Ah, it’s that time of year again: the kids are out of school, the temperatures are (finally) starting to rise, outdoor activities – camping, grilling, biking, sports – are beginning to peak.  It can only mean one thing: it must be strategic planning season.  Seriously, summer or fall is when most (proactive) companies begin the annual ritual of exploring their environment, considering their challenges and goals, and setting direction for the future.  But much of this time may be wasted, because it’s estimated that 90% of strategic plans fail (Gartner Group).  That’s likely because it all comes down to execution…

A few months ago, I visited with a manufacturing organization about their recently completed strategic planning process.  They hired an outside firm, conducted a thorough environmental scan to understand the opportunities and threats facing their business, and selected a few key goals for moving the company forward.  All of that seemed appropriate.  So I then asked one of their mid-level leaders about their progress against those plans, but he looked puzzled and replied: “I really don’t know how we’re doing.  We were told about the new vision for the company in an all-staff meeting, and we know that our high level goals include profitable growth, customer satisfaction, and product innovation.  But the specific plans were never shared with us, so I’m not sure how we’re doing.”

Does that sound familiar?  I wonder how often this is the case – when senior leaders either don’t trust their employees with the confidential information or assume that employees will just “figure out” how to take action against their visionary statements.  I suppose it could accidentally happen, but it’s rare when organizations effectively implement strategy when their key people don’t know what the strategy is, what specific action to take, or how they will be evaluated against progress towards those goals.

Rather than hoping that strategies implement themselves, organizations need to create a culture that supports strategy execution: they need to integrate strategic objectives into daily operations by hardwiring those goals into other pre-existing organizational processes.  In this way, leaders can ensure that activities, decisions, and resources are better aligned with what is truly important to accomplishing organizational goals and vision.  Here are some ways to do this:

1) Create a strategic plan.  Ok, this one is obvious, but believe or not, some research estimates that only 20-25% of US organizations have a strategic plan (one that actually focuses on strategic issues and goals and not just budget).  Having a strategic plan is critical for: setting direction; ensuring the coordination and alignment of organizational activities; promoting consistency in decision making; helping to reduce duplication; and helping departments and workers identify priorities, solve problems, and meet goals.  So start with the end in mind by understanding the factors (competition, market, internal strengths/weaknesses, regulatory, etc.) facing your organization and then setting goals that address those factors.  As the saying goes, if you don’t have a plan for where you’re going, any road will get you there. 

2) Create action plans that derive from the strategic plan.  Many organizations fail to translate strategy into a set of tangible, executable actions that the workforce can implement.  The term “action plans” refer to specific actions that respond to short- and longer-terms strategic objectives; action plans should include details of resource commitments and time horizons for accomplishment.  If you tell employees to “go improve margin by 10%,” they probably will have dozens of ideas of how to accomplish that (or, worse yet, none at all).  But if you identify specific action plans – like eliminating process waste through Lean, analyzing product profitability to consider eliminating less-profitable lines, changing product distribution strategies to reduce transportation costs, managing partners and supply chain to reduce material cost, and so forth – along with timelines, resources, measures, and who is accountable, then the organization has much more tangible direction upon which to take action.

3) Set measures to monitor action plan progress.  Actions plans may or may not produce the results that leadership intended.  So organizations should have leading indicators to help leaders gauge the effectiveness of the action (and/or the appropriateness of the original strategies) so that direction can be changed, as needed.  For example, say an organization had a strategic goal of improving customer satisfaction from 85% to 95% in order to improve customer retention, improve sales, and increase margin.  The organization then identified several action plans to improve satisfaction – such as training for its customer contact employees, new features on several products, a more robust customer relationship management process, an improved customer complaint handling process, a new “one-stop shop” for customers on its website and by phone, and so forth.  The organization should also have measures to determine which – if any – of those actions actually had impact on satisfaction so that it can adjust actions if results are not in line with goals.

4) Link training and development with strategic objectives.  In order to effectively implement strategy, employees must have the skills and competencies necessary to take appropriate action.  So let strategy dictate organizational training and development needs.  If customer service is a strategic priority, then training should reflect a focus on customer service – not just for sales people, but for all of your people.  It seems obvious, but most organizations fail to make that link, and consequently they oftentimes find themselves unable to implement key initiatives.

5) Tie performance management with strategy.  Employees are people, and most people are motivated to accomplish goals.  So why not align individual, departmental, divisional goals with organizational goals?  Cascaded goals and action plans help to promote alignment, motivate behavior, and create a culture of accountability.  Just be careful that these measures and actions are indeed tied to strategic priorities (otherwise, you might motivate the wrong behavior and get counterproductive outcomes), and also be careful to create buy-in from your people so that goals are achievable and meaningful for the employee.

6) Let strategy drive work system design.  Organizations should be structured to advance strategic objectives: internal work and job design, supply chain and partnering relationships, insource/outsource decisions, and similar processes should be consistent with the direction of the organization.  For example, if an organization’s strategic objective is rapid response to customer needs, then you would expect that the organization is designed for agility – fewer layers of management for quick decision making and approvals, perhaps a distributed workforce so that customer contact is more prevalent, a technology infrastructure that supports quick decision making and empowered front-line staff.  Of course, organizations should be cautious not to drastically restructure every time there is a slight change in strategy (or else risk inefficiency and organizational whiplash in the short-term), but strategy should dictate structure: form should follow function. 

Strategic planning is not (or should not be) about a two-day retreat at the lake.  And strategic planning should not be synonymous with budgeting (though allocating resources given strategic direction IS an important step in planning).  Rather, strategic planning is about systematically understanding your organization’s environment and translating strategic challenges and issues into strategic objectives, action plans, and measures that will move your organization toward its vision and goals. 

Strategy deployment is far more difficult than strategy development.  But if you “hardwire” strategy into your operations, your work systems, and your workforce-related processes (like the six tips above suggest), then you’ll have gone a long way in improving your chances at successful execution of strategy.

Yours in Improvement,

Brian S. Lassiter

President, Minnesota Council for Quality

Best-selling author and top rated speaker, Robin Lawton, is looking forward to meeting you in your office on June 17, June 24, and July 18.  I hope you'll accept this invitation to join a limited number of other leaders for the first of three 2-hour webinars June 17, designed to simultaneously enlighten, entertain and equip you to take your pursuit of excellence and innovation to the next level.  This EXCELLENCE & INNOVATION LEADERSHIP SERIES includes these sessions:

June 17: "8 Dimensions of Excellence: Aligning Strategy, Measures & Customers"

June 24: "The 12 Voices of the Customer (and vital lies that prevent hearing them)"

July 18: "Innovation Versus Stuff That Stinks: Principles and Practices"

The three interactive webinars focus on identifying customers, clarifying how they truly define value, and delivering what they really want.  Each of these content-rich, thought provoking sessions gives you the essence of what would be covered in a full-day face-to-face workshop -- but in a fraction of the time and cost.

Sign up with a team of three or more for up to 60% discount and optimize your ability to apply what you learn.  But space is limited, so please go TODAY to http://www.imtc3.com/events/UpcomingEvents.cfm for details and registration on line. The list price per event is $225/person (before member, early bird, and group discounts).

Use promotional code MCQ for discounts.  All sessions are 11AM-1PM CT.  As part of the program, you will receive a downloadable file, with visuals, notes, tools, and references -- all that helps make the content more actionable.

The co-sponsors of this program include Minnesota Council for Quality, American Society for Quality (ASQ) Minnesota Section, American Society for Quality (ASQ) LaCrosse-Winona Section, Association for Strategic Planning (ASP) Minnesota Section, California Council for Excellence, the Washington State Quality Award, the Wisconsin Forward Award, and several other organizations across the U.S.  We have come together for the first time to bring you the #1 of 88 speakers ranked by an international organization.

The Minnesota Council for Quality and Minnesota Healthcare Quality Professionals are pleased to announce a two-day conference this fall that focuses on organizational innovation in business and healthcare.  The conference, entitled “The Innovation Imperative: Best Practices in Innovating Business and Healthcare,” will be Wednesday, October 8 at the Embassy Suites hotel downtown St. Paul.  One-day pre-conference workshops are Tuesday, October 7.

Save the dates!

The conference will focus on one of the hottest – and most important – concepts in business today: innovation.  Specifically, we are inviting leaders and practitioners from organizations that are known for systematically innovating some aspect of their enterprise – either product/service design and features, programs, processes, operations, workforce-related processes, and/or overall business model – to create new value for their customers and stakeholders.

Innovation is no longer strictly the purview of R&D departments, but is important for all aspects of an organization’s operations – all works systems, and all work processes.  High performing organizations are led and managed so that innovation is not the random identification of good, creative ideas; rather, innovation should become part of the learning culture of an organization, integrated into daily work and supported by an organization’s performance improvement system.

This conference will feature several organizations and explore their best practices related to innovation in some part(s) of their enterprise, such as:

• Product, service, program innovation: to create new value for customers/stakeholders
• Process and operational innovation: how work gets done (process, technology, systems,  infrastructure, and so forth)
• Business model innovation: how your workforce and work systems are structured/managed to enhance workforce capability and engagement, to build organizational capacity, to manage supply chain and/or partners to maximize core competencies and organizational agility, and/or to better leverage workforce and organizational knowledge assets for driving change and introducing new value to the market.

Save the dates!

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 third and final training session in 2008 is September 30-October in the Twin Cities (place TBD).

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, training will be September 30-October 2 in the Twin Cities.  In addition to the full three-day training session, new Evaluators are also required to attend a one-day orientation (either September 11, 16, or 17).

Applications for new Evaluators are due 9/5.  Applications for returning Evaluators (which only require updates from your most recent application) are due 9/19 (returning Evaluators: significant changes to the process will reduce the time required for pre-work/training and evaluation in 2008).

The Minnesota Council for Quality, Minneapolis, is pleased to announce that it recently received a $10,000 grant from US Bancorp Business Equipment Financing Group (BEFG) to support its continuous improvement efforts with the Marshall Public Schools.  The grant will provide financial support to help the Council work with district leaders to identify and prioritize improvement opportunities, which will enhance student achievement and improve other district results and outcomes.

The grant will also assist in the school district’s recent participation in the Minnesota Quality Award.

“We very much appreciate US Bank’s commitment to Marshall Public Schools and to quality education in general,” says Klint Willert, Superintendent of Marshall Public Schools.  “Our school district is working hard to improve academic and other outcomes, and we sincerely appreciate corporate stakeholders’ support of our initiatives.”

“US Bank is committed to excellence within our schools,” says Dave Verkinderen, General Manager of US Bancorp BEFG.  “We are pleased to collaborate with the Council to improve the quality of education in the community.  This work will help our kids, our community, and our region.”

Founded in 1991, the primary objective of the Minnesota Quality Award is to help organizations improve their performance results.  The Award also serves to recognize performance excellence throughout the state.  The Minnesota Quality Award is given at four levels – Excellence (the top Award), Achievement, Advancement, and Commitment – and is the culmination of a rigorous assessment process that uses the “Criteria for Performance Excellence” of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.  Since 1991, 97 organizations have received Minnesota Quality Award recognition at various levels (a full list is at http://www.councilforquality.org/assess_org_award.cfm).

Organizations that participate in the process receive comprehensive feedback that outlines their strengths and improvement opportunities in dozens of organizational processes including: leadership; strategic planning; customer and market focus; measurement, information, and knowledge management; workforce focus; process management; and results.  This feedback is typically used by senior leaders for organizational learning, planning, and improvement. 

“US Bancorp is an organization known for its high quality service,” says Brian Lassiter, president of the Minnesota Council for Quality.  “Not only will this contribution help sustain the school district’s improvement initiatives, but it also sends a strong signal of US Bank’s local support of helping the district reach higher levels of excellence.  We thank US Bancorp for their support.”

Marshall Public Schools received the Commitment level of the 2007 MN Quality Award, presented in a public ceremony last April in St. Paul.

Due to the holiday, there are no Performance Improvement Network (PIN) meetings in July.  But mark your calendars for our August 7 Minneapolis session and August 13 St. Paul session.  More information on both sessions will be announced next month.

The Rochester Area Quality Council, an affiliate of the Minnesota Council for Quality, is pleased to announce a special July program: “Core Values in Business.”  The session will feature Jack Priggen, President, and Michael Garner, director of Training/Development, both of Rochester-based Cardinal of Minnesota.  The session will be held July 22 (note the date change).

Are you looking for a strategic planning consultant?  A consultant with Six Sigma, Lean, Balanced Scorecard, Baldrige, or ISO?  A consultant or trainer on leadership Organizational Development, or change efforts?

The Minnesota Council for Quality -- in cooperation with the Delaware Alliance for Excellence, the Kansas Center for Performance Excellence, the Michigan Quality Council, the Ohio Partnership for Excellence, Quality Texas Foundation, the Vermont Council for Quality, the Washington State Quality Award, and the Wisconsin Forward Award -- is pleased to offer a free on-line service, the Consultant Referral Network©, to help organizations find experts to help them improve their business.

Located at www.consultantreferralnetwork.org, the Consultant Referral Network is a dynamic, web-enabled search tool that connects organizational improvement experts to client organizations seeking them.  This service allows clients to outline their needs in terms of subject matter expertise sought, type of assistance desired (consulting, training, coaching, speaking, or facilitating), sector/industry expertise required, size of consulting firm desired, desired location of consulting firm, and years of experience preferred.  The client can also weight the relative importance of each variable.  The tool will then identify up to five consultants or firms that best match the client’s needs.

Organizations can also peruse a directory of all consultants, sorted by subject matter expertise, location, and other factors. 

Winona State University Healthcare Solutions, a partner of the MN Council for Quality, is pleased to announce their second annual “Lean in Healthcare Conference: Expanding the Toolkit” on June 25-26 at the Radisson Plaza in Rochester. 

The conference will offer basic tools and an intermediate leadership track, including the stories and results of regional practitioners, skills for managing change in organizations, and hands-on simulations.  Helpful information on funding possibilities will also be available.

The keynote will be given by Liz Dunphy, RN/MHA, of Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle.  Her presentation will demonstrate Virginia Mason’s approach to applying the tools and methods of the Toyota Production System to improve healthcare delivery, promote a culture of seeking zero defects, and create a more affordable product.  Liz will also discuss leadership commitment, management and staff training, structural support, and actual results.

The Baldrige National Quality Program, in cooperation with the Alliance for Performance Excellence, is pleased to announce the 2008 Baldrige Regional Conferences.  The first regional conference will be held September 16 in Denver and the second October 3 in New Orleans.

Both days will offer dynamic learning and networking with representatives of the 2007 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipients:

PRO-TEC Coating Company– manufactures coated sheet steel primarily for automotive industry use in manufacturing cars, trucks, and sport utility vehicles

Mercy Health System– provides a complete spectrum of services, including basic preventive medicine and health education, complex neurosurgery and open heart surgery, and post-acute care such as rehabilitation, home health, and hospice care

Sharp HealthCare– offers a full spectrum of health care services, from emergency, hospice, and mental health services to multi-organ transplants and hyperbaric treatment and is San Diego County’s largest integrated health care delivery system

City of Coral Springs – delivers a broad array of products and services to its 132,000 residents, including police patrol, crime investigation, fire prevention and suppression, emergency medical services, parks maintenance, and economic development

U.S. Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center– develops 90 percent of the Army’s armaments and ammunition including warheads, explosives, all sizes of firearms, battlefield sensors, and advanced weaponry

Spend a day learning about their best practices and performance strategies in all seven Baldrige Criteria Categories:

• Leadership
• Strategic Planning
• Customer/Market/Student/Stakeholder/Patient Focus
• Measurement, Analysis, and Knowledge Management
• Human Resource/Faculty/Staff Focus
• Process Management
• Results

Also hear from former Award recipients on Criteria categories and special topics!  The conferences will feature a combination of plenary, concurrent, and town hall presentations that provide a dynamic and interactive environment where you can maximize your learning and networking.

Who Should Attend?  CEOs, senior managers, education and health care leaders and professionals, directors of staff functions, heads of operating units, and quality/performance improvement practitioners.

Attendees receive a conference bag containing Award recipient videos, presentation visuals, and other Baldrige materials.  Conference fees range from $445 to $545, depending on date of registration and other discounts. 

Enterprise Minnesota, formerly Minnesota Technology, Inc. (MTI) and a Partner of the MN Council for Quality, is pleased to present two events in the next month, all focused on using Lean to improve organizational efficiency:

• June 25: Lean Workshop: Lean 101, Medina
• July 16: Managing Your Supply Chain to Strengthen the OEM/Supplier Relationship, St. Paul

For more information on these programs, visit http://www.minnesotatechnology.org/training/index.asp. 

The University of Minnesota’s College of Continuing Education, an alliance partner of the Council, is pleased to announce their summer improvement and business day courses.  Council members receive a 10% discount on all CCE courses.

6/18 ADA, FMLA, & Workers' Compensation, $395

6/18 Managing Performance and Developing Talent, $395

6/19 Project Risk Management, $395

6/25 Verbal and Nonverbal Communication Skills, $395

6/25 Project Procurement Management, $395

6/26 Writing Business Reports, $395

6/26 Human Resource Management, $395

6/28 Certified Internal Auditors (CIA) Test Preparation, $395

7/15 Organizational Training and Development, $395

7/15 Building Winning Work Relationships, $395

7/17 Working Assertively, $395

7/17 Writing Policies and Procedures, $395

7/18 Project Execution, $395

7/23 The Human Resource Audit, $395

7/23 Leading Through Change, $395

7/24 Unemployment Insurance and Workers' Compensation, $395

7/25 NEW! Project Management and Chaos Theory, $395

7/29 The Recruiter as Talent Advisor, $395

7/31 Negotiating for Agreement, $395

7/31 Performance Management Process, $395

7/31 Project Leadership, $395

8/5 Introduction to Human Resource Practices, $395

8/6 Creativity and Innovation, $395

8/12 Successful Manager's Leadership Program, $2995

8/14 Foundations in Business Writing: Designs & Strategies, $395

8/14 Project Control and Closure, $395

8/20 Facilitating Work Groups, $395

8/22 NEW! Applied Project Management, $395

8/26 Employee Compensation: Strategies and Practices, $750

8/27 Leading Global Projects and Virtual Teams, $395

Normandale Community College, an alliance partner of the Council, is pleased to announce three upcoming programs.  Council members receive a 15% discount.  The programs are as follows:

Six Sigma Black Belt Class: June 12 through October 13

The Six Sigma Black Belt is a professional who can explain Six Sigma philosophies and principles, including supporting systems and tools. A Black Belt should demonstrate team leadership, understand team dynamics and assign team member roles and responsibilities. Black Belts have a thorough understanding of all aspects of the DMAIC model and operate in accordance with Six Sigma principles.

Instructor: Dale Mize, President Advanced Quality Engineering/Normandale Faculty Instructor           

Cost: $8,950 (this course is eligible for 15% off or at $7600 for MN Council for Quality members)

Time/Date: 8:30am – 4:30pm; June 12, 13, 18, 19, 20, 26 July 17, 18, 31, August 1, 11, 12, 18, 25, 26, 27, September 8, 9 and October 13, 2008

Location: UAW-Ford-MNSCU Training Center, 996 Mississippi River Boulevard, St. Paul

Register at www.normandale.edu/continuingeducation or call  Ann Wagner at 952-487-8426.

ScrumMaster Certification: June 25-26

Agile project management is as radically different from traditional project management as agile processes are different from traditional methodologies. Rather than plan, instruct and direct, the agile project manager facilitates, coaches and leads. This person is called a ScrumMaster in the Scrum agile process to denote the difference and remind the person filling this role of the new responsibilities.

Participants learn how to be a ScrumMaster and how to make a development team, a project, or an organization agile. The ScumMaster is the person responsible for the proper execution of Scrum and all change within the engineering and overall organization. Exercises, case studies, and examples used to bring home the realization of how to be a ScrumMaster. All participants are expected to understand Scum basics prior to attending this course. This course is "how to" not "what".

Each individual is trained to be able to assume the following responsibilities:

• Remove the barriers between development and the customer so the customer directly drives development.
• Teach the customer how to maximize ROI and meet their objectives through Scrum.  Improve the lives of the development team by facilitating creativity and empowerment.
• Improve the engineering practices and tools so each increment of functionality is potentially shippable.

Instructor: Doug Shimp, President of 3Back LLC Consulting/Normandale Faculty Instructor

Cost: $1,200 (this course is eligible for 15% off or at $1,020 for MN Council for Quality members)

Time/Date: 9:00am – 5:00pm; Wednesday & Thursday – 6/25/08 & 6/26/08

Location: UAW-Ford-MNSCU Training Center, 996 Mississippi River Boulevard, St. Paul

Register at www.normandale.edu/continuingeducation or call Ann Wagner at 952-487-8426.

Authenticy in Leadership: June 27

Discovering your purpose, passion, and values is the key to your personal power and authenticity. This unique, experiential seminar will provide an opportunity for self-discovery, a common language regarding passion and values, and resources to clarifying your purpose as a leader and team member. At the end if the day you will:

• Recognize distinctions between positional and personal leadership
• Recognize the importance of authentic leadership to team and organizational initiatives
• Understand how core passion drives thoughts and actions; better understand your core passion
• Gain individual perspective about ethics and a language to talk about your personal values
• Gain confidence in expressing unique perspectives and creative ideas within a team or group situation 
• Know why authenticity is the most important quality of successful leaders 

Instructors:

Lori Palm, Founder of Palm Productions/Core Passion™ Creator/Normandale Instructor

Ann Wagner, Normandale Director/Founder of Practical Leadership

Cost: $650 (this course is eligible for 15% off or at $550 for MN Council for Quality members)

Time/Date: 9:00am - 5:00pm, Friday, June 27, 2008

Location: UAW-MnSCU Ford Training Center, 996 Mississippi River Boulevard, St. Paul

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