During the recent leadership plenary of the Baldrige Program’s Quest for Excellence Conference, senior leaders of the 2014 Baldrige Award recipients shared their insights and lessons learned.

Scott McIntyre, the U.S. leader of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC) Public Sector Practice, said, “If we’re not getting better faster than our competitors, then we’re losing ground.”

“Values are really the culture of our organization,” said David Huffstutler, president and CEO of St. David’s HealthCare.

Jayne E. Pope, CEO of Hill Country Memorial, noted that, “How we live [our organization’s core competencies] differentiates us in our industry and in our market.”

“To make progress... we had to get to the source of truth,” said Gerry Agnes, CEO of Elevations Credit Union. “My measure of my own success as a leader: Have I created a safe environment for my team to handle the truth?”

Let’s take a closer look at two of these insights within the context of each organization.

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