The Hogan Center
Pat Townsend & Joan Gebhardt
ptownsend@qualitydigest.com
“Benchmarking”
entered the American quality lexicon after Xerox won the
Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 1990 and revealed
that it had been a major factor in their improvement activities.
As with any really good idea (Six Sigma, for example), it
was immediately pounced on and practiced by all manner of
folks, with the word being stretched to fit a wide range
of activities.
At heart, though, the idea remains: Find someone who is
doing a particularly good job of something that applies
to your organization and see if you can figure out what
they’re doing that you can adopt or adapt. Baldrige
winners are, quite naturally, the subject of many benchmarking
efforts, formal and informal.
With that basic definition and the Baldrige connection
in mind, this column is focused on one interesting organization--the
Hogan Center for Performance Excellence, located in Dallas.
The reason they are of interest is their track record with
regards to both the Baldrige and the Texas Award for Performance
Excellence, a Baldrige clone.
Founded as the Hogan Quality Consortium in 1987 (the organization’s
current name and structure was adopted in 1992), its members
have the following achievements:
Texas Award for Performance Excellence:
1996--Texas Nameplate
1997--John Deere, Dallas
1998--TD Industries
1999--Branch-Smith Printing Division
1999—KARLEE Co. Inc.
2002--Bill J. Priest Institute for Economic Development
2003--Park Place Lexus
In addition to three site visit recipients, these organizations
are Baldrige winners:
1991--Marlow Industries Inc.
1998--Texas Nameplate Co. Inc.
2000—KARLEE Co. Inc.
2002--Branch-Smith Printing Division
So, who are these people? And what do they do?
The original catalyst for the establishment of the Hogan
Center was the desire to provide a central communication
and information framework for member organizations to improve
their knowledge of total quality management. That effort
evolved into a two-year training program that Warren Hogan,
chairman of the Hogan Center, named the “Process for
Transformation.” It is the model that continues--with
customized changes--to be used today.
Although it does offer an array of courses taught either
by its staff or by recommended consultants/trainers in the
area, the greatest strength of the Hogan Center may be the
interplay among its members. Both in the context of monthly
meetings and during meetings completely outside of the activities
of the Hogan Center, past winners mentor award aspirants,
and organizations in general are available to each other.
Benchmarking within the Hogan Center members is encouraged
and common.
The Hogan Center credits it success to “Six C’s”:
Community: There is a palpable feeling
of community at the Hogan Center events. At a recent dinner
to honor Baldrige recipient Branch-Smith, the atmosphere
before dinner was one of a group of friends who had gotten
together for the evening. After dinner, the pride and affection
felt for the new winner by the CEOs of the other three Baldrige
winners was quite obvious.
Center: The word “Center”
was chosen deliberately. The organization works at being
the hub of idea-exchanging among the members.
Catalyst: Through its meetings, classes
and follow-up communication with members after classes,
the leadership of the Hogan Center ensures the organization
is a catalyst for questions, suggestions and growth.
Competencies: Besides the competencies
brought to the discussion by quality award winners, the
Hogan Center consciously augments its own skills by bringing
in outside sources either for its meetings or for classes.
Culture: The Hogan Center recognizes that
an organization’s culture ensures that the changes
made today are welcomed and made a part of how things operate
tomorrow. As a result, they counsel member companies to
pay attention to both the rational and the emotional components
of leadership.
Colleagues: The Hogan Center is in many
ways a gathering of colleagues. A willingness to share information
is simply expected of members--and there is virtually no
way that an organization could join the Hogan Center without
knowing that in advance.
As it says in its brochure, “Special emphasis is
placed on ensuring a strong link between training, coaching
and networking to enable [a company] to complete a successful
transformation.”
There are, of course, hundreds of organizations throughout
the country that provide consultants, training classes,
and/or the opportunity to meet and learn from others, but
when one distinguishes itself by having members win seven
state quality awards and four Baldrige Awards, the question
that begs for an answer is: What are they doing that works
so well?
JoAnn Brumit, CEO of KARLEE (2000 Baldrige winner) says:
“The strength of the Hogan Center benefits all organizations
in their pursuit of excellence. Their track record of taking
beginners to high-performance is the result of their expertise
from assessing, planning and implementing all areas of the
Criteria for Performance Excellence.”
Pat Townsend and Joan Gebhardt have written more than
200 articles and six books, including Commit to Quality
(John Wiley & Sons, 1986); Quality in Action:
93 Lessons in Leadership, Participation, and Measurement
(John Wiley & Sons, 1992); Five-Star Leadership:
The Art and Strategy of Creating Leaders at Every Level
(John Wiley & Sons, 1997); Recognition, Gratitude
& Celebration (Crisp Publications, 1997); How
Organizations Learn: Investigate, Identify, Institutionalize
(Crisp Publications, 1999); and Quality Is Everybody's
Business (CRC Press, 1999). Pat Townsend has recently
re-entered the corporate world and is now dealing with “leadership.com”
issues as a practitioner as well as an observer, writer
and speaker. He is now chief quality officer for UICI, a
diverse financial services corporation headquartered in
the Dallas area. Letters to the editor regarding this column
can be sent to letters@qualitydigest.com.
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