excellence Program for all Army National Guard organizations and the Secretary’s Robert W. Carey Performance Excellence Awards for all U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) agencies. In fact, Carey Award-recipient hospitals have consistently outperformed other VA and non-VA hospitals. We invite you to contact us to follow up on ARDEC’s success, as well as the success of the Army, National Guard, VA, and other organizations across all sectors of the U.S. economy, including two city governments, on the savings achieved through investing in Baldrige. Said Dr. Joseph A. Lannon, ARDEC’s director, " [The men and women of ARDEC] have earned distinction for our organization, the new high-technology Army, and the Department of Defense by embracing the Baldrige Criteria. . . . We [adopted the Baldrige Criteria] in order to become the best organization we can possibly be and provide the best products and support we can to the U.S. Warfighter." What examples would you share on whether Baldrige is worth the investment?

Posted by Christine Schaefer This year’s "100 Most Influential People in Healthcare" nominees list draws from the senior leadership ranks of several Baldrige Award-winning organizations. Among the 300 nominees named in Modern Healthcare’s 12th annual competition are six leaders in organizations that have received Baldrige Awards in recent years. These are (in alphabetical order) Susan DeVore of Premier Inc., a 2006 Baldrige Award recipient in the service category; Mike Murphy of Sharp HealthCare, a 2007 recipient; Nancy Schlichting of Henry Ford Health System, a 2011 recipient; Quint Studer of the Studer Group, a 2010 recipient in the small business category; Rulon Stacey, who presided over Poudre Valley Health System when it won a Baldrige Award in 2008 and currently leads University of Colorado Health (of which Poudre Valley Health System is now a part); and William Thompson of SSM Health Care, the first Baldrige Award winner in the health care sector—in 2002. Stacey is also the chair of the Baldrige Program’s Board of Overseers. In addition, the "100 Most Influential" nominees include participants in the Baldrige Executive Fellows program: Deborah Bowen of the American College of Healthcare Executives and Peter Pronovost of Johns Hopkins Medicine and Johns Hopkins Hospital. Also named among nominees is former Baldrige Overseer Thomas Dolan, president emeritus of the American College of Healthcare Executives. Besides leaders of government, nonprofit, and private-sector organizations that oversee, study, provide, or otherwise support health care in the United States, the list names several political leaders on Capitol Hill who are in positions of great influence relative to health care legislation and policy. U.S. President Barack Obama and Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates are also named among nominees. Online voting for the finalists is open to all and will continue through June 14. The "100 Most Influential" final rankings will be published in the August 26 issue of Modern Healthcare and online at ModernHealthcare.com. Congratulations to all the nominees!

Posted by Jacqueline Calhoun As the season of commencements come to an end, many commencement speeches have been given across the nation at every academic level. These speeches thank and honor students for their many achievements and inspire and encourage them to use what they have learned to take it to the next level. For college graduates, they may hear that this is only the beginning of a life-long journey as responsible and productive citizens of our great nation.  Words of wisdom are imparted by many distinguished keynote speakers, examples including, (1) Oprah Winfrey, Harvard, 30 May 2013: "There is no such thing as failure"; (2) Gabrielle Giffords and Mark Kelly, Bard College, 25 May 2013: "Starting tomorrow you can change the world"; and (3) President Obama, United States Naval Academy, 24 May 2013: "We need you to uphold the highest standards of integrity and character." Sometime after these momentous occasions, some students will trade one school for another—elementary school to middle school, middle school to high school, high school to college, and college at the undergraduate level to graduate school.  Others will make their way into the workforce. Of course, many students are already in the workforce, and they aspire to enhance their current knowledge and skills.  No matter what academic level, students who are a part of this graduation season should be commended.  It is all about progressing and improving in your personal journey toward excellence. Just like the graduates, organizations that apply the Baldrige Criteria to the way they run their businesses are taking their organizational performance to the next level, resulting in better financial results; satisfied, loyal customers; improved products and services; and an engaged workforce. In addition, applying the Baldrige Criteria has helped organizations align their improvement efforts and resources, achieving better coordination and consistency among plans, processes, information, resource decisions, actions, results, analysis, and learning. Good examples of this are demonstrated by our Baldrige Award recipients, who openly share their improvement strategies and best practices that have allowed them to make continuous progression to organizations that are role models for excellence.  Recently, the four 2012 Award recipient organizations were recognized during the 25th Quest for Excellence Conference… much like the outstanding classes of graduating students. Does your organization want to take things up a notch? Now is the time to learn—with the help of the Baldrige Criteria, Baldrige examiners, Baldrige Award recipients, and Baldrige-based state, local, and regional programs—what it takes to create a sustainable business model and enable your organization to be more successful than you ever imagined. Who knows? Maybe we will soon be celebrating the success of your organization.

by Jamie Ambrosi With summer and family vacations coming up, I feel compelled to publicly reveal a vacation-related personality quirk of mine (one of many, to be completely honest) and then to invite you to play a fun, though slightly geeky, game that will reveal this quirk in action. Are you ready to play? First, the revelation: my name is Jamie, and I am a management geek. Sure, I might have realized this by my choice of masters’ degree or by casually observing my annual holiday wish list, which is littered with the latest leadership and management books. But the realization first hit me on a family vacation many summers ago. We were driving to Acadia National Park in Maine (one of our favorite places)—my wife driving, me in the passenger seat next to her, my three kids in the back. At my feet was my wife’s reading choice, the latest Michael Crichton book (isn’t she awesome?); in the back seats were our kids awash in iPods, DVDs, and all things electronic (who needs books anyway, especially on summer vacation, Dad? … Come on, really?). And then there’s me: head down … completely and utterly captivated by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman’s classic First Break All the Rules—simple, yet profound findings based on rock-solid Gallup research (more than 80,000 interviews) … rich insights, great stuff … but on vacation? Houston, we have a problem! I would like to say this was a one-off event, but it is actually a summertime ritual for me. Summer vacation means body surfing waves with my kids, hiking mountains with my family, and catching up on management books that have been in the "to read" pile for several months. This includes new releases as well as rereading a few classics, to rediscover the timeless insights. This brings us to the matching game (you were wondering when the game was coming? Sorry the revelation took so long, but I feel better now—thanks for listening). On my drive into the office today, with my windows down and music blaring and with summer and great management books on my mind, I started playing a game: the Criteria-Great Management Book matching game. The game is simple:  identify a book (or books) for each Criteria item. Here’s my list (some of which will be on my reading list this summer): Item 1.1, Senior Leadership:  The Extraordinary Leader, by John Zenger and Joseph Folkman Item 1.2, Governance and Societal Responsibilities:  The Triple Bottom Line, by Andrew Savitz (with Karl Weber); anything by Thomas J. Holland Item 2.1, Strategy Development: Competitive Advantage and Competitive Strategy, both by Michael Porter; Competing for the Future, by C. K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel (this book makes core competencies simple and relevant) Item 2.2, Strategy Implementation: Strategy Maps, by Robert Kaplan and David Norton Category 2 (overall): The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning, by Henry Mintzberg Item 3.1, Voice of the Customer: The Ultimate Question, by Fred Reichheld, with Rob Markley (on understanding the meaning and importance of the Net Promoter Score);  Marketing Research, by A. Parasuraman, Dhruv Grewal, and R. Krishnan (not exactly a beach read, but it details the often-overlooked and critical analytical side of marketing; without it, you are throwing darts in the dark) Item 3.2, Customer Engagement: Positioning, by Jack Trout and Al Reis; The Customer Revolution, by Patricia Seybold; and The Long Tail, by Chris Anderson Item 4.1, Measurement, Analysis, and Improvement of Organizational Performance:  The Balanced Scorecard, by Robert Kaplan and David Norton Item 4.2, Knowledge Management, Information, and Information Technology:  The Fifth Discipline, by Peter Senge (some might first put this in item 5.2, but I personally believe it fits squarely with Criteria requirements on knowledge management and organizational learning) Item 5.1, Workforce Environment: I just realized that I have a learning gap: I have not read (or at least cannot cite) a great book on workforce capability and capacity planning overall and the related recruiting, hiring, training, and retention of the workforce. Please help me here, and I’ll add it to my summer reading list (seriously). For now, I propose Leading Change by John Kotter (or anything by Kotter) to cover workforce change management. Item 5.2, Workforce Engagement: First Break All the Rules, by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman ( a great car read, really—your wife and kids will love it too as you cite unsolicited facts and insights to them). Actually, all of the Gallup research-based books are worth the read, and they provide the research basis for the widely used Q-12 employee engagement survey. Item 6.1, Work Processes:  Anything by W. Edwards Demming and Joseph Juran (particularly Juran’s Quality Handbook). To be fair, I acknowledge that Deming’s and Juran’s writings go far beyond category 6, but I put them here because of their profound influence on operations. Also, I must give a nod to Walter Shewhart here, upon whose work Deming (and the statistical quality movement) stand. No books for Shewhart though … just a nod of appreciation. Item 6.2, Operational Effectiveness:  A New American TQM, by Shoji Shiba, Alan Graham, and David Walden—or again anything by Deming or Juran! Category 7, Results (all items together):  The Balanced Scorecard, by Robert Kaplan and David Norton (alright, so I listed this twice … am I cheating or just trying to show a connection?) Criteria Overall:  I couldn’t put this list together and not include a Jim Collins or Peter Drucker book, so let me suggest Good to Great by Collins and Peter Drucker’s The Profession of Management. However, as with several of the other great management thinkers listed here, you could pull any of their books off the shelf and be amazed by their insights. So, that’s my list; what books would you offer up for the different Criteria items? Let me know, and I will tip my hand on what I plan to read this summer. And then you can tip yours. Cheers and happy knowledge sharing!

Posted by Dawn Marie Bailey Note: Although this blog doesn’t really have anything to do with the Fourth of July holiday, the burger image made us think of cookouts and barbeques. So we wanted to take a quick moment to wish you all a very happy Fourth of July! Picture in your mind the classic Texas burger-juicy, mouth-watering, topped with the perfect fixings (apologies to vegetarians). Now assume that your key products are hamburgers, and that a picture of the perfect burger is used consistently in your social media activities. It’s simple. It’s attractive to us carnivores. It allows for customers to contribute (they can post real photos; no need to enlist a professional studio). It’s an opportunity to show your product in a great light. And suddenly you have a social media theme-an image and its description. You also have us bloggers and others hungry and looking for the nearest Mighty Fine restaurant. In a Quest for Excellence© presentation, K&N Management Owner Ken Schiller said, "What’s interesting to me [in regards to social media] is how interested our customers are with engaging with the brand." K&N Management, a 2010 Baldrige Award recipient, is the licensed Austin,Texas-area developer for Rudy’s "Country Store" & Bar-B-Q and the creator of Mighty Fine Burgers, Fries and Shakes, two fast-casual restaurant concepts. Schiller said as an owner, he doesn’t personally have a lot of time for social media, but "it doesn’t mean it’s not important to me because it’s important to our customers. The menu is not designed around my personal preferences, it’s designed around what our customers desire. . . . Social media is no different. The bottom-line where the rubber meets the road for me and also for you is that it can impact our results and our profitability." K&N Human Resources and Brand Director Allyson Young explained the top reasons that organizations should build social media strategies: People do business on the road; Web sites are being more aligned with mobile applications. 50% of the world’s population is under 30 years old. If you are under 30, you grew up on the Internet, texting and using mobile devices. Each minute, 2 million queries are searched on Google. 25% of Facebook users access their pages 5 times or more each day. 175 million messages are tweeted each day. 50% of subscribers use Twitter to recommend products. 80% of social media users connect to their preferred brands on Facebook. Social media gives a consumer instant access to products and brands. K&N uses social media for three purposes: create brand interest, listen, and build relationships. Young said in creation of interest it’s important to align messages across all channels, so, for example, the same message is on Twitter and Facebook, and the same photo is used to promote a product. The 2013-2014 Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence have a focus on mastering social media to (1) reach customers and potential customers, (2) connect employees with each other and organizational leaders, (3) coordinate with suppliers and partners, and (4) gather data and perform research. So how does an organization get started with a social media strategy? Young outlined the basic steps: build a social media team, benchmark, develop internal and external messaging, decide how you will measure/monitor social media activities, identify your audience (e.g., the majority of Pinterest users are female), have a human voice, and know your platform. Some other tips from Young: Know how often to post. People don’t want you to clog up their inbox or Facebook page. Post something relevant about every other day. Anything more becomes a distraction/annoyance. Measure your reach; consider tools like HootSuite and Sprout Social. Create a process for promotions. For example, K&N gave away T-shirts to customers who provided feedback. Make sure everyone who needs to know is prepared to answer questions-and this includes the people on the frontline. The best time to post is 8 am. Train your employees on the appropriate use of social media when talking to guests, and monitor what customers are saying. Be polite. Send a thank you privately for each great review. Respond publicly to negative reviews; however, know when to respond, too. If a posting is incorrect, ask the poster to consider removing it, but consider that it may do more harm than good to respond if a person is angry and just looking for an audience, or if you are angry. Have a good social media policy in place that clearly outlines what can and can’t be shared. Social media also can be used for great benefits within an organization. Young suggests using it to engage with, communicate with, recognize, and recruit/promote employees. It also can be used to share best practices, brag about team members, introduce new team members, and share great reviews (e.g., "because-of-me stories"). At K&N, Young said a university marketing student helps the organization stay current with social media tools. Young and Schiller, who offer a learning session entitled "Cooking Up Excellence Using Baldrige Ingredients," ended with this advice: "Have fun but use good judgment. Don’t post anything you wouldn’t want to show your mom." How does your organization’s social media strategy measure up? And can your organization be depicted in one clear image?

Posted by Christine Schaefer Who wants to know about how former Baldrige Award winners are continuing to blaze trails as exemplars of excellence? We do! In fact, a co-worker of mine in the Baldrige Program once suggested a Blogrige series under the name "Where BAR They Now?" (note: BAR = Baldrige Award Recipients). Perhaps this news is a good place to start: 2007 Baldrige Award-winning Sharp HealthCare recently earned recognition in the information technology field that honors its workforce focus. In the June 17 issue of Computerworld, the San Diego-based health care provider ranks sixth overall in the publication’s 2013 list of "100 Best Places to Work in IT," and it ranks third for diversity. "This group of hospitals and healthcare facilities in the San Diego area puts an emphasis on listening to employees, treating them well, and recognizing and rewarding their achievements," states the article. As the list details, the turnover rate among all of the organization’s IT employees in 2012 was 4 percent, and the employee promotion rate was 11 percent. What makes the 15,545-employee organization stand out for excellence in workforce diversity in the recent Computerworld rankings? Of the 426 information technology (IT) workers in Sharp HealthCare’s U.S. facilities, 39 percent were minorities in 2012. The proportion of IT managers of minority backgrounds was at 26 percent, with nonmanagerial IT staff members of minority backgrounds at 41 percent. When Sharp HealthCare received the Baldrige Award, we highlighted its outstanding practices and results in relation to category 5 of the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence. As described in the 2007 profile (PDF) on our Web site, "Sharp’s dedicated investment in its staff—in time, effort, and financial support—has paid off in a highly satisfied and productive workforce. Employee satisfaction rates best in class by national standards, and the organization’s annual turnover rate consistently outperforms the state benchmark—a significant achievement considering the intense competition for qualified staff in an undersupplied market." The Baldrige Award recipient profile also notes that more than 1,000 employees had voluntarily participated in action teams launched six years earlier. Those action teams reflected the organization’s charge to engage employees as "architects of change." The recent Computerworld article similarly notes the collaborative improvement efforts by Sharp HealthCare’s Employee Action Committee, as exemplified by "the installation of projectors and PCs in conference rooms to minimize delays caused by equipment setup and teardown for meetings." Kudos to Sharp HealthCare’s leadership and every workforce member for continuing to make your organization a great place to work!