What Do Science and Business Have in Common?

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Harry “The Baldrige Cheermudgeon”

Posted by Harry Hertz, the Baldrige Cheermudgeon

A recent article in the New York Times reported a sharp rise in the number of retractions of scientific papers in leading technical journals and called for reforms in the conduct and administration of academic scientific research. Let me give you the background.

In October 2011, one of the most prestigious scientific journals, Nature, reported that in the last decade retractions had increased tenfold, while the number of published papers had increased by just 44%. In a separate study, two researches determined that the higher a journal’s impact (i.e., how frequently their papers are cited by scientists) the higher the journal’s retraction rate. The highest retraction index was for the New England Journal of Medicine, one of the world’s leading medical journals. The root cause for the increase in retractions and for the concern is believed to be the need to rapidly bring experiments to publication because scientists’ career advancement is so dependent on publications as is their ability to get grant funding in an environment where there are increasingly fewer grants available per capita for a growing number of academic scientists.

So what does this all have to do with Baldrige and enterprise management, you might ask. I think there are many parallels to drivers of management success today: the need to publish quarterly earnings that look good every quarter, the need to satisfy a demanding Board on short-term performance, and the close tie of executive compensation to short-term earnings.

The parallels are clear to the pressures on scientists and the outcome is the same, the lack of balance among long-term vision, intelligent risk-taking, and reliance on core values and ethical principles because the pressures are all overwhelmingly short term. And if you don’t succeed in the short term, there is always a new senior leader eager to get his or her turn and a glut of scientists looking for academic positions.

Maybe a close look at the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence core values and the criteria for leadership, governance, and strategic planning could help science and business. They could serve as counsel to business, education, and health care senior leaders and oversight/governing bodies. What’s your opinion?

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Increased Confidence, Leadership Skills, Innovation, Engagement—What Baldrige Examiners Take Back

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Pamela Wong

Posted by Pamela Wong

What value does a Baldrige examiner take back to his or her organization? I’ve been thinking about this as national examiner training is taking place at the Baldrige offices here in Gaithersburg, MD. For each of four weeks, which began on April 24 this year, about 100 examiners come for the three-day Examiner Preparation Course (add an extra day for new examiners and senior examiners) to learn how to apply the Baldrige Criteria and evaluate applications for the Baldrige Award.

Examiners or their employing organizations pay the expenses associated with travel to training. In addition, examiners commit a significant amount of volunteer time to their studies and to applicant review. A key reason examiners attend is to develop expertise to help their own organizations improve and possibly engage in the Baldrige journey.

Here’s what Matt Fleming, president of MidwayUSA, a 2009 Baldrige Award recipient in small business, said:

“We are seeing personal growth and development in our employees, especially our senior leaders, who are [Baldrige] examiners. We are seeing increased confidence, better leadership skills, a major level of excitement and energy, and more engagement in participation in all of our meetings.”

It’s clear that employers encourage their workers to participate because of the benefits the employee brings back to them. Following is a list of benefits that examiners and organizational leaders have shared.

“I view Baldrige examiner training as a ‘mini-MBA.’ . . . It keeps me current on the leading edge of evidence-based business practices each year that I return.”

The training provides “continued education in effective management practices.”

Serving as an examiner provides training in the “tools of leadership”—such as strategic planning, core values, and in developing meaningful measures and metrics.

The cost is lower than it would be to hire a consultant—and the employee brings the knowledge back to his/her organization.

Baldrige examiners are “always thinking about improving, making more connections, being more systematic. . . . If you’re thinking of your work in that fashion, it is helpful to your organization.”

“I have been able to . . . learn about other industries’ performance, and that has enabled me to become more innovative within my own organization.”

“The Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence apply not only to the applicants, but [the Criteria] are transferrable to any organization.”

Serving as an examiner provides the “opportunity to look at some of the highest-performing organizations in the country and to see . . . their best practices.”

In the opening session of examiner training, examiners introduce themselves by sharing their name, organization, and number of years as an examiner. The breadth and number of organizations are always impressive. In a recent week, I counted five or six examiners from organizations that have already won the Baldrige Award. What a statement, I thought, of the value organizations find in having their workers serve as examiners.

What value has your organization realized from having their employees serve as Baldrige examiners? Consider how this experience could impact your journey to performance excellence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in Baldrige Award Process, Baldrige Examiners, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

From Self-Assessment to Award Recipient: What SCF Learned Along the Way

Posted on May 8, 2012 by Pamela Wong

By Pamela Wong

In 2003, Southcentral Foundation (SCF) conducted its first self-evaluation. In 2011, it won the Baldrige Award. But what happened in between? At the 24th Annual Quest for Excellence Conference®, SCF leaders spoke in a breakout session about what the organization learned along the way.

SCF is a health system that serves the native people of Alaska. Through trusts and treaties, the federal government provides 44% of SCF’s revenue, which also includes third-party billings and foundation funds.

In the words of President and CEO Katherine Gottlieb, the organization is “owned, driven, and directed by ‘customer-owners’”—Alaskan Natives. They are spread throughout an area of 126,000 square miles, and many have access to health care only through telemedicine and airplanes that fly medical workers into their remote villages.

Following are some of the milestones and learning on SCF’s Baldrige journey:

• In 2004, SCF adopted the Baldrige Criteria, and it submitted its first application in 2005.

• In 2005, after an SCF vice president attended national examiner training at Baldrige offices near Washington, DC, the organization decided to bring the training to its Alaska headquarters, where consultants conducted it. SCF staff evaluated their organization’s own application, which gave them helpful experience in identifying strengths and opportunities for improvement (OFIs).

• In 2007, in response to its third application, SCF received a site visit by national examiners.

• In 2008, SCF decided to focus on addressing its OFIs and didn’t apply. The organization replaced project managers with centralized improvement specialists and advisors, a structure that provided more systematization and less duplication of its improvement efforts.

• In 2008, the SCF Development Center began a variety of quality improvement courses that were taught by internal experts. Fifty managers were trained over 18 months. They became involved as Baldrige champions and in writing the applications.

• In 2009, SCF applied for the Alaska Performance Excellence Award, which it won.

• In 2011, on its fifth application for the Baldrige Award, SCF received a site visit and won the national recognition.

So what’s next? First, Southcentral Foundation is working on OFIs from its 2011 feedback report. Then it will write applications for the next five years, in order to stay current with the Baldrige Criteria. SCF plans to next apply for the award in 2016 when, as a new award recipient, it is again eligible.

The journey continues.

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How has Baldrige helped you build an even better future?

Posted on May 3, 2012 by Dawn Bailey

Posted by Dawn Marie Bailey

In the mid-1980s, Secretary of Commerce Malcolm Baldrige, working with President Ronald Reagan, knew that American companies could compete with the newly emerging international market if they began sharing best practices, following management standards, and focusing on product quality.

Twenty-five years later, the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence still stand as a guide for excellence and a competitive advantage across all sectors of the U.S. economy. The Baldrige Performance Excellence Program still helps enable the success of organizations  that are interested in sustainable, performance improvement journeys.

Organizations that have found the Criteria, whether through the national or their Baldrige-based state, local, or sector programs, know the power of the guidelines for improved performance and the power of receiving external guidance by teams of expert examiners. Being named a role model as a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient is simply the icing on a cake already filled with great value!

Here are just some examples of how Baldrige is building an even better future and for whom?

  • Health care organizations are using Baldrige’s Health Care Criteria for Performance Excellence to align processes and results to focus on patient care and clinical outcomes. The proof? A Thomson Reuter’s study showed that Baldrige health care organizations outperform their peers, and Becker’s Hospital Review considers winning the Baldrige Award as one criterion to be among the 100 best hospitals in the nation.
  • Manufacturing organizations are using the Criteria to adopt a systems approach to improve productivity and effectiveness, and pursue performance excellence, with an average 48% rise in revenue, annually. One example is MEDRAD.
  • Service organizations are aligning their efforts and therefore increasing profits and stature by using the Criteria as a guide. One example is K&N Management.
  • Education organizations are using the Education Criteria for Performance Excellence to focus on student outcomes by going beyond simply measuring student success to helping students learn. One example is Montgomery County Public Schools.
  • Nonprofit organizations are using the Criteria to keep agile and flexible as their industries shift and maintaining resources becomes critical. One example is Concordia Publishing House.
  • Small businesses are using the Criteria to strengthen customer relationships and ensure better service and value. One example is Freese and Nichols Inc.
  • The Baldrige national staff and staff at partner organizations are using the Criteria to guide their transformation as the Baldrige Enterprise. Staff have used the Criteria to develop strategies, benchmark, explore comparative data, renew voice-of-the-customer strategies, run the business and change the business, and keep the workforce engaged.

Please share your stories of how Baldrige has helped you build an even better future. We will link comments back to our 25th Web page so that we all can share in the learning and improve our organizations. Together, we can also raise awareness of the power of the Criteria.

Posted in Baldrige Award Process, Baldrige Award Recipients, Baldrige Criteria, Business, Customer Focus, Education, Health Care, Leadership, Manufacturing, Nonprofit, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

When Baldrige Geeks Wed

Posted on May 1, 2012 by Harry “The Baldrige Cheermudgeon”

Posted by Harry Hertz, the Baldrige Cheermudgeon

What do you give the bride and groom when they are both Baldrige geeks? I struggled with the question, but then the answer seemed obvious, you give them their own Criteria Item. So, with their permission and some tongue-in-cheek, I share with you Item 3.3, Spousal Engagement. And congratulations to the bride and groom!

3.3 Spousal Engagement: How do you engage your spouse to serve his or her needs and build your relationship?                                                                 (-2 pts.)                                       Process

Describe how you and your spouse determine desired service and communication mechanisms to support your mutual desires. Describe how you and your spouse grow your relationship.

Within your response, include answers to the following questions:

a. Spousal Services and Support

(1)  Service Offerings How do each of you identify your spouse’s requirements for marital bliss? How do you identify and innovate your services to your spouse to meet the requirements and exceed the expectations of your spouse and his or her market segment (the universe of husbands and the universe of wives, respectively)? How do you identify and innovate services to avoid either partner seeking new markets and to provide opportunities for expanding your relationship with your spouse?

(2)  Spousal Support How do each of you enable your spouse to seek information and support from you? How do you enable the making of family decisions and provide feedback on your partner’s involvement? What are your key means of spousal support, including your key communication mechanisms? How do they vary for different moods and your spouse’s market segment? How do you determine your spouse’s key support requirements? How do you ensure that those support requirements are deployed to all mood situations and processes involved in supporting your spouse?

(3)  Data Use How do each of you use spousal and market segment information to build a healthy marriage and identify opportunities for innovation?

b. Building Partner Relationships

(1)  Relationship Management How do each of you market, build, and manage your relationship with your spouse to achieve the following?

  •      build share of spouse’s heart
  •      retain your spouse, meet his or her requirements, and exceed his or her expectations in each stage of the marriage life cycle (e.g., honeymoon, day-to-day living, seven-year itch)
  •      increase your spouse’s commitment to you

(2)  Complaint Management How do each of you manage spousal complaints? How does your complaint management process ensure that complaints are resolved promptly and effectively? How does your complaint management process enable you to recover your spouse’s confidence and enhance their satisfaction and commitment?

Notes:

N1. This Item has a value of negative two points representing the potential for two disparate viewpoints by partners. If the two partners function as one the score may be given positive one point, thereby offering “extra credit” for success (for a possible perfect Baldrige marriage assessment score of 1001).

N2. “Spousal engagement” refers to your spouse’s investment in your long-term relationship. Characteristics of engagement include spousal retention and loyalty, spouse’s willingness to make an effort to protect and defend you, and your spouse’s willingness to actively advocate for you in friendly and challenging situations.

N3. “Services” refers to the services that you offer your spouse in public and private. Services (3.2a) should consider all the important characteristics for long-term marital bliss and their performance as long as you both shall live. The focus should be on features that affect spousal preference and loyalty—for example, those features that differentiate your relationship from others’ marriages and meet your joint needs. Those features might include budgets, reliability, delivery, timeliness, toilet seat up or down, and ease of interaction. Key features also might take into account how amicably interactions occur and factors such as the privacy and security of personal data. Your results on performance relative to key services should be reported in item 7.1, and those concerning spousal perceptions and actions (outcomes) should be reported in item 7.2.

N4. The goal of spousal support (3.3a[2]) is to make your relationship a loving and lasting one responsive to your spouse’s expectations and moods.

Posted in Baldrige Criteria, Baldrige Director, Customer Focus | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments