Why is it that people sometimes focus on the negative?  When Johnny or Susie bring home a report card, it’s easy to focus on the one C- and not the six A’s.  When corporate earnings are announced, the market punishes firms for missing expectations by a penny a share…never mind that earnings are up 10% over last year.  Even in the Council’s core assessment process, managers often count the number of opportunities for improvement listed, focusing less on their organization’s strengths.  Although the appetite to concentrate on improving shortcomings is natural (and usually appropriate), organizations might find as much – or more – leverage in building on their strengths…

Wednesday night, we celebrated our 17th annual Minnesota Quality Award event, recognizing nine organizations that are at various stages on the journey to excellence (see article 3 below).  The organizations represented business, K-12 education, and healthcare – and all shared how they are using Baldrige, Lean, Six Sigma, Balanced Scorecard, and other quality techniques to improve aspects of their performance.  The afternoon portion of the event offered a series of three breakout workshops, each providing an opportunity for this year’s Award recipients – along with Mate Precision Tooling, Cargill Kitchen Solutions, and University of Wisconsin-Stout (the latter two are recipients of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award) – to share their knowledge and strengths to help other Minnesota organizations improve as well.  A recent Garrison Keillor column summed it up nicely (and, as only he can do, humorously):

“We used to have a potluck culture in Minnesota - the sharing of food as a way of life, you do your best for me, I do my best for you. But it easily breaks down: If some folks bring homemade pies and others bring a gallon of factory-made potato salad, forget it, the potluck is over. If other people don't care to make something good, then why should we? And so Aunt Elsie's excellent fried chicken passes from the scene and we settle for a Barrel O’Breasts from KFC, and meanwhile standards slip in the public schools and bankers hand out high-risk mortgages.”

I’m not sure I agree on the political commentary on schools and sub-prime mortgages, but the essence of Keillor’s message is clear: the afternoon was about sharing good, better, and best practices on the journey to excellence so that Minnesota organization’s become stronger and Minnesota itself becomes a better place to live and work.

I thought sharing some of their strengths might benefit a broader audience:

• Cargill Kitchen Solutions (formerly Sunny Fresh Foods), a two-time Baldrige recipient (’99 and ’05) shared how difficult it has been not only to “reach” performance excellence but to sustain it.  Since receiving their first Award in 1999, seven of their top 10 leaders left the organization, several of their key competitors began studying and imitating their practices (so the market got tougher), environmental issues became a central focus for them and other food manufacturers, and workforce issues – which are facing all businesses – demand new skills and additional capacity (they have doubled their workforce in six years).  To sustain their excellence, they have done three things, which might be instructive for others: 1) increased their benchmarking efforts to learn from other high performing organizations, 2) increased the frequency of their self-assessments and increased the participation of their stakeholders (employees), and 3) focused on – in a word – being consistent.  They try to be consistent in their messages and vision from leadership; consistent in their core values; consistent in their continuous innovation and focus on the customer; consistent in their agility and their ability to rapidly respond to changes; and consistent their focus on workforce.
• Mate Precision Tooling, recipient of the Achievement Level of the 2005 MN Quality Award, shared how it is integrating Baldrige with Lean and Scorecard.  Mate’s perspective is that “Baldrige is the Brains; Lean is the muscle” – Lean is their primary tactical method for making improvements and for involving their workforce.  Balanced Scorecard was introduced a result of Mate’s first Baldrige assessment (in 2002), and represented a significant step forward for their sharing information company-wide.  Now, scorecard is a way to cascade goals and objectives, communicate more effectively, make better decisions, and align organizational priorities. 
• Immanuel St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Mankato (MQA recipient in 05 and 07) offered many examples of the practices they’ve implemented over the last five years.  They have strengthened their senior leadership by partnering administrators with medical directors, have developed a Voice of the Customer toolkit and trained the majority of their employees in service training; they have developed a system performance report (dashboard), aligning department and individual performance reports; they are using Six Sigma to improve patient outcomes and safety and to design new services; they are using Lean to improve staff work processes and are using PDSA in everything they do.
• Winona Health (four time MN Quality Award recipient, now at the Achievement Level), has learned that excellence requires an absolute commitment of leadership (the board, CEO, and senior staff); requires a focus on their strengths; requires the development of systematic (consistent, repeatable, and data-driven) processes in everything they do; and requires a recognition that excellence is everyone’s responsibility.  They have also learned that there are no short cuts to reaching true performance excellence: it takes time, persistence, and constancy of purpose.
• A panel of four school districts (Hayfield, Marshall, Pine Island, and Zumbrota-Mazeppa – all 2007 MQA recipients, Hayfield for the second time) shared a variety of strengths, including how they use PDSA to improve processes and classroom instruction, how they partner with communities to better understand needs and offer programs/services to meet them, how they are using data for decision making and monitoring improvement, and how they are beginning to benchmark with each other (and other districts).  Yes, tradition “business” tools apply to education, and the positive results speak for themselves.
• The University of Wisconsin-Stout (2002 Baldrige recipient) shared its perspective of how to sustain excellence.  They believe that “strategic context” is central to sustainable quality – that sustainability and long-term success are moving targets, requiring elements of regular innovation in products and services, systematic continuous improvement, punctuated by periodic performance breakthroughs that change the status quo.  So they have focused on their strengths of leadership, strategic management/planning, customer focus, and alignment with mission/vision to guide decision making and sustain results.
• Benedictine Health System (MQA recipient in 2005 and 07) shared how they are building on their Catholic tradition, their values-based culture, and their strong leadership system to develop a more systematic planning process, to improve decision making with more consistent data, and to better align initiatives with priorities and vision.  I personally have never seen an organization with a more defined culture, and they are using it to their advantage to advance improvement throughout their seven-state, 7000-employee system.
• Cardinal of Minnesota (which provides homes and services for adults with developmental disabilities and is a 2007 MQA recipient) also shared how they have developed a values-driven culture that reflects the non-negotiable principles that guide its decision making, its planning, and its overall operations.  Their values are simple, but permeate the entire organization: Honesty, Do Your Best, Teamwork, Fun, and The Platinum Rule (“treat others the way THEY want to be treated”).  One of Cardinal’s strengths is its solid value system; they are building on that strength to improve other aspects of their organizations.

The Baldrige framework defines “core competencies” as: “your organization’s areas of greatest expertise.  Your organization’s core competencies are those strategically important capabilities that provide an advantage in your marketplace or service environment.  Core competencies frequently are challenging for competitors or suppliers and partners to imitate, and they provide a sustainable competitive advantage.  Core competencies may involve technology expertise, unique service offerings, a marketplace niche, or a particular business acumen (such as business acquisitions).”

Disney’s core competency, I would argue, is NOT producing high quality motion pictures or managing gigantic amusement parks; rather, its true strength is in making people feel good – a competency that is difficult for competitors to imitate and that sustains their excellence.  I would bet that their decisions and many of their operating processes revolve on that central premise – that permeating strength.

So, while it’s easy to focus on your organization’s weaknesses, take a moment to appreciate its strengths.  Leveraging those assets may inspire improvement in everything else you do.

Yours in Improvement,

Brian S. Lassiter

President, Minnesota Council for Quality

When was the last time you were entertained and got truly new insights at the same time?  The Minnesota Council for Quality is excited to bring you a phenomenal workshop series May 13-14 with our best-selling author, Robin Lawton (the first two hours of the May 14 workshop is also the St. Paul PIN session).  All sessions are at the Embassy Suites downtown St. Paul.

Mr. Lawton was recently rated #1 of 88 speakers by an international organization so you know you are in for a treat.  These high content sessions give you practical tools you can implement immediately.  Please share this invitation with colleagues who are (or aspire to be) change leaders like you.

Become an Early Bird and your seat is guaranteed at a great price. Here is the program:

• May 13, 8 AM to 5:00 PM, Innovation Versus Stuff That Sucks
• May 14 (St. Paul PIN), 7:00 to 9:00 AM, 8 Dimensions of Excellence: Aligning Strategy and Measures with Customer Priorities (includes breakfast)
• May 14, 9:30 AM to 5:00 PM, The 12 Voices of the Customer

Early Bird teams registering by April 30 for all three sessions receive a complementary autographed copy of Mr. Lawton’s best-selling book, Creating a Customer-Centered Culture (5-star rated at Amazon).  Go to http://www.imtc3.com/events/UpcomingEvents.cfm for registration and more information on the series.  For personalized answers, please call Mr. Lawton’s office at 800-729-1468.

Rob is an engaging, top-rated speaker who has consulted with world-class leaders in industry and government for over twenty years. Don’t even think about strategic plans, service excellence, performance measurement, surveys, or new product development without attending these dates.

Innovation versus Stuff That Sucks recognizes that, as customers, we have 20/20 vision.  When we are in the producer role, it is easy to lose that clarity.  This humorous but very practical session is for change leaders interested in the intentional pursuit of innovative excellence customers will rave about, competitors cry about. 

It is possible to achieve purposeful innovations that meet the “WOW” test.  Think iTunes and its dominance in recorded music.  As Apple illustrates, it’s not just upstarts that can cause well-established industry leaders to go into overnight decline.  Killing the competition isn’t the goal anyway.   Truly delighting customers is.  Whether you think of Google, Southwest Airlines, Starbucks a state tax agency (truly!) as innovators, we’ll share some insights on how they got there that you won’t hear elsewhere.  This session is about winners, losers and the practical principles you can use for your own success.  Here is what you’ll learn about:

• Seven principles for successful innovation and customer bliss
• Critical reasons customers mutter “That sucks!”
• The difference between improvement and innovation and why it matters
• Key constraints on innovation and which ones you can remove
• The customer-centered Innovation Roadmap and tools you can apply tomorrow

The St. Paul PIN breakfast presentation, 8 Dimensions of Excellence, quickly shows how to align strategy, measures and customer priorities so that the lowest and highest folks in the organization have the same customer-centered frame of reference. You’ll see a jargon-free way to integrate performance improvement initiatives ranging from Baldrige criteria, lean and six sigma practices to many others.

How would you feel to discover your car engine was only running on one or two of its eight cylinders?  Whether your version of a car is an entire organization or a key project, you wouldn’t knowingly continue to drive it that way.  Quality and improvement initiatives often promote customer success as a priority but put all the attention on improving process. That only improves performance on 1 of the 8 Dimensions of Excellence. Come learn, preferably with a team, about how to get all 8 cylinders working together like you never thought possible.

Learn how to apply a powerful but elegantly simple framework and process that consistently produces high results in even the most challenging environments.  See why three organizations won their state Baldrige-based awards as a direct result of applying these principles and tools.  You can reasonably expect fast results of at least 5-to-1 returns on investment (ROI) from strategic initiatives and key projects using these methods.  This session outlines a new and eminently practical way to:

• Describe customer priorities along four main dimensions
• Connect them to business strategy
• Balance eight (8) areas of performance and related measures
• Integrate and leverage existing improvement initiatives such as lean, six sigma, ISO and more

The 12 Voices of the Customer builds on the 8 Dimensions framework. The notion that we should listen to “the voice of the customer” is well-meaning, but an insult to our intelligence. Everyone knows there is no such thing as the customer.  This necessarily means there must be more than one voice to listen to. Yet we can make potentially fatal assumptions about (1) who “the customers” really are, (2) what questions to ask, (3) how to prioritize their answers and (4) how to define and measure success.

Consider the example of a top car company executive who listened to customers say they wanted more miles per tank of gas. Did this understanding lead to (a) improving fuel efficiency of engines, (b) innovation, (c) competitive advantage or (d) bigger gas tanks? This session shows how easy it is to confuse what you heard with what they said (not to mention what they want but didn’t say). The executive’s design team rushed to market with bigger gas tanks. Mistaking the literal voice of the customer with the untapped mind of the customer is tragically common.

You’ll leave this session with those problems solved and understand:

• The unambiguous method to identify who “the customer” really is in every context
• Why surveys fail and how to avoid that fate
• The critical few drivers of satisfaction and which to address first
• The three questions that always uncover what customers want
• Six steps for uncovering and deploying the mind of the customer

The Minnesota Council for Quality, Minneapolis, recently announced the recipients of the 2007 Minnesota Quality Award.  Nine organizations received recognition this year: Achievement LevelWinona Health (Winona)Advancement LevelBenedictine Health System, Long Term Care Services (Duluth)Immanuel St. Joseph’s Medical Center, Mayo Health System (Mankato)Midwest Medical Insurance Group (Edina)Commitment LevelCardinal of Minnesota (Rochester)Hayfield Community Schools (Hayfield)Marshall Public Schools (Marshall)Pine Island Public Schools (Pine Island)Zumbrota-Mazeppa Schools (Mazeppa)

“Minnesota is a great place to live and work,” says Brian Lassiter, president of the Minnesota Council for Quality.  “With these nine organizations – and many others – on the journey to excellence, we can all take comfort in knowing that good just isn’t good enough.”  

All nine Award recipients were recognized at a public event Wednesday evening in St. Paul.  Attended by over 270 leaders, the event was sponsored by 3M (Gold Sponsor); BlueCross BlueShield of Minnesota, Mayo Health System, Memorial Blood Centers of Minnesota (Silver Sponsors); Cargill Kitchen Solutions, DuFrense Manufacturing, Hoglund Coaching, Medica, MHQP, Reller Consulting, the St. Paul Hotel, St. Cloud Tech, Stratis Health, and the Studer Group (Bronze Sponsors).

The event also recognized the 2007 Minnesota Quality Award Board of Evaluators, a team of nearly 120 volunteers supporting this program, giving a combined estimated 11,000 volunteer hours of service.

Matt Kramer, Governor Pawlenty’s Chief of Staff, made remarks on behalf of Governor Pawlenty.  Mr. Kramer commented on how the definition of quality has changed over time.  “Quality used to be about an organization’s ability to prevent defects, but that guaranteed a certain percentage of failures.  Now, we’ve come to realize that quality is really about excellence – about focusing on your customer and continuously improving your workforce and processes.”

Mr. Kramer commented on Governor Pawlenty’s “Drive to Excellence” initiative and how it is transforming government by focusing on the efficiency and effectiveness of State processes.  He also congratulated the nine recipients, especially the four school districts who are striving to improve student outcomes and academic achievement in the State.

 Representative Randy Demmer, R-29A (Hayfield) also remarked on the importance of excellence in education.  Rep. Demmer: “We all have a role in driving excellence…when all of the arrows are pointing in the same direction, we can aspire and achieve excellence.”  Representative Demmer is author of House Bill 4036, a bill to support K-12 school districts using the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence to improve academic outcomes and non-academic results.  He is a business owner and former School Board member of the Hayfield Community Schools, one of the nine recipients of this year’s Minnesota Quality Award. Ron Evjen, Superintendent of Hayfield Community Schools agrees: “This is not about an Award,” says Superintendent Evjen.  “It’s about kids.  This is our second time to receive the Minnesota Quality Award.  The first time, we were in Statutory Operating Debt, and I give credit to our School Board for investing the time and money in this process – money we really didn’t have to spend.  But we made the commitment to continuous improvement, and we are seeing tremendous progress over the last three years in terms of our student achievement, our budgetary results, and other indicators.”

Dale Thompson, CEO of Benedictine Health System reflected: “The commitment to quality and quality improvement takes on special significance in the health care field, with all due respect to our colleagues in manufacturing or business.  Healthcare does not have room for error because the consequences are too significant.  Healthcare’s priority must be on patient safety and the elimination of medical errors.  In regards to long term care, a commitment to quality and the use of the Baldrige criteria as a way to improve quality has a tremendous impact in the quality of life for residents.  Whether they are receiving rehabilitative care or are at the end of their life, we, like the families we serve, want to know that the care our residents receive is of the highest quality.  The Baldrige framework is helping us align our efforts with our strategy and values, to improve health related outcomes as well as other organizational results.”

After sharing a Garrison Keillor quote on the challenges of living in Minnesota, especially during the winter, Lassiter offered the following: “I think we ARE different here: we work harder than average, we play harder than average, we have better schools than average, we have better healthcare (and consequently, better health) than average, and we have better organizations than average.  Tonight, we celebrate nine organizations on the path to excellence – all are better than average and continuously getting better all the time.”

Are you interested in learning more about what makes organizations successful?  Are you interested in helping other organizations -- such as schools, hospitals, non-profits, and businesses -- around the state improve their performance?  Would you be interested in networking, learning, and sharing with others who feel the same way?

The Minnesota Council for Quality is seeking candidates for the 2008 Minnesota Quality Award Board of Evaluators.  The second training session in 2008 is June 17-19 in Rochester.

There are many benefits to becoming an Evaluator, such as:

• strengthening your understanding of what drives organizational excellence (the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence represent a validated set of best practices for organizational excellence, and can be useful for improving any organization’s performance),
• networking with influential leaders and professionals (this year’s Board of Evaluators will include about 150 leaders from around the state – executives, middle managers, surgeons and physicians, superintendents and school teachers, non-profit and public sector leaders, quality professionals, and consultants),
• seeing “best practices” deployed within another organization – knowledge that you could use back at your organization and/or in your career, helping organizations throughout the state – many of them schools, health care providers, non-profits, public sector agencies, and certainly businesses – improve their performance…simply get better at what they do, and
• developing a set of other professional skills that may help you advance your career – skills such as consensus- and team-building, written communication, verbal communication and interpersonal skills, interviewing, analysis, and systems thinking.

Most Evaluators consider the experience to be among the most valuable of their careers.  In fact, many have claimed that the experience and knowledge gained from this process rivals getting an MBA or advanced business degree.

Furthermore, Evaluators can earn college (undergrad and post-grad) credit for participating in training.  For interested Evaluators, the University of Minnesota and the University of Wisconsin-Stout both offer three (3) hours of credit in partnership with the Minnesota Council for Quality.

If you are interested in joining the 2008 Board of Evaluators, the second (of three) training sessions of 2008 will be June 17-19 in Rochester.  In addition to the full three-day training session, new Evaluators are also required to attend a one-day orientation (either May 29, June 3, or June 4).

Applications for new Evaluators are due 5/23.  Applications for returning Evaluators (which only require updates from your most recent application) are due 6/6 (returning Evaluators: significant changes to the process will reduce the time required for pre-work/training and evaluation in 2008).

The Council will begin offering an alternative evaluation process in 2008 – one that is not eligible for the MN Quality Award, but offers an alternative evaluation for organizations either just getting started using the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence and/or for those already on the journey but interested in more consultative (prescriptive) feedback.  This process will use subcontracted consultants approved/managed by the Council (and selected by the participating organization) and may use a complementary team of volunteer sector experts.  Fees are similar to the Award process fees (though are slightly higher to pay for consultant experts); however, since the organizations’ time in this process is greatly reduced as compared to the Award process, the net total cost is effectively lower.

“Our goal with the alternative assessment is to reduce the time commitment of organizations in this evaluation process, but still give them comprehensive feedback to help leaders identify improvement opportunities,” says Brian Lassiter, present of the Council.  “In so doing, we eliminate one barrier of participation – time – so hopefully more organizations find the value in measuring their performance against a set of best practices that have become the standard for organizations striving for systematic performance excellence.”

The alternative assessment has three phases, which essentially represent three sequential facilitated sessions with senior leadership.  The first phase (a half-day working session) helps the organization establish its environmental context (identifying and forming consensus on things such as strategic challenges, marketplace and customer needs, workforce engagement factors, etc.); the first phase also requires some data collection by the participating organization (compilation of business results and administration of a brief diagnostic survey with senior leaders).  The second phase is a one-day session in which the consultant/team interviews leaders and other contributors to verify initial findings.  And the third and final phase is a half-day working session to present the findings and prioritize improvement opportunities.  The organization can then integrate initiatives into their planning process to close the gaps against their improvement opportunities.

“We informally announced this new service to a few organizations in our network last month,” continued Lassiter, “and the response has been overwhelming.  We are optimistic that more organizations will consider this process as a way to identify and prioritize their improvement opportunities, allocate their resources, and optimize results.”

For more information on the process, visit http://www.councilforquality.org/assess.cfm.

The Minnesota Council for Quality is pleased to announce several changes to our 2008 Minnesota Quality Award process.  “The changes are designed to reduce the time, effort, and resources of organizations desiring a systematic evaluation of their management system, as well as reduce the time and effort of our volunteer Board of Evaluators,” says Lassiter.  “However, we were careful to preserve the value of the assessment to both participating organizations and volunteers.”

The most fundamental change that will be noticed by customers is that organizational applicants will be asked to complete an abbreviated application to get started in the process.  The “application” will consist of an Organizational Profile and Performance Results only.  The Profile and Results will be reviewed by the MN Quality Award Panel of Judges to determine what resources are required to complete the evaluation.  An organization considered advanced in its maturity and performance results will invited to submit a “full” application – either a 50-page written narrative application (responding to the Baldrige Criteria questions), or a Baldrige Express survey conducted with its workforce (either full staff or a sampling).  If an organization is earlier in its performance excellence journey, it will not be required to complete a narrative application of Baldrige Express survey (though may submit them if desired), saving considerable time and effort in preparation.

In either case, we will still build a team of Evaluators (larger teams for the more advanced organizations and smaller teams for the less advanced), which will still conduct an independent review, form a consensus opinion, and conduct a site visit to verify hypotheses regarding the organization’s strengths and improvement opportunities.  Organizations will still receive a Feedback Report, delivered in a working session with senior leaders.

“We hope this change will help us better optimize our program resources and also help our customers apply an appropriate amount of organizational time and energy given their organization’s stage of maturity,” says Lassiter.  “We also hope that these changes will reduce the barriers to participation in the Award process, allowing more organizations at all stages of their journey to excellence to receive value from the experience.”

For more information on the Award process and the changes in 2008, visit http://www.councilforquality.org/assess.cfm.

The Council has also made many changes to reduce the time requested of its volunteer Board of Evaluators.  “We rely on a fully volunteer Board of Evaluators to conduct our Award assessments,” says Lassiter.  “We made several changes in 2007 to reduce the time we ask of them, and we will be making several more this year.  Our goal is to decrease their investment in time, but maintain the value of their experience in terms of learning and contribution.”

The Council would like to recognize 64 organizations and individuals who joined or renewed their membership in the third quarter.  Special appreciation goes to the Minneapolis Veteran's Administration (VA) Medical Center & Clinics and Fairview Health System, as they renewed their Sponsoring Memberships.  Sponsoring members’ contributions not only provide benefits to the member organization itself, but also support non-profits, school districts, and small businesses on their journey to excellence. 

“We are grateful for the support of Fairview and the Minneapolis VA,” says Brian Lassiter, president of the Council.  “Not only are they both advancing their own improvement efforts, but they are helping to advance excellence in our schools, our non-profits, and in our small businesses – in organizations that don’t have plentiful resources but desire to improve.”

These individuals and organizations became members last quarter (asterisks indicate renewal members):

Alvin E. Benike Inc., Rochester, MN*

Ability Building Center, Inc., Rochester, MN*

Advanced Quality Engineering, Inc. - Dale Mize, Minneapolis, MN*

Bellcomb, New Hope, MN

Business Architecture, Inc., Stillwater, MN*

Capitol View Consulting, St. Paul, MN*

Clear Vision Consulting, Inc., Rochester, MN*

Clinton Consulting, Eden Prairie, MN

Construction Partnership, Don DeKeyrel, Rochester, MN*

cPMT, Rochester, MN*

Dalex Livestock Solutions LLC, Bloomington, MN

Db Ink, Big Lake, MN*

Nancy Donovan, Rochester, MN*

ELCA Board of Pensions, Minneapolis, MN*

Express Personnel Services, Rochester, MN*

Fairview Health System, Minneapolis, MN*

Gauthier Industries, Rochester, MN*

Gerard Goulet, Rochester, MN*

Hampton Inn Rochester, Rochester, MN*

Hanson Performance Alliance, Plymouth, MN

Don Hartinger, Hastings, MN

Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement (ICSI), Bloomington, MN*

Inver Hills Community College Customized Training, Inver Grove Heights, MN*

Robert Jones, MD, Brainerd, MN*

Mark Lanz, Edina, MN*

Laumeyer & Associates, Duluth, MN

Sue Link, Mounds View, MN*

Makela Performance Inc., Bloomington, MN*

Marshall Public Schools, Marshall, MN

Mate Precision Tooling, Anoka, MN*

Sue Mechache, Brooklyn Park, MN

Medica, Minnetonka, MN*

Minneapolis Veteran's Administration (VA) Medical Center & Clinics, Minneapolis, MN*

Murphy Warehouse Co., Minneapolis, MN*

National Arbitration Forum, Dispute Management Services (DMS), St. Louis Park, MN

Mary Ann Nelson, Minneapolis, MN

New Morning Windows, Lakeville, MN*

New Productivity Group, Hinkley, MN

Normandale Community College, Center for Applied Learning, Bloomington, MN*

Olmsted County Public Health Services, Rochester, MN*

Olmsted Medical Center, Rochester, MN*

Amy O'Toole, St. Louis Park, MN

PDG Consultants, Inc., Minneapolis, MN*

Pecos Consulting, Minnetonka, MN

Pentair McLean Thermal, Champlin, MN

Prime Therapeutics, Eagan, MN

Katherine Reller, Rochester, MN

Scott Robertson, Rochester, MN*

Rochester Community and Technical College (RCTC), Rochester, MN*

Rochester Meat Company, Rochester, MN*

Rochester Post-Bulletin, Rochester, MN*

Rosemount Flow Division, Eden Prairie, MN*

Satisfaction Management Systems, Inc., Eden Prairie, MN*

Peter Schuller, Rochester, MN*

Solutia Consulting, Stillwater, MN*

Robin Sommer, Rochester, MN*

Andrew St. Onge, Stillwater, MN

State of Minnesota, Dept of Administration Commissioner's Office, St. Paul, MN

Strategy Management, Park Rapids, MN*

Superior Tool and Machining Company, Maple Grove, MN*

University of Minnesota, Facilities Management, Minneapolis, MN*

US Bank, Client Services Group, St. Paul, MN*

Woodside Quality Solutions, Carver, MN*

Workforce Development, Inc., Rochester, MN*

We thank all members for their support.  As of March 31, the Council represents a growing community of nearly 300 members representing over 150,000 employees.  A complete list of members is available at http://www.councilforquality.org/member.cfm.

Why should you or your organization consider membership?  There are many reasons. Your or your organization receives:

* recognition (in this newsletter, in press releases, on the website, and with a certificate/letter);

* discounts to Council services (Evaluator training, organization assessments);

* access to Council services (Clearinghouse, Consultant Referral Network, and free admission to Performance Improvement Network discussions); and

* discounts to our partners’ services (other improvement-related non-profits, universities/colleges, and professional/trade associations).

A current Council member recently called to say that his organization is saving $6000 from a discount to a local university partner of the Council’s.  Their annual membership fee is $250, so that’s not a bad return on membership!

Anna Maravelas tackles a commonly overlooked but costly phenomenon in her popular presentation, “Self-Defeating Habits of Otherwise Brilliant People®.”  An expert in workplace conflict resolution and a devotee of Deming, Maravelas contends that frustrated leaders and employees can avoid behaviors that fuel destructive disagreements rather than wasting profits and time resolving them—continuously.  You will learn how to create emotionally resilient teams, avoid risk factors for heart disease, and depression, eliminate five root causes of simmering hostilities and maintain your integrity by sidestepping invitations to blame.  Rather than undermining relationships by "searching for stupidity," Maravelas introduces techniques for avoiding blame and self-righteous indignation and focusing on the true causes of workplace inefficiency and waste.

The discussion is from 8:00-9:00 a.m. on May 1 (networking and continental breakfast begin at 7:30 a.m.) at the Minneapolis Community and Technical College (MCTC), 1501 Hennepin (15th and Hennepin), downtown Minneapolis, Room L3000 (Wheelock-Whitney Library).  Parking is available at their ramp across Hennepin (for $5).

Admission to PIN is FREE for Council members; $10 for partner organizations; $20 for the public.

For more information, please visit http://www.councilforquality.org/performance.cfm. 

The Rochester Area Quality Council, an affiliate of the Minnesota Council for Quality, is pleased to announce its May program: “Using Lean to Improve at Mayo Clinic: Making Work & Life Easier.”  5S and Lean can easily be applied to any environment: on the shop floor, in the office, even at home!

In this program, we will demonstrate real life examples of 5S with a fun, interactive exer­cise during the presentation.  Also, participants will leave the session with a 5S tool that can be immediately applied to their home or work environment.

Key action items that you can take back and use or share at work:

• 5S as a foundation for Lean improvement efforts
• Tools and tips for launching a 5S program in your own organization

Clean understanding of how 5S improve safety, quality, delivery, cost of on-hand inventory.

Speakers:           Michelle Hoover and David Mapes, Mayo Clinic Quality Improvement Team
Date:                    Tuesday, May 13, 2008 (note date change)

Location:             University Center, Coffman (CF) 206/208

Time:                    11:00 – 11:30 Registration, Networking and Lunch; 11:30 - 1:00 Program)

Note special time.

For more information, visit www.raqc.com.  Space is limited; please register by contacting Jennifer Burmeister before May 9 via email at jennifer.burmeister@councilforquality.org or 507-213-8132.

The Minnesota Council for Quality is pleased to announce a partnership with Project Management Institute (PMI) to bring a series of webinars to Council members and stakeholders at an amazing rate. 

The PMI Metrics Specific Interest Group (SIG) is offering a “Global Online Congress” this April, featuring literally hundreds of webinars on different aspects of project management, measurement, and organizational change.  The Online Congress is underway and features presentations by industry experts and widely-respected vendors, as well as tracks devoted to other PMI Specific Interest Groups.

With the exception of keynote presentations, all Congress webinars will be pre-recorded, allowing you to download and play at your convenience.  You'll also have the option of registering to participate in a live discussion session with the presenter. You can pose your question in advance directly to the speaker or chat online during the live Q&A session.  “Keynote presentations” will be live webinars (they continue the next two weeks).  Simply order the webinar through the Council, and we'll send you an invitation to register to receive login/call-in information.

Here is a sample of recent webinar topics:

• Change Enablement vs. Change Management: A Mindset Shift
• How Do You Measure Consulting: It Depends
• Why Productivity Measurements and How to measure Them
• IT Performance Based Metrics
• Practice Drives Great Metrics
• Metrics in Organizational Culture: Measuring for Success
• Getting Comfortable with your Project Management Office (PMO)
• Agile Performance Based Metrics
• Uncovering the Hidden Roadblocks to Project Management Success
• Today’s Role of Product Management: A 2008 Update

For more information on the webinars, visit https://metsig.org/categories.aspx?category=145.

For unlimited viewing of any webinars (by multiple employees multiple times), the fee is $50 for Council members and $100 for non-members (public rate is $10 for one viewing of one webinar).  Email brian.lassiter@councilforquality.org with your name, organization affiliation, and preferred method of payment.  Once we receive payment, we will issue a password that can be used to access webinars immediately.

The Association for Strategic Planning-Minnesota Chapter, an alliance partner of the MN Council for Quality, is pleased to announce its next meeting: “Mediating Factors in Strategy for Successful Organizations.”  Scheduled for April 22, the discussion will be lead by Michael A. Sheppeck and Jack Militello, professors at the University of St. Thomas.

Drs. Sheppeck and Militello will present the findings from their latest research which identifies key mediating factors in the strategic planning process that are most likely to result in positive financial outcomes for the firm.  Jack and Mick have surveyed 375 firms, analyzing the 1) selection of market strategy, 2) culture, 3) employee know-how, and 4) workforce practices. They have identified nine strategic management processes that are mediating factors in determining organizational success as measured in ROI and strength of market position. This research has practical implications for those who are leading or engaged in strategic management processes.  Most firms (51% of those surveyed) are “stuck in the middle” as has been classically defined by Michael Porter.  The assumption is that firms can become “unstuck” if that can identify key management processes that are proven to move firms into a more secure financial position.