So, let me clarify. What I really mean is, "How would your business or organization answer these three questions?" Here they are: Is your organization doing as well as it needs to? How do you know? What and how should your organization improve or change? And where did I get these three questions, you might ask? Fair enough - they came from the framework and criteria of the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program , the premiere organizational assessment process in the United States. Covering seven categories and nineteen areas of a systematic approach to organizational excellence, the Baldrige framework has been in place since 1988, when the first awards were presented. As an assessment process, the Baldrige Framework has stood the test of time for many organizations. But admittedly, it is a lot to dive into all at once. So I suggest that any organization start, not with the whole criteria set, but with the initial piece, known as the Organizational Profile (click for a PDF of the Organizational Profile - OP). It is an initial set of questions, providing a "snapshot" or DNA of an organization. There are three pages of Organizational Profile questions in the Criteria, asking senior leaders (and others) to identify, "Who are we?" as an organization. The OP asks about: Organizational Environment Organizational Relationships Competitive Environment Strategic Context Performance Improvement System Discussions about those five areas are very insightful and revealing for any organization. As you look at them in the document, how challenging might it be for your organization to answer them? How readily would leaders agree on the answers? Yes, you could do it on your own - but having someone guide you, interpret the questions, help find answers, etc., can make the process smoother and more complete. If that sounds intriguing, click the link below to schedule some time for a conversation. We'll find out if an organizational assessment, starting with the Organization Profile , is right for you - I'm sure it will be! Hope to hear from you soon, Kurt Schoch

I’m pretty much a big fan of anything IU (Indiana University), especially when it comes to basketball. So I read pretty much anything related to IU basketball – reviews of last season, prospects for this coming season, and results of IU players in the recent NBA draft. IU had two players drafted this year, the first time since 2017 for two players in the same draft. What caught my attention was an article in the Sports section of the Sunday, June 25, 2023, Indianapolis Star about the impact of Coach Mike Woodson on those two players: Jalen Hood-Schifino and Trayce Jackson-Davis (TJD). I don’t often use sports coaching as an analogy for the process and impact of professional (leadership, business) coaching, but a quotation from TJD seems to sum it up well. He is quoted in the article, “I felt like when coach Woodson came in he really unlocked parts of my game that were always there, but didn’t really necessarily get recognized because I was trying to do a different role.” Several key words, concepts: First, it took a coach to bring out the best in Jackson-Davis. Sure, a great basketball player and and awesome career the last few years at IU, but a coach helped him rise to the next level. Then, “unlocked parts of my game that were always there, but didn’t . . . get recognized”. That’s a big part of what coaching can do – unlock parts of us that are there, perhaps deep down inside, that we may not be aware of. Hard to do without a coach. Finally, “because I was trying to do a different role.” Sounds like that “different role” was blocking the parts of TJD that came out with the right coach. We all have blocks, too – mindset blocks keeping us from those parts of our game that haven’t come out. What role (internal or external) do you need to overcome to unlock parts of your game? Schedule a Complimentary Discovery Session to learn more what professional coaching is about, how it can help unlock your next steps. Energetically yours, Kurt

I read a story recently in the New York Times about a professor of philosophy who had an accident while training to qualify for the X games. During a run down a long incline, he slipped on water, flew through the air, then slammed headfirst into a skate ramp. After getting stitched up in the emergency room, he returned to the competition. Even now he can feel the scar inside his mouth or see it in a mirror. But he doesn’t experience it as a site of trauma or disfigurement. He remembers the joy and thrill of flying through the air. Two ways to look at the same experience: Trauma, disfigurement, perhaps potential tragedy, maybe the end of professional skating; OR The joy and thrill of flying through the air. It’s all about perspective, isn’t it? What have you experienced that could be seen and understand two different ways? Did you see trauma, tragedy, or loss? Or do you remember the exhilaration of the experience, the lesson of potential and possibility? Perhaps the simple question, “What’s another way to look at that?” can be very profound.

Quick – pop quiz: How many teams came to Indianapolis for the men’s NCAA basketball tournament? Full disclosure – I often get this wrong, because I forget about those “play in” or “at large” games. The answer: there are 68 men’s college basketball teams participating in the tournament – all in Indianapolis! Wow! That’s a lot of teams! All in one place! Do you ever feel like you’re on too many teams? Or work projects? Or committees, task forces? You’re not alone. And you’re also not alone if many of those teams or work groups have been virtual this past year (i.e., connecting remotely via a video conferencing system of some kind). So, how’s that working for you? Do you or your company have plans to continue that approach, at least in some way? Which begs the question of how to effectively manage and lead in a virtual team environment. How can we set ourselves up for success, as a leader and as a team member? Here are some guidelines which might be helpful, now and in the future. First, the basic foundation for effective teamwork in any environment is TRUST – and that applies to any relationship and both the in-person and the remote, or virtual, environment. There are two kinds of TRUST: Predictive trust, meaning, if you say you’ll do something (e.g., get a report done), I can count on you to do it. I know you well enough that I don’t question your intent or productivity. The next type of trust is what Patrick Lencioni calls Vulnerability-based Trust. That is more on the emotional level. It means a willingness to be completely open with one another – to let down our guard, admit mistakes, and ask for help. This kind of trust exists when we are confident that our colleagues’ intentions are good and there is no reason to be protective or careful in the team. It means we use our energy to ask for help and input, when we need it, rather than being worried about others’ impressions of us. The increase in productivity with Vulnerability-based Trust can be amazing. Secondly, communication in virtual teams has to be clear: create a charter that outlines norms of behavior, such as how to limit background noise (even though we know there are potential home life distractions), ensuring that people speak clearly and at a reasonable pace, that they listen attentively, etc. It is also helpful to establish guidelines on which communication modes to use when: phone, email, chat, share a document, etc. Consider a decision tree, which outlines which approach to use, based on the nature of a message: Sensitivity? Need for collaboration? Complexity of the message? Urgency? Phone calls may be better for sensitive or complex communication, but video conference may be best if you need collaboration or document sharing. Clear guidelines eliminate confusion and frustration. Caveat: don’t go with the “latest and greatest” technology just because it exists. Simplicity can suffice. Because members of virtual teams are, by definition, separated from each other, create time during meetings and after for those social interaction moments that you would normally have in the office around the break room, water cooler, stopping by a cubicle or office, etc. Virtual team meetings may not be the time to be efficient; resist the urge to “get in, get it done, get out.” It might take longer for collaboration and shared decision making, but that’s OK. While guidelines on background noise are helpful, we also need to recognize that people are working from home, there are family members in their lives, and that is part of who they are. Perhaps think about online meeting platforms as venues for social interaction as much as for meetings and productivity. Implement some level of shared or collaborative leadership. One-way leadership is about as effective as listening to a professor or teacher talk nonstop for an hour and expecting to really learn. In an environment where people can easily zone out or become distracted (literally go off camera at times), find ways to involve others in leading the team. And continue this approach when the team meets in person as well. How? Assign responsibility for special projects, identify and share best practices, have team members mentor each other in areas of need (remember that vulnerability-based trust?), and build in peer accountability. That last item is a whole ‘nother conversation, but basically it means that team members are willing and able to call each other on performance or behaviors that might hurt the team. Which can only happen when there is trust, healthy conflict around ideas, and true commitment to decisions. Finally, what teams are ultimately all about is accomplishing results, so be clear about those results – collective results, for the team. What is one rallying cry for the team? What is that key priority, such that the team can look back in six months, celebrate, and say, “We had a great six months!” Achieving a single top priority in a specific period of time goes a long way toward achieving cohesion, alignment, and integration. Many of us are probably in a virtual, or at least hybrid, environment for a while, if not the long term. No doubt we’ve all learned some lessons about how best to operate and work together. Having some mutual understanding and clear guidelines can go a long way towards enhancing cohesion and effectiveness as well as achieving results. I’m happy to share more and discuss ways to assess and improve your team’s alignment, integration, and productivity. See the "Schedule Now" link or send me a note: kurt@kwschochconsulting.com Kurt Schoch

Did your team win? A Super Bowl like no other, eh? The oldest quarterback vs. one of the youngest. The first time a Super Bowl has been played in the home stadium of one of the participating teams. And the first during a pandemic – let’s hope it’s the last! Whether you are Tom Brady fan or not, it certainly was a big win for Brady, the Bucs and Tampa Bay area. And for all of sports . . . . Which begs the question – what would it mean for you to win your Super Bowl this year, or maybe in the next few months? What would be your big win? What achievement might you look back on in a few months and cause you to say “We had a good six months”? Define that success, that win, and ask yourself, “What would that do for me?” Don’t describe how you will get there, not just yet – but what will the victory be? What life roles are important now for defining a victory, for determining what a championship will look like, as a: • Spouse? • Parent? • Business owner? • Member of the community? Think about these steps: What would it mean to win the Super Bowl in any of those areas? (That’s your goal.) How did you do last year? (Grounds you in reality.) And now you have the gap: What is >>> What you want. Next step: What will this require? What will you have to become to get that Win? Then translate that into activity and mindset. It’s more than just SMART goals – it’s becoming a smart, or transformed, individual. Sound good? Let’s talk, and soon. Schedule time now for a Results Breakthrough Session . Energetically yours, Kurt

Katherine Bindley’s recent article in The Wall Street Journal , “Why Facebook Still Seems to Spy on You,” questions the reality of some supposed new privacy controls from social media, noting, “The network [Facebook] has streamlined its privacy settings, shared more details about how data is used and highlighted how its ad controls work.” Then Bindley asks, “If we take advantage of all these privacy controls, it shouldn’t still feel as if Facebook is spying on us, right? We shouldn’t see so many ads that seem so closely tied to our activity on our phones, on the internet or in real life.” Ms. Bindley tested those assumptions recently in a couple ways: by downloading a particular app (and very quickly saw ads for a related product) and walking into a clothing boutique, then receiving a related ad from Instagram a day later. One explanation she received was that, “I was targeted because I was part of a look-alike audience that resembles customers, uploaded by the advertiser, who apparently are in need of” the kind of clothing provided by a business connected to that app. OK, so our information and location and interests and etc. and etc. are not as private as we might hope and controlling our information and location and interests and etc. and etc. is not as easy as we might like. Facebook doesn’t control everything and advertisers still have lists of previous customers. But that’s really the issue, isn’t it: control, and choice. Clearly businesses buy advertising or target us with ads, whether in print or online or billboards or elsewhere, in hopes we will buy their products or services. But no one is forcing us to do that; no one is pushing a button in our heads or minds, or even our hearts, that forces us to buy things just because we see an ad, however compelling that ad might be. So it’s all about choice: our choice – with ads, our decision to buy or not. In life, it’s all about choice, too, to make decisions that move us ahead or hold us back. In life, it’s all about choice, too, to make decisions that move us ahead or hold us back. To choose the kind of life we want to lead, the future we want to have, and then the decisions we need to make to move that vision forward. One of the principles of iPEC coaching is that “The greatest freedom is the freedom choice,” patterned after similar thoughts from Viktor Frankl (“Our greatest freedom is the freedom to choose our attitude.”) and William Jennings Bryan (“Destiny is no matter of chance. It is a matter of choice.”). And those two quotations pretty much encapsulate it all: our destiny or future is a matter of choice, and the perspective we take on how to get there is our choice as well. The latter can mean our approach to internal energy blocks (such as gremlins, assumptions, interpretations, and limiting beliefs – GAILs) and our perspective on external energy blocks – things outside of us and perhaps out of our control. So where are you on choice? What are you choosing for your future, and what challenges do you encounter? Is your vision clear? Any GAILs to clear or new perspectives needed? If so, keep calm and call (or schedule an appointment with) a coach: Kurt’s schedule . Wishing you mindful and abundant choosing. By the way, here is a link to The Wall Street Journal article: https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-ads-will-follow-you-even-when-your-privacy-settings-are-dialed-up-11551362400?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=3. Happy reading, and here’s to making good choices!

Organizational Investment . . . . A couple weeks ago I wrote about self-investment – specifically the value of investing in our own learning, growth, and development. I used the example of Tony Robbins making a $35 investment in a seminar, considering it one of the best investments he ever made. His key learning? “For things to change, you’ve got to change.” Not suprisingly, the same is true for organizations and businesses. Organizations and businesses need to invest in themselves, and they need to change in order for things to change. No business can play the victim, and wait for the economy to change, wait for the government to change, wait for fiscal policy to change. You can I, we create our own future. And every business, school, hospital, nonprofit, social agency, government entity – creates its own future, too. How do they do that? Here are a few key elements: Identifying and living by their mission and purpose, which comes from knowing their customers and their customers’ needs, even before the customer knows them. Creating a vision, ensuring there is a vision – a place or picture of what the organization eventually will be. Identifying and living by a set of values from the organization does not deviate. Values which guide leadership behaviors, values which govern behavior by employees, and values which customers easily recognize because they see those values lived out in every business interaction, whether in person, online, on the telephone, in social media, or anywhere. And strategy – as the Baldrige Framework describes it, an “organization’s approach to preparing for the future.” The organization must determine how it will meet the challenges ahead and leverage the advantages it already has. That’s the long term. How does an organization invest here and now? Two areas come to mind: process improvement and metrics; you really can’t have one without the other. Why? Without metrics, an organization won’t know whether its improvement efforts are bearing fruit; it will never know if things are actually getting better. So it needs both process and outcome measures. And it needs those processes and outcomes measures in order to identify what to improve; what work systems, support processes, overall approaches are most in need of improvement. I don’t care whether you use FOCUS-PDCA, PDCA, Six Sigma, pillars, Kaizen, Lean, Kata, or something else. Don’t just stand there, do something! A key is the commitment of leadership, and therefore the organization, to get better, and to know that you’re getting better. And the best way I have seen to express this comes from the Baldrige Performance Excellence Framework itself: “The purpose of the Baldrige framework is simply to help your organization—no matter its size, sector, or industry—answer three questions: Is your organization doing as well as it could? How do you know? What and how should your organization improve or change?” (p. ii) And my timing couldn’t be better (of course!) because of the recent announcement of the 2018 award recipients of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award: a nonprofit organization, a small business, a hospital, and two educational organizations. Read the press release here: https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2018/11/five-role-model-organizations-win-2018-baldrige-national-quality-award , and read about each award recipient’s performance excellence journey at the links to each organization. And I use the word “journey” intentionally; it’s a journey, not a quick fix. So look them up; find out what makes Alamo Colleges District, San Antonio, Texas; Donor Alliance, Denver, Colorado; Integrated Project Management Company, Inc., Burr Ridge, Illinois; Memorial Hospital and Health Care Center, Jasper, Indiana; Tri County Tech, Bartlesville, Oklahoma worthy of being identified as role model organizations. And you don’t have to be a nonprofit, or a hospital, or a school, or a small business to learn from them; you just have to want to invest in yourself and get better. Want to know more and get started on the journey? Let’s talk – kurt@kwschochconsulting.com , or 317-732-1048

Let’s talk about investments . . . . No, not that kind – that’s why I hire someone else to manage my meager funds. But I will admit that I have recently started a subscription to the Wall Street Journal – I remember my dad reading WSJ when I was a kid, so if it was valuable for him, maybe I can benefit, too. And I always thought of WSJ as primarily a publication about money and investments and financial issues in general. It’s in the name, after all: the journal about Wall Street. But I see much more than that now, and one recent article particularly struck me. The article described Tony Robbins’ best and worst financial bets. Ironically, the best financial investment he made cost him the least, although it seemed like a lot, because it cost him almost the equivalent of one week’s salary at the time; but it was an investment in himself. He was young at the time, making $40 per week, and asked his boss about the key to his boss’ success. The boss mentioned lessons learned from a motivation speaker, which piqued Tony Robbins’ interest. Tony then asked if the boss would help him get to the seminar; “pay for it” may have been what Tony was thinking, because the boss said, “You won’t value it if you don’t invest your own money in it.” So that’s what Robbins did, and it was a turning point in his life. In addition to realizing the benefit of making his own investment, the life lesson Robbins took from that event was this: “For things to change for you, you’ve got to change. You can’t play the victim.” That’s right – we are responsible for our own change, and it starts with investing in ourselves. We need to continually invest in our own learning, doing, and more learning, and making the changes needed. No one is going to do it for us. And often our investment journey begins with awareness: awareness of who we are, our styles and preferences for communication, our true values and motivators, and where we want to be. It is important to know where we want to be; as Lewis Carroll wrote, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.” What self-investment have you made recently? Where have you seen that pay off for you, now or in the future? And that’s another key: as with financial investing, it is important to have a long-term view and strategy. Don’t expect an immediate return; look at how an investment in yourself can provide benefit in the future as well as now, whether the future is a month, a year, five years, or more into the future. Businesses and organizations need to invest, too. More on that in two weeks – see you then!

Greetings, and Happy New Year! I hope your 2018 is off to an abundant start! Many of us make resolutions at this time of year, and often focused on improvement, whether personal or professional. On the professional or business side, desired improvement may include increases in revenue and customer satisfaction, improved employee engagement, more efficient and effective processes, and more effective leadership. The question remains, however, how do we get there? Is there a systematic approach to achieving organizational and performance excellence? There is no silver bullet or magic solution, but there is an approach I invite you to consider: the Baldrige Excellence Framework. Since its creation by an act of Congress in 1987 as the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the MBNQA remains the highest level of national recognition for performance excellence that a U.S. organization can receive. The national award promotes awareness of performance excellence and the sharing of successful performance strategies. Further, countless organizations use the framework of the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program for internal assessment and improvement. The framework, consisting of the Criteria, the core values and concepts, and the scoring guidelines empowers any organization to reach its goals, improve results, and become more competitive. More information on the national Baldrige Program can be found at https://www.nist.gov/baldrige . On a regional level, The Partnership for Excellence (TPE) provides Baldrige-based education and assessment services for organizations based in Indiana, Ohio, and West Virginia. Learn more about TPE here: http://www.thepartnershipforexcellence.org/ . In central Indiana, I invite you to take advantage of an opportunity to learn more about Baldrige-based performance excellence. On Monday, March 26, 2018 I will lead a one-day seminar through the Division for Professional Engagement within the School for Adult Learning at the University of Indianapolis where you can learn key elements of the framework, hear success stories from role-model organizations, and practice applying key aspects to your organization. Participants will conduct a brief assessment of their own organization and end the session with valuable resources including the Baldrige Excellence Framework book. More information on the program can be found here: www.uindy.edu/dpe/baldrige-performance . There is a registration link at the bottom of that page. Note the discounts for multiple attendees from the same organization. Other Division for Professional Engagement sessions are listed here: www.uindy.edu/dpe/dpe-program-schedule If you have any questions about this session or the Baldrige Excellence Framework please contact me at kurt@kwschochconsulting.com or call 317-455-5725 . Best wishes for an excellent 2018! Kurt Schoch