Baldrige Quest for Excellence days one and two are complete. A couple key observations from those two days:

No surprise that the key driver for winning organizations is a senior leader and senior leader team that is committed to performance excellence. No one on those teams is willing to settle for mediocrity in their organization’s performance. Whether a large organization like Honeywell, or a small company like Midway USA, these organizations embarked on a difficult journey that has paid off in success. The journey is never easy.

Community involvement is getting to be another key driver of success – it seems to me that this area to address has moved from “being a good corporate citizen” to being a fundamental driver of success by understanding the needs of your community in a way that helps drive organizational success – especially for the hospitals that are more focused on local communities. Baldrige geeks will recognize the change in the 2009-2010 criteria in 1.2c, moving from community impact to societal impact.

A very effective practice that was described was Midway USA’s efforts to bring excellence to their city. CEO Larry Potterfield is forming a Baldrige community group to inspire other organizations in their hometown, Columbia, MO, to use the Baldrige criteria to improve the economic climate of the city. Larry is VERY committed to using the Baldrige criteria…and is no doubt going to help drive change in Columbia. Imagine if every community with a Baldrige recipient (or even a committed Baldrige applicant or examiner) were able to start “interest groups” to get the ball rolling!