What do the American mastodon, Woolly mammoth, and Arizona jaguar all have in common? Here’s a hint: they all suffered similar fates to Hostess Brands, Circuit City, and Blockbuster. Yes, they all went away. Extinction. Vanished. Disappeared. But I think the companies could all take a lesson from the animals that died before them: organizations [...]

"Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.” – Warren Bennis “You don’t need a title to be a leader.” – Anon Over the years, there has been much written on what it takes to be an effective leader. We’ve learned that leadership is an art as well as a science – it’s learned, [...]

2013-14 Criteria for Performance Excellence Released—Validated Best Practices to Improve Your Organization December, 2012 For 25 years, the Baldrige Criteria have empowered organizations—no matter their size, sector, or industry—to reach their goals, improve results, and become more competitive. The 2013–2014 Criteria build on this tradition and feature a renewed focus on:  innovation management, intelligent risk, [...]

1. A Message from the President: Insights into Effective Leadership 2. The Principles of Performance Excellence: Baldrige 101 Workshop -- Twin Cities 2/19 or 2/20 3. 2013 PEN Best Practice Conference May 14-15 -- Hold the Date! 4. Proven Ways to Enhance Strategic Thinking -- Twin Cities Workshop 1/22 5. More than a Quick Fix: [...]

A study conducted by Industry Week a few years ago indicated that 74% of companies are not making good progress with Lean – they simply are not achieving desired results. Other studies suggest that about 60% of all Six Sigma initiatives fail to yield desired results, and I imagine that failure rates are similar with [...]

November 2012 Acting U.S. Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank recently named four U.S. organizations as recipients of the 2012 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the nation's highest Presidential honor for performance excellence through innovation, improvement and visionary leadership. The winners in this, the 25th anniversary year of the award, represent four different sectors, one repeat recipient [...]

1. A Message from the President: Improving How Organizations Improve 2. Lean Six Sigma Forum -- Rochester 12/5 3. Self-Defeating Habits of Otherwise Brilliant People -- Conflict Resolution Workshop 12/11 4. Proven Ways to Enhance Strategic Thinking -- Twin Cities Workshop 1/22 5. More than a Quick Fix: Organizational Change that Sticks -- SE MN [...]

In case you missed it, the world changed about three years ago.  We’ve even created labels for what happened: “The Great Recession” caused our “New Normal.”  Organizations of all sizes, of all types, and in all regions of the US are compelled to operate differently: budgets are tighter because resources are tighter; customers are selective [...]

1. A Message from the President: Changing the Way Organizations Change 2. Managing Transformational Change: Fall Conference Nov 14; Pre-Con Nov 13 (Bloomington) 3. Lean Six Sigma Forum -- Rochester 12/4 4. Self-Defeating Habits of Otherwise Brilliant People -- Conflict Resolution Workshop 12/11 5. Interested in Improving Your Organization? Try New Self Assessment 6. One [...]

I’ve offered these statistics before, but it bears repeating.  Employees aren’t happy: According to Gallup, only 33% of American workers are currently engaged with their jobs, while 49% are not engaged and 18% are actively disengaged. In a Conference Board report issued last year, 55% of American workers are not satisfied with their current work, [...]