2009 Excellence in Government Conference:
Who is Missing from the Party?
Are large scale system failures becoming more common, or are we just getting better at finding them? But does it matter? Look at the impact on all of us: broken financial and regulatory systems, inefficient health care systems, failing educational systems (only 71% of American eighth grade students graduate 4 years later with a high school diploma), accelerated job losses through off-shoring and industrial failures… we not only CAN do better, we MUST do better.
Which brings us to the 2009 Excellence in Government Conference held in Washington, DC, on October 5, 2009. Reviewing the online agenda (http://www.excelgov.com), amidst announcements that “experts are studying what is required for success in federal programs” and “the administration is focusing on technology to transform the federal government”, we found the following statement:
“The Obama administration issued a mandate for agencies to achieve a high performing workforce.”
A mandate? This seems to imply that there are organizations out there that do NOT want a high performing workforce.
We have a different view. A “high performing workforce” does not take a “mandate”. It takes knowledge, theory, discipline, and a system designed for success.
This is not a Democratic or Republican criticism. Every incoming administration mandates a new approach to performance management across the federal government and its 2.2 million employees.
We have done enough work in the public sector to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the systems and the people who work in these systems.
Which brings us to the central question: Where is Baldrige? Why are we about to embark on yet another cycle of “new” management initiatives when the federal government already has within it direct access to arguably the world’s finest performance excellence system, the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence? At the same time that world-class companies and government agencies around the world are achieving transcendent success through the Baldrige System, here is Washington, DC, Baldrige is a no-show at a conference ostensibly dedicated to excellence in government.
Interestingly, as we are writing this newsletter, the following announcement came into our inbox from the Arabian Business News:
“Using the Baldrige criteria, organizations assess their management systems to identify the strengths of their systems and the opportunities for improvement. This assessment, evaluation, and improvement process helps them embed the Baldrige core values in their cultures, leading to excellent results… We are about building better organizations and ensuring those organizations are prepared to go forward on the global stage. We envision the Middle East and North Africa region as a center of excellence that the rest of the world sets their standards by, not the other way around.”
(http://www.arabianbusiness.com/press_releases/detail/39697)
Were only this vision shared within our own government.
The lesson is clear. We in the Baldrige community are on our own. But we already know that. We will patiently ride out the “mandates” and “new” initiatives and stay focused on doing the best possible job we can every day, enlightened and empowered by the knowledge that a Baldrige-type process is not the easiest path to take, but it is the only enduring method for achieving long-term results that matter.
source: Global Insights. Global Performance Systems, Inc. http://gpsinc.us. Copyright 2003-2009 Craig Anderson. All rights reserved.
