First Impressions of the Quest for Excellence Conference®

A few of our clients attended their first Baldrige Quest for Excellence (Quest) conference earlier this month.  It was so much fun watching them revel in the learning and networking.  Even though we’ve attended many Quest and other Baldrige-related conferences, the experience always energizes us with stories of those on their performance excellence journey.

Luke and Sam Jordan, Co-Stewards of Electro Acoustic in Fort Worth, and Steve Brawley, COO of ARCHS in St. Louis, responded to our request to interview them to get their first impressions of their first Quest conference.  They shared many of the same observations, which, in turn, we’d like to share with you.

The Baldrige Community

We had described the Baldrige community as being the most generous community we know.  Whether you’re a multiple-time Award recipient or someone just beginning the performance excellence journey, people willingly share best practices and lessons learned.  For newcomers to the Quest, the candid responses they got to their questions were unexpected and proved to be very helpful.  Luke cited a quote from an Adventist Health session where the presenter described a lack of clarity about the real customers of the Pharmacy department and their declaration, “We were basically painting the wrong wall!”

Prior to the Quest, Luke and Sam had spent nearly a day with Dale Crownover, CEO of Texas Nameplate (a two-time Baldrige Award recipient), touring his organization and seeing his real-time data gathering, metric monitoring, and performance display available to everyone in the company.  Dale talked about the importance of building relationships throughout the Baldrige community and underscored its generosity.  Sam echoed this in an element of the Quest he hadn’t expected, “It really is about building relationships.  It’s easy to get lost in the best practices and slides.” Luke added, “Get connected with someone who’s deep in the community; have them broker introductions.”  Steve interjected, “It’s all about the networking – meeting people who’ve been at this for 20 years or just 2.  Getting words of encouragement helps make the often-times daunting work easier.  And don’t be afraid to ask people if it’s okay to follow up later. I guarantee you, they’ll say ‘yes.’”

You Only Think You’re “Unique”

Another learning for the three was that relevant best practices and lessons learned could be found across different industries and sectors, and organizations of all sizes and complexities.  Sometimes the differences are actually the source of great insight.  Luke said, “(Healthcare) totally shifted what my expectation of quality was – how high the mountain really is.”  He continued with the value he finds in Dr. Harry Hertz’s (Director Emeritus of BPEP) summary of the Baldrige Excellence Framework in three simple questions: (1) Is your organization doing as well as it could? (2) How do you know? (3) What and how should your organization improve or change?

Advice for Future Conference Attendees

Divide and conquer.  Don’t just stay with your own team.

Bring different team members in addition to the senior leaders.

If you have a feedback report from an application, review your OFIs and see if certain sessions are likely to offer helpful insights to addressing them.

Take note of books, videos, and articles that the presenters have found useful.

Expect to learn from everyone.  Look for those “nuggets” in each presentation and each networking opportunity.

In Conclusion

We nearly got goose bumps when Luke told us, “It was a near-religious experience for us!”  I think that translates into, he drank the Baldrige Kool-Aid and is officially part of the community now.

Let us know if you plan to attend the next Quest of Excellence.  We would love to see you there.

Speaking of conferences and other learning opportunities…

__________________________________________________________________________

Save the Date!!!  Baldrige Fall Conference (pre-conference workshops on October 16) October 17 live in Milwaukee and streamed worldwide!