Let's admit up front that this column is about to include, in fact focus on, a directive opinion--that is, the reader is
about to be told, in a forceful manner, to do something that is admittedly based on opinion. The statement is: The "quality" conference most worth attending--and that is head and
shoulders above any other run by any organization--is the annual Malcolm Baldrige Quest for Excellence Conference. Come budget time, this is the one that should top the list of anyone wanting to
learn more about any aspect of quality. If there is money left over, then consider the various national and regional conferences conducted either by industry-specific groups or national
organizations. The organization of the conference is deceptively simple. The objective of the conference is to give the most recent group of Baldrige winners a chance to
explain themselves. This includes everything from why they chose to pursue the Baldrige methodology to what the mechanics were of actually winning to what they expect to do in the future. On the first morning (a Monday) there are several keynote speeches by the leaders of the winning organizations. This allows the audience a chance to get to know them and to be
better able to decide how to allocate their time during the rest of the conference. After lunch, there is a series of concurrent sessions with teams of Baldrige winners
presenting classes on how they approached each of the categories of the Baldrige. For instance, an attendee can concentrate on one or two winning organizations and go to all of their
presentations or concentrate on particular categories and listen to all the varying approaches to skinning that particular cat (or cats). Remember, the Baldrige is descriptive rather than
prescriptive so how a company chooses to succeed in a particular area can be very different from the ways and means chosen by another winning organization. This year's
conference, held April 7-10, had an even more eclectic group of winners than usual: a company that primarily makes and distributes checks through various banks, a fast-food chain of 17 hamburger
and hot dog places (with a corporate headquarters consisting of three people), a school district in Alaska that has only 214 students but which is spread over 22,000 square miles, a school
district in upstate New York with a totally different demographic make-up than the Alaskan district, and a university system in Wisconsin.
There were some common themes: * Enthusiasm, happiness, passion and a variety of other high-energy emotional words all apply. One of the great joys of attending this conference
is being in the presence of a bunch of folks who are so obviously proud of what they and their co-workers have done. * The important thing is the feedback report. Every winner
said--usually more than once--that the object of applying for a Baldrige is to receive the feedback report. It's quite simply the highest value consulting available. Most of the winners were
multiple-time applicants and/or had started out with Baldrige clone awards at state and regional levels. At every level it was the feedback report that made it worthwhile. * The
speakers are available all day, every day. Unlike a standard conference that hires keynote/plenary speakers who arrive just in time for their speech and then hurry on to their next assignment,
the entire team from each winner is there for the whole conference--in part so that they can learn from each other. Got a follow-up question that doesn't occur to you until the next day? Stop the
CEO in the hallway. * Speakers speak to the topic. So often, at a standard conference, the theme looks good on the brochures but the keynote speakers may or may not speak to the
theme. At this conference, every speaker is on topic. As examples of some of the points made by the various representatives of the winning companies: * Pal's Sudden Service, despite a turnover rate of 100 percent (their competitors have turnover rates of over 300%) gives new employees 120 hours of initial training. When asked,
"How can you spend that much time on training? What if they leave?" their answer is, "What if we didn't train them and they stayed?" * Alaska's Chugach School
District has changed a major education paradigm. Rather than time being the constant and education the variable (i.e., spend 180 days in fourth grade and you can be a fifth-grader), education is
the constant and time is the variable (i.e., when you learn this amount of information, you will move up) and they signed a performance-based pay contract with their teachers. *
University of Wisconsin at Stout sees complaints as "opportunities for a teachable moment" and considers itself a "data-driven campus." Teachers are taught to teach--a rare
approach at the college level. * Clarke American has had more than 100 of its employees go through Baldrige examiner training. The company tries to "hire for life." Clark
American acknowledges that in today's world, a person can expect to have from three to five different careers but hope that the person will have all of them inside the company. Several of their
top executives began at entry-level positions. * At the Pearl River School District, the motto is, "In God we trust. Everyone else must bring their data." They even measure
student satisfaction (70% in 1998; 92% in 2001) and parent satisfaction (62% in 1996; 96% in 2001). If you can't convince your boss to go with you in 2003,
they include a video tape in the conference materials. The video has both the awards ceremony and descriptions of each winning organization. That might help you to convince him or her to go with
you the following year. Want to actually learn about successful efforts to do this quality thing--in any level of detail you want--rather than the personal preferences of
various consultants or practitioners from a variety of companies who may or may not be successful as a whole? There is no better option than the Quest for Excellence Conference.
Want details? Check www.quality.nist.gov . About the authors Pat Townsend and Joan Gebhardt have written more than 200 articles and six books, including
Commit to Quality (John Wiley & Sons, 1986); Quality in Action: 93 Lessons in Leadership, Participation, and Measurement (John Wiley & Sons, 1992);
Five-Star Leadership: The Art and Strategy of Creating Leaders at Every Level (John Wiley & Sons, 1997); Recognition, Gratitude & Celebration (Crisp Publications, 1997);
How Organizations Learn: Investigate, Identify, Institutionalize (Crisp Publications, 1999); and Quality Is Everybody's Business (CRC Press, 1999). Pat Townsend has
recently re-entered the corporate world and is now dealing with "leadership.com" issues as a practitioner as well as an observer, writer and speaker. He is now chief quality officer for
UICI, a diverse financial services corporation headquartered in the Dallas area. E-mail the authors at ptownsend@qualitydigest.com . |
