Could the MBA Become an MPE?

Posted by Zara Brunner

What if a Master of Performance Excellence (MPE) Degree Program existed?  Would you enroll?  And what could you learn from it?

Confident that they have identified an idea whose time has come, Loyola University New Orleans College of Business will offer a MPE Degree Program with the Fall 2012 semester.  The MPE brochure identifies the focus as equipping students in the "systems-centered design and management of high performance organizations."  The MPE program promises more than a remodeled MBA.

There is nothing "old school" about this innovative degree program.  The MPE student doesn't apply individually, but in partnership with his/her employer--referred to as the Sponsoring Organization (S0).  The SO commits to support their student(s), typically junior-level executives identified for career advancement, in becoming positive change agents within the organization.  The MPE program, designed to allow the student to apply acquired competencies to the workplace in real time, delivers products of value for the SO.  To ensure success, the SO's CEO and senior leadership agree to support the student by naming a "strategic team" that meets on a regular basis to provide input to the MPE student and address any barriers the student may face in completing an organizational performance assessment, analysis, and project-related change efforts.  The SO assigns a senior executive to help break down those barriers so that the organizational improvement project can provide a positive return on investment to the SO.  The SO is expected to further support the student by assigning a certain percentage of the MPE student's work time to class study, project completion, and preparation. 

The SO covers the cost of the MPE program because the return on investment directly benefits the SO's operations and results and encourages the employee's long-term engagement with the organization.

The MPE curriculum is based on the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence and focuses on:

• visionary leadership
• customer-driven excellence
• organizational and personal learning
• valuing workforce members and partners
• agility
• focus on the future
• managing for innovation
• management by fact
• social responsibility
• focus on results and creating value
• systems perspective

Most of you likely recognize these as the Baldrige Core Values-- the key to any organization wanting to achieve excellence. MPE coursework includes: leadership dynamics; management, complexity, and systems science; strategic management, performance improvement, and risk management; marketing and customer relationship management; human capital; enterprise management; evidence-based management; leading change; advanced management science methods; and improvement plan development and implementation. 

I checked in with the visionary behind this new program to learn more about what Loyola expects to accomplish with the new MPE.  Ron Schulingkamp is the Senior Strategic Consultant of DM Petroleum Operations Company (Managing and Operating Contractor for the U.S. Department of Energy Strategic Petroleum Reserve).  Ron led and continues to lead the company's improvement efforts.  Ron's effort led to DM receiving the Baldrige Award in 2005 and the Robert W. Campbell International Award for Environment Safety and Health in 2006.  He leads an alumni group of Baldrige Award Recipients who encourages adoption of the Baldrige Criteria within organizations and champions evidence-based practices in performance improvement in the journey to excellence. 

Q: So Ron, tell us a little bit about what motivated you to start the program, benefits to participants, and some of your visions and goals for it?

A: Continuous improvement is my passion, much like everyone reading this.  As children, we learned that we could not have everything we wanted and in basic economics, we learned we live in a world of scarce resources.  In the U.S., we must become more efficient and effective in everything we do--especially our strategy and execution.  Large or small, companies must be better and the leadership smarter than the competition to maintain the U.S. standard of living for future generations.  My goal is simple: drastically improve the performance of organizations throughout the U.S. to ensure the future is better not worse.  Achieving this goal is an incredible challenge.  Education is key to achieving it, but the leadership of U.S. educational institutions have to learn and improve--especially business schools.

Q: Why a new program like the MPE?

A: Simply put, we need a new "mental model" for the future.  The MPE is an important start.  We live in a world of complexity, but we approach problems with the simple cause and effect concepts we learned as young adults in undergraduate school.  Our decisions over time have stressed global systems that we have taken for granted which now have created monumental challenges for humanity.  The thinking that led to today's challenges cannot solve today's challenges or improve tomorrow. 

The MPE is designed to teach executives how to see, think, and understand complexity and interrelationships.  Generally, MBA programs teach within the context of silos and linear cause and effect relationships.  This is how traditional businesses, institutions of higher learning included, function.  This type of silo linear thinking yields typical problems, such as sub-optimization, that we see time and time again. 

Systems thinking is central to the MPE curriculum.  The Baldrige Criteria are incorporated in the MPE as a model for understanding complex systems, their related processes, and organizational relationships.  There is an intense focus on developing leadership's ability to understand systems, variation, knowledge of theories that help predict outcomes, and the student's analytical capabilities to ultimately improve.  The goal is to make organizational decisions based n the systematic analysis of current processes, gaps in performance, and identified opportunities for improvement. 

So let me wrap this all up by asking: do you know of any other novel concepts or curricula?  Please share them with our readers. 

Comments

[S Nemec]

Intrigued by the idea, I went to the Loyola Univ. website but could not find any brochure or additional information on the MPE program. Is there a way to access this information?

[Zara]

Thanks for the question. You can find out more from Jerry Goolsby, Ph.D. at 504-319-1003 or MPE@loyno.edu

[DR Joseph King JR]

Great concept...Is the Business School currently seeking experienced faculty ?
If so who is the point of contact ?

[Zara]

Dr. Goolsby is the best point of contact at Loyola New Orleans. Thanks!

[Antenor P. Vilceus, MD MBA]

The MPE curriculum is similar to the MBA in Quality management offered by Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY. These topics were well covered in the seminar in Quality management taught by Dr. Yoself Dlugacz. It was an excellent course.

[Tim Clark]

Like the concept - It is a new “mental model” for the future.

Would suggest that the curriculum include more explicit education on variability which supports systems thinking.

One of the better business books by a colleague of W. Edwards Deming is Fourth Generation Management, The New Business Consciousness, How the Evolution of Management and the Revolution of Quality are Converging, and What It Means for Business and the Nation, by Brian Joiner.

I introduce and reinforce the importance of understanding variability and promote application of the Baldrige framework in a series of articles I wrote for FedSmith.com. http://www.fedsmith.com/article/authors/38.html

[Spedden Hause]

"The MPE is designed to teach executives how to see, think, and understand complexity and interrelationships." This is the key sentence. If this program is able to accomplish this without getting mired in the process of attempting to quantifiably measure every aspect of performance improvement I'm all for it. The Strategic Leadership graduate program at Mountain State University is dedicated to exploring new mental models for leadership and management and includes, in principe, many of these idea.

[Ron Schulingkamp]

Thanks for the feedback Tim. I am glad you like the concept of a new “mental model” (Peter Senge) for the future. Yes, the curriculum does include explicit education in variability which supports systems thinking, which is integrated into all courses and required to understand the Baldrige Criteria.

System thinking is central to the MPE curriculum. The Baldrige Criteria are incorporated in the MPE program as a model for understanding complex systems, their related processes, and organizational relationships.

To Spedden’s point, there is an intense focus on developing leadership’s ability to understand systems, variation, knowledge of theories that help predict outcomes and the student’s analytical capabilities to ultimately improve and the organizations, decision support system. The goal is to make organizational decisions based on the systematic analysis of current processes, gaps in performance and identified opportunities for improvement.

The MPE degree is NOT a quality focused MBA program. The MPE is designed to create a high performing organization and facilitate organizational change whereas the MBA is focused more on the student, not the organization. The MPE requires the “partnership” discussed earlier to ensure improvement.

The MPE is designed to create high performance change agents to work with the CEO and the strategic team.

The MPE is designed to answer the question about the next generation of high performing organizations.

In the September/October 2011 Healthcare Executive Magazine, Thomas C. Dolan Ph.D. writes about the CEO turnover and succession crises. The MPE is designed to meet the needs of the leadership succession plan by developing the next generation of leadership with the skills, knowledge, and abilities to enhance organizational performance.

The MPE is a different model that has taken over a dozen years to develop. It is designed for any organization to participate. The schedule covers 3 weekends each semester in New Orleans for the 5 semesters.

The schedule is designed to allow students and faculty to participate regardless of where they live. This schedule has allowed the program to recruit top instructors with years of Baldrige examiner experience and many instructors are from Baldrige recipient organizations. As a result, the MPE candidate learns from those who actually lead high performance organizations.

The intensive weekend residency program allows students to remain active in the workplace while developing an expanded professional network and the competencies required of high performing organizations.

For more information contact call Jerry Goolsby Ph.D. at (504) 319-1003 or e-mail him at MPE@loyno.edu

[Cruz M. Sedillo II]

I am enthused by the concept of a new way of seeing, learning, and becoming. Albeit a noble venture, I encourage Loyola to engage in a radically different meta model for thinking and to discard the processes of ten years that led them to the model envisioned for launching at the Fall Semester of 2012. The business model concepts of the past tens years and the influences on the new program suggests more of the same while we truly need a departure from what has been taught, yet no longer applies when matched against the rapidly changing business world. Otherwise, one is still re-shaping the past rather than designing and modeling for a future [akin to designing doctrine to fight the previous war]. MPE is a noble venture that parallels the visionary changes to leadership undertaken by the U. S. Army in its Organizational Effectiveness Program [circa 1970s and early 1980s]....it found itself far ahead of what "old leaders" were willing to adopt and it was sentenced to a timely demise. MPE is necessary, and begs for a truly fresh and open perspective! I believe that having the Student/Organizational symbiotic relationship prepared the mindset of success. Best of Success!

[Supply Chain Management]

I've seen lots of organization has Chief Process Management. Then, Master of Performance Excellence will make performance improvement function becomes a good career path.

[Logistics]

MPE is the interesting development of higher education.