A Rose is a Rose: What’s in a (Brand) Name?

1. A Message from the President: A Rose is a Rose: What’s in a (Brand) Name?
2. Six Organizations Recognized for Performance Excellence at June 5 Conference; Nearly 400 Attend 25th Anniversary Celebration
3. Sustainability: A Common Language, A Shared Approach — Workshop 7/18 (Twin Cities)
4. Forming Additional Roundtables this Fall — Peer Problem Solving and Knowledge Sharing Groups
5. Join the Council’s Virtual Community on LinkedIn, Twitter, Blog
6. How to Build and Deliver Brain-Based Technology Training — PIN 8/2 (Minneapolis)
7. If You Don’t Take Care of Your Customers, Somebody Else Will — Part 2 — PIN 8/8 (St. Paul)
8. How Kwik Trip Became a Leader in the Convenience Store Industry — RAQC 8/7 (Rochester)
9. No TPPEN (Duluth) Meeting in June, July; Meetings Resume in August
10. Attend the 2012 Baldrige Regional Conferences: 9/14 Des Moines, 9/28 Phoenix
11. Manage Developer Understanding — PMI 7/10
12. Exporting in 2012: The Practices of Profitable Companies — Enterprise Minnesota 8/22
13. U of M College of Continuing Education Announces Upcoming Courses; Council Members Get 10% Discount
14. Hamline University Announces Upcoming Lean Six Sigma Courses; Council Members Receive Discount

A Message From the President: A Rose is a Rose: What’s in a (Brand) Name?

The phrase “a rose is a rose is a rose” was first written by Gertrude Stein as part of the 1913 poem “Sacred Emily.” Some three hundred years earlier, Shakespeare offered a similar quote in his seminal Romeo and Juliet: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Loosely interpreted, both phrases really mean the same thing: the names of things do not matter as much as what those things actually are. In today’s vernacular, “it is what it is!”

The Minnesota Council for Quality experienced that first-hand recently, after just completing a nine-month rebranding exercise. Our new brand and logo were revealed at our 25th anniversary conference/celebration a few weeks ago, and are now being officially announced to media and the public. Moving forward, we will now be called the…

…Performance Excellence Network, a nonprofit that advances continuous improvement and performance excellence with individuals, organizations, and communities in Minnesota and the Dakotas.

The brand probably doesn’t surprise many of you; after all, I think it more accurately reflects who we are and what we do. But the process by which we got there was pretty intense and thorough. We conducted several focus groups in our key communities (thanks to Satisfaction Management Systems) to better understand how our stakeholders viewed us – to hear more about the value we create and the impact we have on organizations, leaders, and communities across the state and region.

From those conversations, our board had intense discussions about our ever-evolving value proposition and our current market positioning. We considered the markets we were in (geographic and other segments), the product and service portfolio we had to offer, and the impact of our work on various stakeholder groups.

We then hired the Spangler Design Team to provide some much-needed branding expertise. Spangler conducted additional research, and with the assistance of a volunteer advisory team that represented all of our communities, presented eight potential brands. After a 10-day dialogue on LinkedIn with over 100 stakeholders (an amazing social media conversation!), the options were narrowed to three, out of which eventually we selected the Performance Excellence Network. Spangler then presented 20 different logo images, each with different meaningful components, which we filtered to four, and then to the one we ultimately embraced. Our new brand and logo can be seen on our homepage at www.councilforquality.org (which, obviously will also be changed as part of a total website redesign later this summer).

Why that name and why that logo? First, we had to address the geographic component of our name, as we now serve both North and South Dakota. Our board chair said it best:

“We were compelled to change our name for several reasons,” says Kevin Bjork, chair of the Network’s board of directors, and vice president of global quality at Emerson Process Management in Eden Prairie. “For one, we now serve organizations and communities in both North and South Dakota, and we needed a brand that resonated with improvement in our new three-state region. In fact, we had our first recipient of the new South Dakota Performance Excellence Award at our annual event a few weeks ago.”

But we also needed to change the brand to better reflect our expanding impact. The word “quality,” while appropriate in the late 80s and early 90s, is a term that’s usually narrowly focused on product, service, or process performance. While all of those are foundational and critically important, our mission really is centered on advancing enterprise-wide change and improvement. So “performance excellence” is a more accurate description of what we do.

So we ended up with the Performance Excellence Network, for the following key reasons:

• our work is about results – we’re about helping organizations, individuals, and communities improve their performance and their outcomes. We’re about helping organizations get better, move upward. The four building blocks of our new logo are meant to capture that notion.

• our work involves a journey – we’re about helping organizations sustain their improvement efforts. Continuous improvement has a beginning, but never an ending. Organizations, leaders, and communities must continue to improve, innovate, and respond to environmental changes to stay relevant. As the saying goes, if you’re not moving forward, you’re slipping behind. The world is dynamic; new competition is always emerging and currently competition is always improving themselves. Complacency is the enemy progress, and great leaders (and great organizations) are never satisfied with the status quo. The infinity diagram embedded in the four blocks of our logo indicates the constancy of purpose, continuous improvement, and constant change required to achieve and sustain high performance results.

• our work is about performance excellence – it’s about facilitating progress from “good to great” and from “decent to good.” It’s about facilitating and supporting true world class performance, helping organizations to generate ever-increasing value for their stakeholders, and helping leaders sustain their enterprise and/or community outcomes.

• and we’re about a network – we’re a strong and growing community of dedicated leaders and professionals, completely committed to excellence, quality improvement, and innovation. Our work involves a great deal of convening – of facilitating the sharing of best practices and resources across diverse organizations, so that businesses, schools, healthcare organizations, and nonprofits can benefit from the good ideas of other types of organizations. The term “network” far better captures the essence of community than does the word “council.”

A few weeks ago, we featured Dan Woychick, founder and CEO of Woychick Design, at one of our monthly breakfast forums (slides are here). Dan explored the power of brand, and shared quite a few key insights. He claimed that a brand is more than just a word or words and a logo – a brand:

• is a trusted relationship
• is an emotional connection
• is a promise of value fulfilled over and over.

In other words, “a brand is not what you say, but what you do – the sum total of all your actions.”

Think about the powerful brands with which we all can relate. The word “Apple” doesn’t mean much by itself, but it’s come to reflect incredible innovation, superior technology and reliable products that solved problems we didn’t know we had!). Or “Disney” – originally it was just a cartoonist’s last name, but now has become a strong brand that represents fun, incredible service, escape from reality, and sometimes powerful emotions. “Nike” doesn’t just mean a winged Greek goddess, but has come to represent superior athletic products, health, energy, and fashion – being in with the crowd, and “just doing it.”

All three of those brands go beyond just the words – they are about trust, an emotional connection, and a promise of value, whether it’s from a reliable and innovative piece of technology, an entertaining experience, or an athletic product and feeling. And in the case of these and other great brands, the brand not only is reflected in your organization’s products and services, but also in your processes – for example, of how employees are recruited, hired, trained, and rewarded to continuously support the brand. A strong brand should start at the top – in the words, the emotions, and the image conveyed by an organization’s senior leaders – but they should emanate throughout the organization, through its workforce to its suppliers/partners and certainly to its customers.

Although rooted in language, brand transcends just words – it should capture the culture of an organization. A rose by any other name is still a rose: organizations are what they truly are. But the brand helps capture and communicate what the organization truly represents to all of its stakeholders.

We’re not Apple, Disney, or Nike. But I think we did pretty well in capturing the essence of our mission and purpose, and I thank all of the literally hundreds of stakeholders for your feedback on our new brand! We are proud to celebrate 25 years of advancing performance excellence — of being a “Catalyst for Success.” And we look forward to driving and sustaining performance excellence – in all of your organizations, in all of your communities – for the next 25 years!

Want to participate in a discussion on this topic?? Visit our blog to post a comment!

Yours in Performance Excellence,

Brian S. Lassiter
President, Performance Excellence Network (formerly Minnesota Council for Quality)

Six Organizations Recognized for Performance Excellence at June 5 Conference; Nearly 400 Attend 25th Anniversary Celebration

Earlier this month, the Performance Excellence Network (formerly the Minnesota Council for Quality) honored six recipients of the 2011 Performance Excellence Award (formerly the MN Quality Award), five from Minnesota and one from South Dakota. The Award is based on the Malcolm Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence and is the culmination of a rigorous evaluation of an organization’s management system. Evaluation Criteria includes leadership, strategic planning, customer-focused processes, measurement systems, workforce processes, and operations and recognizes organizations that are systematically improving results.

The six organizations receiving the Award were Avera Sacred Heart Hospital (Yankton, SD), which is also the first organization in the state of South Dakota to receive this recognition, Byron Public Schools (Byron), Cardinal of Minnesota (Rochester), Designs for Learning (St. Paul), Marshall Public Schools (Marshall), and Rochester Community & Technical College (Rochester). All six organizations were recognized June 5 in a celebration at The Great Hall in St. Paul, attended by nearly 400 leaders from Minnesota and South Dakota.

In addition, the former Minnesota Council for Quality celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary and revealed its new brand name of the Performance Excellence Network at the conference and celebration.

Commenting at the awards ceremony, Brian Lassiter, president of the Performance Excellence Network said, “In today’s ‘new normal,’ I don’t think we have a choice. We have to improve; we have to reach higher levels of performance – higher levels of excellence. I believe our customers, our patients, our students, and our citizens in our two States need it. I believe our great country needs it.”

“We’re on a quest to be the best,” said Pam Rezac, CEO of Avera Sacred Heart Hospital, the first-ever recipient of the SD Performance Excellence Award. “We chose Baldrige not to win an award, but because it was the gold standard for performance in the country, and we have improved our performance greatly by using the framework.” Avera also recently received an honor from CMS/Premier for being a top performer in the nation in clinical quality for three consecutive years; they have received recognition by Health Grades for outstanding patient experience.

The event also recognized the 2011 Board of Evaluators, a group of about 130 volunteers supporting this program. Evaluators include CEOs, other business managers and professionals, physicians and surgeons, school superintendents and school teachers from throughout the state, each giving over 100 hours of volunteer service to help other organizations reach higher levels of performance.

“The Baldrige-based Performance Excellence Award framework is about getting better, faster,” says Dr. Peter Carryer, Vice Chair of the Performance Excellence Network board of directors and retired CEO of Mayo Clinic Health System, a four-time participant in the Award process. “I have seen these concepts help my organization and my community of Rochester improve performance. On behalf of the Network board of directors, I congratulate the six organizations that are on the journey to excellence.”

There are four award categories – commitment, advancement, achievement and excellence – to honor the appropriate stage of their improvement journey. Since 1991, 121 Minnesota organizations and now one South Dakota organization have received recognition.

The complete listing of 2011 Award Winners includes:

• Avera Sacred Heart Hospital (Advancement Level), Yankton, SD; first Award
• Byron Public Schools (Advancement Level), Byron, MN; first Award
• Cardinal of Minnesota (Achievement Level), Rochester, MN; third Award
• Designs for Learning (Commitment Level), St. Paul, MN; first Award
• Marshall Public Schools (Advancement Level), Marshall, MN; second Award
• Rochester Community & Technical College (Achievement), Rochester, MN; third Award

The event also featured keynote remarks by four organizations that have received the nation’s top recognition for performance excellence, the Baldrige National Quality Award: Freese & Nichols (Ft Worth), Henry Ford Health System (Detroit), Nestle Purina (St. Louis), and Richland College (Dallas).

Spencer Cronk, Commissioner of Administration, offered remarks on behalf of Governor Dayton and Lt Governor Solon regarding the importance of continuous improvement to the productivity, competitiveness, and success of the State of Minnesota and the Upper Midwest.

To download slide presentations and videos of keynote addresses, visit http://www.councilforquality.org/2011mqaprogram.cfm.

Seeking Sustainability: A Common Language, A Shared Approach — Workshop 7/18 (Twin Cities)

Every organization has its own language, processes, and culture. This can create challenges in a world where diverse stakeholders come together to problem solve issues of sustainability. Differences in values, priorities, and special interests necessitate a common language and approach for effective communication and the ability to affect change.

The Performance Excellence Network (formerly the Minnesota Council for Quality) is pleased to welcome Roberta Fernandez, Director, AtKisson Group, to facilitate a special full-day workshop July 18: “Sustainability: A Common Language, Shared Approach.”

The training will focus on how you can bridge silos within organizational cultures and engage diverse external stakeholders for developing and managing a shared vision of sustainability, while respecting the parameters in which they each function.

Applying AtKisson’s Compass of Sustainability with the ISIS Method framework (Indicators, Systems, Innovation, Strategy) provides the necessary language and process which any organization can enhance their ability to solve problems, make decisions, innovate, and strategize. They enrich and integrate with the processes you already have in place, and assist you in becoming even better at the core of what you do. These tools will:

– Increase understanding and efficiency by providing a common language and approach for everyone at the table

– Minimize risk and negative unexpected consequences in problem solving and innovation

– Identify opportunities by using the lens of sustainability

– Optimize return on investment by thoroughly exploring innovation and strategy

In this workshop, you will learn:

* The value of approaching sustainability from a shared perspective

* A sustainability framework to manage process within an organization

* How indicators can assess the health of an organization or situation

* How systems thinking identifies key leverage points for change and minimizes risk and unintended consequences

* Why innovations should be aligned with goals

* How to work with positive and negative people in a change process

This training will increase your value and viability by improving your performance and that of your organization. Knowledge breeds power and success – and how sustainable you and your organization are determines the difference between simply surviving or thriving.

Cost for the full day workshop is $200 members; $400 non-members. Workshop will be delivered in the Twin Cities (location TBD).

Space is limited. Please register by emailing brian.lassiter@councilforquality.org your name, organizational affiliation, and membership status. For more information, visit http://www.councilforquality.com/specialevent4.cfm

Forming Additional Roundtables this Fall — Peer Problem Solving and Knowledge Sharing Groups

About 18 months ago, the Performance Excellence Network launched a valuable new service for leaders dedicated to improvement and performance excellence: peer Roundtables. These facilitated problem solving sessions provide a unique way for leaders and professionals to share insights, ideas, and best practices that help you address the actual challenges in your organization, your career, and potentially your personal life. Roundtables are private cohorts that become your own board of advisors, such that you can tap the collective expertise of your peers, accelerating your improvement efforts and realizing your professional/organizational goals.

Feedback from the first cohort has been positive, so we are launching more later this year! We’d like to invite you to a social hour to network with other leaders/professionals and to discuss the power of this concept.

August 21, 4:00-5:30 (Ciao Bella, Bloomington)

September 12, 4:00-5:30 (WA Frosts, St. Paul)

Snacks will be served; cash bar.

The purpose of the Roundtable is to accelerate performance and improvement within participants’ organizations and to facilitate professional and personal growth in a safe, open, confidential environment. Specifically, the goals of these roundtables are to:

• Share ideas, solutions across organizations
• Solve real business problems in a collaborative format
• Explore best practices from regional and national experts
• Enhance leadership skills and build long-term relationships with like-minded individuals
• Promote value beyond your investment of time/money: provide a measurable ROI

To attend one social networking sessions (or for more information), email brian.lassiter@councilforquality.org. The cost of the session is free. Space is limited, so let us know today!

Join the Network’s Virtual Community on LinkedIn, Twitter, Blog

The Performance Excellence Network recently expanded its LinkedIn Group (MN Council for Quality, until it transitions over in name) and Brian Lassiter, Network president, has created a Twitter account (@LassiterBrian). We invite you to join/follow the Council and benefit from our growing online community.

“Many have said that social media is a method to build community – to create groups that share an affinity and can therefore relate and interact,” says Brian Lassiter in his newsletter column in April. “I would assert that it’s the exact opposite: social media ENABLES communities that already share an affinity to better relate and interact. Subtle but very, very different.”

The Network already has a very pronounced community:

• we serve over 300 members, representing about 150,000 employees in Minnesota, South Dakota, and North Dakota and beyond;
• we leverage a fully volunteer workforce of nearly 150 leaders and professionals in the Upper Midwest;
• we hosted monthly breakfast discussions attended by nearly 2500 leaders and professionals in 2011;
• we hosted workshops and programs attended by nearly 750 leaders and professionals in 2011.

Performance Excellence Network members already share, learn, benchmark, and network with each other heavily. And now we have ways to connect using technology – to expand our virtual community and to deepen the relationships already present in our network.

Please consider joining:

• Our LinkedIn Group: visit www.linkedin.com, search for the “MN Council for Quality” group, and click “request to join.”
• Our Twitter feed: visit www.twitter.com, search for @LassiterBrian, and click “follow.”

Our blog: visit http://yoursinimprovement.blogspot.com/ to read this month’s lead newsletter column and respond to the discussion.

How to Build and Deliver Brain-Based Technology Training — PIN 8/2 (Minneapolis)

You’ve been charged with teaching others on using software, a new process, or a high tech device. So what’s different about technology training? How do you help your group – especially confused, frustrated, and resistant participants – turn what they learn in your session into practical knowledge that they can apply on-the-job? What are best ways to gain the mental “real estate” you need from each learner? How do you ensure learners actually use the skills and knowledge you’ve shared?

The Performance Excellence Network (formerly the Minnesota Council for Quality) is pleased to welcome Jack Mateffy, President of Mateffy & Company, to our August 2 PIN: “How to Build and Deliver Brain-Based Technology Training?”

In this session, you’ll learn:

• How technology has changed your brain’s structure and chemistry
• How to create a normative learning experience
• How to establish teaching guidelines for your technology vendors
• The role performance support tools play in on-the-job application

The discussion is from 8:00-9:00 a.m. on August 2 (networking and continental breakfast begin at 7:30 a.m.) at MCTC, 1501 Hennepin Avenue in downtown Minneapolis (near the Basilica).

Admission to PIN is FREE for Council members; $15 for partner organizations; $30 for the public.
Space is limited so register today by emailing brian.lassiter@councilforquality.org.

If You Don’t Take Care of Your Customers, Somebody Else Will — Part 2 — PIN 8/8 (St. Paul)

In today’s competitive market, it’s not enough to just have satisfied customers. To grow, thrive, and succeed, organizations need to focus on systematically capturing the voice of the customer, but also building deep relationships that promote true customer loyalty, advocacy, and engagement.

The Performance Excellence Network (formerly the Minnesota Council for Quality) is pleased to welcome Jeri Meola, president of Satisfaction Management Systems (SMS) to our August 8 PIN: PIN: “If You Don’t Take Care of Your Customers, Someone Else Will – Part 2!”

Building off the insights she shared a couple of years ago, Jeri will share various methods of how to systematically obtain the voice of your customers in understanding marketplace needs, making product/service decisions, and building relationships. She will explore new trends of how organizations today are measuring customer loyalty and engagement, rather than just satisfaction. Finally, she will offer some best practices in how some organizations systematically build and nurture deep relationships with their customers.

The discussion is from 8:00-9:00 a.m. on August 8; networking and continental breakfast begin at 7:30 a.m.) at Metro State University, 700 E 7th Street, downtown St. Paul.

We thank our sponsor, Metropolitan State University, for their support of this session, helping us to keep it complimentary for members.

Admission to PIN is FREE for Council members; $15 for partner organizations; $30 for the public.
Space is limited so register today by emailing brian.lassiter@councilforquality.org.

How Kwik Trip Became a Leader in the Convenience Store Industry — RAQC 8/7 (Rochester)

Kwik Trip began in Eau Claire in 1965. Since that time, Kwik Trip has grown to more than 425 stores with 10,000 coworkers in three states and has been named a Top Workplace in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Kwik Trip not only serves customers with convenient, clean retail stores, but also produces more than 80% of the products featured in the stores. Kwik Trip’s La Crosse-based headquarters operates its own commissary, bakery, and dairy and maintains its own distribution center and transportation fleet.

The Performance Excellence Network, Southeast Minnesota Region (formerly the Rochester Area Quality Council/MN Council for Quality) is pleased to welcome John McHugh, Manager of Corporate Communications and Leadership Development at Kwik Trip to our August 7 program, “How Kwik Trip Became a Leader in the Convenience Store Industry.”

John will discuss the company’s evolution into a leader in the industry, and how their employees are empowered to lead the way.

The session is August 7 from 7:30-9:00 AM RCTC.

Space is limited. Please register by contacting Jennifer Burmeister before Aug 3 at jennifer.burmeister@councilforquality.org or 507-213-8132.

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No TPPEN (Duluth) Meeting in June, July; Meetings Resume in August

There are no Twin Ports Performance Excellence Network (TPPEN) sessions in June or July. The next TPPEN meeting will be in late August. Topic/speaker to be announced next month.

Attend the 2012 Baldrige Regional Conferences: 9/14 Des Moines, 9/28 Phoenix

Attend the 2012 Baldrige Regional Conferences for a one-day showcase of Baldrige best practices!

The events will feature at least 13 current and former Baldrige Award recipients, and the exciting conference programs include an in-depth plenary session featuring senior executives from the 2011 Baldrige Award recipients , 18 interactive management sessions to choose from, and a closing session featuring the President of a Baldrige Award winner.

Register today, and come learn, network, and engage in these dynamic events! Advance registration rates are still available.

The conferences will be held:

September 14

Des Moines, IA
Embassy Suites Hotel on the River

September 28

Scottsdale, AZ
DoubleTree Resort by Hilton Paradise Valley

An optional Pre-Conference Workshop for Baldrige beginners presented by a Baldrige recipient is available the day before each conference.

Sponsorship opportunities are available. Please visit our Web site for more information and become a Regional Conference sponsor!

Join the Baldrige Program as it celebrates our 25th Anniversary and build an even better future!

The conferences are co-sponsored by the Arizona Quality Alliance, the Iowa Quality Center, and the Alliance for Performance Excellence.

For questions about the conferences, contact us at 301-975-2036 or baldrige@nist.gov.

Manage Developer Understanding — PMI 7/10

The Minnesota Chapter of Project Management Institute (PMI), an alliance partner of the Council, is pleased to announce its next breakfast session: “Manage Developer Understanding.” The session will be held July 10, and will be facilitated by David Gelperin, Chief Technology Officer and President of ClearSpecs Enterprises.

Many project managers confuse means and ends by focusing on requirements information (means) rather than developer understanding (ends). The value of requirements information is dependent on developer understanding of the application domain, customer needs, and alternative solutions. The goal of requirements activities is to help developers acquire a sufficiently deep understanding of customer and user needs so they can develop successfully. Developers also need sufficient understanding of the application domain and alternative solutions to be successful. Insufficient understanding must be assessed and managed or requirements understanding risk may lead to project failure.

If requirements are identified and tagged with their associated level of developer understanding, management can directly monitor and act to improve understanding. This presentation illustrates a strategy for visualizing and improving understanding.

Learning Objectives: at the end of the session, participants will be able to:

* Review and assess developer understanding of the application domain, customer needs, and alternative solutions

* Identify a variety of tactics to improve developer understanding

The session is July 10 from 7:00-8:50 AM at Crowne Plaza Mpls West (frm Radisson – Plymouth), 3131 Campus Drive, Plymouth 55441. Cost is $34 ($32.30 for Council members) before June 26 (MCQ members should call 651.209.8991 for discount). For more information, visit http://www.pmi-mn.org/.

Exporting in 2012: The Practices of Profitable Companies — Enterprise Minnesota 8/22

Enterprise Minnesota, a partner of the MN Council for Quality, is pleased to announce their next upcoming event: “Exporting in 2012: The Practices of Profitable Companies” on August 22 at Mortensen Construction in Golden Valley.

For more information on these programs, visit http://www.enterpriseminnesota.org/.

U of M College of Continuing Education Announces Upcoming Courses; Network Members Get 10% Discount

The University of Minnesota’s College of Continuing Education, an alliance partner of the Performance Excellence Network, is pleased to announce their upcoming improvement and business courses. Network members receive a 10% discount on all CCE courses.

June 15, 2012 Introduction to Business Analysis

June 22, 2012 Managing Business Requirements

July 12, 2012 Project Planning

July 13, 2012 Business Process Modeling and Analysis

July 19, 2012 Introduction to HR Practices

July 20, 2012 Handle People with Tact and Diplomacy

July 26, 2012 Data and Process Modeling

July 27, 2012 Project Management Foundations

August 1, 2012 Management Essentials for Success

August 1, 2012 Principles of Supervision

August 3, 2012 Project Initiation

August 3, 2012 Foundations in Business Writing

August 7, 2012 Delegate to Enhance Job Performance

August 9, 2012 Project Planning

August 16, 2012 Fundamentals of Organization Development

August 17, 2012 Project Execution

August 21, 2012 Principles of Employee Compensation

August 21, 2012 Project Management Foundations

August 23, 2012 How to Deal with Difficult People

August 23, 2012 Financial Intelligence

August 24, 2012 Advanced Editing and Proofreading Strategies

August 24, 2012 Project Control and Closure

August 28, 2012 Staffing: Recruitment and Selection

August 28, 2012 Build Teamwork and Commitment

September 7, 2012 Project Risk Management

September 11, 2012 Process Mapping and Analysis

September 11, 2012 HR Test Prep

September 11, 2012 Legal Issues for Supervisors and Managers

September 13, 2012 Verbal and Nonverbal Communication Skills

September 13, 2012 Investigations and Documentation

September 14, 2012 Introduction to Business Analysis

September 19, 2012 Managing Business Requirements

September 20, 2012 In-Depth Coaching: Lead Individual Change Interventions

September 21, 2012 Project Leadership

September 21, 2012 Business Grammar Update

September 24, 2012 Online HR Test Prep

September 25, 2012 Project Management Foundations

September 25, 2012 Strategic HR Planning

September 26, 2012 Strategic Planning and Measurement

September 26, 2012 Business Process Modeling and Analysis

September 28, 2012 Negotiate for Agreement

Most courses are 9AM-4PM on the St. Paul Campus.

For more information on any of these courses or a complete listing of coursework, visit the University of Minnesota’s College of Continuing Education’s website at www.cce.umn.edu/professionaleducation or call 612-624-4000.

Hamline University Announces Upcoming Lean Six Sigma Courses; Network Members Receive Discount

Hamline University, a partner of the Performance Excellence Network, is pleased to announce the following upcoming programs:

July 16-20: LEAN SIX SIGMA BLACK BELT TRAINING, 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.; $3,000 ($2,200 for Performance Excellence Network members)

August 13-17: LEAN SIX SIGMA BLACK BELT TRAINING, 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.; $3,000 ($2,200 for Performance Excellence Network members)

These programs develop in students the skills necessary to solve an organizations most challenging issues, including Customer Satisfaction, Cost Reduction and Complexity Reduction. Achieves a phenomenal Return on Investment (ROI), executing projects with an average ROI of 10x-25x PER PROJECT (many projects achieve a 50x ROI or better). The training approach is equally applicable to Transactional, Service and Manufacturing environments.

For more information on any of these courses or to register, contact Bridget at bknisely01@hamline.edu or 651-523-2650.