Posted by Harry Hertz, the Baldrige Cheermudgeon The Baldrige Excellence Framework, as a systems perspective, has taken a holistic approach to the important topic of innovation. This perspective comprises a Core Value and Concept, Managing for Innovation, and numerous considerations within the Baldrige Criteria. Together, the Baldrige approach to innovation emphasizes both cultural/people aspects and process aspects of achieving successful innovation and provides the linkages to ensure process and people are aligned. Baldrige defines innovation as making meaningful (breakthrough) change to improve products, processes, or organizational effectiveness and create new value for stakeholders. Managing for Innovation, as the words imply, requires a combination of people and process. Your organization should be led and managed so that identifying opportunities for innovation become part of the learning culture. Systematic processes for identifying those opportunities should reach across your entire organization. The Baldrige Criteria start the focus on innovation by asking how senior leaders create an environment for innovation (culture) and a focus on action to achieve innovation. In Strategy Development, the Criteria ask how your strategy development process stimulates and incorporates innovation through identification of strategic opportunities and selection of those that are intelligent risks worth pursuing. Next the Criteria ask about the use of organizational performance review findings as a mechanism for identifying opportunities for innovation and how you manage organizational knowledge to stimulate innovation. How does your workforce performance management system reinforce intelligent risk taking to achieve innovation? What is your operational process for managing innovation? What are the results of your innovation process? The outcome of the Baldrige approach to innovation is obvious. Innovation takes a systems perspective that involves leaders, all employees, and processes in coordination. So, you might ask what led to this blog post? It was triggered by a recent HBR post entitled, "Is Innovation More About People or Process?" Andrea Ovans concludes that it is both after giving some good examples from IDEO, Procter & Gamble, Intel, and others. She also cites a number of resources for people starting innovation efforts. Take a look at "Build an Innovation Engine in 90 Days," to see how to rapidly bring people and process together. (And for a very different approach to innovation, not recommended by me as the approach of choice, check out Political Activism and Innovation.) Happy reading!  

Posted by Dawn Marie Bailey Audience members at the recent Quest for Excellence® Conference were asked to ponder two questions from keynote speaker Geoff Colvin senior editor at large for Fortune magazine: Where does world-class performance really come from? and What will people do better than computers? Or, phrased in a better way, according to Colvin, what are humans most driven to do? For the answer to the first question, Colvin said, we all carry around deep-seated feelings; many people think the answer is hard work, but lots of people work incredibly hard at what they do, yet are not considered world-class performers. Others believe world-class performers must have massive IQs or exceptional mental acuity/memory, but, Colvin said, this is only part of the answer, as we all know very successful people who may not be the brightest among their peers. The most frequent answer is innate talent, but even this can’t be the real explanation, said Colvin, as per research, most child prodigies don’t go on to become adult world-class great or most adult world-class performers were not incredibly talented as children. The question about the origin of world-class performance really matters, said Colvin, because "in every realm in which there is competition, standards are rising," from infotech devices, to cars that can go more miles than they could just 10 years ago, to washing machines that now use less detergent and water and get clothes cleaner than their previous models. "Everywhere we look, standards are rising, and they are rising in human terms also. . . . Labor markets used to be local, regional. Now when most of our work is information-based . . . anybody in the world can do it. In fact, increasingly, we all have to be world-class great because we’re competing with everyone in the world. . . . So we really have to understand in a world of rising standards, where does great performance really come from," he said. So, what’s the answer? Colvin said 30+ years of good research across industries points to something called "deliberate practice"—practicing a specific skill, over and over, and getting better at it each time. Colvin further defined "deliberate practice" as practice that Is designed specifically to improve your performance at this moment in your development. The deliberate practice will change as you advance and become better. Pushes you just beyond your current abilities. "It doesn’t push you way beyond your current abilities because then you’re just lost," he said; "And it doesn’t allow you to operate just within your current abilities because then you don’t grow." Can be repeated a lot. Researchers have found that high repetition actually affects the physical nature of the brain, Colvin said. Includes continual feedback. Added Colvin, "You can’t get better if you don’t know how you’re doing." Colvin said that studies have shown that great performance due to deliberate practice seems to be unlimited. "As long as you keep doing that stuff, you can keep getting better. . . . As long as we continue with the deliberate practices, we can continue to do these things to ages that conventional wisdom would say we can’t." Individuals, teams, and organizations can all benefit from deliberate practice, said Colvin, although many organizations tend to ignore its principles. He offered examples of teams working together in ways they never had before with the principles of deliberate practice: high repetition, constant input, lots of feedback, and real-time results. (As Baldrige Award applicants and examiners know, expert feedback to help organizations improve is a key offering of the Baldrige Program—as part of both the traditional Baldrige Award process and the non-award-based Baldrige Collaborative Assessment. Baldrige feedback reports detail an organization’s key strengths and opportunities for improvement.) Now that we know how to achieve world-class great today, Colvin said, we must look to the future: "The skills the economy values highly are changing in a historic way. . . . Over and over, we’re seeing technology taking over jobs that people used to do. People will still be valuable, but we better figure out what skills the economy will value as we go forward because those are the ones that we have to get world-class great at." Colvin said, we must ask ourselves, "What are the things because of our deepest most essential human nature, . . . we will insist be done by people even if computers can do them." Those innate human skills are the ability to Empathize, which means discerning the thoughts and feelings of someone else and responding appropriately Work in groups Tell stories Solve problems creatively Build relationships "Many employers today emphasize these factors in people they are seeking. More and more employers understand that these skills . . . of human interaction are going to be most valuable," he said. In summarizing how to be world-class great today and tomorrow, Colvin inspired the audience to dream big: "If you believe that you can become better . . . than you will get past inevitable difficulties and at least have the chance to become world-class great. . . . Great performance is not ordained for the pre-ordained few. It is available to you and everyone."

By Christine Schaefer What motivates more than 400 professionals from a variety of sectors to individually contribute an average of at least 100 hours every summer to examine the performance of U.S. organizations applying for the Baldrige Award? Patriotic duty Powerful learning Being part of a professional community focused on organizational improvement and excellence Those are some top reasons Baldrige examiners have given over the years for why they choose to lend their time and talents to help identify top-performing organizations for the nation’s prestigious Baldrige Award—and, perhaps more important, to help many more organizations improve their performance using the Baldrige Excellence Framework. Baldrige examiners include performance management and quality leads from organizations in the business, health care, education, and nonprofit sectors alike. They also include doctors, lawyers, engineers, superintendents, professors, small business owners, and management consultants—to name a few titles and professions represented each year on the Board of Examiners. These volunteers draw on their wide-ranging expertise to conduct assessments of organizations applying for the Baldrige Award or participating in Baldrige Collaborative Assessments. Through the feedback that Baldrige examiners write for organizations each year in those assessments—and by applying their knowledge of the Baldrige Excellence Framework within the organizations where they work—they help organizations in every sector of the U.S. economy to improve and excel. Baldrige Performance Excellence Program Director Bob Fangmeyer praised the dedication and key role of Baldrige examiners last month at the annual event where they are recognized for their voluntary service to the nation. Fangmeyer observed that despite being volunteers with other full-time jobs in most cases, Baldrige examiners do a tremendous amount of work that is invaluable to the Baldrige Program’s ability to accomplish its purpose of helping organizations improve their performance and attain excellence. "You are a critical success factor for the Baldrige Program. For all that we accomplish, we can’t do it without you," stated Fangmeyer. "You are our expert extended workforce. You perform the assessments. You write the feedback reports that help organizations improve. You spread the word about Baldrige. You help improve the Criteria itself. You help us improve as a program." Foundation for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Chair George Benson and U.S. Department of Commerce Under Secretary for Commerce and Standards and National Institute of Standards and Technology Director Dr. Willie E. May also both spoke at the April event in appreciation of the service of Baldrige examiners that ultimately benefits the nation as a whole. "I would like to extend my sincere thanks to you," said May at the outset of his remarks. He then led a round of applause for Baldrige examiners’ families "for all the time you spend" volunteering for the Baldrige Program. "You have—and I’m sure will continue to—make a very, very, very big difference on our country and everything that we do and everything we stand for," said May. "Thank you very much." Dr. Willie E. May thanks Baldrige examiners for their service at the annual examiner recognition event on April 13, 2015.

Posted by Dawn Marie Bailey Baldrige Foundation Chair George Benson, Wolters Kluwer Executive Todd McQueston, Southcentral Foundation CEO Katherine Gottlieb, Wolters Kluwer Health VP of Customer Experience Sami Hero, VP of Marketing Leslie Schultz, and Baldrige Foundation CEO Al Faber. "Baldrige is the reason why I didn’t quit my job in 2003," said Dr. Katherine Gottlieb, president/CEO of Baldrige Award recipient Southcentral Foundation and recipient of the 2015 Harry S. Hertz Leadership Award. In her leadership role in 2002, Gottlieb had more than 900 employees, a budget of $150 million, and the responsibility to provide health care services to 40,000 people spread across 110,000 square miles of southcentral Alaska. "And I realized our organization needed systematic change in order to be sustainable and function at the highest level of quality," she said. "I believed I was not the leader to take the organization to the next step." But Gottlieb said, before making up her mind, she would look for examples of other successful organizations that had transformed themselves and tools that could help. "So when I was introduced to [the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence] in 2003, I looked at it with the same scrutiny that I would for anyone or anything entering our Tribal doors. . . . I found that Baldrige aligned with our values. I found that Baldrige does not dictate but asks questions. . . . I found Baldrige would assist my leadership in driving our system to best practices. I found that Baldrige focuses on systematic change. I chose to enter the Baldrige journey to excellence." Dr. Katherine Gottlieb speaking at the 2015 Harry S. Hertz Leadership Award ceremony To really understand that journey, one needs to understand the history of Southcentral Foundation and its customer-owners, the Alaska Native and American Indian people. "Imagine not having control over anything in your life, but that all of your life, someone or something else did. And this control was exercised over you and your family in a way that stripped you of your cultural and spiritual beliefs and even your language. It stripped you of your country and privileges, rights as a human being, and the result of this was your people became despondent and lost their voices," said Gottlieb, summarizing the plight of Native communities in Alaska. According to Gottlieb, upon passing the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975, Congress said, "the federal domination of Indian programs has served to retard rather than enhance the people and their communities and denied them an effective voice in the planning and implementation of programs that respond to the needs of people." She said the federal government recognized that if the people receiving health services owned their own health care, health statistics would improve. Alaska Native and American Indian people chose to exercise this law throughout the entire state of Alaska and are now operating and managing their our own health care systems. In 1991, as the new CEO of Southcentral Foundation, Gottlieb said the health care system chose to create vision statements, goals/shared responsibilities, and operational principles based on relationships. Outcome measures, population-based services that recognized the community’s culture and strength, infrastructure, culturally appropriate buildings, and listening mechanisms had to be established as the customer-owners, the Alaska American Indian people themselves, took over their own health care. In 2004, Southcentral Foundation started using the Baldrige model. "The Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence has played a tremendous role in providing a systems framework to transform a slow, medical, bureaucracy [into an] agile, customer-driven system of care. . . . I owe Baldrige a lot," she said. She added, "Baldrige does not control but relies on creativity and innovation for answers. Baldrige didn’t try to take away our culture but encouraged it through the inclusion of our community, our people, our customer-owners, our employees." One of the first things the organization learned through Baldrige, she said, regarded the vision statement; "Baldrige came in and asked the question, ‘How does every employee know they are achieving the vision?'" After its 2011 Baldrige site visit, Gottlieb said staff members, from receptionists, to providers, to maintenance workers, could respond to how they personally achieve the vision and mission. "Baldrige revealed opportunities for improvement. . . . Baldrige gave us that common language. . . . It continues to encourage me as a leader." She said her most proud moment was the third-party validation of Southcentral’s excellence during the 2011 Baldrige Award ceremony. Organizations from around the nation and world now come to Southcentral Foundation to learn about its customer-focused, relationship-based "Nuka System of Care." According to Gottlieb, communities from Oregon, the Veterans Administration, Cherokee Nation, and Canada are just some who have begun to adapt Southcentral’s Nuka system. Gottlieb can even pull the organization’s updated Baldrige Award application—"the Little Baby Bible"—out of her purse; "This document lays out in detail the infrastructure of Southcentral Foundation. . . . How the succession planning works, budget approval cycles. It’s all in there. Everyone knows where we’re at. Data are kept up to speed. . . . It keeps us up to speed on where we are with health and safety measures, workforce, where we’re falling behind, where are our shortages, what’s happening in the global world that might affect us. . . . It’s really fun to use. It’s a format that works for us." Southcentral Foundation continues the Baldrige journey, she added, "because Baldrige is a tool that influences without controlling. . . . And allows a community, an individual, an organization, a group of employees to be free to be innovative. Baldrige encourages an organization to include its community and culture. . . . And thus we are renowned for these successes." But there is one additional success that Gottlieb proudly shares. And that is taking back the Native dance, culture, and Supiaq language of her Alaskan Native village. Not only does she share Southcentral’s model to help other health care providers improve, but, she tells me, she is proud to be giving back her culture, too.

By Christine Schaefer Among challenges PricewaterhouseCoopers Public Sector Practice (PwC PSP) has faced in recent years is trying to grow within its federal market. "There is no wide space," said Rick Rodman, a principal and quality champion for the Baldrige Award-winning organization. To address the market constraints, "We made sure we understand our client," said Rodman. That understanding extends to clients’ challenges, strengths, and weaknesses; the macro environment in which they operate, and their ability to undertake change, he said. To serve clients well, the professional consulting organization must ensure its industry, technical, and relationship capabilities and must customize approaches and solutions to specific client challenges. That requires cultivating a team of qualified professionals capable of delivering impact and innovation and driven by a leadership team that values client success, said Rodman. Rodman and his colleague Karen Wilson, PwC PSP principal/customer champion, presented customer-focused practices during the Baldrige Program’s Quest for Excellence® conference last month. They shared how their organization listens to, gathers feedback from, and engages clients through six approaches: a business-development framework, an engagement management process, a client survey, contractor performance assessment reports, win/loss debriefs, and social media.1. Pursuit Wilson presented the organization’s Pursuit framework, which flows through five steps: Target, Interact, Propose, Close, and Exceed Expectations. "We had to tailor the firm’s (parent company PwC) process to federal clients’ environment, said Wilson, "They liked [Pursuit] so much that the whole firm is now using it." 2. Engagement Management Process The company’s Engagement Management Process (EMP) involves listening throughout a project lifecycle, promoting open dialogue, and soliciting actionable feedback. In a first meeting, PSP checks to ensure it knows exactly what the client wants based on the proposal. "We have to agree on the value delivered," she said of the formal process. 3. Client Experience Survey PSP uses surveys such as the PwC Client Experience Survey to measure client loyalty. Clients provide feedback on the organization’s performance in four areas: delivering outstanding quality, behaving ethically and complying with regulations, being attentive to clients’ and stakeholders’ needs, and providing skills and knowledgeable and responsive staff. 4. Contractor Performance Assessment Reports The organization also uses surveys administered by its clients’ contract officers to gain feedback on its performance. Those contractor performance assessment reports evaluate the organization’s performance in six categories: Quality, Schedule, Cost Control, Business Relations, Management of Personnel, and Utilization of Small Businesses. 5. Win/Loss Debriefs In relation to PSP’s win/loss debriefs, the organization requests a debrief from the government on both contract wins and losses. Written debriefs for individual proposals are shared with the Contracts Team, the Sales Team, and the applicable Sector Team within the organization. 6. Social Media Beyond engaging its current clients, PSP uses social media to listen to potential customers, said Wilson. Best Practices and Learning Best practices Rodman and Wilson shared are to (1) integrate listening methods and sharing data on a performance dashboard for transparency across the organization, (2) continuously refine listening techniques such as social media to promote the organization’s long-term sustainability, (3) "organize investments" in client relationships such as holding regular face-to-face meetings, and (4) to conduct annual surveys. An improvement PSP made in its survey practices as a result of feedback it received through the Baldrige Program was to broaden the base of customers it surveys in order to get more customer feedback, according to Wilson. Another improvement learned through Baldrige feedback, she said, is to share insights from debriefs more broadly within the organization. "Was investing resources in the Baldrige improvement process worth the effort?" Rodman was asked during the Quest conference. "Absolutely," he responded. Clients see the organization as more focused, and it is more competitive in its market as a result, he said.

Posted by Dawn Marie Bailey "Welcome to remarkable." That’s the first thing new employees at Baldrige Award recipient Hill Country Memorial (HCM) hear at orientation, and that welcome comes personally from CEO Jayne Pope. When staff members of the 86-bed community hospital refer to what is "remarkable," they mean the culture, and when they define "remarkable," they mean in the top 10% of patient care—not for rural hospitals or small, nonprofit hospitals, but for all hospitals in the nation. In a Quest for Excellence® presentation on HCM’s workforce, presenters and panelists shared how they build a "remarkable always" culture by hiring a "team of champions," with each team member’s personal values in absolute alignment with the organization’s values ("If we don’t have the right people in place, we can’t do what we need to do for the people we serve," said Amanda Stevens, executive director, Hill Country Memorial Hospital Foundation.) aligning each team member’s goals with the organizational strategy map and departmental goals maintaining a performance management system with quarterly coaching plans and evaluations based on position competency and demonstration of values setting high expectations involving front-liners and physicians, as well as other workforce members, in decision making and action plans being transparent (all results from the organizational strategy map for that quarter are posted on hospital walls) HCM’s values—others first, compassion, innovation, accountability, and stewardship—are extremely important, said Alysha Metzger, director, human resources, because HCM’s "patients truly are our friends, family, and neighbors. They have come to expect a level of care, service, and interaction as such." A few years ago, Metzger said, a 31-person team that included multiple levels of leaders, team members, physicians, and community members identified and defined the five values, as well as what it looked like to live those values, and they brought those draft values on a "listening tour" to every department and every shift, as well as to community members. In addition, HCM defined the minimum expected behaviors for these values to which each and every staff member and vendor could expect to be held, and these included the behaviors that physicians expected for themselves and their peers. A key component to ensure the expected behaviors for each value is HCM’s quarterly coaching plan, which shows alignment between department and individual goals to help staff members align their work to what the organization is trying to accomplish, said Metzger; "[a coaching plan] helps team members see how they’re doing their job, and doing it well helps us as a departmental team, which ultimately helps us as an organization. That’s something that is really special." The tool is used by supervisors and their designees to give quarterly feedback to staff members on how they are meeting goals and demonstrating the HCM values and performance characteristics. Leaders also receive feedback on how they are demonstrating specific leadership attributes. The coaching plan also helps team members identify measures of success; if they are not surpassing the goals, then a coach can talk with the staff member about what’s preventing accomplishment of goals. "The most important thing is creating a dialogue between the leader and team members," said Metzger. "What does the person want to achieve both personally and professionally? Values are incorporated as well. It’s important to give people feedback on whether they are demonstrating behaviors that are in alignment with our values." Gina Enderlin, HCM’s nurse educator, said because coaching plans allow communication about personal and professional goals, they can be used to prevent physician and nurse burnout. "It’s that personal communication that’s so important," she said. "[Coaching plans] gives us the opportunity to see and to hear where they’re at, to find out what they need and the direction that they want to go." John Phelps, director, nutrition services, said the coaching plans were initially not well received because of the perceived level of work on directors, but he said they eventually saw the value of open dialogue with staff. He added that the process got faster and more efficient after staff members realized that they were being coached not counseled. The coaching plans also help HCM take a proactive stance on turnover, especially for critical positions like nurses, said Enderlin. Quarterly coaching means leaders are in constant communication with team members, including nurses. "Most important is the listening," she said. "You have to hear, have to really listen to desires and interest. After hearing someone’s personal and professional goals, we can afford them the ability to cross-train, if desired." After implementing values-based interviewing and coaching plans, turnover for first-year nurses decreased about 4%, said Metzger. The quarterly coaching plans are not part of human resources or official performance reviews intentionally, said Metzger, and the success of the coaching plan process can be measured by a specific question on the Press Ganey engagement survey that asks about supervisors providing feedback to help goal achievement. Physicians and volunteers participate in a similar process to the quarterly coaching plans. Both processes include the strategy of open dialogue and listening, which for physicians is leading to higher engagement. Said James Partin, HCM’s chief medical officer, "The biggest issue [for engaging physicians] is communication, communication, communication, and that has to be two-way. Involve [physicians] in the decision-making process. What turns [physicians] off the most is . . . telling them this is what you are going to do without involving them in the process of making the decision." Volunteers also participate in open dialogue. According to Phelps, conversations with volunteers yield information on whether they are exhibiting the values, want to increase hours, or might find a better fit elsewhere in the organization. How might coaching plans work in your organization?

Posted by Christine Schaefer Health care organizations must have effective approaches to build and maintain a workforce with the skills to meet patients’ needs. Baldrige Award-winning St. David’s HealthCare Senior Vice President of Human Resources Richard Lowe outlined the St. David’s HealthCare system for ensuring a talented workforce during the Baldrige Program’s Quest for Excellence® conference last month. The Austin, Texas-based health system employs more than 8,000 in its six hospitals, six ambulatory surgery centers, and numerous physicians’ practices. The organization has structured its human resources (HR) function through "centers of expertise" that manage workforce recruitment, compensation and benefits, service excellence, and an institute for learning that supports employee development. In addition, said Lowe, HR support teams based at St. David’s HealthCare facilities focus on ambulatory surgery and physician service lines. The organization’s strategic planning process drives the HR strategy, with key metrics such as workforce productivity, turnover, and engagement identified and tracked. HR objectives, which are established as part of annual strategic planning process, are tightly aligned with overall business objectives, said Lowe. Those objectives are also anchored in the organization’s "ICARE" values of integrity, compassion, accountability, respect, and excellence. "It’s very important from a systems perspective to have alignment across our system," he said. Therefore, the organization has standardized approaches to workforce policies, compensation and benefits, recruitment, performance management, and learning and organizational development. For example, St. David’s Institute for Learning provides a centralized and standardized means to enhance the ICARE-based culture throughout the organization. Centralized offerings in leadership and organizational development allow for standardization in areas such as the new-employee orientation process, leadership development, and general training for employees, while also providing flexibility to adapt to changing needs, said Lowe. And the Academy for Clinical Excellence—with offerings such as the New Graduate Nurse Immersion Residency and the Specialty Nurse Accelerated Program (SNAP), as well as continuing clinical-education offerings and competency development and coordination—represents a way that St. David’s has grown its own approach to supporting high performance. According to Lowe, his organization has worked hard with local communities to cultivate opportunities for mutual success. The health system’s outreach commitments include education partner relationships and active participation in local, state, and regional associations and coalitions that benefit community health and well-being. For example, St. David’s collaboration with Texas State University resulted in the St. David’s School of Nursing. The program provides the health care organization with a "deeper pipeline" of new workforce members; it simultaneously benefits the university through increased enrollment and the local community through retention of graduates residing in the local area. St. David’s has also partnered with the nonprofit Goodwill to create workforce development programs, which it can tap for ancillary support, said Lowe. With a focus on maintaining its ICARE culture, St. David’s ensures that its prospective workforce is introduced early to the organization’s five core values. In fact, Lowe said that reviewing and accepting those ICARE values takes place before individuals can even apply for jobs, to help ensure each new hire’s "fit" with the organization’s culture. To the same end, "high-functioning employees" are asked to conduct peer interviews on review panels to screen job applicants for fit with the cultural values. "Infusion of talent is critical to our sustained success; it’s just as important that that new talent understand the importance of our values," said Lowe. When CEOs of the various St. David’s facilities review the ICARE values as part of new-employee orientation, he added, "They don’t just talk about the values; they talk about why they matter." For more information about the workforce-focused approaches of St. David’s HealthCare and other Baldrige Award recipients, see the organizations’ profiles and award application summaries on the Baldrige Program’s website. And please comment below to share how other high-performing organizations you know get and grow employees for the benefit of the organization’s future, customers and other stakeholders in the community, and individuals’ careers too.

Posted by Dawn Marie Bailey The Baldrige Program recently became an endorser of Manufacturing Day, which is co-produced by several organizations, including the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), National Association of Manufacturers, Manufacturing Institute, and the Science Channel. The goal of the day, which occurs this year on October 2 (although many states and manufacturers plan events for a full week or throughout the year), is to give manufacturers an opportunity to open their doors and show, in a coordinated effort, what they and manufacturing as a whole offer to the economy. They also can work on their challenges: addressing a skilled labor shortage, connecting with future generations, taking charge of the public image of manufacturing, and ensuring the ongoing prosperity of the whole industry. A recent MEP blog outlined the top challenges keeping manufacturing CEOs up at night: continuous improvement, growth, workforce needs, technology needs, supply chain needs, and product innovation/development. The Baldrige Program is a natural participant in Manufacturing Day. In 1988, it was created by Congress and named after the Secretary of Commerce to develop, educate about, and promote a criteria to help manufacturers become more competitive with their global counterparts. Baldrige continues to promote manufacturing through its products and services, including the free, downloadable, self-assessment Baldrige Excellence Builder. If you want to learn more about how to participate, consider attending a free webinar on June 8 from 2 to 3 pm EST on how and why to get involved in Manufacturing Day. In addition, anyone can find a local event in his/her community that is associated with the day. Schools and students at all levels may find particular benefit from Manufacturing Day by participating in real or virtual field trips.

Posted by Harry Hertz, the Baldrige Cheermudgeon I wasn’t going to write about my recent experience, but further reflection compels me to share some thoughts. I recently fulfilled part of my civic responsibility by serving on a circuit court jury. My first conclusion was that our court system is static. Let me explain. Every time legal counsel approached the judge, the judge flicked a switch to engulf the courtroom in noisy static, so that the conversation at the bench could not be heard by others in the courtroom. By the tenth or fifteenth time this happened, I burst into a smile that must have confused anybody observing my behavior. I had suddenly concluded that our legal system was part justice and fully static. At the end of our first day of jury deliberation, we had a hung jury on the last count against the defendants. The judge instructed us to continue deliberating, but would not let us stay, as we wished to do. Court was recessed for the day, requiring us to return for another day. I could recount some other experiences related to my juror’s perspective of the trial process, but let me move on to my subsequent reflection. I have always considered education and health care to be somewhat unique industries. Both of these endeavors are characterized by highly trained, highly knowledgeable, and highly independent knowledge workers: teachers and physicians. Furthermore they are characterized by having "unpaid workers" (students and patients) who are key contributors to the success or failure of the services delivered (education and health care).  And yet those same people are also important customers who must be satisfied, and will hopefully be loyal, to the institution. My revelation after serving on the jury was that our court system is similar to our education and health care systems. The judges have the same characteristics as the teachers and physicians, And the jurors are very similar to the students and patients. Yet I doubt we ever consider these similarities. I am certain there is some cross-sector learning that would be valuable. How do you engage these "customers" in all three sectors so that they are satisfied with the service and eager to engage as workforce members in their own self-interest, as well as the common interest of improving the overall product? How do you solicit their honest and thoughtful input into process improvement and then act on it? How do you get joint ownership for brand image among the key knowledge workers and the unpaid workers? How do you encourage and foster partnering between the independent knowledge workers and the paid administrative professionals, critical to system success? I would like to be part of the above discussions. Maybe we could encourage use of the Baldrige Excellence Framework and Excellence Builder as an approach for better communication and cooperation. And maybe there are more "industries" that share these characteristics and should be engaged in the dialog. Certainly, all of us as taxpayers could benefit from the outcomes.  

Posted by Dawn Marie Bailey With the Belmont Stakes this weekend and a potential triple crown victory after more than 30 years, today, I’m writing a short blog, which is pretty unusual for me. But that’s because I came across another blog that I thought would be a fun and interesting read for the Baldrige community: "What Kentucky Derby Handicapping Can Teach Us About Organizational Metrics." In trying to determine the finishing place for race horses, a "complex exercise in data science," author Nicole Radziwill realized that she was essentially following the Baldrige analysis process "LeTCI" to determine whether an organization "has constructed a robust, reliable, and relevant assessment program to evaluate their business and their results." "And what does this mean for organizational metrics?" she writes. "To me, it means that when I’m formulating and evaluating business metrics I should take a perspective that’s much more like handicapping a major horse race—because assessing performance is intricately tied to capabilities, context, the environment, and what’s bound to happen now, in the near future." Click on the link above to read the article. And here’s some more food for Baldrige thought: Results are important, but they must derive from process. What ADLI indicators might you look for in a prize-winning horse? What other innovative ways have you used Baldrige outside of an organizational assessment?