BLOGRIGE

Baldrige Examiners: National Heroes

Posted by Zara Brunner

Two of my favorite things are converging and happening at once: the holiday season and recruitment for Baldrige Examiners!  Baldrige Examiners are heroes disguised as every day people in my book and we here at the program can't thank them enough.

Every year about 600 professionals at the top of their careers from various sectors across the US donate their time and talent to help evaluate applicants for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.  They are also learning about performance excellence from top-performing US organizations and developing a terrific network of colleagues, not to mention doing service for their country.  It's really remarkable what these folks do.  And keep doing-since so many return year after year (and some for decades!).  So if you haven't applied before, why don't you join this elite group of people who are changing organizations, their careers, and really--the country.  Take a look at what's involved and consider applying this year. 

Special thanks to the 2010 Baldrige Examiners who helped make last week's announcement of the 2010 Baldrige Award recipients possible.  You really are to be celebrated and commended.  And an extra shout out for those of you who have already answered the call to help us to Refer 2 Friends and Colleagues: Jerry Pradier, David Blanco, Ed Lee, Shirley Antes, Jeannie Mollohan, and Paul Grizell.  Please let me know if anyone else is interested in doing so. 

The final culmination of examiners' collective efforts can be seen in this video where Vice President Biden presents the Baldrige Award to recipient organizations.   

Who You Gonna Call? Goalbusters?

Posted by Harry Hertz, the Baldrige Cheermudgeon

I am excited! The 2010 Baldrige Award recipients have been announced and they break myths and achieve goals detractors would say are impossible! Here are some myths I frequently hear: A large school district could never be selected for the Baldrige award. It would be too hard to deploy a systems approach across 200 schools, varying cultures, and diverse socio-economic groups. Well, what about our 2010 education recipient, Montgomery County Public Schools, the 16th largest school district in the U.S. with over 100 foreign languages spoken in students' homes? In 2009, 64 percent of their high school graduates took at least one AP exam, compared with 27 percent nationally. For the fifth consecutive year none of the district's high poverty schools is on the state's School Improvement list.

And then there is the myth that Baldrige is too hard, or impossible, for small businesses. Well, what about the three small businesses that just received the 2010 Baldrige awards? K&N Management operates seven fast casual restaurants that have nearly 100 percent order accuracy rates, industry leading profitability, and that offer all 30-hour or higher employees 90 paid percent comprehensive health care and a company-matched 401(k) plan. Freese and Nichols is a multidiscipline engineering and construction services consulting firm that has been debt-free for its total 116 years and has been voted a best place to work by the the Society for Human Resource Management and the best place to learn by American Society for Training and Development. The Studer Group is a health care consulting firm with 120 employees and a vision "to be the intellectual resource for health care professionals." Studer Group disseminates their intellectual property for free to local organizations and offers free coaching and training to local nonprofit organizations. Given these three small businesses, one might conclude that Baldrige is a sustainability framework, not an impossible challenge.

And then there is the myth that when it comes to health care it's either quality or price, rather than quality being a source for controlling cost and decreasing price. Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital has a AA bond rating, a growing net operating margin, a risk-adjusted mortality index of .42, and top decile or near top decile performance on CMS core measures.

And finally, there is the often heard myth that you can't manufacture profitably in the U.S. Tell that to MEDRAD and Nestle Purina PetCare. MEDRAD is a medical device manufacturer with revenue that has grown steadily from 1997 to 2009 and with a lead in market share in the U.S. and Europe for most of the products it manufactures. Needless to say this is a by-product of reliable products and great customer loyalty. Nestle Purina PetCare (NPPC) is a consumer goods company that serves dogs and cats. NPPC's revenue has grown by more than 50 percent from 2003 to 2009, despite pet population growth of only 1 percent during this period.

Are you intrigued, convinced, or interested in learning more? I haven't even mentioned what all these organizations do for their communities. Baldrige is a win-win proposition for your owners, your customers, your stakeholders, your employees, and your community. Go to the Baldrige web site for the full press release on these uniquely American institutions. Or better yet, also come hear their stories at our next Quest for Excellence conference, April 4-6, 2011.

 

The "Skinny" on Baldrige versus Lean

Posted by Bob Fangmeyer

I have heard it a hundred times--while standing in our booth at a conference, responding to a general inquiry from our customer service line, after presenting an overview of Baldrige to an audience with varying degrees  of interest, even when talking to friends and family-- "Yeah, my organization looked into that Baldrige stuff in the 80's and early 90's. We have moved into Lean Six Sigma because we think it is a better fit for our organization."

Of course as soon as I begin explaining how Baldrige and Lean Six Sigma are not only compatible but very complimentary the eyes glaze over and lose focus, searching for another place to be. (Apparently I need to work on a snappy rejoinder, maybe something like "Oh yeah!? Well Lean might use cool Japanese terms like kanban and kaizen but people tell us we have our own language: Baldrigese!"). OK- so it needs a little work...

Actually, maybe I should just refer them to a fantastic discussion started by Regina Pontes that is occurring on the LinkedIn Baldrige Improvement Discussion Group: Baldrige and other quality programs/tools. (You need to be a member of LinkedIn and then you need to join the discussion group, but registration is simple and it is free.) In the discussion you will hear from Lean Six Sigma experts, Baldrige experts, and some that are both. What I hope you walk away with is a better understanding of how Baldrige provides the framework that can help ensure organizations that utilize Lean Six Sigma do so in such a way that optimizes their entire system and their ability to achieve organizational objectives rather than "merely" streamlining key processes and eliminating rework. Baldrige does not prescribe a particular tool or methodology, instead we support and encourage the use of a variety of performance improvement tools to address and improve the outcomes of not only traditional customer-focused and production processes, but your leadership, strategic planning, and workforce-focused processes as well.

So join in the discussion and share your thoughts here around how Lean and Baldrige go together like walnuts and brownies, peas in a pod, or maybe some other metaphor that comes to mind.

 

On the Road Again!

Posted by Harry Hertz, the Baldrige Cheermudgeon

Every time I go to a Baldrige conference and hear a Baldrige Award recipient speak, I fill with pride at the role models organizations we have in our country. The last two weeks were no different. Last week I attended the Pennsylvania KAPE award conference and this week I have been at a health care conference sponsored by the Illinois Lincoln program. I am happy to report that the Pennsylvania program celebrated its fifth anniversary with another year of growth in attendance. I had the pleasure of hearing plenary talks by Stuart Warren from the VA Cooperative Studies Program and Matt Fleming from MidwayUSA, both 2009 Baldrige Award recipients. After Matt mentioned the Baldrige Performance Excellence Group they started in Columbia, MO several interested audience members mentioned to me they were considering starting BPEGs in their communities. Please consider doing the same in your communities. It will make a better community in which to work and live.

In plenary sessions at the IL conference, Mike Murphy of Sharp HealthCare and Priscilla Nuwash of Poudre Valley Health System shared their journeys to the Baldrige Award and David Fox of Advocate Good Samaritan shared his organization's journey to the Illinois Lincoln Award. The ability to hear three very different health care organizations in a row afforded the audience the opportunity to see commonalities and differences in their approaches. Three particular commonalities struck me: Baldrige efforts succeed only if senior leaders lead the effort, this is about setting vision and driving toward its achievement. Second, every one of these organizations experienced significant culture changes that benefited all their stakeholders, employees, physicians, patients, and their communities. Third, all of them learned from health care and non health care Baldrige recipients; some of their key lessons came from outside health care. One of the great benefits of Baldrige is that it provides a common language for cross-sector learning and best practice sharing.

They all spoke of the complexity of Baldrige and the complexity of leadership. Which leads me to a reminder that the 2011-2012 Baldrige Criteria will be available in a few weeks and a major theme for the changes is understanding complexity and executing with simplicity. More is written on that in my November Insights column.

And on the way home, I even got to the airport ten minutes before the flight ahead of mine left and it had seats! Of course, getting the seat was a cheermudgeon moment and its worth sharing:

Me: Is it too late to get on this flight and are seats available?

Gate agent: Middle seats only.

Me: That's OK; that's what I had on the next flight.

Gate agent: There will be a standby fee up to the full one-way fare.

Me: I believe with my contract fare I can change flights without a fee.

Gate agent: Give me a chance to look up your ticket before you make requests!

Me: (Too eager to get on the flight to say, look up the ticket before you assess fees.)

Gate agent: Here is your boarding pass.

Me: sigh!

While I love going on the road for Baldrige, it sure is good to get back home earlier than expected!

Waiting for Superman, Race to Nowhere, Or Something Else?

Posted by Zara Brunner

David Spong, former chair of the Baldrige Foundation and current ASQ President, pointed out to me that I hadn't blogged in a while when I saw him at the National Quality in Education Conference a few days ago.  So this one's for him and for my two little boys--well, what the heck, it's for all kids. 

I usually don't write about education, since Baldrige_Jeff is our resident education expert and does a great job of blogging on the topic and engaging conversations.  But I realized I have something to say. The film Waiting for Superman is a bit at odds with the documentary Race to Nowhere.  Both of them have something in common in that they present a crisis in public education.  On the one hand, kids are getting left out of the system and don't have access to a quality education.  On the other, kids in some districts are under too much pressure from uber-achievement focused competition.  We need a middle ground. 

There were about 350 education leaders at the conference in Chicago.  They are dedicated to finding a way to create a quality education for their schools, districts, and our children.  No one can argue with the need to find a way to give kids a quality education.  That's something that all smart, compassionate people can agree on, right?  But how do we get there? 

Jo Anderson, senior advisor to US Education Secretary Duncan, delivered the opening keynote at the conference.  He talked about the Elementary and Secondary Education Act Reauthorization, and the President's goal that "By 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world."  Some of the focus on early learning includes increased access and improved quality.  This includes raising the bar for all students, closing gaps, fostering innovation and rewarding success.  Some of the core areas of ESEA are: college and career-ready students; meeting the needs of diverse learners; successful, safe, and healthy students; great teachers and great leaders; a complete education; and fostering innovation and excellence.  The 2011 budget includes increased funds to help make these things happen, with the vision to focus less on compliance and more on rewarding success, maximizing impact with flexible approaches, and proof of results.

Mr. Anderson's presentation emphasized quality improvement tools and the Baldrige Education Criteria for Performance Excellence.  Now I'm a bit biased since I happen to be a huge believer in the Baldrige mission and think that the use of the Education Criteria could transform America's schools, school systems, and education.  There is proof to substantiate this position too.  That would be the results of world class education outcomes from our Baldrige Education Award recipients.  Take a look and see some great examples of what IS working in education.  Results like:

• Closing the proficiency gap between African-American students and all students
• Going from one of the state's worst dropout rates, to one of the top 10
• Having a turnover rate for teachers at 6% compared to the 20% national rate
• 95% or higher graduation rates -- including 100% in Pearl River School District
• Increased "enthusiasm for learning" (love that they measure that!)

This can be done.  We don't have to wait for superman, although it does take someone with super abilities to do the hard work and make the investment in time to do it like Dr. Terry Holliday did.  And we are racing to somewhere.  We Baldrige believers are racing around the country sharing what we passionately believe is the answer to education excellence--and it's free for any and all to use.  If anyone else has another idea on how to measure and improve school system performance, as Dr. Holliday said when he presented his school system's transformation with Baldrige, just let us know. 

 

Lake Wobegon Kids Need Stretch Goals

Posted by Jeff Lucas 

Okay, my original title for this post was "Applying the Taguchi Loss Function to Standards Based Education," but I have learned a thing or two from our social media guru Baldrige_Zara on billboarding an entry so I decided not to go there.  Anyway, I have been doing some reading to support our Lean Six-Sigma implementation here at the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program and reacquainted myself with Genichi Taguchi's work on how variation, even when it is within the limits of specifications, affects the value of a product.

Now, I have plenty of scars to show from the times I have used a manufacturing-production analogy with education groups ("these are children, not cans of tomatoes!"), but stay with me for just a minute.  Taguchi points out that if you use a binary measurement (yes/no) with regard to whether or not a particular performance or behavior met a standard that has an upper and lower specification limit (see first illustration below) then any performance that doesn't meet the lower limit is considered equally bad, and any performance that is within the limits is equally good. 

Instead, Taguchi demonstrated that as variability in a process increases, there is a geometric increase in the loss to society, and that in reality, loss can't be defined with sharp cutoffs, but rather begins with any variation from the target and increases as you move away (second illustration).  For example, if you are measuring on-time delivery and a shipment is late with respect to the deadline, does it matter how late?  Probably.  This phenomenon often plays out in the production of products that require numerous subprocesses in the supply chain. Each time a particular part or assembly varies from the target it introduces a greater likelihood that the overall product will not perform to standards.  The frequently cited example of this playing out on the factory floor was a major US auto manufacturer that was building transmissions simultaneously in the US and Japan.  While both plants were building the transmissions to the same design and specifications it soon became apparent that those from Japan were substantially more reliable in use than those from the US. When the transmissions were taken apart and examined, it turned out that that while parts in both were "in spec" those in the Japanese versions were more in spec and this produced a transmission that was more likely to operate as designed and for a longer period of time.  Not everything that meets a standard is created equal.

So, now let's see how this might apply to the idea of standards-based education.  The use of the the word "standard" is a little bit misleading in this analogy.  I think instead it represents the lower specification limit, i.e. the lowest level of student performance that we will find acceptable.  Then, if we see the education of a student as a multi-year value chain that involves not only how well the student meets the challenge of achieving to an established standard on the summative assessments that are given at the end of each year, but also as a function of how close the student gets to the target for all the formative learning experiences during that year, we have a process that is many times more complex than the most sophisticated transmission ever made.  A student who is repeatedly close to the "standard" may not be able to perform as we would expect in subsequent situations, whether that be moving on to the next grade, or being ready for college or careers. And, this is without even getting into the discussion about whether schools, systems, and states are low-balling those proficiency standards in the first place. 

This post has already gotten too long and too geeky, so I'll leave it to our many readers out there that understand statistical process control much better than I do to explain why you probably don't want to settle for your child being above average either.  Hopefully, however, I have accurately interpreted Taguchi's work and some of the limits it points out for the use of minimum standards in education.  The new version of the Education Criteria for Performance Excellence (look for it on our website by the end of December) will include a Core Value of Student-Centered Excellence that speaks to the need to focus on more than meeting minimum proficiency standards. Maybe in some small way this view of the loss that occurs when we settle for what is acceptable will prompt some to rethink how we want to evaluate student performance. 

 

 

 

 

 

Speaking as an Inpidual

Posted by Harry Hertz, the Baldrige Cheermudgeon

The Cheermudgeon is enjoying a good laugh! Yesterday I read a blog post that contained the following quote: "All organizations deal with challenges around performance, misalignment of organizational values and inpidual values, and leveraging best practices in the difficult situations that lead to termination of employees." Was inpidual a typo or a new word for my vocabulary? I checked several dictionaries and assured myself this was not a new word, but a really strange misspelling of individual. Just to be sure, I did a web search on inpidual and, to my surprise, came up with a huge number of pages of hits. Everything from inpidual needs to create an enjoyable hair transplant experience to the population of inpidual school districts.

So what's in a word? How critical is choice of the right word? In conversation, we probably don't put great reliance on each individual word. In a personal performance evaluation we probably weigh each word that we hear from our supervisor, maybe too seriously. In a legal document each word is subject to careful scrutiny and litigation. And what about the document that each year causes me to think extremely carefully about the meaning and nuances of inpidual words, the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence.

Even common business terms have different meanings in different organizations. The hierarchy of strategic planning language -- strategy, strategic objectives, action plans-- mean one thing in Baldrige and have a different meaning or hierarchy in other settings. That led us in 1996 to add a glossary of key terms to the criteria, and at that time it was only two pages long. Today, criteria users want definitions for every word in the book and the nuances that help them interpret the meaning for their performance excellence journeys. And some of the words are central to being competitive today, but are hard concepts to define and even harder to operationalize (love it, there's a word that grates every time I hear it). So read carefully, as you pick up the 2011 criteria in another month, the definitions of strategic challenges, core competencies, work systems, and work processes. What's in a word (or phrase)? Some of the most challenging concepts in the Baldrige criteria. But more importantly, some of the most significant concepts, in my opinion, for those on the journey to performance excellence. Please share your opinions. Do you have a favorite important concept as an inpidual or for your organization?