Last month I shared that one of the biggest consequences of poorly executed strategy was decreased employment commitment (in fact, 67% of local leaders thought that this was THE biggest consequence of strategy gaps – click here for that article).  But that’s not the ONLY thing impacting employee morale.  Consider these startling data: 46% of workers say their jobs are stagnant; 50% of stagnant workers (and 33% overall) just do their jobs and go home; and only 45% of American workers are satisfied with their work.  45%.  In a day when many still can’t find good work, it won’t be long until many organizations can’t find good workers…

Maybe it’s the convergence of factors these days: a tough economy, stressful jobs and stressful lives, organizations continuously cutting and clamping down.  But whatever the cause(s), for those American workers lucky enough to have jobs in this economy, more and more are growing unhappy with them. 

For those who love data, let me present some startling facts…

In a Conference Board study published last month, only 45% of Americans were satisfied with their work.  That is a 4% drop from Conference Board’s 2008 study and the lowest in more than 22 years of studying the issue.  In case you can’t do the quick math, that means fully 55% -- more than half our workforce – are NOT satisfied with their jobs. 

Pause.  Let that sink in a minute: 55% of American workers are not satisfied with their work.

The recent drop in employee satisfaction might partially be blamed on the poor economy – it has been, after all, one of the worst economic periods since the Great Depression, which certainly made it difficult for some to find work, let alone find challenging, engaging, and meaningful work. 

But employee satisfaction has been dropping for more than 20 years.

“It says something troubling about work in America,” says Linda Barrington, managing director of human capital at the Conference Board.  “It is not about the business cycle or one grumpy generation.”  According to Conference Board, workers have grown steadily dissatisfied for many reasons:

• Only 51% find their jobs interesting.
• Only 43% feel secure in their jobs.
• Only 51% are satisfied with their boss.
• And other factors – like incomes not keeping up with inflation and the rising cost of health insurance taking more and more of take-home pay – are contributing to overall dissatisfaction.

Another study – “Pulse of the Workforce,” conducted last summer by Development Dimensions International, a 40-year old Pittsburgh-based talent management firm – may show yet another contributing factor.  In surveying over 1000 non-management workers, they found:

• 46% of workers who say their jobs are stagnant (this is similar to Conference Board’s study that found that 51% of workers find their jobs interesting…or 49% that find them uninteresting).
• 50% of stagnant workers (and 33% overall) who just do their jobs and go home.
• 32% of those who said their jobs are stagnant who cited no room to advance as the reason (see http://www.ddiworld.com/thoughtleadership/hrtrendresearch.asp).

Perhaps the last bullet is related to the economy: organizations are not hiring and people are not leaving, so therefore there isn’t much room for advancement.  In “good times,” a little excess capacity creates opportunity, as workers rotate positions, high performers advance, and employees move around a bit within organizations.  It keeps it fresh; it facilitates development; it promotes energy, growth, and learning – all quite the opposite of stagnation.

But today, our jobs (and our organizations?) are stagnant.  According to DDI: “All at a time when organizations can ill afford to have unproductive, poorly engaged individual contributors.”

And according to the Conference Board study: “If the job satisfaction trend is not reversed, economists say, it could stifle innovation and hurt America’s competitiveness and productivity.”

Workers who find their jobs interesting, as the report says, are more likely to be innovative and take the calculated risks and the initiative that contribute to economic growth.  “What is really disturbing about growing job dissatisfaction,” says Lynn Franco, another co-author of the Conference Board study, “…is the way it can play into the competitive nature of the US workforce down the road and on the growth of the US economy – all in a negative way.”

So an obvious danger is lurking for our organizations and our economy: if we don’t address worker satisfaction, it will impact our long-term productivity, competitiveness, innovation, and growth.  It will also impact customer satisfaction (I’ve made that argument many times – for one example, see “Employees are MORE Than an Asset" from May 2009).

But there’s another long-term danger.  Conference board claims that not only does employee dissatisfaction stifle innovation and hurt competitiveness and productivity, but “…it could make unhappy older workers less inclined to take the time to share knowledge and skills with younger workers.”

And that brings me to my biggest long-term fear: remember that thing called a worker shortage just three or four years ago?  Remember when we couldn’t find enough skilled workers and many, many companies were capacity constrained?  And remember all of the doomsday predictions regarding the impact of retiring Baby Boomers on the overall economy – the impact of tens of millions of workers retiring, taking their knowledge, their expertise, and their capacity out the door?  Remember that?  Well, it’s still coming – admittedly delayed a few years due the recent recession (and probably delayed retirements due to the stock market decline), but it is still coming.

Several years ago, the US Department of Labor forecasted a shortage of 3 million workers by 2012, and that an additional 10 million positions would go unfilled because workers lack the specialized skills required to fill vacancies.  I searched for revised forecasts and couldn’t find anything, but I do believe as the economy improves – and as Baby Boomers continue to age (nothing has delayed that process, unfortunately!) – we will be faced with a classic workforce shortage in this country.  We simply will not have enough workers to satisfy demand.  And if we experience a worker shortage at the same time that employee satisfaction is dropping, I think the consequences are obvious.

But I have one more piece of the doomsday puzzle to offer (sorry to be a downer this month).  Reported by PassionWerx (a local consulting firm that specializes in helping people and workers find their passion), an estimated 50-70% of your best and brightest workers will be looking for new positions once the recession lifts.  They claim “…the reality is that most managers spend over 80% of their time with the least engaged employees, while their most engaged people are left alone to do the bulk of the work.”  Their conclusion?  Engaged workers need engaged managers (they are speaking at our March Performance Improvement Network meeting, see article 5 below for more information).

So employees are not happy, many of your best employees will look to leave as the economy improves, and the overall economy will have a labor shortage once Baby Boomers really do start to retire.  Sounds somewhat catastrophic.

The solutions to the worker satisfaction issue are obvious, but not easy.  We need to:

• Measure and manage the factors that drive employee satisfaction and engagement.
• Identify “critical talent” and work to retain these workers.
• Train and develop your workforce – on those things that are important to the success of your people and your company (and not anything else).
• Build systematic ways to transfer knowledge and skills among employees.
• Adapt to different work styles.
• Eliminate organizational waste.

Each of these could be their own article (or book), but for a summary of thoughts, see the Council’s May 2008 newsletter article "Help Wanted: Confronting the Workforce Shortage."

We are (hopefully) emerging out of a very challenging economic time for most organizations.  But without thoughtful, systematic, and proactive preparation, we may be heading into another one.

Yours in Improvement,

Brian S. Lassiter

President, Minnesota Council for Quality

Today, social media – such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and others – have become new standards for communication and for connecting personal and professional networks.  However, while these tools first began at the individual level, many organizations are beginning to see the benefit of using these vehicles to build, develop, and expand relationships with customers and other stakeholders.  As a result, social networking is not only important for cultivating individual relationships, but also for expanding organizational relationships. 

The Minnesota Council for Quality and Project Management Institute (PMI) are proud to announce a special 60-minute webinar “Using Social Media to Build and Grow Relationships.”  The session will be facilitated by Lonny Gulden, Chief Connections Officer, on Wednesday, March 24 from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM.

Lonny will guide our thinking of how various social networking tools can benefit all of us as individual professionals – in terms of making you more visible and highly sought after professionally.  He will also explore how organizations are using these channels to communicate with customers and other stakeholders – to better understand their needs, to invite comments and complaints, to solicit their feedback, and to nurture their satisfaction, loyalty, and positive referral.

So grab lunch and dial in to learn how social media can complement other communication tools to benefit you, your profession, and your organization!

For more information on the webinar, visit www.councilforquality.org.  The session is $20 for members (of either MCQ or PMI) and $40 for non-members.  To register, email brian.lassiter@councilforquality.org.

Customers expect even more of us in tough times.  Good thing you can meet the challenge without leaving your desk by attending the energizing and practical 3-part web-based series on Leadership in Excellence and Customer Focus.

Back by popular demand, the MN Council for Quality has joined with several thought-leading societies to bring you these lively and content-rich sessions by Robin Lawton.  The top expert on customer-centered excellence, Rob is also a best-selling author who was recently ranked #1 of 88 speakers by an international organization.  Attend one or more of these related events at 11 AM – 1 PM CT:

• March 12:  “ACHIEVING 8 DIMENSIONS OF EXCELLENCE:  How to align strategy, service and measures with customer priorities”
• March 19:  “THE 12 VOICES OF THE CUSTOMER: How to uncover, translate & deliver what customers want”
• April 16: “MEASURING SATISFACTION: With and Without Surveys”

 Register more than 7 days before webinar for the Early Bird price, as ridiculously low as $75/person per event at http://www.imtc3.com/events/UpcomingEvents.cfm (using the code MCQ for discounts).

These interactive events are designed to introduce you and your associates to new ideas and actually put them into practice during the session.  Generous course materials included.  If you are not currently one of our members, this is a great time to join and begin getting discounts on superb programs like this.  Participants from industry and government have raved about the practical, high impact and easy to understand approach you will experience. 

You simply can’t afford to miss this outstanding program. It is made possible through collaboration with the Minnesota Council for Quality (MCQ), Vermont Council for Quality (VCQ), Wisconsin Forward Award (WFA), Colorado Performance Excellence (CPE), Northern Alberta Business Incubator (NABI) and the Granite State Quality Council (GSQC).  We are bringing you the top expert in this field, Robin Lawton.  See him on Google and his 5-star rated book on Amazon, “Creating a Customer-Centered Culture: Leadership in Quality, Innovation & Speed”. His career began in government, so he has intimate knowledge of special challenges in a non-widget world.

For more detailed course descriptions, please see http://www.imtc3.com/events/UpcomingEvents.cfm or call Robin Lawton’s office at 941-907-0666 to discuss how the content will be personally relevant to you.  Be sure to use code MCQ for discounts!

The principles and tools you will learn enabled organizations to save millions, jump from the middle of the pack to #1 in satisfaction and win state Baldrige Awards in record time.  Those who drive these successes are heroes and employee morale is enhanced.

Leadership and teamwork are vital to any organization's success.  But effective leadership and teamwork are part art, part science. 

The Minnesota Council for Quality is pleased to welcome Julie Delene, founder and principal of Move As One LLC, to our March 4 program, "Embodied Leadership: Lessons Learned from Ballroom Dance."

In an entertaining and informative way, Julie presents and explores the lessons of competitive ballroom dancing where leadership and teamwork are vital to success.  Using ballroom dance as a metaphor, Julie presents ideas that can be put to use in a practical manner for improving leadership and team abilities within an organization.  Julie engages all group members to learn techniques to be more present, gain clarity in direction, put heart emotion in motion, and support cooperative teamwork.

This discussion is designed to help business leaders and their teams to co-create working relationships that are energized, mutually aligned, goal directed, internally accountable, extremely satisfying and astoundingly effective. The Move As One process unleashes the extraordinary creative and productive power of the team by engaging and renewing its leader(s) and members in a co-creation process built on the principles of Presence, Purpose, Passion and Partnership. Such teams “over-achieve” almost effortlessly as traditional interpersonal barriers and employee-company disconnects fall by the wayside, and members’ true creative and leadership potentials are unleashed.

We thank our session sponsor, American Society for Quality (ASQ), for their support of this session, helping us to keep it free for members.

The discussion is from 8:00-9:00 a.m. on Mar 4 (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). 

Admission to PIN is FREE for Council members; $15 for partner organizations; $30 for the public.

What would be the impact on your time, focus, and productivity if your best employees decided to leave tomorrow? Today, the best and brightest workers are looking for organizations that know how to support and nurture highly engaged, fully committed workers. In fact, recent surveys have found that over 50% of highly engaged workers will be looking for new positions after the current recession lifts. The reality is that most managers spend over 80% of their time with the least engaged employees while their most engaged people are left alone to do the bulk of the work. Engaged workers need engaged managers.

So, how do you stop your top performers from leaving? And more importantly, how do you support their desire to have an impassioned work life that has meaning and purpose?

The Minnesota Council for Quality is pleased to welcome Jack Mateffy, principal of PassionWerx, to our March 10 program, "How to Lead Engaged Workers."  Jack will show you how to keep and support your best and brightest people -- the people you can’t afford to lose.  PassionWerx has unique process -- involving playing cards that include dozens of factors that drive professional and personal passion -- which helps people identify what really gives them passion.  This session will help participants identify their own passions, which can lead to increased engagement at work, at home, and in everyday life.  It can also lead to insights that improve your workers' engagement.  

We thank our session sponsors, DuFresne Manufacturing and Metropolitan State University, for their support of this session, helping us to keep it free for members.

The discussion is from 8:00-9:00 a.m. on Mar 10 (networking and continental breakfast begin at 7:30 a.m.) at Metro State University, 700 E 7th Street, downtown St. Paul. 

Admission to PIN is FREE for Council members; $15 for partner organizations; $30 for the public.

Every day, there are opportunities for us to lead...at work, in our community, and at home.  Some welcome the opportunity, some do so reluctantly AND it’s always a risky venture.  Ronald Heifetz, Harvard Kennedy School of Business has written extensively about “staying alive through the dangers of leading” and using his principles of Adaptive Leadership, he teaches us how to manage our vulnerabilities, and how to anchor and sustain ourselves in tough times.  This workshop will provide a crash course in Adaptive Leadership, introducing you to the necessary skills to improve your leadership capacities.

The Rochester Area Quality Council, an affiliate of the Minnesota Council for Quality, is pleased to announce their Mar 9 program “Everyone Leads -- But it's a Jungle Out There!"  The session will be led by Barb Kranz Taylor of the Bailey Consulting Group.

In this session, you will understand the basic principles of Adaptive Leadership (without reading all of Ron Heifetz’s books), identify the critical adaptive challenges you and your team are facing, and learn/practice the adaptive skills to address your challenge.

We thank our session sponsor, Rochester Community & Technical College, for their support of this session, helping us to keep it free for members.

The session is Mar 9 from 7:30-9:00 AM at RCTC.

The next Twin Ports Performance Excellence Network session will be Tuesday, March 16.  The topic/speaker will be announced soon.  The session is from 7:30-9:00 a.m. (networking and continental breakfast begin at 7:00 a.m.).  Admission to TPPEN is FREE for Council members and guests ($20 for non-members).

For more information, please visit http://www.councilforquality.org/TPPEN.cfm.  Space is limited so register today by emailing brian.lassiter@councilforquality.org.

The Minnesota Council for Quality is pleased to announce the date of the 2009 Minnesota Quality Award event: Tuesday, May 18, 2010.  The half-day event will include the following:

• a luncheon, featuring a keynote address by an executive of either Poudre Valley Health System, Colorado, or a senior administrator from Iredell-Statesville Schools, North Carolina (both confirmed and both 2008 Malcolm Baldrige Award recipients); Governor Pawlenty also invited.
• an afternoon of break-out workshops, featuring the nine 2009 MN Quality Award recipients and other high performing organizations, each sharing some aspect of how they are improving their outcomes and processes; and
• an evening reception and celebration, featuring a keynote address by an executive of a world class organization; the evening will also feature the recipient organizations’ accomplishments, will thank our Board of Evaluators and other key volunteers, and will promote networking with leaders and professionals interested in performance excellence.

The event will be held at Landmark Center in St. Paul, and we expect 300+ leaders and professionals to attend.  The event is open to the public – to anyone interested in continuous improvement and performance excellence.

Save the date and spread the word within your organization!

The Council is also seeking sponsors for the event to help offset expenses.  Sponsors will be recognized in all marketing and during the event itself.  If your organization is interested in learning more about sponsorship opportunities, please email brian.lassiter@councilforquality.org.

All Council members are invited to a luncheon information session to learn more about our newest service in 2010: professional roundtables.  Luncheons will be February 26 (West Metro) and April 1 (East Metro). 

Last year based on Council member suggestions, we began exploring the possibility of creating some affinity groups to help improvement-related leaders and professionals learn from their peers.  After focus groups, we have designed a service that will facilitate actual peer problem solving, the exchange of ideas and best practices, and deep networking (much deeper than our PIN format).  These small, invitation-only forums are designed for leaders who are short on time but long on experience.  The purpose is to accelerate performance and improvement within participants’ organizations and to facilitate professional and personal growth in a safe, open, confidential environment. Specifically, the goals of these roundtables are to:

• Share ideas, solutions across organizations
• Solve real business problems in a collaborative format
• Explore best practices from regional and national experts
• Enhance leadership skills and build long-term relationships with like-minded individuals
• Promote value beyond your investment of time/money: provide a measurable ROI

There are similar roundtable concepts for business owners and CEOs; however, there are not many that focus on quality leaders and/or middle management.  We believe that this concept will have deep value for many Minnesota organizations, and we invite you to learn more about the concept.

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Lake Superior College, a partner of the Council, is pleased to introduce a special 3-day workshop “What It Takes to be Lean!”  The workshop is March 4-6 in Duluth.

This course is designed for those looking to gain understanding of what Lean is and how to apply it to their respective organization.  Over the course of three days you will learn about the history of Lean and how to apply it.  The course curriculum will review common terminologies and tools, using simulation and activities to apply what you learn.  This workshop is a must for anyone looking to become an effective Lean project team member or leader.

Participants will gain an understanding of:

• The history of Lean
• Lean principles
• How Lean principles can be applied to your organization
• What it takes to lead a Lean project team.

Details:

Course#              WDBU 1862

Dates/Times:       Mon-Wed, March 8,9,10

Time:                    8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Hours:                   24 hours

Cost:                    $600.00 (which represents a discount to Council members)

Location:             Lake Superior College, Room E2156

Instructors:          Brenda Granquist and Jeremy Schwartz

The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award is pleased to announce the 2010 “Quest for Excellence” Conference April 12-14 in Washington DC.

Why Attend?  You’ll join hundreds of leaders from business, education, health care, and nonprofit organizations with a passion for excellence, as they come together to network, share what’s working and what’s not, and learn how to achieve and sustain performance excellence within their organizations.  

Be a part of the movement and:

Learn how 5 diverse organizations recently received a Presidential Award for their performance (to learn a little more about them go to http://www.baldrige.nist.gov/QEXXII/Award_Recipients_Keynotes.htm)

Discover how to apply best practices to your own organization to improve and sustain performance and get world-class results during any of the 40 management sessions

Find out what other organizations are doing to engage customers and their workforce and to get ahead despite economic conditions

Network with industry leaders to achieve your organizational improvement goals

Take a closer look at the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence and best ways to apply them

To learn more about the conference and its benefits visit: http://www.baldrige.nist.gov/Quest_for_Excellence.htm (or check out a video from last year’s conference at http://www.baldrige.nist.gov/Video/QEXXI/index.htm).

Register by March 15 for $150 discount:

https://secure.asq.org/conferences/quest-for-excellence/2010/registration.html

Who Should Attend?

CEOs, senior managers, executives, directors, heads of operating units, or quality/performance improvement leaders/practitioners, from business, education, government, health care, and nonprofit sectors with an interest in personal learning and organizational improvement.

About the Baldrige National Quality Program

The Association for Strategic Planning-Minnesota Chapter, an alliance partner of the MN Council for Quality, is pleased to announce its next meeting: “New Decade, New Thinking.”  The session is facilitated by Dr. Carol Pletcher of Pletcher Inc. and Nancy Dunnigan of Cognis Consulting. 

The resetting of the business environment in this new decade will require new thinking for strategy development and execution.  It requires that organizations leverage their core and change the questions they seek to answer.  Nancy Dunnigan and Dr. Carol Pletcher work at the intersection of Innovation and Organization Change and have used their tools and techniques to help organizations implement strategies more effectively.  They will present their techniques for using the positive core of the organization as an asset to be leveraged for improving strategy execution.  Participants will leave with a new tool in their toolkit for surviving and thriving in the new reality. 

The discussion will be held Tuesday, March 23.  Registration, networking, and breakfast is at 7:00 AM; the program is from 7:45-9:00 AM.  The meeting location is the University of St. Thomas, 1000 LaSalle Ave in Minneapolis, Opus Hall 202.  Advance cost is $35 to the public or $25 for members of Council.  For more information or to register, contact Laurieberickson@msn.com or visit http://www.strategyplus.org/chapters/Minnesota.php.

The Winona Area SHRM Group, a partner of the Council, is hosting their annual conference on March 9th.  This year’s topic is on Toxic Personalities in the Workplace and Employment Law. 

Morning Session - Toxic Personalities in the Workplace Sponsored by IronCore, Inc.

Have you ever found that the people most guilty of unruly behavior at work are also the ones who are most oblivious to their behavior? Join us with our speakers Dr. Mitch Kusy and Dr. Elizabeth Holloway as we wrap our heads around these toxic behaviors in the workplace.

Afternoon Session - Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Employment Law - the fun way! Sponsored by Winona Agency

James Sherman, Shareholder of Wessels Sherman Joerg Liszka Laverty Seneczko P.C. is a dynamic employment lawyer that will help us with the Top Ten employment laws effecting the workplace in 2010! Stay updated on the changes to the ADA and health care reform changes that will affect your company.

Full conference offers 6 HRCI recertification credits!  Event sponsored by Winona National Bank and Merchants Bank.

For more information or to register, visit http://winona.shrm.org

The Minnesota Section of ASQ, an alliance partner of the MN Council for Quality, is pleased to announce its next monthly program: “Cultural Complementarity” on March 9, led by Hector Garcia, president of MEX-US Global.  They are also pleased to announce several certification courses (listed at the end of this article).  Here are the specifics…

Today’s global realities require organizations and individuals to adapt a new world view.  In order to succeed in the environment of today’s reality, we need to look at it through a new lens.  If we can agree on a common overarching goal and recognize the complementary value of each person and culture in achieving that goal, we can optimize their unique potential through Cultural Complementarity, which is a paradigm-shifting process to help different organizational, disciplinary, ethnic and national cultures, in pursuit of a common goal, to optimize the added value of cultural collaboration.

The discussion is at the Earle Brown Heritage Center, 6155 Earle Brown Drive, Brooklyn Center.  March 9 from 5:00 to 8:55PM.  Cost is $35 ($25 for MCQ members as partners).  For more information or to register, visit http://www.mnasq.org.

In addition, ASQ is pleased to announce the following certification courses:

March 22-May 24: Certified Six Sigma Green Belt, $675

March 30-June1: Certified Quality Engineer, $600

April 7-May 26: Certified Software Quality Engineer, $600

April 28-June 2: Certified Quality Auditor, $470

May 13-June 3: Certified Quality Improvement Associate, $330

Enterprise Minnesota, a partner of the MN Council for Quality, is pleased to announce several events, all focused on using Lean or other methods to improve organizational performance:

Mar 17: Investing in Your People, Changing Your Organizational Culture, Twin Cities

April 21: The Next Generation of Lean, Twin Cities

The MNODN, an affiliate partner of the MN Council for Quality, is pleased to announce its next monthly program on March 2: “Making Recovery America’s Business: Addiction/Recovery from Hazelden’s Perspective.”  The session will be facilitated by William Cope Moyers, Executive Director, Hazelden Center for Public Advocacy.

Addiction and recovery are everyone’s business whether it’s a neighborhood church, a large business or a small not-for-profit. William C. Moyers, executive director of Hazelden's Center for Public Advocacy, meets people wherever he goes who struggle against the powerful grip of addiction and don’t know who to talk to or where to turn.

Join us during our March monthly program on 3/2/10 where William will talk with us about his work and the changes he is engaging in politically, at Hazelden and personally as a human being, a leader and a change agent. He’ll talk with us about his successes, his struggles and his challenges.

The MN Healthcare Quality Professionals, an alliance partner of the MN Council for Quality, is pleased to host a (free) monthly webinar seminar series.  The series, hosted by MHQP and HealthForce Minnesota, is a monthly "quality in the trenches" brownbag education series.  The objective of these sessions is to provide a healthcare quality "survey course" using selected materials from the National Association of Healthcare Quality (NAHQ)'s Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ) preparation materials. 

Upcoming webinars include (over the lunch hour):

2/25        Patient Safety in the Clinics

3/5-6       CPHQ Exam Prep Course

3/25        What is DNV?

The intended audience includes healthcare quality professionals who want a re-grounding in the breadth of their profession, and clinicians who want to learn more to become champions of change.  MHQP especially wants to reach out to healthcare professionals in rural/outstate Minnesota who don't get many quality education opportunities.

South Central College is pleased to announce their fall quality and performance improvement curriculum.  Council members are entitled to a 10% discount.

The following courses will be held at the Faribault campus (prices before member discount):

3/2/10, Problem Solving Tools & Methods, 8a-4:30p, $235

3/23/10, Understanding & Implementing ISO 9001, 8a-4:30p, $235

3/24/10, Internal Auditor Skills, 8a-4:30p, $235

4/8/10, Project Management, 8a-4:30p, $235

4/27-5/25/10, Certified Quality Improvement Associate (CQIA) Review, 6-9p, $250

4/28-5/26/10, Certified Quality Auditor (CQA) Review, 5:30-8:30p, $250

5/4-5/5/10, Introduction to Quality, 8a-4:30p, $445

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

2/26 Lean Transformational Thinking, $345

3/2 Value Stream Mapping, $345

3/2-6/11 Six Sigma Black Belt Certificate Class, $8950

3/8-4/13 Six Sigma Green Belt Certificate Class, $3355

5/3-5/25 Six Sigma Green Belt for Healthcare Certificate Class, $3355

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

02/23, Strategic Planning and Measurement, $750

02/23, Working Assertively, $395

02/24, Business Acumen for Technical Professionals, $395

02/24, Business Acumen for Human Resource Professionals, $395

02/24, Delegating to Enhance Job Performance, $395

02/25, Technical Writing, $395

02/25, Human Resource Certification Test Prep Online, $1095

02/26, Ethical Business Decision Making, $395

02/26, Project Management Foundations, $395

02/27, Human Resource Certification Test Prep, $1095

03/02, Project Management for Human Resource Professionals, $395

03/02, Implementing Process Change, $995

03/04, Creativity and Innovation, $395

03/04, Eight Steps of Instructional Design, $990

03/05, Project Initiation, $395

03/05, Financial Intelligence, $395

03/05, Data and Process Modeling, $750

03/06, Certified Internal Auditors (CIA) Test Prep – Part 2, $750

03/09, Increasing Power and Influence through Listening, $395

03/10, Project Management Foundations, $395

03/11, In-depth Coaching: Leading Individual Change Interventions, $795

03/12, Project Leadership, $395

03/15, Principles of Systems Engineering Online, $1995

03/16, Principles of Supervision, $995

03/16, Legal Issues in Human Resources and Management, $395

03/17, Developing Leadership Skills, $750

03/19, Technical Writing, $395

03/22, Measuring and Improving Work Processes, $995

03/23, Personal Influence and Leadership, $395

03/23, Online GPHR Test Prep, $1395

03/24, Interviewing and Selection Processes for Supervisors, $395

03/24, Foundations in Business Writing, $395

03/24, Exercising Organizational Influence, $395

03/25, Writing Persuasive Business Proposals, $395

03/25, Project Planning, $750

03/30, Staffing:  Recruitment and Selection, $395

04/06, How to Deal with Difficult People, $395

04/07, Introduction to Business Analysis, $395

04/07, Advanced Editing and Proofreading Strategies, $395

04/10, Certified Internal Auditors (CIA) Test Prep – Part 3, $995

04/13, Principles of Employee Compensation, $395

04/13, Process Innovation, $995

04/14, Building Teamwork and Commitment, $395

04/14, Developing Leadership Skills, $750

04/15, Managing Virtual and Remote Teams, $395

04/15, Introduction to E-Learning and Webinars, $990

04/16, Project Negotiation and Conflict Resolution, $395

04/20, Problem Solving and Decision Making, $395

04/21, Coaching for Excellence, $395

04/21, Small Group Professional Communication, $750

04/21, Managing Business Requirements, $750

04/22, Successfully Leading Enterprise-Wide Change Management, $795

04/22, Writing Business Reports, $395

04/23, Project Risk Management, $395

04/27, High Impact Presentations, $395

04/30, Project Management and Chaos Theory, $395

05/01, Certified Internal Auditors (CIA) Test Prep – Part 4, $395

05/04, Performance Management Process, $395

05/04, Enterprise Process Management, $995

05/05, Managing Performance and Developing Talent, $395

05/05, Strategic Planning and Measurement, $750

05/05, Data and Process Modeling, $750

05/05, Verbal and Nonverbal Communication, $395

05/07, Project Management for IT Professionals, $395

05/11, Handling People with Tact and Diplomacy, $395

05/11, Successful Manager’s Leadership Program, $2995

05/14, Project Management and New Product Development, $395

05/18, Employee and Labor Relations, $395

05/19, Improving Work Processes, $395

05/20, Advanced Editing and Proofreading Strategies, $395

05/20, Advanced Creative Training Techniques, $495

05/20, Integrated Management, $395

05/21, Project Execution, $395

05/25, Exercising Organizational Influence, $395

06/01, Organizational Training and Development, $395

06/04, Project Control and Closure, $395

06/08, Verbal and Nonverbal Communication, $395

06/10, Legal Issues for Managers and Supervisors, $395

06/10, Coaching for Excellence, $395

06/11, Applied Project Management, $395

06/15, Business Acumen for Human Resource Professionals, $395

06/16, Creative Training Techniques, $1485

06/17, Writing for the Web, $395

06/18, Business Acumen for Technical Professionals, $395

06/22, Strategic Human Resource Planning, $395

06/23, Leading Through Change, $395

06/25, Project Procurement Management, $395

The University of St. Thomas’ Executive Education and Professional Development, a partner of the MN Council for Quality, is pleased to announce the following upcoming programs:

1/25 – 2/28 Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, $8200

3/26 – 4/10 Six Sigma Green Belt Certificate, $3795

2/22 – 5/17 Mini Master of the Lean Enterprise, $2495

Also, coming in the fall of 2010: Mini MBA for Technical Professionals and Mini Master of Supply Chain Management.