Innovation & Continuous Improvement for Competitive Advantage

i n au g u r a l i s s u e

september/october 2008

i n au g u r a l i s s u e I n n o vat i o n & Co n t i n u o u s i m p r o v e m e n t f o r co m p e t i t i v e a d va n tag e

Innovation & Continuous Improvement for Competitive Advantage

jewel of collaboration Masaaki Imai pictured from left Tom Mauro (CPEx), Masaaki Imai (KAIZEN Institute), and Brian Saylor (KAIZEN Institute)

MESA Products Ritz-Carlton Poudre Valley Health

Collaborator Profiles

Avaya DIcor Building

Bridges Boeing

We’re here for you.

When you need medical care, the professionals at Poudre Valley Health System are here for you.

Whether you need inpatient care at Poudre Valley Hospital or Medical Center of the Rockies, or you need outpatient services at one of our many clinics and diagnostic or surgery centers, our exceptional physicians and staff are standing by.

Compassionate care is what you deserve and what we take pride in delivering. We’re here for you.

P O U D R E VA L L E Y H E A L T H S Y S T E M p o u d r e va l l e y H o S p I Ta l

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F o rT C o l l I n S , C o l o r a d o

MedICal CenTer oF THe roCkIeS

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loveland, Colorado

LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER

september/october 2008

quality and competitivness A Work In Progress

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hen my daughter Rebecca was sixteen, she drew a pastoral scene with trees, a stream and flowers. On the bottom she added the inspirational words of Margaret Mead, “Remember that a handful of people dedicated to a cause can change the world.” I loved this picture and had copies made for stationery.

On the afternoon of September 10, 2001, one of the people in our office found a copy of this stationery and, unbeknownst to me, laid it on my desk. As the events of September 11 unfolded, I made it to work to find that these wise words in front of me had a whole new meaning. I was devastated when I realized that evil people dedicated to a cause could change the world too.

When we are pushed enough, desperate enough, or scared enough, we can accomplish extraordinary results, both good and bad. The true measure of leadership is not just our performance when we have a gun to our head but what we do when we have the free choice and the discipline to make a daily difference.

This magazine is dedicated to those inspirational leaders who have vision, fire in their belly, the ability to pull people together, and do something to make a situation better and improve lives. While these people are silently rewarded by a quiet sense of fulfillment and a job well done, we feel that they need to be identified, acknowledged, studied and given a forum to know each other. At the same time, their accomplishments give the rest of us a chance to learn so that we can multiply our efforts and enjoy collective happiness and success.

The circulation of this magazine will be to top leaders of businesses, universities, government and non-profit organizations that make a difference domestically and internationally. The articles will be current and pertinent case studies. They will emphasize not only the best business practices, but also practical social responsibility and social entrepreneurship. The goal will be to study those leaders who have made a difference and learn how they did it. ( )

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FOUNDER AND PUBLISHER Gayle Dendinger EDITOR Jan Mazotti

This article is entitled “A Work In Progress” because we are asking for your help in gathering ideas and identifying interesting people and success stories. We believe that this will help us make this magazine better over time.

Our goal is to create dynamic cooperation, partnerships and assistance among individuals, businesses, communities, governmental bodies and educational organizations to help foster growth and change. We want to: • Connect cutting-edge and world-class organizations, both here and abroad, to help with long-term competitive efforts.

• Make a genuine difference in the lives of colleagues, friends and customers.

• Connect higher education institutions to promote mutual understanding and provide a forum for the intellectual exchange of ideas.

• Create opportunities through programs, seminars, study visits and guest lectureships where our partners teach theory and practice.

• Pull people, information and resources together to create opportunities to raise our combined success.

In Good to Great, Jim Collins states, “True success, whether in the public, private or nonprofit sector, requires articulating a common vision and inspiring diverse groups of people to achieve a common goal.”

In our opinion, this is your magazine - everyone contributes and everyone benefits, everyone has a stake in the collective success of this venture. Our culture thrives on shared knowledge, and I believe that the power of many minds with a shared vision and common commitment will result in positive change on all levels.

Thank you for your continued support and we hope you enjoy ICOSA Magazine.

Sincerely,

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Arja P. Adair Jr. Maggie Cronin Roger Garriock Doug Jackson Norma Krech Terry May Deborah Smith Merrily Hill-Smith STAFF WRITERS Tracy Jackson Bill Levis Jan Mazotti DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING Jan Mazotti ART DIRECTOR Nick Heckman – EKMN Creative PHOTOGRAPHY & DESIGN Cosme Lindstom Annette Perez Business advisor John Brackney COVER PHOTOGRAPHY Andy Schwartz ICOSA Magazine welcomes editorial submissions from its readers. Whenever possible submissions should be sent in electronic format. All unsolicited materials should be submitted to the publisher at the address below. Items not sent electronically will not be returned. The publisher reserves the right to decline use of materials at their discretion and assumes no liability for unsolicited materials.

ICOSA Magazine is published six times a year.

No part of ICOSA Magazine may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher. ©2008 ICOSA CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS 4100 Jackson Street Denver, CO 80216 Office: 303.333.3688 Fax: 303.333.4832 Email: jamz@icosamag.com Website: www.icosamag.com

All third-class postage paid at Denver, Colorado.

table of CONTENTS

September - october 2008

In this Issue

29 Masaaki Imai - The father of LEAN manufacturing

36 Mesa Products

Competitive advantage using Baldrige tools ( )

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15 Poudre Valley Health System

Saving lives through innovation & continuous improvement

12 COLORADO ASSOCIATION OF MANUFACTURING & TECHNOLOGY - Creating jobs & profits

20 Dicor & Centura Health

It’s not business as usual anymore: creative problem solving

26 AVAYA, INC.

Unlocking organizational potential

44 Colorado foundation for medical care

Working for better healthcare

48 Ritz-carlton

Customer service competitive advantage

53 The boeing corporation

A journey to excellence

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INSPIRATIONS

BUCKMINSTER FULLER

by Gayle Dendinger

uckminster Fuller was one of the world’s first futurists, and one of the last New England Transcendentalists. He urged everyone to think globally and act ecologically so that all could enjoy the Earth. Fuller was a visionary who believed that technology could save the world from itself, if it was properly used. He contributed a wide range of designs, inventions and ideas to the world, particularly in the area of practical, inexpensive shelter.

Ideas He had ideas about everything. He would think of something and do something about it. He would see what needed to be done ( )

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and then do it. Because he thought in such a lofty manner, he would try to build or draw rather than explain.

However, he authored over 30 books.

Epiphanic Moment In 1920, Fuller was jobless and bankrupt.

He had previously lost his daughter, who died in his arms. He began drinking and at one point contemplated suicide. He decided however, that his life was not his to throw away and had an epiphany that changed the direction of his life.

Self-Documentarian He decided to make his life a living case study for the sake of humanity, documenting his life, philosophies, and ideas in a comprehensive scientific manner. He referred to himself as “Guinea Pig B.” He kept track of his life as a research project for the remainder of his days.

More than Less Fuller was concerned with the question, “Does humanity have a chance to survive lastingly and successfully on this planet, and if so, how?” He strove to make the world work for all of humanity without harming the ecology. He felt that “Society deals by emergency, and that a great deal of shortages are due to political barriers.”

Natures Geometry Fuller dedicated himself to exploring the principles working in nature, which would be the key to elevating humanity. He wanted to understand nature’s geometry, which he believed was a set of economical statements about patterns in the universe.

Outside the Box He was fascinated by the five platonic solids, particularly the tetrahedron consisting of four faces that are equilateral triangles and the icosahedron with 20 equilateral triangle faces. He is best remembered as the creator of the geodesic dome, a remarkable, sphere-like structure made of a complex network of triangles. Within a few years, there were thousands of these domes around the world - a couple of the more famous are The Epcot Center and the US Pavilion at the 1967 Worlds Fair in Montreal.

Systemic World View Fuller studied the interrelationships of nature and complex systems, whether a single organism, an organization, or a society. He explored principles of energy and material efficiency in the fields of architecture, engineering, and design. He realized that by examining global problems in the context of the whole system – the whole planet – he would have the best chance of identifying large-scale trends that would allow him to anticipate the critical needs of humanity.

A FRESH LOOK Fuller had a different way of looking at the world. He designed an icosahedronbased map, called the Dymaxion Air-Ocean map to show the Earth’s continents with minimum distortion when projected or printed on a flat surface.

dedicated the song to him and the refrain follows: What one man can do is dream; what one man can do is love; what one man can do is change the world; and make it young again; here you see what one man can do.

Lesson for Us All

Buckminster Fuller took many chances.

He won some and lost some. After careful documentation, he felt as if he learned Connection and Collaboration more when there was a failure and would redouble his efforts to make something work.

By studying nature, Fuller believed that we could accelerate evolution He defined wealth in terms of knowledge, as the “in directions that will yield a minimum of disconnects.” He also “technological ability to protect, nurture, support, believed that “cooperation was the optimum survival strategy.” and accommodate all growth needs of life.” He was convinced that the accumulation of relevant John Denver and Fuller were very close friends and the song knowledge, combined with the quantities of key “What One Man Can Do” on the 1982 album Seasons of the recyclable resources that had already been extracted Heart was written for Buckminster’s 85th birthday. Denver from the earth, had reached a sufficient level such that competition for necessities was no longer necessary.

Inspiration To many Fuller was a genius. To others, a complete nutcase.

He was interested in goals that seemed beyond the realm of possibility. He was supported by and collaborated with no less than three generations of students, colleagues, and those inspired by his work. Furthermore, he inspired the name ICOSA and the concept of Connections & Collaboration. Thank you, Dr. Fuller. You are one of my inspirations.

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advisory board

PAUL BERGMAN jr.

Meet Paul G. Bergman Jr. Director, U.S. Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration Denver, CO

M

CONTACT MR. BERGMAN: U.S. EXPORT ASSISTANCE CENTER 1625 BROADWAY, SUITE 680 DENVER, CO 80202

r. Bergman is the Director for the U.S. Department of Commerce at the U.S. Export Assistance Center in Denver. He is responsible for the states of Colorado and Wyoming. He has worked for the U.S. Departments of State and Commerce for thirty-five years. Before arriving in Denver, Paul was the Commercial Attaché in the American Embassy in Bucharest, Romania. He was in charge of the commercial relations between the United States and Romania and traveled extensively throughout Eastern Europe during this time. He was the first U.S. Foreign Commercial Service Officer of the U.S. Department of Commerce in Bucharest. Throughout his career, he has worked in and visited over thirty-one countries.

Paul serves on the World Trade Center of Denver’s Board and its Executive Committee, the Board of Advisors for the University of Denver’s Masters of International MBA Degree Program and Governor’s sub-committee for International Tourism for the State of Colorado. He completed three terms as President of the International Trade Association of Colorado and served on the Board of Advisors for the Foreign Trade Zone of Denver and the Governor of Colorado’s Task Force on Latin America. He has also served as Acting Regional Director for the Southwest Network covering the States of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Wyoming, and Colorado. During summer 2007, he served as Acting National Director for Domestic Operations for the U.S. Commercial Service in Washington, DC, and during the summer of 2008, Paul served as Acting Senior Commercial Officer in Tel Aviv, Israel.

A 1971 graduate of Regis College of Denver, Paul received a Master’s Degree in International Management from Thunderbird Graduate School of International Management in Phoenix, Arizona in 1973.

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T: 303.844.6001 X21 pbergman@mail.doc.gov www.buyusa.gov/colorado

Services include: • World-class market research • Trade events that promote products or services to qualified buyers • Introductions to qualified buyers and distributors • Counseling and advocacy through every step of the export process Export.gov, the government portal for the U.S. Export Centers, brings together resources from across the U.S. Government to assist American businesses in planning their international sales strategies and succeed in today’s global marketplace.

US COMMERCIAL SERVICE/ITA DESCRIPTION

From market research and trade leads from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Commercial Service to export finance information from Export-Import Bank and the Small Business Administration, to agricultural export assistance from USDA, Export.gov helps American exporters navigate the international sales process and avoid pitfalls such as non-payment and intellectual property misappropriation.

The U.S. Commercial Service is the trade promotion unit of the International Trade Administration. There are U.S. Commercial Service trade specialists in 107 U.S. cities and in more than 80 countries who work with companies to help get them started in exporting or increase sales to new global markets.

Export.gov was created to provide better customer service for businesses interacting with the Federal Government. The U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration manages Export.gov as a collaborative effort with the 19 Federal Agencies that offer export assistance programs and services.

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advisory board

tom mauro

Meet TOM MAURO CEO, COLORADO PERFORMANCE EXCELLENCE Denver, CO

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om Mauro is the CEO of Colorado Performance Excellence (CPEx). CPEx is the Colorado-based 501(c)(3) non-profit based on the Baldrige National Program for Performance Excellence. He has been certified as an examiner for the Malcolm Baldrige National Performance program in 2005 and 2007. He currently serves as a board member and treasurer for the Alliance for Performance Excellence, the organization of performance improvement organizations throughout the U.S. based on the Baldrige Program.

Mr. Mauro’s career spanned nearly 30 years as a senior executive in information systems with regional and national banking organizations before becoming the first senior executive of CPEx in 2002.

He has been involved significantly in civic and non-profit organizations, having been one of the founders of Destination ImagiNation, a non-profit dedicated to creative problem solving for students; he was a director of a local YMCA for 20 years; he served on the Board of Education of Denver Public Schools from 1989 to 1995, and was the president of the Board for two years.

Tom is a native Coloradoan from Pueblo and is a graduate of The Colorado School of Mines and has a Master of Science degree from the University of Colorado – Boulder.

CPEX/REGIONAL CONFERENCES ETC. CPEx is a statewide program dedicated to enabling Colorado organizations to evolve and succeed through the effective application of the principles and practices embodied in the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence. Incorporated in 2000 as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, CPEx is one of more than 45 similar state programs that exist throughout the U.S. It serves all Colorado organizations regardless of size, type, or economic sector.

CPEx represents a community of organizations and individuals dedicated to performance excellence. Other organizations that have adopted the performance excellence framework have demonstrated: • Increased organizational learning and development • Documented benefits to employees, customers, the community, ( 10 )

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CONTACT MR. MAURO: COLORADO PERFORMANCE EXCELLENCE 4100 JACKSON STREET DENVER, CO 80216 T: 303.893.2739 C: 303.929.5314 tmmauro@coloradoexcellence.org www.coloradoexcellence.org

and other stakeholders • Ability to use the state award as a stepping stone to the Baldrige National Quality Award The CPEx Awards Program recognizes organizations for their achievements in performance excellence. Award applicants receive extensive feedback identifying the organization’s positive attributes and opportunities for improvement.

BALDRIGE REGIONAL CONFERENCES For more than a decade, the Regional Conferences have been a valuable forum for Baldrige Award recipients to showcase their exceptional performance practices. This year, select representatives of the 2007 Awards will present including: PROTEC Coating Company; Mercy Health System; Sharp HealthCare; City of Coral Springs; and the U.S. Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center.

Learn about their best practices and performance strategies in leadership, strategic planning, customer/market focus, measurement/analysis/knowledge management, workforce focus, process management, and results.

Whether your organization is large or small; involved in service or manufacturing, health care, education, or government; housed in one location or multiple sites around the globe; you can benefit from the knowledge and experience of the Award recipients.

Please join us at the 2008 Regional Conferences in Denver and New Orleans.

September 16, 2008 – Marriott Denver South at Park Meadows; Denver, CO October 3, 2003 – JW Marriott New Orleans; New Orleans, LA

Values Count

Whether it’s in the boardroom or the classroom.

THREE COLLEGES

ONE MISSION

“There’s a lot of grey in the world; it’s not very often black and white. Regis helps you focus on working through the grey, on working through the parts that are not easy to determine the right course of action.” ~ Elizabeth Hardin

MBA Grad 2007

www.regis.edu 3333 Regis Boulevard Denver, Colorado 80221-1099 303-458-4100

Learners Becoming Leaders

collaborator profile

camt

Collaboration Creates Jobs Partnerships Increase Sales by Merrily Hill-Smith

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ince 2000, the Colorado Association for Manufacturing and Technology (CAMT) has helped Colorado manufacturing companies increase sales by over $130 million and decrease costs by over $45 million, meanwhile creating or saving 1,689 jobs in the process. A public-private partnership involving the NIST Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) and the University of Colorado, CAMT has been serving Colorado manufacturers since 1996.

CAMT increases the strength and competitiveness of Colorado manufacturing companies through on-site technical assistance and support, collaboration-focused industry programs, and leveraging government, university and economic development partnerships on behalf of the manufacturing community. CAMT hosts myriad programs in support of its mission.

Collaboration and partnerships are key to CAMT’s success. CAMT utilizes partnerships whenever possible to deliver the biggest impact to the largest number of manufacturing companies.

Creatively using existing resources and partnering to access additional resources allows us to extend the reach and impact on Colorado’s manufacturing industry and economy. Through its numerous partnerships, CAMT is in a unique position to help Colorado companies access invaluable resources that might otherwise have gone unknown and unutilized. CAMT participates in partnering networks at the national, state and regional levels.

assist our clients. Rather than creating products, services, and programs from scratch, CAMT can work with partners to leverage resources and bring those resources to manufacturing clients.

Likewise, federal government partners have utilized CAMT to distribute valuable, cutting-edge information and resources in areas of workforce, technology adoption, environment and energy, quality, and more. CAMT has worked with the Environmental Protection Agency to integrate Lean Manufacturing with environmental metrics to help CAMT clients reduce all forms of waste; the Department of Labor to train Colorado’s workforce in Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, and leadership training; the Department of Defense to provide hands on product-design or manufacturing assistance to transition innovative technologies that could be used in combat to commercialization; and the National Institute of Health to address manufacturing issues of SBIR-related products.

An additional benefit of the MEP affiliation is a built-in continuous improvement infrastructure.

CAMT must meet stringent and increasing quality and impact measurements each quarter to retain its affiliation with the federal program. CAMT’s impact is measured through a quarterly survey of CAMT clients administered by the national NIST MEP headquarters. Clients are surveyed on financial impact to bottom-line operating costs and top line revenue growth, in addition to their overall satisfaction with the quality of the services provided.

» The entire network has worked with thousands of manufacturers delivering $1.3 billion in cost savings annually and $6.25 billion in increased or retained sales in one year. «

National Partnership – Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) As a “MEP Center”, CAMT receives one third of its funding through the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, a program of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a division of the U.S. Department of Commerce. MEP is a national network consisting of hundreds of specialists who understand acute manufacturing needs affecting companies across the country, working out of 59 MEP centers across all 50 states and Puerto Rico. For the past 17 years, the entire network has worked with thousands of manufacturers delivering $1.3 billion in cost savings annually and $6.25 billion in increased or retained sales in one year.

Furthermore, CAMT is able to bring an abundance of resources to Colorado manufacturers that wouldn’t otherwise be available.

CAMT has in-house talent and knowledge spanning many methodologies: Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, ISO registration consulting, technical skills and more. However, there is a vast pool of knowledge and skill in the entire MEP system from design review to defense contracting that CAMT can access to further ( 12 )

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State Partnership -- Advance Colorado Center (ACC) Originally piloted under the auspices of the Colorado Economic Development Commission (EDC), the Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT) and the University of Colorado Denver (UCD), the Advance Colorado Center was formed in 2005 to provide a common headquarters for non-profit organizations focused on economic development, specifically in high-growth industries utilizing advanced technology.

CAMT joined the Advance Colorado Center (ACC) in 2005 to collaborate more effectively with the Colorado Office of Economic Development and the ACC’s member organizations: the Colorado BioScience Association, CSIA - Colorado’s Technology Association, CORE - Connected Organizations for a Responsible Economy, the Colorado Photonics Industry Association and the Colorado Nanotechnology Alliance.

The ACC works to cultivate and sustain a vibrant technology-based economy through programs, research studies and awareness activities that support key drivers of the economy, such as:

• • • • •

intellectual infrastructure mechanisms for transfer of knowledge a robust entrepreneurial environment a highly-skilled workforce access to capital

The ACC understands that an innovative economy must have the mechanisms in place to transfer knowledge from inventors to the marketplace. The future of the U.S. economy depends upon the skillful adoption and successful implementation of innovative technology to meet process improvement and product development needs. Without an established uncomplicated process to commercialize new technologies, very real advances that could catapult manufacturers into a new level of productivity remain unavailable. New technologies invented in universities, national labs, even in private companies, are inaccessible because the inventor lacks the tools to communicate the benefits and features of their technology in non-technical language.

Fall 2008, the ACC will be releasing a “State of the Industry” report to highlight the impact and innovation of Colorado’s businesses using advanced technology.

Regional Partnership – The Southeast Colorado E3 Partnership (SEC3P) Integral to CAMT’s business model is the establishment of collaborative partnerships in each region of Colorado between CAMT, the local Economic Development Organization, Workforce Center, Community College, University and manufacturers to support the needs of manufacturers in that area. These regional partnerships have resulted in region-specific training and awareness programs and manufacturing taskforces.

CAMT believes in the value of enabling and nurturing business networks to spur and share innovation and has been a key driver in the initiation of taskforces across the state. These taskforces provide a platform for business leaders to learn from other successful business leaders, share technical knowledge and innovations, and uncover strategic partnership opportunities.

Active taskforces have regular meetings in the Colorado Springs, Pueblo, and Longmont areas, in addition to Adams County, Jefferson County, and Mesa County on the Western Slope of Colorado.

The Southeast Colorado E3 Partnership (SEC3P) is a regional program CAMT partnered with the Pikes Peak Workforce Center, the Colorado Springs Manufacturing Task Force and the Colorado Rural Development Council to form. This program aims to boost economic vitality, education, and employment in the twelve-county Southeast Colorado region through an industry cluster economic development program funded by the Department of Labor.

To address this need, CAMT has partnered with Eureka! Ranch and the ACC to bring Technology Translation Workshops to Colorado inventors. The ACC is instrumental in identifying private companies in need of learning how to translate their complex technologies into a language that a potential user can understand.

Time and time again, the ACC partnership has helped identify companies that can benefit from CAMT programs and its federal partnerships, furthering the cross-industry impact and reach of our programs. Another example, the Colorado BioScience Association identified several companies to take advantage of the National Institute of Health’s Manufacturing Assistance Program (MAP) offered in partnership with the Manufacturing Extension Partnership and CAMT. MAP works with MEP centers such as CAMT to help identify, address, and develop strategies to overcome the manufacturing issues related to the commercialization of SBIR-developed products.

Additionally, CAMT has collaborated with ACC organizations to participate in conferences, workshops and events. CAMT has participated in BioWest, a Rocky Mountain Regional BioScience Conference and Expo, and CORE’s Sustainable Opportunities Summit, one of the premier sustainability events in the nation. In

The Partnership was unique in that it convened urban and rural business communities as a region to identify needs and goals to bring opportunity for growth to industries in that region. The Partnership developed a five-phase strategy to achieve a “next generation economy” for the Southeast Colorado region. A “next generation economy” is one that 1) thinks regionally; 2) focuses on clusters; 3) creates advantages to grow clusters; and 4) collaborates to create cross-business and industry opportunities.

The five-phase strategy includes conducting an industry cluster analysis, providing a framework to convene the businesses comprising the identified industry clusters, guiding regional businesses in creating business plans emphasizing regional and collaborative goals, and launching implementation mechanisms.

The industry analysis was completed in January 2008 with the identified clusters in the Southeast region-Advanced Manufacturing and Fabricated Material, Next Generation Agriculture and Renewable Energy, BioTechnology and BioMedical Devices, and Aerospace Microelectronics and Defense, all of which manufacture products. This collaboration framework has resulted in action plans to market advanced manufacturing to manufacturers, students, teachers, parents and government, attract and train workers, and to provide an innovation exchange program to promote the adoption of new technology and best practices across the region. |

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C OLLABORATING

TO

S AVE L IVES

Delivering Health and Hope to the World Since 1987, PROJECT C.U.R.E. has distributed donated medical relief and services to desperately needy people in more than 120 countries.

PROJECT C.U.R.E. collaborates with hospitals and clinics, medical manufacturers, and wholesale suppliers to collect supplies and equipment that are matched to the individual needs of the sick and dying around the world.

PROJECT C.U.R.E. has joined with partners such as corporations, service clubs and religious organizations to accomplish the mission of "delivering health and hope to the world�.

To learn more about PROJECT C.U.R.E. and how you can deliver health and hope to those that need it most, visit

www.projectcure.org

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jewel of collaboration

pvhs

Collaboration + Improvement = More Lives Saved by Jan Mazotti

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ontinuous improvement and collaboration are important aspects of the vision of providing worldclass healthcare at Poudre Valley Health System (PVHS). They save lives!

“Collaboration is very important to us,” says Rulon Stacey, CEO of PVHS. The health system can show benefits from collaboration that help meet its vision by providing a host of services that might not otherwise be available outside a major metropolitan area. He says, “Collaboration is working with others to take advantage of the experiences of a team. Some people and organizations do things better and we want to take advantage of that so we don’t have to reinvent the wheel.”

The private, not-for-profit hospital system cares for residents in northern Colorado, western Nebraska, and southern Wyoming.

Over the last few years, PVHS has focused on key elements of healthcare not readily available in

more rural areas such as a Level II Trauma Center, a Heart Center, Neurosciences Center, Orthopedic Center, Bariatric Center, and Cancer and Research Center.

Their story of improvement and collaboration begins in the late ‘90s.

PVHS and their board of directors made a decision to embrace the concept of innovation and continuous improvement, said Rulon Stacey, CEO. That decision has resulted in “literally 10 years of improvement in our quality outcomes and costs, in our patient satisfaction, and in our employee turnover. It saves us tens of million of dollars a year.”

They started their quality journey in 1997 by considering a number of tools and they decided to use the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Program’s Criteria for Performance Excellence.

As everyone else who has chosen

» I believe that we make a difference. I think that there are people alive today who would not have been alive without the commitment this organization has made to the quality process. «

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collaborator profile

pvhs

this path has indicated: It’s not about the award, it’s about the journey. “This is an investment in our future so that we have a process to help us get better in every way,” Stacey said.

Employee turnover was one of the first aspects they examined.

Ten years ago, the turnover rate was 28 percent. A first step was taken when PVHS looked for guidance from companies that were successful in employee satisfaction -- Ritz-Carlton, FedEx, and Wainright Industries. They took those lessons and implemented them throughout PVHS. After implementing some of the “best practices” from these leaders, they took a focused look at their employees.

The way employees were perceived at PVHS shifted - they became customers of the management team and the management team was providing a service to the employees.

An internal culture survey asked employees for feedback. PVHS asked Colorado State University for help in analyzing the data.

Then they hired a national company to compare their data to national best-in-class benchmarks.

With that information, the management team could make plans.

Not surprisingly, PVHS learned a great deal about the satisfaction of its employees and with that knowledge they have decreased their turnover every year for ten consecutive years. In fact, employee turnover at PVHS is one of the lowest in the industry.

Some of the benefits of this include not wasting time on continually training new employees and the not-so-small benefit of saving $35 million a year in turnover costs, even though the number of employees has increased by 50 percent over the last two years. Stacey says, “Saving dollars is really an ( 16 )

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ancillary benefit. We do this because it helps achieve our vision and our quality of care improves. I can prove that.”

This mindset leads everything else. “If you keep your employees then you can make processes that work with them for patient satisfaction, mortality rates, return to the OR, or any of a myriad of other healthcare indicators,” Stacey said. “If employees are happy here then they are in a position to really make a difference and impact patient satisfaction.”

Indeed, PVHS patient satisfaction scores for those who would recommend the health system to friends and family rank above the top 10 percent of hospitals nationwide. Stacey says, “If you are turning 25 percent or more of your staff annually, you can’t establish any core processes because you are just constantly training employees.” Turnover rates are now about 7 percent.

All the steps PVHS took weren’t easy. It required hard work, patience, and time.

To get better, PVHS has partnered and learned from the North Mississippi Medical Center. “After they received the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award,” Stacey says, “they took time to talk to us - from the CEO, to the Quality Director, to the Physician Medical Director, to others within the organization. That organization is really committed to learning. We have improved over the last 12 to 24 months because of their willingness to share.”

Furthermore, PVHS has helped establish a groundbreaking project that links Israeli and American healthcare organizations in a collaborative effort to compare and analyze the way each provider delivers services for illnesses that are common worldwide. These illnesses include medication reactions, pressure ulcers, and healthcare associated infections such as ventilator-associated

pneumonia. Obviously, enormous benefits could come from this effort to improve patient care and safety around the world.

Stacey said he has few worries about the struggling U.S. economy, the upheaval in health care or any of the problems that will surely have to be dealt with. “You can spend your life scrambling to meet the needs of whatever issues come up this year or you can develop a process that allows you to address all of the issues that come up. If you have the right process, then you’ve got a strategic plan that is replicated every year. And in that plan, you are able to identify the challenges and action plans that address the issues. But it’s because you have a process that you duplicate every year that it doesn’t matter if you have a nursing shortage or reimbursement issues or access to physicians or the economy – the process works and the process works every year despite whatever the problem happens to be.”

Faced with a rapidly growing and aging population and no more room to expand at its flagship Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado, PVHS decided to build Medical Center of the Rockies (MCR) at the burgeoning I25/US34 interchange in neighboring Loveland, Colorado.

Planning and designing the new hospital was a collaborative endeavor from the beginning. Physicians, community members, and the “A Team” - a group of Poudre Valley Hospital nursing leaders - helped select the architectural and construction teams who would build Medical Center of the Rockies. All told, more than 100 companies helped build this award-winning hospital.

Welcoming the Voice of the Customer

» When patients arrive at a hospital, they don’t want to be thinking about how bumpy the ambulance ride was, how many strangers are going to see them on the way to the operating room, and where their family member can spend the night. «

Commenting on his own leadership style, Stacey said, “One of the greatest barriers (to success) are leaders who thinks they know everything. I believe a good leader is able to find people who know what they are doing and can get all those people going in the right direction.”

Stacey loves working with people. “That’s why I come in every day. I love rounding in the hospitals and in the clinics and talking to people. I love doing what I do.” He goes on, “I believe that we make a difference. I think that there are people alive today who would not have been alive without the commitment this organization has made to the quality process. I literally believe that, and that makes it worth getting up and coming to work for.”

PVHS stands out because their whole team consciously chooses to learn. They consciously choose to collaborate. They consciously choose to continuously improve. They consciously strive to be the best. And that meets the highest goal of all – it saves lives. pvhs case study

It Takes a Village to Build a Hospital

PVHS placed top priority on engaging the many stakeholders in the region’s health care. With MCR’s specialization in advanced trauma and cardiac care, PVHS invited all of the region’s emergency response agencies to participate in a task force focused on how best to meet future patient and community needs.

This group helped design the new hospital’s ambulance bays, staging areas, emergency vehicle parking, and more.

To ensure that building design would enhance the environment, efficiency, and satisfaction of physicians and staff, project planners built a mock operating room, trauma resuscitation area, ICU room, typical patient room, and elevator. Physicians and staff were invited to “try out” critical patient areas and make suggestions. Based on their recommendations, PVHS made numerous changes enhancing patient care as well as potentially saving millions of dollars.

City of Loveland officials were also part of the team. ‘Playing’ patients for a day, city leaders rode on stretchers in the back of ambulances through existing round-abouts and mock roundabouts marked off in the parking lot adjacent to the MCR campus.

As a result, the design of the round-abouts at the MCR entrance was adjusted to accommodate the special needs of ambulance traffic and ensure emergency patients the safest, most rapid access to medical care.

by PVHS staff

W

hen patients arrive at a hospital, they don’t want to be thinking about how bumpy the ambulance ride was, how many strangers are going to see them on the way to the operating room, and where their family member can spend the night. They just want to get the best care as quickly as possible. They want to be safe and comfortable. And they want their loved ones nearby.

But none of this happens accidentally. It takes dozens of teams of physicians, nurses, therapists, lab technicians, pharmacists, housekeepers, accountants, information technology experts, architects, builders, and many others, working for months, even years, to anticipate and prepare for every detail of every patient’s visit. Just ask Poudre Valley Health System (PVHS). |

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collaborator profile

pvhs

Thinking Through Every Detail: Patient- and FamilyCentered Care at MCR

“In every sense of the word, Medical Center of the Rockies reflects collaboration to build a hospital,” said Stacey.

The design team for Medical Center of the Rockies has many things of which to be proud - a beautiful building, LEED and Energy Star certification, spectacular views of Longs Peak, and the very latest in diagnostic, surgical, and communications technology, to name a few. But nothing makes the staff more proud than the fact that virtually every design decision was made with patients and their loved ones in mind.

Opened in February 2007, Medical Center of the Rockies earned a return on its community-collaboration investment very quickly.

“Twenty-thousand people attended our Open House,” said Stacey.

“Families from all over our region, our physicians and staff – with their families, too - came out with such excitement. It was a very special welcome and great energy for our mission of patient and family service above all else.”

Key questions examined were, how will patients and their families be most comfortable? How can we make sure patients and family members get natural light and fresh air, which are proven to speed patient recovery? How will we accommodate family members who want to spend the night in the hospital or fix their loved one’s favorite meal? How can we design flow within the hospital to ensure the utmost patient privacy while helping make finding their way easy?

Stacey reports that the PVHS practice of collaboration, of course, continues. New medical office buildings are underway on the campus of Medical Center of the Rockies, bringing new physician groups with them. Just one example of many in development, Poudre Valley Health System announced that it opened a clinic August 20 in Loveland as a way to expand primary health care services in the city and nearby areas, and offer patients convenient access to advanced medical services at nearby Medical Center of the Rockies. Foxtrail Family Medicine, one block south of Medical Center of the Rockies, will be collaboratively managed by PVHS and Associates in Family Medicine.

Leonard Roark, a resident of Larimer County since 1994, was a Community Focus Group Participant who contributed to the effort to keep these questions and others like them at the forefront of building design for MCR. “It’s easy to lose sight of the human aspects when you’re building a new hospital,” said Roark. “Our focus group emphasized [patient and family comfort] when we talked to the hospital staff.” Leonard and others tested waiting room and patient room furniture as part of their focus group duties, identifying the most comfortable and sturdy chairs.

Dozens of community members offered input at every step along the way, from the initial architect and contractor interviews to furniture selection, cafeteria menus and emergency department protocols. Of course, MCR staff members also played a key role in ensuring patient- and family-friendly processes.

Hospital officials formed almost 30 teams to work out details related to areas such as staffing, volunteers, clinical education, facility maintenance, food service, information technology, insurance contracts, equipment standardization, patient registration, billing, patient transport, and community health. ( 18 )

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In addition, $43 million in renovations are enhancing Poudre Valley Hospital with an expanded emergency department and a new employee parking garage and medical office building focused on women’s health services being built across the street, to be linked by a new pedestrian bridge - a first in Fort Collins.

“Pursuing collaboration beyond the ‘walls’ of your organization opens up a whole new range of possibilities,” said Stacey. “Our communities rely on us – and we rely on them. We’re certainly proof that collaboration fosters innovation and mutual benefit.”

Rulon F. Stacey, Ph.D., FACHE is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Poudre Valley Health System, a position he has held since October 1996. In 2003, PVHS was selected to receive the PEAK award from The Colorado Performance Excellence Institute, the highest quality designation awarded

by CPEx. Today PVHS remains the only organization in any industry to have achieved this distinction. Dr. Stacey also serves as a member of the Governing Board of the 35,000 member American College of Healthcare Executives.

collaborator profile

dicor

It’s Not Business As Usual Anymore World-Class Innovators - More Than 15 Million Kids Can’t Be Wrong by Roger Garriock ‘think outside the box’, while becoming stronger team players, communicators, problem solvers, and presenters.

DI operates in all 50 states and in 42 countries/provinces and has a volunteer base in excess of 60,000. The program is competition based, with more than 350 DI Tournaments held annually. The program year culminates with a Global Finals competition, attracting more than 18,000 kids and parents from around the world, the last week of May at the University of Tennessee campus in Knoxville.

DIcor was formed in response to parents asking, “You’re teaching my 11 year old to be a world-class problem solver and innovator…

DI seems to have more experience in this field than anybody else in the world…anything for adults?”

Now in its sixth year of operation, DIcor is the world’s fastest growing innovation consulting organization, with a client base that includes many of the Fortune 500 and Fortune 1000, plus numerous health care, government and military organizations.

Close to 100 Associates now teach the Innovation Workshops globally, with all net proceeds going back to support the kids. DIcor is also partners with the Center for Creative Learning (Sarasota, Florida – Education focused) and the Creative Problem Solving Group (Buffalo, New York – Business focused), two organizations that are considered ‘world leaders’ on the subject of creativity and innovation.

CCL and CPSB also act as mentors to the kid’s program.

» Destination ImagiNation, Inc. operates in all 50 states and in 42 countries/provinces and has a volunteer base in excess of 60,000. «

J

ust about every international ‘think tank’, senior executive and author, including Thomas Friedman in his book The World is Flat, has stated that “our ability to innovate will be the key determinant of success in the 21st century economy”…yet it begs the question…can one ‘learn’ how to become a world-class problem solver and innovator?

The simple answer is ‘yes’…and companies like GE, IBM, FedEx, Kellogg’s, Velcro USA and many others have found a way to do it, with the help of a unique organization.

DIcor® (Destination ImagiNation Corporate Consulting) is a division of Destination ImagiNation, Inc. (DI), the world’s largest non-profit creative problem-solving program for kids.

DI, now in its 25th year and over 15 million kids later, helps young people discover their true creative potential. They learn to ( 20 )

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The concepts taught at the DIcor Innovation Workshops are incredibly practical, easy to understand and apply, energizing and memorable. Workshops are typically one to two days for 25-30 people, and everyone can benefit, from C-level executives to brand new employees.

The workshop starts out with three key goals/outcomes: • To transform every attendee into a ‘world-class innovator’…in one day.

• To teach improved self awareness with tools and techniques that will improve problem solving and meeting productivity by a minimum of 25%.

• That it will be the most practical and invigorating day of education you have had in 10 years.

In this ever-busy world we live in, the best form of flattery or proof of value is to be invited back repeatedly…and to deliver the message to even higher levels of attendees within an organization. This has been the consistent track record of the DIcor Innovation Workshops.

The workshop has four key themes: • The initial discussion takes an ‘introspective’ look at your problemsolving ‘style’ preferences using a powerful new online tool called VIEW, which helps you better understand your strengths and

weaknesses when it comes to being innovative. The workshop also demonstrates ways to dramatically improve your problem-solving/ innovation team mix and chemistry…with proven results.

• Later, the workshop helps participants expand their problemsolving ‘toolkit’, from simple brainstorming to a suite of 10 ‘powerful’ generating and focusing tools, each using hands-on contemporary case studies to show how quickly they can be applied in the workplace.

• The class also tackles a number of ‘Instant Challenges’- short ‘vignette’ problems that require creativity, teamwork, and the ability to ‘think on your feet’…and all with important business and life lessons.

• Finally, participants begin to apply the knowledge and experience they have gained to live/real ‘in-house’ problems, whereby participants bring hands-on experience in using the tools, and confirm just how powerful and quickly they can address key issues/ needs, even those that have been around for years.

In addition, the class instructor also shares numerous ‘live’ references and case studies that help reinforce the discussion and leave everyone with the confidence and practical experience to take what they have learned back to their workplace.

The sessions are practical, thought provoking, invigorating and fun, and immediately applicable in your personal life and work environment.

Dicor case study

Healthcare Process Improvement DIcor at Work by Deborah Smith, PhD

A

s the VP of Practice Management and Process Improvement (PI), at the largest health care provider in Colorado, Centura Health, it is imperative to deliver results, demonstrate major improvements, and build a |

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collaborator profile

dicor

strong mindset for innovation as a strategic imperative.

As the leader of the PI team, my job is to introduce tools and strategies that ensure that our facilities deliver high quality, technologically advanced, compassionate health and wellness care, where and when people need it most.

Over the years, the PI team has worked to become a worldclass healthcare organization by embracing process improvement and innovation. Each year of the journey has brought the team closer to the vision because we’ve learned and built upon the accomplishments of the previous years.

» High performing processes deliver high quality outcomes, at the lowest possible cost, on time, and with the highest satisfaction levels. «

In 2004, Centura focused on Excellence. We established operating mechanisms, especially for hiring, and empowered the senior leaders by providing the skills for decision-making, and armed the team with tools and techniques to do the job.

Outcomes were the focus in 2005, whereby we defined strategic metrics and began data collection. We analyzed those measures and built a system-wide dashboard, which focused on accountability to meet or exceed internal and national standards.

The implementation of actionable efforts that impacted customer, patient, employee, and physician satisfaction and performance was the priority during our 2006 Service and Satisfaction year.

throughout the system. However, we had to ascertain their learning styles and preferences before we introduced innovation tools.

Then, the PI Leaders transferred this innovation knowledge, which required our third focus -- introducing innovation tools across the organization. These trainings provided key elements to our change processes. Finally, high-performing associates of the organization, elected by the Senior Leaders, would act as the “drivers” for innovation in the new care delivery designs.

In fact, innovation became a “way to work” at Centura – it became integrated into our normal business processes and organizational culture.

Linking with the Right Company

2007 was the Year of Imagination. We envisioned our ability to be innovative and build successful teams. The result – we saw growth in our ministry, and we looked beyond the challenges of the present and envisioned what could be possible by cultivating and rewarding innovation and risk taking.

2008 is the Year of Masters, which will take the PI team and Leadership to the next level of competencies.

Operational performance of an organization is largely determined by the capability of its processes. High performing processes deliver high quality outcomes, at the lowest possible cost, on time, and with the highest satisfaction levels. Everything that we do must be customer-focused because it impacts quality, service, cost, employees and patients, as well as growth and community.

Our as we our

innovation strategy was deployed a four-phased approach. First, had to deliver knowledge to Executive and Senior Leaders

» The session was engaging, fastpaced, hands-on, minds-on, fun and practical. It benefitted us all. « ( 22 )

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During the Year of Imagination, we hosted a DIcor training session, because we believed that this approach could assist our leaders in creative teamwork and problem-solving.

DIcor did not disappoint!

Before the training, our leaders took a written assessment of their problem-solving style preferences. This information detailed each person’s orientation to change, manner of processing, and decision-making style. This tool was a critical factor for our team to learn about themselves, their teams, and the culture within the organization.

When our leaders arrived at the training, they were guaranteed that it would be an innovative session or they would get their tuition back.

DIcor delivered at the highest level. Their ability to explain creativity, teamwork and creative problem-solving in a fun and interactive way was a career changing experience.

The session was engaging, fast-paced, hands-on, mindson, fun and practical. It benefitted us all.

» I am confident we are more prepared than before for this new (healthcare) environment, because we invested in our most important asset - our people. «

The Results After the session, innovation abounded. One of our teams gathered to work on ways to change the delivery of healthcare.

Some are linking with source communities to identify best practices outside the industry to improve overall performance.

And, some are working on ways to not only share best practices, but to share worst practices to avoid potential harm and maintain a safe system for healthcare delivery.

• “Relevant, practical, easy to use and understand” (FedEx) • “Applies to everyone, regardless of job, age, education background or industry” (US Air Force Air National Guard) • “Measurably improves our Innovation skills” (British Columbia Government) • “Helped push us ‘out of the box” (Chinese Government) The healthcare environment that we face today is challenging.

However, as the PI Leader for this organization, I am confident we are more prepared than before for this new environment, because we invested in our most important asset -- our people.

The gain from innovation is the acceptance by the organization and future leaders to understand that the only constant is “change itself.” By the year 2010, our goal is to be recognized as a world-class PI Team. It is our priority to understand and provide what it takes to assist our Leaders, Physicians, and Employees.

The seamless integration of all of these goals, with a focus on innovation, will enable our organization to attain higher levels of growth and productivity.

Deborah Smith, PhD, RT(R), MBB, MCF Deborah’s current role is Vice President of Practice Management and Process Improvement, Six Sigma Master Black Belt, and Master Change Facilitator. She directs, organizes, and implements performance improvement methodologies such as Six Sigma, Lean, change management, rapid decision-making, project management, innovation, and physician practice management for the twelve hospitals, 100 employed physicians and thirty corporate departments at Centura Health. Her academic credentials are in healthcare, business, and education with a Ph.D. in Healthcare Management, a Masters in Human Resource Management, and an Associate Degree in Radiologic Technology.

Roger Garriock, Vice President of DIcor After graduating with a Civil Engineering degree from the University of Toronto in 1970, Roger joined IBM Canada in their Toronto office. What followed was a distinguished 32 year career with IBM, including executive assignments in almost every division of the corporation, with ‘touch points’ covering all of Canada and most of North America in both the public and private sectors. His primary responsibilities were in sales and marketing management, but he also played a key leadership role in the re-invention/downsizing of IBM during the early 1990’s.

He has also been active in his volunteer life, sitting on more than 12 non-profit boards across Canada. Many years of volunteering in Destination ImagiNation continues to be shared as a Garriock family activity, with three daughters participating as team members throughout their middle, high school and college years, tournament Appraisers as young adults, and a wife serving as the British Columbia DI Affiliate Director.

To learn more, contact Roger Garriock at 1877-702-9275 or rgarriock@dicor.org or visit www.dicor.org.

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2008

CPEx QuEst For ExCEllEnCE VII Inspiring Innovation for Performance Excellence PrEsEntED BY: Colorado Performance Excellence, a member of the Alliance for Performance Excellence based on the Baldrige National Program for Performance Excellence WHAt AnD WHEn: CPEx Best Practices Conference/Examiner Celebration/Awards Luncheon

november 7, 2008 CPEx Quest For Excellence Event, Examiner Celebration, and Awards Event 7:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Governor Bill Ritter invited to present awards

November 7, Conference/Examiner Celebration/Awards 7:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

WHY AttEnD: What you will learn at the event: s Discover a proven framework for performance that improves your workplace

and delivers results to rEGIstEr www.coloradoexcellence.org

s Learn best practices in performance excellence from Colorado and national leaders s Access tools, techniques including benchmarking, and strategies to improve

your organization EVEnt FEEs $275 per person for for-profit organizations $225 per person for non-profit organizations Morning or afternoon (does not include breakfast or lunch) – $200 for-profit, $150 non-profit Breakfast or lunch only – $75 sPonsorsHIPs AVAIlABlE: Eagle 10 registrations – $2,000 Big Horn 5 registrations – $1,000 Elk 3 registrations – $600 Exhibitor Sponsorship 2 registrations plus full exhibitor package – $2,750

s Get involved in Colorado’s organizational learning community and network

WHErE: Marriott South at Park Meadows 10345 Park Meadows Drive Littleton, CO 80124 303.925.0004 Special hotel rates available until 10-16-08. Mention CPEx when registering.

PrEsEntErs: David Mulvey, Facilitator, Disney Institute: The speaker from the Disney Institute will be keynoting the conference theme, Inspiring Innovation for Performance Excellence based on the world renown Disney Imagineers processes. In addition the Mr. Mulvey will hold an interactive breakout session for all attendees in the main ballroom entitled Organizational Creativity Day to Day. You will not want to miss this experience in bringing Innovation to implementation. As a special incentive, the Disney Institute has donated one Disney Institute Individual Enrollment Program in Orlando, Florida, for the exhibit hall drawing. (See details on the CPEx website, www.coloradoexcellence.org) Former Colorado Governor Dick lamm, Center for Public Policy at the University of Denver, will be keynoting the Awards Luncheon speaking on “Brave New World of Public Policy” John Vinyard, Managing Partner, Genitect LLC, Marietta, Georgia, presents “What’s Missing From Your Excellence Journey To Get Results” leon spackman, PMC Solutions, Inc., PMP, LSS Master Black Belt, Director, Business Process Services, Albuquerque, New Mexico, speaking on “Innovation in Process Management – Lean, Six Sigma, and Baldrige” Priscilla nuwash, Director, Poudre Valley Health System and sonja Wulff, Manager Performance Excellence, “Driving Innovation through Performance Excellence Teams” Karen trisko, Leading Excellence, Denver, CO, presents “Internal Assessor Workshop – Setting the Stage for Innovation” lisa Fenton Free, Rocky Mountain Health Plans, Grand Junction, CO, discusses “Innovations in Worksite Wellness”

collaborator profile

avaya

Innovation and Collaboration Unlocking Organizational Potential by Norma Krech and Maggie Cronin, Avaya, Inc.

T

he concepts of innovation and collaboration are not new to any successful business. Innovation has been around since the beginning of time from invention of the wheel to today’s high-tech industries that put the world in our hands through smart phones. And, collaboration is equally as old from cavemen assembling and developing the strategy to bring down the beast for food to the capabilities to share knowledge, information, and thoughts through the internet.

But why are some organizations more successful in leveraging innovation and collaboration for operational excellence and competitive advantage than others? What is it that promotes innovation in every employee of the organization and stimulates a culture of collaboration?

The answers are quite simple, and with continued leadership commitment, any organization – large or small – can exceed customer expectations, attain operational excellence, surpass competitor performance, and reap the benefits of the full potential of each and every employee.

Avaya Inc. focuses on five key success factors to drive innovation and collaboration throughout its employee-base which resides in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and 53 countries around the world. Although the complexity of a large, global enterprise may be different from a smaller, local-based organization, these key success factors are equally applicable.

businesses and our own”. For Avaya, it is not enough to innovate through the business practices of Avaya alone. If that were the case, achievement of the mission could not be realized.

Ten principles have been established and deployed throughout the organization, of which four reinforce our leadership’s expectation of innovation and collaboration: 1. Urgency and Speed: Get Out of Our Comfort Zones 2. Destroy Self-Inflicted Complexity: Get Out of Our Own Way 3. The Power of ONE: Team, Clarity, Leadership 4. Think The first two principles clearly demonstrate alignment to innovation.

The third lends itself to ultimate collaboration and innovation, especially when a team functions as “ONE”. And, the fourth; well we “think” it is obvious. Of course, we hire our employees to think, but, we also develop them to be the best that they can be.

Many organizations unintentionally have their employees “check their brains at the door” when they come to work. They are placed into inflexible processes, or a culture of “we’ve always done it this way, and it works for us”. Without a conscious effort to provide an environment that permits precious time to think, collaborate and leverage the experience and ideas of each other; the creative flame will be quickly snuffed out.

Embrace Change

Establish the Expectation Expectations for innovation and collaboration must be set from the highest level of leadership within the organization. Without leadership endorsement and support, creativity is quickly defused.

Avaya’s leadership establishes this expectation starting with its mission statement: “We enable businesses to deliver superior results by providing the world’s best communications solutions.”

Each employee understands that Avaya’s mission cannot be realized without both innovation and collaboration.

After all, how could Avaya provide the world’s best communications solutions without innovation? It is through the creativity of its employees that Avaya is able to continually develop new technologies that improve its customer’s ability to innovate, collaborate, and enable business to deliver superior results.

Avaya’s leadership further reinforces these expectations through its values and principles. Avaya’s five values are: Customer Value, Accountability, Diversity, Innovation, and Velocity. Each value contains additional definition to provide clarity and enable execution by each employee. Further definition of the value of innovation states “We foster creativity, innovation, and risk-taking that will enhance shareholder value and improve our customers’ ( 26 )

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The ability to embrace change within an organization is key to both innovation and collaboration. Change is not meant just for organizational structures or process improvements. Change is meant for culture, organizational and personal learning, and organizational maturity.

Change must encompass trust, accountability, and the ability to establish managed risk-taking. Trust, in our organization, is achieved through mutual respect, embracing diversity, and the ability to achieve inter-dependency throughout the organization.

Furthermore, single-point accountability at all levels must be clearly defined. It is not enough to establish accountability at the executive level; but rather employees must understand their individual accountabilities. The power of accountability cannot be underestimated. Employees must know what they are accountable for and that they are empowered and obligated to change to enhance customer service and satisfaction, improve productivity, drive out waste, and contribute positively to organizational goals.

Learn from Mistakes Managed risk-taking is an entire organizational discipline unto

itself. It defines the boundaries and freedoms for change. As human beings, we are typically adverse to change, as change brings forward the fears of uncertainty, failure, inability to meet expectations, making a mistake, or simply trying something new.

The inability for organizations to put such fears to rest greatly inhibits their ability to leverage innovation. Therefore, to truly embrace innovation, managed risk-taking must allow employees to make mistakes along the way – and utilize the learnings for the next step in improvement and innovation.

To illustrate this concept, let’s use Thomas Edison as an example; as there is little doubt that he was truly innovative, and took this principle to heart. Edison failed – or faulted – more than 10,000 times before he found the filament that would create light for a sustained period of time. However, he did not view these as failures. On the 6,635th attempt to find a proper filament for the light bulb, Edison did not see himself has having failed 6,634 times. He reframed the situation so that to him, he had successfully eliminated 6,643 possibilities, refining and narrowing his search as he proceeded, drawing him closer and closer to his ultimate goal.

Since change is always initiated with the intent to better organizational results; the organization must understand the performance of the current situation, establish the expected performance after change, and measure the new performance against that goal.

As change is embarked upon, the “process” of change must be understood and managed. The most critical time of change is during implementation, and depending upon the magnitude of change productivity and results could be negatively impacted in the short term.

Organizational restructuring is a prime example. Organizational restructuring and realignment is always put in place to improve accountability, operational clarity and expedite objective achievement. However, during the act of restructuring the organization may see a decline in productivity while the realities of personal uncertainty take place. The change model below demonstrates how managing change is intended to mitigate the negative impacts of change.

Provide Tools Everyone is innovative – it just comes more naturally to some. To capitalize on innovation, the organization needs to provide tools to enhance innovation. There are myriad of tools and methods to enable both organizational and individual innovation – which range from more free-form creativity methods to more structured problem solving methodologies. Organizations need to enable a toolbox of both innovation and collaboration tools to achieve operational excellence. For example, Avaya utilizes structured methodologies such as Six Sigma and Kaizen to improve processes and business performance results. However, although these methodologies may appear to lean more toward a structured approach, they both incorporate innovation and creativity methods.

Various tools are widely used to drive creativity and innovation, such as brainstorming and mind mapping techniques. Such tools are easily adopted within the organization, can bring forward “out-of-the-box” ideas that are surprisingly innovative and promote collaboration.

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avaya

diverse backgrounds, experiences, and thinking styles will enhance the results. Collaboration tools provide the ability for teams to communicate, document, and grow ideas from the thoughts of others.

For example, SharePoint sites have become quite popular with the ability to store documents, link to knowledge sharing

repositories, communicate with team members, and serve as a repository to team memory. BLOGs are another example of a collaboration tool to push out a problem or theory to attract individuals, both inside and outside the organization, to collaborate on various ideas and topics.

Avaya’s President and CEO, Charlie Giancarlo publishes a weekly message that communicates his expectations of the organization and teaches through scenarios and examples. While, many organizations may stop at deploying such communication, Charlie invites every Avaya associate to post their ideas, share their own learnings, and to stimulate the collaboration of others through his BLOG. Recognize Success

To complete the cycle, recognition of success must be a vital component to innovation and collaboration. As such, the organization must communicate and recognize all types of success – objective achievement, learnings from taking risks, individual and team successes, and the WOWs. Communication of the WOWs may be as powerful as anything we have discussed thus far – as they acknowledge the large and small breakthroughs of individual, team and organizational learning.

Just as with tools and methodologies, recognition can take on countless forms; and in itself can provide an organization the opportunity to innovate forms of recognition that are appropriate to the culture, level of success, and budget. For example, when one organization exceeded a performance of a key competitor; leadership decided to announce its success in an unusual and fun way. With the start of the next workday, employees were greeted at each entrance by a member of the executive team, handed a piece of a broken vinyl record – with the executive announcing “we broke the record!”

To recognize individual associates, and collaborative teams, Avaya embarks on several methods of communication and recognition. A few recognition examples include: • Individual demonstration of leadership attributes • Cross-organizational “ONE Avaya” • Collaborative team process/result improvements • Individual and team articles in weekly corporate communications • All-hands, department, and team meeting announcements • Patent submission and acceptance recognition • Electronic notes of appreciation • Spot awards Recognition need not focus on monetary rewards – but rather on timeliness and appropriateness – as well as visibility. If these three components are not worked in tandem, the organization may lose credibility in the recognition processes or worse yet, opportunities to leverage the innovation of others.

» Operationally excellent organizations are constantly striving to do better, just as a sprinter constantly works to beat the last record set, no matter who set it. It is not a destination, but a way of life. « ( 28 )

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And don’t forget about the fourth component mentioned earlier – fun. Utilize your own organizations innovation and collaboration methods to identify methods of recognition that are fun and memorable.

To unlock organizational potential, both innovation and collaboration must be woven into the very fabric – the culture – of the organization. Through the integration of just five key success factors, any organization can unlock the full potential of its employees, leverage synergy through collaboration and drive toward operational excellence.

jewel of collaboration

masaaki imai

EAST MEETS WEST Masaaki Imai and the lean movement in U.S. manufacturing by Tracy Jackson & Bill Levis

W

orld War II destroyed much of Japan, including its economic infrastructure. The country had to be rebuilt from the ground up.

Instrumental to that revival was the work of Dr. W. Edwards Deming, an American statistician and consultant, who is widely known for improving the quality of productivity in the United States during the war. He is even better known for helping transform Japan from a country famous for “cheap imitations” to

its evangelist, is to improve quality, cut costs, provide on-time delivery -- and embrace “lean” as a strategy.

Imai writes that kaizen “means continuing improvement in personal life, home life, social life, and working life. When applied to the workplace kaizen means continuing improvement involving everyone – managers and workers alike.” It involves not only quality improvement in individual products but also in the scope and type of products.

In addition to its simplicity, it is the last part of the definition that distinguishes it from other quality management theories. Kaizen is not a top down approach. Instead, it “is everybody’s business.”

» Kaizen is not a top down approach. Instead, it is everybody’s business. « Its basic strategy is refusing to accept the status quo. Kaizen is focused on common-sense approaches to eliminating waste, using standardization and good housekeeping, and improving product quality. Ideally, kaizen practices should lower costs and speed up delivery, by eliminating waste in inventory, transport, motion and overproduction.

In one sense, it is democracy in action. For example, in the New Hampshire primary, everyone participates in the town meeting. In a large company, all of the workers from the president to assembly line workers have a voice in kaizen.

one revered for innovative and quality products. The Deming Prize is awarded to organizations in Japan that adhere to the highest quality performance criteria.

Fast forward 60 years: Now the United States is relying on the quality management techniques of a Japanese guru, Masaaki Imai, to stay competitive in an ever-expanding global economy.

Imai not only has taken quality management to the next level, he has simplified it. It may sound counter-intuitive, but as it is better to swing a golf club slower and not to overthink during the back swing, so is it more productive to simplify how you address what appear to be complicated problems.

Imai, a slight man born and educated in Japan, is the father of Kaizen, which in its most simplified translation means “improvement.” Because of its success in business, Kaizen is one of the most familiar words in Japan. Its goal and that of Imai,

Other industry improvement programs involve expensive consultants and major overhauls of manufacturing techniques which are often extremely disruptive and can dampen morale.

They often look for short-term fixes. According to Imai, U.S. and European companies “have forgotten the foundation of business – training and values.”

Kaizen focuses on long-term solutions and the buy-in of company employees to help in removing waste. This commitment “requires tremendous effort with a recognition that nothing is ever ‘complete’ and ‘right,’” says Imai.

Instead of hiring outside experts to analyze current production practices and to make recommendations on how to improve or overhaul them, kaizen relies on managers and staff to examine how they provide services for their customers. Not only does this philosophy result in greater employee commitment, it is less expensive and easier to implement.

After a while, the thinking process becomes somewhat automatic for both managers and workers. It’s as if practice makes perfect. |

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» Instead of hiring outside experts to analyze current production practives and to make recommendations on how to improve or overhaul them, kaizen relies on managers and staff to examine how they provide services for their customers. «

Of course, if you don’t continue to practice, you lose that muscle memory.

Although Imai published KAIZEN, his first book on improvement 22 years ago, he continues to help companies execute their manufacturing and service goals. It could be argued that practice is important for everyone, including this dynamic teacher.

Imai, the chairman and founder of the KAIZEN Institute in Austin, Texas, was born in 1930. After graduating from the University of Tokyo, the best-selling author and top business theorist

» Managers seem to overlook the workplace as a means to generate revenue, and they usually place far more emphasis on finanical management, marketing and sales, and product development. « moved to the United States where he stayed for five years.

During this time, he escorted Japanese businessmen through major American plants so that they could study “the secret of American productivity.”

After absorbing what was then the state of the art in quality management, Imai returned to Japan in the early 1960s to become one of the first Japanese “headhunters.” His job was to assist western companies in hiring the appropriate personnel and understanding the Japanese ethos.

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It was a pivotal time for Imai as Western companies, expanding their presence in The Far East, needed to understand Japanese management and styles. Based on his experience in the West and his knowledge of Deming and quality management theories, Imai began teaching Western managers about Japanese companies and their managers.

The responses he received to his teachings were overwhelmingly positive. He began to document his findings by linking commonalities and then communicating the results to his audiences.

The result was kaizen. On one level, it sounded like a new concept.

On another, it is very similar to the precepts on which the United States was founded. Our Constitution is the key document on which everything in this country is based. Its amendments and our statutes are attempts to continuously improve that product.

In addition, the states serve as laboratories for new ideas. The end result is the longest running constitutional democracy in the world.

Kaizen is Imai’s effort to bring a similar proposal to the business world. It seemed new and different to some because it relied on the commitment of workers as well as management. But that is what many “new” ideas are all about -- bringing in people who have somehow been left out.

For most of the 20th century, American automobile manufacturers were the leaders in design and innovation in the world. For many reasons, that role has been eclipsed by innovators in other countries, and especially the Japanese. Imai points to the success

of Toyota, not only in Japan but also in a joint venture in Indonesia, where kaizen has been actively used for decades.

Imai established the KAIZEN Institute, (which now operates in over 22 countries), in 1986 to help Western companies introduce kaizen concepts. That same year, he published KAIZEN: The Key to Japan’s Competitive Success, which became a best-seller about Japanese management. Imai has been extensively connected to more than 200 foreign and joint-venture companies in Japan. He has lent his expertise in fields such as organizational studies, recruiting, executive development and personnel management.

Imai also has written The Japanese Businessman: An Introduction to His Behavior and Business Strategy, 16 Ways to Avoid Saying

» It is harder to increase profit by 10 percent than to reduce costs by 10 percent. To increase profit, you have to sell more products.

To reduce costs, you can rely on your workers to identify and elminate waste. « No, Never Take Yes for an Answer and Gemba Kaizen. This last book, published in the United States in 1997, concentrated on the gemba, which in Japanese means “real place” or the sites of the activities related to earning a profit. In simple terms, it means where the action is. In a hotel, it would be the lobby. In a factory, it would be the production floor. In a bank, it would be where the tellers and loan officers work.

Imai writes that “managers seem to overlook the workplace as a means to generate revenue, and they usually place far more emphasis on financial management, marketing and sales, and product development. When they focus on the gemba, the company is far more successful and profitable.”

In order for kaizen to work, top management must support it. Imai observes that “top management may express commitment in many

» In times of economic downturn, kaizen should be used constantly, emphasizes Imai. In times of abundant prosperity, kaizen should be standard practice if only to preserve reources.

For times in betwen, kaizen should be that one habit you can’t shake. In summary, there should always be kaizen. « different ways and it must take every opportunity to preach the message, allocate resources for successful implementation, and become personally involved in following up the progress of kaizen.” A prime example of such commitment is Fidelity Investments, which lowered its general customer complaints about its transfer-of-assets process by 75 percent in one year.

Kaizen puts quality first and speaks through data, according to Imai. It is harder to increase profit by 10 percent than to reduce costs by 10 percent. To increase profit, you have to sell more products. To reduce costs, you can rely on your workers to identify and eliminate waste or muda of which there are seven different |

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The 10 commitments of Kaizen are: • Waste is the number one public enemy; eliminating waste means getting your hands dirty.

• Make improvements gradually and continuously.

• Kaizen is not elitist: Everyone, from top to bottom, should be involved.

• Kaizen is not expensive. You can improve productivity without significant investments in technology or consultants.

• It can be applied anywhere.

•K aizen means that procedures, processes and values are totally transparent – with the problems and waste visible to all.

• I t focuses the attention in the place where value is really created.

•K aizen is oriented for the processes, or what happens in a business.

• I t gives priority to people and believes that the main effort of improvement should come from a new mentality and style of work.

• The essential word of the organizational learning is to learn doing.

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types: overproduction, waiting, transport, processing, inventory, motion and repair/rejects.

Imai believes that if left alone, everything in the gemba deteriorates over time, Imai writes. For that reason, kaizen has to be a daily activity. When done correctly, it humanizes the workplace, eliminates overly hard work (a Japanese term called ‘muri’), and teaches people to spot and eliminate waste in business processes.

In times of economic downturn, kaizen should be used constantly, emphasizes Imai. In times of abundant prosperity, kaizen should be standard practice if only to preserve resources. For times in between, kaizen should be that one habit you can’t shake. In summary, there should always be kaizen.

As Imai writes in Gemba Kaizen, there is even a relationship between his work on quality improvement and the Deming Prize.

Both Toyoda Machine Works and Aisin Seiki have won it for total quality management.

Why does Imai still evangalize for kaizen at age 78? For him, it is simple.

Preaching for kaizen and the lean strategy is fun and his audience is made up of “many interesting people who are highly motivated.”

jewel of collaboration

a new model for success

A NEW MODEL FOR SUCCESS

by Gayle Dendinger

J

ewels come in various shapes and sizes – showing their different facets as they are examined. Take a diamond for instance. It is beautiful to look at, but when you study the different angles, a new perspective is brought to the stone.

You begin to see the blues and yellows of the stone, as well as the art involved in creating such a masterpiece.

collaborative expert Jessica Lipnack. She goes on to say that to begin to bridge the gap we must support structures that are “linked by cross-boundary, cross-cultural, and cross-disciplinary cooperation of unprecedented intensity.”

Therefore, it is paramount for all of us to begin to cooperatively create a worldclass collaborative culture here in Colorado.

Collaboration is similar in nature. True collaboration has all the characteristics of a beautiful jewel. There is an infrastructure with symbiotic cooperation that converges to create dimensions, which make it successful and striking. Collaboration is people working together to create leveraged rewards and ultimately, positive change.

Collaboration is not a traditionally “western” skill. Americans typically launch an idea, whether it runs parallel to something else or not, often losing intensity along the way. To solve this problem, we must identify collaborative best practices and work toward our common goals in a strengthened, unified manner.

Colorado, and many other states, are poised for the future with great economic, environmental, and community projects. According to Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, “Our community leaders are the foundation of hope and the catalysts for change. We currently have noteworthy leadership in educational, political, environmental,

» Instead of recreating the proverbial wheel, we must cooperate to accomplish more. «

Since the mid-nineteenth century, the major Japanese companies have been using some form of the soga shosha model for doing business. Soga shoshas became international commercial intermediaries specializing in the long-term development of trade in goods and services supplied mainly by other parties.

After World War II, the Japanese dissolved the official soga shoshas and established keiretsus, a term that describes a set of organizations with interlocking business relationships. The keiretsu refers to the horizontally and vertically linked structure of the post-war Japanese multinational companies such as Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Sumitomo, Yasuda, Sanwa, and DKB.

and general quality-of-life issues. However, we must maximize our efforts through better cooperation and collaboration in order to achieve more success and positive change in our community.

Each person must bring passion, leadership, and motivation to the table and strive to accomplish more.”

Because of a cultural belief in collaborative activities, the Japanese have remained strong. They have maximized their core competencies, while establishing new relationships from key suppliers and distributors to affect broader market share (See Figure 1).

Instead of recreating the proverbial wheel, we must cooperate to accomplish more. “People reach higher levels of performance by working together more closely, more consistently, through greater collaboration among increasingly diverse people,” states

There is much to learn from collaborative best practice models such as the soga shosha and kieretsu. They are prime examples of the leveraged relationships for the broader success of the organization. They serve as intermediaries between buy-side and

Figure 1: Major Soga Shosha/Keiretsu Relationship Model

MAJOR SOGA SHOSHA/ KEIRETSU

MITSUI

MITSUBISHI

SUMITOMO

BANKING

SAKURA BANK

BANK OF TOKYO – MITSUBISHI BANK

SUMITOMO BANK

TRUST BANKING

MITSUI TRUST & BANKING

MITSUBISHI TRUST & BANKING

SUMITOMO TRUST & BANKING

LIFE INSURANCE

MITSUI MUTUAL LIFE

MEIJI MUTUAL LIFE

SUMITOMO MUTUAL LIFE

MARINE, FIRE INSURANCE

MITSUI MARINE & FIRE

TOKIO MARINE & FIRE

SUMITOMO MARINE & FIRE

TRADING COMPANY

MITSUI BUSSAN

MITSUBISHI SHOJI

SUMITOMO CORPORATION

STEEL

JAPAN STEEL WORKS

MITSUBISHI STEEL MFG.

SUMITOMO METAL INDUSTRIES

CHEMICALS

MITSUI TOATSU CHEMICAL

MITSUBISHI GAS CHEMICALS

SUMITOMO CHEMICAL

OTHER MARKETS

AUTOMOTIVE: TOYOTA GROUP, NISSAN GROUP, HONDA GROUP, ISUZU

VERTICAL MARKETS

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sell-side opportunities, because they have the flexibility and agility to work in several markets simultaneously.

Moreover, the soga shosha and kieretsu models demonstrate bestpractice management of knowledge creation and knowledge management at all levels.

» Everyone has something to offer...

Both sets of knowledge are imperative to collaborative success and are equally important. «

Everyone has something to offer. There is the explicit knowledge from procedures and manuals and the tacit knowledge from individuals on the front lines. Both sets of knowledge are imperative to collaborative success and are equally important There is much to learn from Japanese collaboration models.

Many organizations are working to enhance existing models to create a better Colorado and country – a place that will maximize our splendor for many generations to come. It seems, however, that many organizations are working parallel to each other, with the same or similar goals in mind, instead of working in tandem.

Many organizations are therefore wasting precious resources, both human and financial, in order to accomplish their goals.

The launch of ICOSA has been a collaborative effort of its management, its staff, its advertisers, and members of the community. Together, they bring a thoughtful and meaningful product to market - a product that addresses the needs and interests of the community at large.

Our hope is that this section will prompt individuals to consider utilizing cooperative collaboration models in order to accomplish leveraged results in their business, their government, their nonprofit organization, their school, and their community.

In future editions, we will highlight organizations and efforts that are practicing cooperative collaboration while achieving results. We will focus on the convergence of efforts to create a systematic, leveraged, ethical approach to getting things done.

Because of their significant economic, environmental, and societal benefits, we think it is important to spotlight the many great collaborative efforts that are being made to effect change.

We want to emphasize how corporations, non-profits, and individuals are advancing their objectives, engaging their stakeholders, and exercising their influence to make a productive contribution to their organization and to the world.

I believe that collaboration can have incredible global impact when we bring our passion, our leadership, and our motivation to economic, environmental, and community efforts. The Jewel of Collaboration will highlight these efforts and create an outlet for you to learn more.

Gayle Dendinger is the President and CEO of Denverbased CAP Logistics. He also serves as the Chairman of the Colorado Business Roundtable.

For more information, call 303.333.1915 ext. 6225 or email Gayle at gade@caplogistics.com.

“The Keiretsu of Japan,” Thayer Watkins, San Jose State University.

FUYO

SANWA

DKB

FUJI BANK

SANWA BANK

DAI-ICHI KANGYO BANK

YASUDA TRUST & BANKING

TOYO TRUST & BANKING

YASUDA MUTUAL LIFE

FUKOKU MUTUAL LIFE

YAUSDA MARINE & FIRE MARUBENI

NISSAN MARINE & FIRE NISSHO IWAI

ITOCHU

NAKAYAMA STEEL WORKS/NISSHIN STEEL

KAWASAKI STEEL/ KOBE STEEL

KUREHA CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES

SEKISUI CHEMICAL

ASAHI CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES

OTHER MARKETS CONTINUED

ELECTRONICS: HITACHI, TOSHIBA, SANYO, SONY |

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The Baldrige Process A Tool for Improvement & Competitive Advantage by Terry May

W

hat is the Baldrige Award?

Begun by Congress in 1987 and presented annually by the president of the United States, the award is a prestigious incentive to help companies become stronger competitors in the global marketplace.

The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) was named for a former Secretary of Commerce whose managerial excellence contributed to long-term improvement in efficiency and effectiveness of government. It promotes business excellence in both for-profit and non-profit organizations through a balanced set of criteria. Almost every state has a similar award, creating a national network of quality awards.

The process isn’t simple, but Baldrige recipients invariably cite the internal improvement as the real value. Receiving the award is nice, but the process is all about improvement.

Baldrige recipients are recognized for continuous improvement in six balanced areas contributing to business excellence and success. Recipients must demonstrate improvement over sustained periods, typically three to five years. Past recipients such as Ritz-Carlton, Motorola, and Federal Express typify the level of excellence required.

The ultimate goal is performance excellence.

It does not matter if your organization is large or small, manufacturing or service, high-tech or low-tech — continuous improvement it is a critical component to competing in today’s global business environment.

Whether an organization chooses Baldrige, or one of the many other quality methodologies, it is much less important than an organization’s commitment to improvement. Improvement and quality methodologies such as ISO 9001, Six Sigma, LEAN, Total Quality Management, and the Toyota Production System all help organizations achieve success. In Built To Last, Jim Collins says this about continuous improvement, “In a visionary company, it is an institutionalized habit - a disciplined way of life…”

My company, MESA Products, applied for the Baldrige Award five years and advanced to the final stage of site visit four times.

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back over the last few years, the changes we made in all areas of our business were obvious, and every year we continue to make progress – and we’re committed to that.

Why go to all this trouble? The answers are: growth, financial success, highly satisfied employees, highly satisfied customers, and maybe even survival.

What you use to get there (Baldrige, Six Sigma, TQM, ISO, LEAN, etc.) is irrelevant. These are only tools. Organizations with a commitment to excellence will use the tools and techniques that best suit their culture so they can achieve increasing levels of performance. Those satisfied with their current performance levels had better hope their competitors have the same attitude.

» Organizations with a commitment to excellence will use the tools and techniques that best suit their culture so they can achiveve increasing levels of performance. « Leadership “True leadership cannot be awarded, appointed, or assigned. It comes only from influence, and that can’t be mandated. It must be earned.

The only thing a title can buy is a little time - either to increase your level of influence with others or to erase it,” says John Maxwell from his book The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership.

What’s your image of a successful leader?

He or she can be outgoing or shy, aggressive or passive, attractive or plain—leaders come in all sizes and shapes, but they share common traits. Warren Bennis, in his book LEADERS, identifies four attributes common to leadership excellence: • Vision - seeing a realistic future state and developing strategies to achieve it • Communication - clearly sharing vision and strategies • Trust - based on positioning • Commitment - an action orientation

As countless leader-authors have told us, leadership is a balance of character, values, integrity, respect for others, courage, learning, and knowing how to share success.

Leadership is incredibly important right now. You can hardly pick up a magazine or newspaper without seeing stories about corporate misdeeds and criminal prosecution of corporate executives.

These incidents have left the impression that leadership failures are widespread and are the rule, not the exception.

A recent article in USA Today said corporate executives now rank down with lawyers in terms of reputation. If a CEO came along and said he wanted to make social responsibility equal with fiduciary responsibility, he wouldn’t last long, the article concluded.

Not everyone agrees: General Norman Schwarzkopf said this about character, “Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without strategy.”

Character builds trust. Trust enables leadership.”

Strategic Planning Running a modern business has some parallels with conducting a military operation. Neither will succeed without attention to strategy.

Where did the concept of strategy come from? Some of the earliest writings on military strategy came from Karl von Clausewitz.

He was the first to separate strategy from tactics. Clausewitz observed, “Strategy is simple but not easy.” This statement is as true today as it was in 1832 when he wrote it.

Does your business have a strategic plan? It probably does though it may not be well developed and it may only exist in someone’s mind. Unfortunately, a less-developed process for strategic planning decreases the chance that the plan will be successfully implemented. A formal process for strategic planning results in more effective communication, faster buy-in, and better measurement of progress.

To begin strategic planning, you must develop vision and values for your company.

Because the strategic plan serves to get all stakeholders working together to focus resources on common goals, all stakeholders should be included in the planning process.

Within the Baldrige Program, answering these strategic planning questions is essential for a strategy-driven company: • What is your external market environment?

• How well do you know your customers and markets?

• Who is the competition and what is their position?

• Can your business execute the strategy?

• Is there a balance between long-term and short-term objectives?

• How will you sustain profitability?

Within the MBNQA Program, the criteria for leadership excellence include leadership and social responsibility. In the area of organizational leadership, applicants are measured by:

As you answer these questions, go through a Strength-Weakness-Opportunity-Threat (SWOT) analysis, so you can identify the primary and supporting objectives that create value for customers. Value-creating attributes might include quality, service, innovation, speed, convenience, health, and social conscience. Michael Porter, in the book Rethinking the Future, said: “The fundamental truth in strategy is that a company simply cannot be all things to all people and do a very good job of it. Strategy requires choices. You have to decide what particular kind of value you want to deliver to whom.” It is not just a matter of being better at what you do - it’s a matter of being different at what you do.

» Successful execution depends on having all employees working torward common goals . «

•H ow they set, deploy, and communicate values, direction, and performance expectations to all stakeholders.

• How the organization accepts accountability for actions and create processes to protect all stakeholder interests.

• How they review performance and use results for improvement at all levels throughout the organization.

• How the company address impacts on society of products, services, and operations for the present and future.

• How ethical behavior measured and monitored throughout the organization.

• How the organization identifies and supports key communities.

• How organizational leaders and employees contribute to improving key communities.

The really difficult part, of course, is implementation. In his book The Strategy Focused Organization, Robert Kaplan cites a study that says, “fewer than 10 percent of effectively formulated strategies are successfully implemented.” Action planning and execution are critical to implementing the plan successfully. Whatever the organization does should be clearly aligned with the strategic plan. |

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Successful execution depends on having all employees working toward common goals. Obviously, knowing and understanding those goals is critical. Do you know what your organization’s primary goals are? If not, you are probably not going to be much help in achieving them. In my company, we use our plan as a communication tool in language that all of us understand.

Regardless of the words, the key focus is on results.

Successful strategic planning requires commitment; it can’t simply be an exercise.

Customer Focus What’s the big deal about customer service? Go to your personal experiences to find the gut-level answer to that.

•H ave you gone through a fast food restaurant, gotten your order, and opened it at home to find the wrong order?

• How does it feel to be waited on by someone who hates their job and shows it?

• Have you ever ordered a product that showed up weeks after it was promised?

» Customers want a good price, convenience, image, quality, service, and innovation. « As annoying as these examples, we can’t always blame the individuals. Many of these frustrating situations are designed into the customer service process because companies don’t recognize or even understand what “customer focus” means.

What we call “customer-focused organizations” excel in three areas: • T hey know who their customers are and what they want.

• They build relationships with their customers.

• They measure customer satisfaction and make necessary adjustments.

Are your customer’s satisfied? How do you know? When was the last time you asked? Do you know who they are? Do you know what they want? What have you done to improve their satisfaction? If you can’t answer these questions, you may have a problem.

It’s not just luck when you have customers who are pleased about your service, return again and again, and even tell their friends about you. Just like you, customers want a good price, convenience, image, quality, service, and innovation. Although a customer probably wants all these things, they are usually only willing to pay for two or three. The trick is to find out which are most important for your customers.

The process is simple – but very hard to execute. Some organizations -- like Southwest Airlines, Nordstrom’s, Ritz-Carlton, and Wal-Mart – get it right; others never do.

Take Southwest Airlines. They know they can’t be all things to all people. But they have identified their target customer and know that low prices and on-time service are critical. Southwest realizes some customers want full services, but they are willing to let those customers go elsewhere. Traditional airline companies that try to provide it all end up satisfying few.

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Wal-Mart succeeds by offering low prices, but not a wide variety of brand choices. Nordstrom’s has made its reputation by providing great customer service, not low prices. The Ritz-Carlton Hotel chain got to the top by developing customer intimacy and creating an extremely loyal customer base. None of these things just happened. They were carefully planned, designed, and executed.

During the startup of our business, our survival instinct told us to sell anything to anybody, anywhere, at any price. That’s not a philosophy for success. Fortunately, we learned that lesson early enough to change. Now we spend an extraordinary amount of time and energy learning more about our customers to give them what they want.

These are my 10 steps toward customer loyalty: 1. Identify your customers.

2. Find out what they want.

3. Determine if you can provide what they want.

4. Develop the capability to provide it or find another customer.

5. Develop an environment in which employees want to provide great service.

6. Give them what they want.

7. WOW them with your service.

8. Make sure they are satisfied.

9. Fix it if they are not.

10. Repeat the process repeatedly.

Southwest Airlines President Colleen Barrett says, “We are not an airline with great customer service, we are a great customer service organization that happens to be in the airline business.”

Measurement, Analysis, and Knowledge Management We’ve looked at how important leadership, strategic planning, and customer focus are. I hope you’re starting to see how these critical areas fit together. It’s the role of leaders to create a vision

and set the direction. Strategic planning identifies key objectives and defines both short-term and long-term operating plans. Having a customer focus ensures that the strategic plan creates value for the organization’s customers.

With that accomplished, the next challenge is to make sure the plan is working. The Baldrige criterion identifies five areas of measuring, analyzing, and managing knowledge.

First, an organization needs to measure success to be sure progress is steady and on schedule. Much like the instrument panel of an airplane where you can see airspeed, altitude, direction, and engine performance, we need a dashboard display of organizational performance.

In Balanced Scorecard, author Robert Kaplan describes how to measure key areas such as customer, operational, human resource, and financial. This balanced approach focuses on long-term performance as opposed to the short-term financial performance on which most larger public corporations seem to concentrate.

All this information and knowledge is useless if it’s not given to those who need it. It must be shared with affected stakeholders.

The way this information is designed and displayed isn’t as important as long as the critical information is made available to the people who need it. One approach is to develop scorecards at all levels. Scorecards should be aligned with the strategic plan.

Obviously, you will need to collect and share knowledge with employees, customers, suppliers, and partners. It’s important to rapidly identify, share, and implement best practices so that performance can continuously improve.

Information is only good if it’s accurate, reliable and timely. Today, we have plenty of tools that we can use to acquire, analyze, and communicate information. Bar coding, wireless transmission, Web-based tools, Electronic Data Interchange, and Enterprise Research Planning are examples of technology used for processing information. As the technology increases, reliability and security concerns increase.

Organizations must be sure that using these technologies does not compromise information systems.

» Know your customers, know your competitors, but most of all know yourself. «

Next, take the information from the measurement system and keep evaluating performance and then make the necessary course corrections. World-class organizations, like the pilot, continually analyze performance and make corrections as necessary to achieve their strategic goals. As market conditions change, strategic goals are adjusted. As you analyze the performance, you will also identify improvements that could be made.

I learned a long time ago: “Know your customers, know your competitors, but most of all know yourself.” World-class organizations convert information to knowledge and then share and transfer knowledge to employees, customers, suppliers, and partners.

Human Resource Focus Previously, I discussed the importance of customer service.

Considering the value of a long-term customer relationship, keeping a current customer is more valuable than finding a new customer.

With this in mind, why would anyone not want to provide the best customer service possible? Unfortunately, sometimes we create environments that may even discourage customer service.

W. Edwards Deming, the well-known quality guru, developed 14 points for improving American business. Point No. 12 is “Remove barriers to pride of workmanship.” In other words, design the work environment so your employees never want to say, “That’s not my job!”

In their book Managing Knock Your Socks Off Service, Chip Bell and Rom Zemke identify eight factors in creating superior customer service, five of which directly relate to employee satisfaction. For instance, Southwest Airlines is well known for customer service.

Is it any coincidence they also achieve high employee satisfaction with low employee turnover? So, if one of the keys to customer service is happy, satisfied employees, how does an organization accomplish this?

The Baldrige Criteria identifies three general areas of human resource efforts which include: work systems; employee learning and motivation; and employee well-being and satisfaction.

“Work systems” refer to recruiting, hiring, performance management, compensation, rewards and recognition, safety, etc. Experience begins with the right people. Hiring people with the right attitude is usually worth more than the right |

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credentials. Once the right people are on board, keep them by creating an environment where they are appreciated as valuable members of the team. Empowered and appreciated employees are essential if an organization is to succeed. All supporting processes should be continuously reviewed and improved through benchmarking and employee input.

» Managing processes successfully usually involves some type of structure in which processes are documented and managed. «

Successful organizations invest in their employees through ongoing education, training, and development. Providing career paths through the acquisition and development of new skills keeps employees interested and engaged in their work. The average company in the U.S. invests about $800 per year per employee in training. How does your organization stack up?

In today’s business world, an employer has a responsibility to provide an environment that contributes to the well-being, satisfaction, and motivation of all employees. Articles about corporate ethics, workplace health and safety, harassment, and security show up every day in the newspaper. In order to stay out of the newspaper – and of course, to sustain an excellent company -- it is important for organizations to address all these areas through unwavering commitment and support from senior leadership.

Having satisfied employees provides the organization with a number of benefits: low employee turnover, low accident rate, high productivity, and employee satisfaction. These are direct results of the work environment and they can usually be directly linked to customer satisfaction results. Monitoring performance in these areas is important for identifying trends and measuring the impact of improvement efforts. Forward-thinking companies can rapidly identify problem areas and develop solutions. In my company, we use an annual employee satisfaction survey to measure key areas contributing to satisfaction as well as satisfaction levels. With this information, we can systematically focus improvement efforts on those key areas.

My simple advice to achieving employee satisfaction: Break down departmental walls. Overcommunicate rather than undercommunicate. Empower people. Recognize and reward performance. Share success based on team performance.

Great organizations identify, design, and improve their processes in the two main categories of creating value and supporting certain processes. The Baldrige Criteria defines value-creating processes as those most important to “running your business” and maintaining or achieving a sustainable competitive advantage.

Support processes are considered most important for support of value creation processes, employees, and daily operations.

For instance, the availability of trained military personnel is critical to national security. A key “value creation process” for the military is training. This training process in the military has been defined, standardized and honed over the years. This results in highly qualified troops.

Another example - the Oakland Athletics baseball team has one of the lowest payrolls in the major leagues. Yet they consistently rank in the top half of the American League. They are consistently successful in identifying, drafting, and developing unknown and low-profile players at much lower salaries through a standardized method for player evaluation.

Support processes sustain and improve value-creating processes.

For the examples above, a support process for the military might be the recruiting process and for the Oakland A’s, it could be maintaining the scouting network to identify players. Support processes also include those necessary to maintain continuity of the organization such as financial or emergency planning. Value creation and support processes work together in successful organizations.

As more employees understand the process and requirements, it’s more likely that processes will improve. Standardization drives consistency, which provides stability for improvement. This is the hard part. It’s easy to talk about process management but documenting a process takes lots of effort. Process documentation could be in the form of a written procedure, a flow chart, a process map, etc. The important thing is that it be understood and communicated throughout the organization.

Process Management takes hard work and discipline and it sounds terribly boring – but this area separates good organizations from great ones.

Managing processes successfully usually involves some type of structure in which processes are documented and managed.

ISO 9000 certification establishes minimum requirements for identifying and improving key processes. The structure and resulting discipline involved in maintaining certification is one of the key benefits of ISO registration.

In Good to Great, Jim Collins writes, “All companies have a culture, some companies have discipline, but few companies have a culture of discipline. When you have disciplined people, you don’t need hierarchy. When you have disciplined thought, you don’t need bureaucracy. When you have disciplined action, you

To be effective, the process in an airplane cockpit must include critical information necessary for flight such as altitude and airspeed. Each process has similar measures that provide indication of performance. Identifying and tracking the critical measures is the necessary first step in process improvement.

Process Management

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don’t need excessive controls. When you combine a culture of discipline with an ethic of entrepreneurship, you get the magical alchemy of great performance.”

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Virtually all successful organizations employ one or more quality improvement methodologies such as ISO 9001, Total Quality Management (TQM), LEAN, or Six Sigma.

Process management is not something that most people get passionate about. It’s hard work and requires a lot of discipline.

But for those organizations who work at it, effective process management pays big dividends.

Business Results The final category is Business Results, another phrase for keeping score. The final score of a football game determines the winner. But think of all the other measures that determine the final outcome: pass completions, interceptions, turnovers, sacks, penalties, etc. Coaches review results and use them to identify opportunities for improvement in order to win the next game.

In much the same way, Business Results examines an organization’s performance and improvement in six key business areas: product and service outcomes, customer satisfaction, financial and marketplace performance, human resource results, operational performance, and leadership and social responsibility.

It seems as though measuring results would be relatively easy, but deciding what to measure is not so simple. It’s not a matter of just measuring bottom line profits. So where do you start?

First of all, you need to identify the key metrics for your organization that drive performance. These metrics should be balanced between all the key business areas, typically in a combination of leading and lagging indicators. Following the selection of the measures, data must be gathered and analyzed. Organizations use various tools and techniques in analyzing performance data. Three of these are segmentation, trend analysis, and benchmarking.

After developing segmentation and trend analysis capabilities, world-class organizations apply the third key tool of benchmarking.

Let’s look at a company that has experienced a significant sales increase. Just because sales are increasing doesn’t necessarily indicate superior performance. What if their key competitor’s sales are increasing at a higher rate? Without a benchmark, this company might not realize they were actually losing ground to the competitor. Benchmarking results is critical to accurate analysis. Benchmarking data is readily available for publicly owned companies in most areas of performance, but not often available for privately held companies. Organizations should benchmark results in all the key business areas using available competitor and industry data if possible. But in many cases, the benchmark might come from outside the industry.

Note that the actual measures for each organization are unique and self-selected. Some possible measures for each of these business areas could be: • Product and Service Outcomes: error rate, on-time delivery • Customer-Focused Results: customer satisfaction, customer retention • Financial and Market Results: return on investment, market share growth • Human Resource Results: employee satisfaction, accident rate, turnover • Organizational Effectiveness Results: cycle time, productivity • Leadership and Social Responsibility Results: regulatory compliance, ethical behavior

» Someone is always raising the bar for excellence - let your company be the one that sets the standard. «

Let’s start with segmentation. World-class organizations demonstrate excellence through sophisticated segmentation of results. For example, it’s not enough for a company to have a significant increase in sales without understanding why that’s happened. This understanding is derived through analysis of segmented results. Which products and services? Which markets? Which industries?

Which geographical region? Which customer groups? Organizations that develop this capability are able to concentrate and focus resources on those areas they identify as most important to achieving business objectives.

Trend analysis is used by world-class organizations to demonstrate continuous improvement of key results over sustained periods of time, typically more than 5 years.

Organizations that focus on continuous improvement should be able to demonstrate that improvement with measured results.

Positive results confirm the effectiveness of these efforts.

Negative trends show that additional efforts and resources should be allocated to improve performance.

Regardless of the measures you select, there is the common theme of discipline.

Measuring and analyzing performance is relatively simple, but not easy. It requires the discipline to identify and develop measuring systems producing results that can be compared to competitors and world-class organizations. The payoff for those disciplined organizations is the knowledge gained, resulting in ongoing improvement initiatives and continuous performance improvement for competitive advantage.

Honestly answering these questions about you and your organization will point out gaps in performance while highlighting opportunities for improvement.

Achieving operational excellence is an unending journey. Someone is always raising the bar for excellence - let your company be the one that sets the standard.

Terry May is President of MESA Products, Inc. (Tulsa, Oklahoma). He formed the company in 1979 and has managed its growth from a one-man service operation specializing in cathodic protection systems and design to an organization with more than 100 employees and five offices. His company received the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Program in 2006. He can be contacted by e-mail at MayT@MesaProducts.com.

Reproduced with permission from NACE International, Houston, TX. All rights reserved. Published in the November 2004 – January 2006 issues of JOURNAL. NACE International 2008.

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collaborator profile

cfmc

WORKING TOGETHER Better Healthcare in Colorado by Arja P. Adair, Jr.

H

ere’s our goal and our motto: Every person in Colorado should receive the right health care every time.

We have to work together. The Colorado Foundation for Medical Care (CFMC), under contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), works directly with Colorado’s hospitals, nursing homes, home health agencies, and physician practices to improve the health of those who receive Medicare in Colorado. Reaching this goal will benefit us all.

CFMC helps providers identify gaps in care; they promote best practices, and adopt proven technological advancements. To improve quality, they conduct reviews to be sure care is appropriate, that Medicare beneficiary complaints are being responded to promptly and that there’s close collaboration with individual providers in implementing Quality Improvement Activities.

As of April 2008, there were over 815,000 Medicare beneficiaries in Colorado. Of these, 602,625 (74%) were enrolled in Fee-forService plans, 166,782 (20%) were enrolled in Medicare Advantage Organizations, and 46,132 (6%) were enrolled only in Medicare Part A coverage or hospice.

LIVES IMPROVED • Over 7,300 patients statewide received all of the recommended guidelinebased care for their condition.

• Colorado hospitals improved distribution of discharge instructions to heart failure patients by 392 patients.

• Prophylactic antibiotics were appropriately canceled within 24 hours of surgery for more than 2,800 patients. Research data demonstrate a relationship between the cancellation of prophylactic antibiotics within 24 hours of surgery and a reduced risk of infection.

HOSPITALS CFMC works with all Colorado acute care and critical access hospitals to improve care, and they specifically focus on the prevention and treatment of conditions affecting large numbers of patients. In support of the national Hospital Quality Initiative, they assist hospitals in improving their performance on quality measures pertaining to heart attacks, heart failure, pneumonia, and surgical care improvement.

Of Colorado’s 73 hospitals, 65 (89%) voluntarily participate in public reporting of quality of care data. Quality improvement data for each of these hospitals can be viewed online at www.hospitalcompare. hhs.gov.

Colorado gets excellent marks. On average, Colorado hospitals performed better than the national average on 22 of the 24 measures required by the Reporting Hospital Quality Data for Annual Payment Update initiative.

Additionally, Colorado’s performance on the Achievable Benchmarks of Care – high performance standards set by the nation’s top hospitals – met or exceeded national benchmarks for high performance in 20 of the 24 measures.

Eight hospitals collaborated with CFMC to improve performance on the Appropriate Care Measure. This allor-none measure reflects how often a patient receives all elements of care appropriate for diagnoses of heart attack, heart failure or pneumonia. Hospitals participating in this group achieved an overall improvement of 44% in the Appropriate Care Measure.

CFMC also worked intensively with a group of six hospitals to improve the quality of surgical care by providing technical and professional guidance. Hospitals participating in this group achieved 25% improvement in surgical care quality rates.

NURSING HOMES All nursing homes in the state are offered resources by CFMC and there’s an active collaboration with a wide variety of stakeholder groups, in Colorado and nationally. Their nursing home activities focus primarily on the improvement of care related to pressure ulcers (bedsores), physical restraints, and pain management.

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LIVES IMPROVED • More than 2,600 beneficiaries improved in their ability to walk and move about.

• More than 1,500 beneficiaries breathed more easily.

• More than 1,450 beneficiaries bathed independently.

• More than 1,200 beneficiaries have less pain in their daily lives.

• Nearly 500 emergency care events were prevented.

Thirty-three of the 199 Medicare-certified nursing homes in Colorado worked intensively with CFMC, and demonstrated considerable improvement in three clinical areas: • T he homes that worked intensively with CFMC to improve pressure ulcer prevention and treatment rates demonstrated a relative rate of improvement of 25%, compared to the state overall average of 12% and the national average of 10%.

• Performance on physical restraint use improved by 42%, compared to the overall state average of 21% and the national average of 29%.

• Those measures related to pain among long-term residents dramatically improved. Homes working intensively with CFMC improved at a rate of 62%, more than double the national average (29%) and well above the state overall average of 45%.

PHYSICIAN OFFICES Doctor’s offices in Colorado are offered resources from CFMC so they can improve their quality of care. These include a project to enhance the use of information technology, and efforts to improve cultural competency among providers.

The use of electronic health records (EHRs) is encouraged by CFMC in doctor’s offices to improve the efficiency and effectiveness while improving patient safety. EHR systems can better monitor the care of patients with chronic conditions – such as diabetes, coronary artery disease, heart failure, and hypertension – and can help physicians collect data for the analysis and improvement of quality of care. CFMC actively collaborated with 55 practices (predominantly primary care), representing 177 providers at various stages of EHR implementation.

HOME HEALTH CFMC works directly with Colorado’s home health agencies to improve the safety and effectiveness of care through training and quality improvement programs. In support of the national Home Health Quality Initiative (HHQI), they have provided Outcome Based Quality Improvement training to multiple home health professionals from over 100 agencies throughout the state. In Colorado, HHQI agencies serve approximately 85% of the Medicare beneficiaries who receive home health care.

For seven of the 11 publicly reported home health quality measures, the group of home health agencies that received one-on-one quality improvement assistance from CFMC showed greater improvement than the group who did not receive focused training. Colorado’s home health agencies, overall, reported greater improvement than agencies nationwide on nine of the 11 publicly reported quality measures.

LIVES IMPROVED • Over 600 residents experienced improved care for chronic pain, physical restraints, and/or high-risk pressure ulcers.

• Of the 77 residents originally identified with a potentially inappropriate medication (PIM), 30 (39%) no longer had a PIM at the end of the project.

• All of the residents in the facilities participating in the PIMs pilot project received extensive quarterly prescription reviews performed by a pharmacist.

CFMC promotes preventive and chronic care best practices in the areas of immunization, mammography and diabetes care. In support of these practices, CFMC also promotes cultural competency.

Cultural competency improves patient outcomes, satisfaction, and compliance; increases staff productivity and awareness of disparities; reduces liability and malpractice; improves communication with and better understanding of patients; and promotes teamwork and collaboration among staff and patients.

ADDITIONAL QUALITY IMPROVEMENT ENDEAVORS CFMC enthusiastically collaborates with managed care organizations, |

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collaborator profile

CFMC

insurance companies, academic institutions, and other Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs) across the nation in cooperative efforts to improve the quality of care in multiple settings.

CFMC actively participated as the node in the 100,000 Lives Campaign, a national effort led by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and funded locally by the Colorado Trust, to reduce harm and mortality in hospitals by improving care across six clinical topics. Their work on this project contributed to saving 122,000 lives across the country over an 18-month period. CFMC recently received additional funding from The Colorado Trust to continue these node efforts (through June 2009) in the subsequent 5 Million Lives Campaign which encompasses 12 topics.

ABOUT CFMC The Colorado Foundation for Medical Care is a nonprofit organization founded in 1970, and is the official

LIVES IMPROVED • 32 practices purchased certified health information technology systems.

• 14 practices without an EHR moved to using and producing electronic clinical information.

• 16 practices extended EHR use to the management of chronic conditions by extracting lists of beneficiaries with specific conditions, generating reminders and prompts, and developing patient-specific care plans.

• 2,000 more Medicare beneficiaries with diabetes received an annual eye exam.

• 4,725 more beneficiaries with diabetes received annual cholesterol screenings.

• 393 more underserved beneficiaries with diabetes received annual cholesterol screenings.

• 4,486 more beneficiaries with diabetes received annual hemoglobin A1c screenings.

• 327 more underserved beneficiaries with diabetes received annual hemoglobin A1c screenings.

• 2,000 more beneficiaries received biennial mammograms. ( 48 )

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QIO for the state of Colorado. CFMC is fully committed to leading health care quality improvement. In November 2003, CFMC achieved ISO 9001:2000 certification as a testament to this commitment to quality. They have a core group of clinical care, analytical, communication, financial, and information technology professionals who are knowledgeable and experienced in performing Medicaid quality and utilization reviews, data collection, statistical analysis, and reporting.

CONTACT CFMC AT 303-695-3300, or visit our website at www.cfmc.org.

Mr. Adair has been involved with CFMC since 1976. After serving as Regional Manager and Division Director, he assumed the position of Senior Vice President in 1983, and Executive Director in 1985. Since 1999 he has been President/CEO. He oversees all aspects of the operation and leads the company’s strategic planning and business development activities. Mr. Adair is actively involved in industry affairs and has served as a member of the board of directors of the American Health Quality Association, the American Center for Clinical Quality Evaluation, and the Kerr L. White Institute for Health Services Research. He has also served as President of Colorado Personalized Education for Physicians. He is a current member of the AHQA Board, the Colorado Performance Excellence Board, and the Colorado Regional Health Information Organization Board.

This material was prepared by CFMC, the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization for Colorado, The analyses upon which this publication is based were performed under Contract Number HHSM-500-2005-CO001C, entitled “Utilization and Quality Control Quality Improvement Organization for the State (commonwealth) of Colorado,” funded by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Department of Health and Human Services, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. The author assumes full responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of the ideas presented.

The numbers of lives improved reported in this document are estimates only.

To obtain a detailed description of the methods used in the calculations, please contact CFMC.

THE LEEDS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

LEEDING THE WAY

Engaging the leaders of today.

Educating the leaders of tomorrow...

The premier business school in the Rocky Mountain region is

• Ranked in the top 20 nationally in entrepreneurship education* • Building an innovative model for social and economic development with the School’s new Initiative for Sustainable Development • Creating cutting edge research and curriculum to educate students for the new energy economy • Educating exceptional students including the winning team in the 2007 MBA International Business Case Competition and a top ten finisher in the national Certified Public Accounting exam**

To learn more about our programs visit leeds.colorado.edu

* U.S. News and World Report 2008 and 2009 ** Over 77,000 took the CPA exam in 2007

jewel of collaboration

Ritz-carlton

Ladies and Gentlemen Caring for Ladies and Gentlemen The Ritz-Carlton’s Competitive Advantage by Bill Levis

S

wanky.

Upscale.

Luxurious. A sterling reputation. In other words: Ritzy.

It’s black tie and cane, perfumed soap, whatever you want right at your fingertips.

The name Ritz-Carlton conjures up the absolute top-of-the-line, with a long history of giving guests exactly what they want, sometimes before they know what they want themselves.

How do you entice visitors to stay in your hotel – and then be so impressed that they never want to stay anyplace else?

The reputation of the Ritz-Carlton is well earned and always under scrutiny. There are definitely “secrets” involved in this continued excellence.

The name is traced back to Cesar Ritz, who specialized in luxury hotels with The Ritz Paris and the Carlton in London. When he died in 1918, his wife expanded the number of hotels using his name. In the United States, The Ritz-Carlton Investing Company bought and franchised the name to hotels beginning in Boston in 1927 and adding others in New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Atlantic City and Boca Raton. Only the Ritz-Carlton in Boston survived beyond 1940.

» The reputation of the Ritz-Carlton is well earned and always under scrutiny. There are definitely “secrets”involved in this continued excellence. «

The current owners, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, LLC, purchased The Ritz-Carlton in Boston and the rights to the name in 1983. Since that time, the company has grown to 72 hotels in 24 countries. With 38,000 employees serving over 800,000 customers, the Ritz has aggressive plans for further expansion throughout the world. It is headquartered in Chevy Chase, MD and is a division of Marriott International.

That Boston hotel became an early innovator in hospitality luxury.

The initial room rate of $15 included a private bath in each guest ( 50 )

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room, lighter fabrics for more complete washing, formal wear for the hotel staff, fresh flowers in public areas, smaller lobbies for a more intimate experience, and gourmet and a la carte dining.

Looking back at over 80 years of history, how did the RitzCarlton in Boston evolve from what was seen by many as a private club for the very wealthy to over 70 hotels that maintain a standard of excellence?

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company is one of only two American companies that has won the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award twice. In addition, it is the only hotel company ever to win the award that singles out the best practices in total quality management principles. The award has seven criteria for performance excellence: leadership; strategic planning; customer and market focus; measurement, analysis and knowledge management; workforce focus; process management; and results.

According to the Ritz-Carlton, “a focus on these criteria has resulted in higher employee and customer satisfaction, increased productivity and market share. Perhaps most significant is increased profitability.”

The motto that the Ritz has used throughout its history, “We are Ladies and Gentlemen Serving Ladies and Gentlemen,” still

applies even as the times and fashions have evolved. The company encourages its employees not only to make suggestions but decisions that make a difference for its guests. According to Janet Crutchfield, Senior Corporate Director - Quality for the Ritz-Carlton, each of its employees is empowered to spend up to $2000 per day per guest to resolve a problem or make a stay more memorable. Although the amount spent is usually $5 to $10, it is not tracked.

The message sent to employees is that “we trust you,” Crutchfield said.

Cruising through online informal reviews of any Ritz-Carlton, you will find raves about the staff. One couple was amazed that as they left the hotel for an all-day outing, the staff had a picnic packed in a RitzCarlton cooler! Another commented that even though they had been gone for weeks between visits, the staff remembered their names, and picked up conversations started when they were there before. What could make a guest feel more welcome than these kinds of personal touches?

To guarantee that customers receive the best service possible, Ritz-Carlton employees use techniques from a nine-step improvement team process to guest surveys. Because of these efforts and because of empowered employees, the Ritz has implemented several improvement process changes. For example, a cross-functional team from Osaka, Japan used the six-step problem solving process and reduced front desk check- in times by 50%.

programs, interviewing customers, testing products and piloting the program to ensure successful implementation.

Another example is how a team of worldwide catering managers created the first comprehensive wedding program in the hospitality industry.

After two years of surveying guests, benchmarking the competition, meeting with wedding experts and media, a five-tier program was designed to meet the bride and groom’s needs from the initial telephone call to the first anniversary.

» The company has grown to 72 hotels in 24 countries. With 38,000 employees serving over 800,000 customers, the Ritz has aggressive plans for further expansion throughout the world. «

Teams from the Atlanta hotels and the corporate office developed a guestroom child safety program in response to an increase in family travel. They spent two years benchmarking children’s

These examples are evidence of the three-pronged credo of the Ritz-Carlton: • “The Ritz-Carlton Hotel is a place where the genuine care and comfort of our guests is our highest mission.

• We pledge to provide the finest personal service and facilities to our guests who will always enjoy a warm, relaxed, yet refined ambience.

• T he Ritz-Carlton experience enlivens the senses, instills well-being, and fulfills even the unexpressed wishes and needs of our guests.”

But back to the first secret that has been passed down through the hotel line, “We are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen.”

This motto is part of the company’s Gold Standards which are instilled in the “Ladies and Gentlemen” daily during a 15 minute line-up at the beginning of each shift, Crutchfield said.

Besides the credo, the Ritz-Carlton has three steps of service and 12 service values that focus on why “I am proud to be Ritz-Carlton.” Each day, one of the Gold Standards is emphasized. |

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jewel of collaboration

Ritz-carlton To keep the line-ups fresh, management challenges functional leaders to keep them engaging, noted Crutchfield. For example, the hotel in Beijing used the 2008 Summer Olympics in reviewing the Gold Standard. The same was true in Denver when prepping for the Democratic National Convention. In fact, the hotels continued to hold their shift line-ups in New Orleans after Katrina and in the Grand Caymans after a hurricane there. Part of the focus was how they could help fellow employees and the community with their needs, Crutchfield stated.

It’s obvious that the company recognizes the importance of its employees in “The Employee Promise.” In it, The Ritz-Carlton emphasizes that: • “Our Ladies and Gentlemen are the most important resource in our service commitment to our guests.

• By applying the principles of trust, honesty, respect, integrity and commitment, we nurture and maximize talent to the benefit of each individual and the company.

• The Ritz-Carlton fosters a work environment where diversity is valued, quality of life is enhanced, individual aspirations are fulfilled, and The Ritz-Carlton Mystique is strengthened.”

It is not only this mystique but also commitment that has earned The Ritz-Carlton 19 AAA Five Diamond Award hotels and seven AAA Five Diamond Award restaurants in 2008. The company has received numerous Mobil Five and Four-Star Awards in the last two years.

The Ritz-Carlton is not limiting its commitment to excellence to its employees and guests. The company has set up a program called “Community Footprints,” which is based on its mission statement that its hotels “will be known as positive, supportive members of their community and will be sensitive to the environment.” In 2007, the Ritz-Carlton donated over $7.4 million to charitable organizations in products and services and its employees did over 40,000 hours of community volunteering, worldwide.

The company’s community program focuses on hunger and poverty relief, the well-being of disadvantaged children, and environmental conservation.

In providing hunger and poverty assistance, the Ritz-Carlton raises money “and donates food, linens, toys, furniture and clothing.”

Its employees donate their time by “cooking and serving meals at local homeless shelters to building playgrounds and renovating critical community facilities.” They also provide “job readiness and workplace training to disadvantaged youth” and sponsor “mentoring programs and participate in after-school programs.”

» In 2007, the Ritz-Carlton donated over $7.4 million to charitable organizations in products and services and its employees did over 40,000 hours of community volunteering, worldwide. «

Environmental conservation is on everyone’s mind these days and The Ritz-Carlton is especially serious about its involvement.

At each hotel, employees organize a Ritz Environmental Action Conservation Team that identifies practices that are best designed to leave the smallest environmental footprint. This summer, the company announced the expansion of its environmental program through a ten-year agreement with Jean-Michel Cousteau and his Ocean Futures Society. A consortium of travel professionals named this program, which focuses on education and respect for the sustainability of the world’s ecosystem, the “Best Children’s Program for 2007.” The “Ambassadors of the Environment” started in Grand Cayman, and will be expanded to a number of other resorts and hotels, including Kapalua, Maui, and Sanya.

The company recently introduced “VolunTeaming,” a teambuilding program for guests that benefits the local community, as

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The Ritz-Carlton For those interested in a detailed look at the Ritz-Carlton, Dr. Joseph A. Michelli has written The New Gold Standard: Five Leadership Principles for Creating a Legendary Customer Experience Courtesy of The RitzCarlton Hotel Company published in July 2008.

The New Gold Standard takes you on an exclusive tour behind the scenes of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company.

Granted unprecedented access to the company’s executives, staff, and its award-winning Leadership Center training facilities, bestselling author Joseph Michelli explored every level of leadership within the organization. He emerged with the key principles leaders at any company can use to provide a customer experience unlike any other, such as:

part of its Community Footprints program. Groups can participate in a community activity coordinated through the Ritz-Carlton for a few hours or a whole day. In New Orleans, for example, groups can participate in rebuilding devastated neighborhoods by “volunteaming” with Habitat for Humanity, or in Cleveland, “volunteamers” can visit Chef’s Garden where groups harvest crops for donation to a local food bank.

From the very beginning to the present day, the emphasis of customer care has remained constant. If anything has evolved, it has been the increased empowerment of its “Ladies and Gentlemen” and its work in the community. The numerous awards it has received, as well as its plans for expansion, highlight how its commitment to quality and innovation has become a competitive advantage.

» The company has set up a program called “Community Footprints,”which is based on its mission statement that its hotels “will be known as positive, supportive members of their community and will be sensitive to the environment.”«

•U nderstanding the ever-evolving needs of customers • Empowering employees by treating them with the utmost respect • A nticipating customers’ unexpressed needs and concerns • D eveloping and conducting an unsurpassed training regimen

The customers love being surprised by quality. From the baby grand piano in one hotel, to afternoon teas, to a marble soaking tub, to stunning views, it is an experience that guests want to talk about – and thus, the reputation of the hotel goes from friend to friend.

Nothing is better for business than a personal recommendation.

Monsieur Ritz would be proud.

Sharing engaging stories from the company’s employees--from the corporate office and hotels around the globe--Michelli describes the innovative methods the company uses to create peerless guest experiences and explains how it constantly hones and improves them.

The New Gold Standard weaves practical how-to advice, proven leadership tools, and the wisdom of experts to help you create and embed superior customerservice principles, processes, and practices in your own organization. |

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building bridges

The Boeing company

A Journey to Excellence The Boeing Story by Jan Mazotti

B

ack in the early 1990’s the C-17 program was months behind schedule with a multi-million dollar overrun on a fixed price development program contracted by the United States Air Force (USAF). This program, which at that time was a part of the McDonnell-Douglas Corporation, later became part of the Airlift and Tanker (A&T) Program division of the Boeing Company.

Following and building on the success of the C-17 Program key members of its Leadership Team went on to lead another Boeing Division, Aerospace Support to be awarded a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for Service in 2003.

Here is the story.

» Changes were indeed made and what seemed like insurmountable challenges were met. The result was a successful company – and they won the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 2003. «

The C-17 is a high-wing, fourengine military transport aircraft which can carry large equipment, supplies and troops to small airfields in harsh terrain anywhere in the world day or night. The C17’s ability to fly long distances and land in remote airfields in rough, land-locked regions make it a premier transporter for military, humanitarian and peacekeeping missions.

Significant improvements were needed if the program was to survive. To that end the USAF and McDonnell Douglas formed a partnership program.

Drastic measures and sweeping organizational changes would have to be forthcoming quickly for the partnership to succeed. Changes were indeed made and what seemed like insurmountable challenges were met. The result was a very successful program which was recognized by the receipt of a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for Manufacturing in 1998. ( 54 )

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LEADERSHIP IN ACTION – THE C-17 PROGRAM

The A&T division needed to make large improvements everywhere and quickly. Through the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, leaders were brought in and filtered through the organization, bringing with them more than 40 quality improvement approaches. Few of these stuck. However, in 1991 John McDonnell the CEO of McDonnell Douglas directed the use of the Malcolm Baldrige (MB) criteria to focus resources and integrate improvements. Not happy with this top-down directive, the management team and employees did not embrace it. They saw it as just another “initiative du jour.” Similar to the previous 40! The general attitude among employees was that they didn’t have time for all “this soft stuff,” so they continued on the normal improvement path using a scattered approach that might be called “Random Acts of Improvement.” However, because John McDonnell linked the use of the Baldrige Criteria to the Executive’s compensation they were forced to pay attention to it.

During the first few years the leaders gave it mostly lip service.

However, starting in 1993 A&T was led by self-described “Quality Nut” Don Kozlowski (Koz) and supported by Quality Guru, Randy Mizer, the organization began in to identify and tackle many of their major production problems using the Baldrige Criteria. They focused on quality, improving customer relations, improving the overall organizational culture and on improving relations with the United Auto Workers (UAW) who represented the airplane mechanics.

From this work came tangible and measureable improvements.

From 1994 to 1998 revenue generated per employee rose from $200,000 to $327,000 while during that same time frame, supplier on-time delivery increased to 99.8 percent from 75.9 percent, and supplier rejection rates dropped from 0.9 percent to 0.08 percent, while performance on a set of key quality measures improved by 50 percent. Cycle time was reduced by more than 80 percent and time spent on rework and repair by 54 percent. Net asset turnover improved by a factor of seven while return on sales improved nearly threefold.

“malicious obedience,” meaning that “when someone is forced to do something they don’t believe in, things that ‘get the box checked’ may be completed, but in reality they are no use at all.”

The A&T leadership initiated a process that supported the organizational goals, while communicating reasonable expectations to the overall workforce.

It included integration, alignment, coordination, milestones, metrics, and communications models, while avoiding unreasonable

» Over the three years that Kozlowski focused on process improvements, contractor performance doubled, rework and repair went from about $5 million a year to $1.8 million a year, and schedule times were increased significantly. «

1997 was a leadership transition period for the C-17 program. Early in the year Dr. E. David Spong was promoted to lead the program leaving Koz to concentrate on overall A&T operations. Then in October Koz retired and was succeeded

by Spong. After taking the leadership role, he more fully understood the importance of continuous improvement within the organization and that the “human interaction side of leadership is as important, if not more so, than all the technical attributes.” and that “recognition motivates!” He also learned that he was never off duty – “employees must know, at all times, who you are and what you believe in.” He goes on, “the leader must rolemodel the values all day and every day.”

Three focus areas encouraged by the criteria were particularly significant to A&T’s improvement journey: strategic planning, performance measurement and Employee Involvement & Union/Management relations.

On evaluating A&Ts early strategic plans they found that they were effective marketing plans, but they were not comprehensive and therefore did not integrate all the key activities of the program.

Many approaches to strategic planning have been used over the years, but few have been successful. Implementing these plans is very hard work, even if you are doing it well. It can lead to employees simply giving “lip service” to the idea or worse

expectations, secrets, static documents.

and

A&T also implemented a performance management system that aligned organizational goals and measures to the strategies that were identified in the strategic plan. They learned that they needed to, “focus measures on things that directly drove strategic objectives. Measures needed to be weighted according to impact, and not all measures needed to flow to every level from the top.”

Human process improvement and integration is rarely easy, and Boeing’s A&T C17 business unit was no exception. A&T improved its relationship with employees, particularly the members of the UAW, by creating “Employee Involvement” (EI) teams. EI teams were encouraged to take responsibility for operations and processes throughout the organization. Teams were given the power to do this, which led to employee satisfaction, which then translates into customer satisfaction. Because of these EI teams, the A&T division began the slow but important

» The leadership team began creating a workable strategic plan, while continuing to improve the building of the C-17 tanker. « |

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building bridges

The Boeing company

journey of improved relations with the UAW. Over time, the relationship between the two went from the “worst we had ever experienced to the best.” Amazingly, “It went from an antagonistic, confrontational relationship to one of cooperation and trust.”

The culmination of all these efforts A&T was awarded a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for Manufacturing in 1998.

Interestingly, after receiving the award, A&T had what Spong calls “the Baldrige blues,” where there was a belief that they had won and were good, and therefore, they could, “rest on their laurels.”

That didn’t fly. Instead, regular assessments and internal and external examinations were conducted to promote continuous improvements in the journey to excellence.

THE SECOND HALF OF THE STORY – AEROSPACE SUPPORT Probably because of the success at C-17 Spong was asked to lead the Aerospace Support (AS) and did so starting in November

» Any strategic plan should include integration, alignment, coordination, milestones, metrics, and communications models, while avoiding unreasonable expectations, secrets, and static documents. «

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2000. Randy Mizer had by now retired and Spong asked Debbie Collard, one of Randy’s protégés, to move to AS to be the Quality and process guru. Debbie had been a major contributor during the A&T journey as part of Randy’s team. So in 2000 Spong & Collard began a three-year journey to excellence, using selected learning and best practices from the A&T division while building a culture of excellence in its own right. They were challenged to triple revenues in five years while maintaining double-digit margins.

Spong and the leadership team had their work cut out for them.

Aerospace Support was the Boeing business unit that provided aftermarket support for Boeing’s and other company’s military products. It was comprised of six businesses: Spares & Technical Data, Maintenance and Modifications, Contractor Logistics Support, Modernization & Upgrades, and Training Services and Support with at total of 13,000+ employees located at 130+ sites around the world.

the same reason as in A&T namely to bring focus and energy to improvement initiatives, but in addition to forge the Leadership Team (LT) into a real team. Most LT’s are an “assemblage of Type A personalities who are all trying to advance their careers and the thought of helping another member of the LT is foreign to them.

By making the members of the LT Executive Champions (EC) they were required to work with one another, support one another and be accountable to each other since they could not “delegate” their EC responsibilities. In particular, Spong nominated the head of Information Technology (IT) to lead the EI initiative across the 13,000-person enterprise, because he was a believer in EI. The Lt became a true team.

EI had worked at A&T -- union workers and management were on the best terms in history. So, Spong believed it would work at AS and began the journey. What unfolded was a team-based culture similar to that at A&T that was “collaborative, helping, sharing, and mutually supportive.”

» Employees must know, at all times, who you are and what you believe in. The leader must rolemodel the values all day and every day. «

Even though AS was performing adequately, customer satisfaction and requirements became a focus since there were a multitude of customers ranging from four-star generals to line managers of all branches of the military. All had the same requirements (quality, schedule, cost, availability, and capability), but different priorities.

As in the A&T organization, AS implemented EI and used “Executive Champions”. The Executive Champions were used for

In order to listen and learn from the customers of the AS division, management implemented surveys and listening strategies, where

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building bridges

The Boeing company

CHECK OUT SPONG AND COLLARD’S NEW BOOK Using a unique blend of stories, tips, charts, and tables that can be adapted to any organization, this book shares the stories, wisdom, and “silver bullets” gained by two divisions of the Boeing Corporation as they won the Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award. The “silver bullets” are the kernels of management wisdom that set this book apart and provide the simple insights

customers could express their satisfaction or dissatisfaction about products and services.

What they found was that the more you could “measure the interactions between yourself and the customer, the more insight you gain into improving and maintaining customer satisfaction.”

that anyone can adopt. This book uses a systems perspective to provide solutions that will inspire leaders to champion such approaches, while also providing tried and true details and “how-to” applications to the in-house practitioners and consultants.

Whether you are looking for tools and techniques to make your organization

» There are no other business people, outside of Spong and Collard, who have successfully led two different organizations through the journey to excellence and received the highest prize in two different industries – manufacturing and service. «

Spong called himself the head of Human Resources, to show that he cared about the people within the organization. In the big picture, leadership responsibilities were integrated with the human resource function. AS really became a teambased structure that linked “individual performance to team and organizational performance.” The organization surveyed and listened to the employees and made changes to benefits, trainings, and services based on what they heard.

Spong and the team met the challenge set forth by corporate leaders in 2000, while building a world-class organization in leadership, planning, customer satisfaction, knowledge management and analysis, human resources, process management, and organizational outcomes. By 2003, AS had also been rewarded by winning a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for Service.

BUILDING THE LEADERSHIP

BRIDGE

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transformed organizations from struggling to excellent in seven years and from satisfactory to excellent in three years – both times winning the highest award, the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, and being recognized as world-class leaders in business.

As they describe it, it is like a complex gourmet soup recipe. It requires the pot (the MB Criteria) filled with cold water that must come to a boil through leadership.

Once it boils, you add the ingredients – the silver bullets of leadership along

» Excellence can only survive if it is supported whole-heartedly by leadership. « with the “spices and fragrances that blend together in unique ways that would not be obtained if they were cooked independently, thus forming a system – a soup.” The outcome is that it smells good (motivated employees) and tastes great (solid business results).

THROUGH

There are no other business people, outside of Spong and Collard, who have successfully led two different organizations through the journey to excellence and received the highest award in two different industries – manufacturing and service.

There are no other business leaders, outside of Spong and Collard, who have taken the MB framework and successfully ( 58 )

and processes more effective, or you are starting from scratch, this book provides you with a set of proven approaches to achieving excellence. The insights into excellence and the Baldrige journey that Spong and Collard have mastered have allowed their organizations to celebrate with great processes, loyal customers, engaged employees, high quality products and services, and significant profitability.

Leadership requires many skills. You are the general, the teammate, the servant, the liaison, the manager, and the inspiration. Over time, you learn persistence, trust, inspiration, empowerment, and build the bridge through leadership to excellence. Boeing’s A&T and AS business units are both excellent examples. Excellence starts with leadership. And excellence can only survive if it is supported whole-heartedly by leadership.

opinion

20/20 Innovation

by Doug Jackson

R

ecently, a luxury European car manufacturer debuted a computerized control concept for their top-line sedans. It was heralded as the newest innovation in automotive electronics, and was touted as a tool that allowed the driver to access all of the systems from a single knob on the shift console. Every function, from the seat heaters to the air conditioner to the stereo and the average speed, could all be controlled by this one knob with the information displayed on a screen in the dashboard. The manufacturer promised a new day in automotive performance.

However, the rollout was absolutely panned by the automotive press as one of the worst innovations in years. Worse yet, this new technology received less than a lukewarm reception from the majority of the drivers, which was precisely the group that they were hoping would like it best.

What this recognized leader in automotive innovation seemed to have missed in the creative process was the critical role of the customer. Automakers are not alone. Our houses are filled with gadgets that are overly innovated: television remote-control units and programmable thermostats that are too complicated to control or too confusing to program. The same is true for cell phones, kitchen appliances, and automated call centers.

Those cool ideas that innovators create can easily become far different than the needs that customers would like addressed. Certainly, the innovator is most familiar with the product, and the subtle nuances of “which button to push first in sequence.” It seems logical to the creator. After all, they have rehearsed the innovation a hundred times. They have dreamed about it, lived with the mistakes and heralded the successes. Why then shouldn’t the world embrace these great ideas?

What is needed in the circle of innovation is the discipline to ask the user what they think. There must be a standing invitation to the customer to become involved in the process. The door to the office of innovation must be propped wide open and a sign hung where everyone can see. The sign should say, “Your input is welcome. We’re here to innovate for you.”

Certainly the companies and individuals that maintain this disciplined focus on their customer have created absolutely remarkable products. How neat is it that my entire college music collection can fit on a gizmo the size of a postage stamp? The idea that skiers will stay warm and dry with two very thin layers of technical fabric is light years ahead of the bulky, wet frocks that were the standard just a decade ago. Best yet, these products nearly fly off the shelves and into customers shopping carts.

The competitive advantage of innovation comes only after maintaining a laser focus on the consumer. When innovation is directed at solving a problem for the innovator, the result is marginal, at best. When aimed at creating value for someone else, the result can be truly revolutionary.

For my part, I bought a little cable that attached my postage-stamp music collection to the stereo in my car, and was able to by-pass the confounding information knob. Special thanks to the innovator that created that little cable. I hope their business does very well. |

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