SATURDAY STORY, JANUARY 14, 2023

 SATURDAY STORY, JANUARY 14, 2023

On Saturdays, I write fiction.  Today fits into his week’s view of Mission, Vision, and Value.

*****

Dalvan Tomlinson and Katrina Barnes read the letter three more times.  It didn’t change in the second, third, or fourth readings.  Dalvan read it aloud, slowly, emphasizing each word (although they didn’t need emphasizing).

“Dear Tomlinson, Barnes, and Susez, We are sorry to inform you that your organization is not a finalist for the Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award for 2017.  We thank you for submitting your materials and wish you the best in the future.  In a few days, you’ll receive our comments on your proposal.”

*****

“Shit,” said Dalvan.  He really didn’t use profanity much.  But, if there was a place and time to use this word, it was now.  

Katrina, ever the optimist, said, “All that work for nothing.  But, but we learned through the process”.

Dalvan, barely hearing Katrina, said again, “Shit.  Two F***ing years wasted.  Two years of our lives down the drain.  Hundreds of hours, surveys, research, meetings, and for what?  Sorry to inform you. Shit”.

Katrina said, maybe a little too strongly, “Shake it off Dalvan! We can’t change it, we can’t fight it. There are some excellent companies in this competition.  This was our first try.  Forget it, don’t take it personally.  Plus, in these two years, we have found out a lot about our TBS, we have improved our quality, improved our products, and really hit a good groove!!”

*****

“Don’t take it personally”.  Sure that was good advice, normally, but when you’ve spent two years, planning, listening to the feedback, with dreams (and nightmares).  Fooey thought Dalvan.  Some bureaucrat in Washington D.C. - probably with his hand out, being bought out by Proctor and Gamble or some other giant company with oodles of money.  How can he NOT take it personally?  

*****

Dalvan stood up and said to Katrina, “I’m going for a walk.  I need time to think”.

Katrina stood up too, but just nodded and left Dalvan’s office.

*****

With that, somehow it became Katrina’s job, to write the memo to the staff that they hadn’t won. She’d write it and pass it on to Dalvan to send out.  It would be best to come from him since he was the CEO of Tomlinson, Barnes, and Susez.  

But, her first act was to call CJ Susez.  CJ would be out on the floor, doing the encouragement and support he always had.  

Katrina called and got CJ’s voicemail. “Hey CJ, where are you?  Can I come out and see you?”

It was two minutes later that CJ texted, “Sorry, I was in the operations room.  If you want me, I’ll be there”.

Katrina made the four-minute walk to the operations room.  CJ was, of course, talking to a tech person Benita Marcz about a new process in Microsoft Project.  They both smiled and looked up as Katrina walked in.  

“Hey Katrina, how about some tea?” CJ asked.  It was well-known at TBS that Katrina drank a hundred cups of tea a day.  CJ was at the cupboard getting a cup and seeing what she might like today.

Katrina laughed, “Am I that predictable?” She paused, “Okay, how about the Orange Ginger tea today?”

CJ asked Katrina “What brings you to our end of the world?”.

Katrina, stirring her teabag, said “Well, we got a note from Baldrige, we aren’t a finalist.”

CJ sipped his extra strong coffee.  “Not a surprise.  Very few (if any)companies get it on the first try.”

Katrina nodded, “But Dalvin is taking it personally.  He is taking a walk.  It will clear his mind”.

CJ continued, “But it has improved our business 100 percent (maybe 200 or 300 percent).  We’ve worked out better workflow, better control, better supply chain management, better data.” he lowered his voice and nodded at Benita, “Thanks to Benita here and all the staff.  We’ve bought into the quality processes.  And, it has paid off.  We have better quality and lower costs - and our sales are up 30 some percent”.  

Katrina agreed with CJ.  “They will be sending their comments in the next few weeks.  We can review and see what they suggest.”

CJ filled Katrina in on some of the projects.  Their latest offering was security software for assisted living and nursing homes.  It was about a month before their first beta release with Oak Hill Home in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  

CJ told her of the features, “Nursing homes are generally understaffed and the staff they have is generally not very computer literate.  This product builds on our online retail security and employee system.  We’re tying GPS location into the resident’s call buttons, you know the one where they can push the button and say they have fallen.  This way if someone gets out of the secure area, we can find them.  The staff will also have GPS on their ID cards so we can locate them if there is an emergency.  The scanners at the doors will pick up on the IDs with NFC - near-field communication, so they won’t lose time checking in or checking out. It also directly ports into our Kronos timekeeping system so no more employees saying ‘Oops - I forgot to check in or check out’.

“We’ve made it super simple, with appropriate HIPAA, IRS, and OSHA standards. Benita has been testing it with the local Golden Oaks center where her dad is, and they really like it.  The data transfers easily in CSV format to Excel and other analytical software so the homes can do qualitative analysis.”

Katrina nodded.  She knew CJ loved his job and loved to talk about their projects and products.

Katrina asked, “Okay, but how about our metrics?  Are we still progressing?”

CJ laughed, “Well, we might not make Baldrige this year, but our data-driven management information system has saved us about $375,000 this year.  We’ve passed most of that savings to employees and stockholders.  We’re not at Six Sigma yet, but the trend lines are good.”

CJ added.  “Whether we ever win this award or not, the process has been good for us.  We’ve learned and grown as a company, our software and services are much better.”

Katrina thanks CJ for the update, finished her tea, and talked casually with CJ and Benita.  

*****

Dalvin spent the day on the trails by the Root River.  He was a very passionate person and hated to lose.  He came back to the shop by 4:15 and found Katrina.

Dalvin said, “I’m sorry I lost my cool.  I knew from the data that only about 4% of first-time Baldrige applications get picked for the finals and that only one company out of thousands of applicants has won the award in their first year.  I had my heart set on it.  I’m sorry.”

Katrina laughed, “Dalvin, I know you are a conscientious guy and a stickler for winning.  I’ve seen you on the Pickleball court!!  I’m glad you had a good walk”.

*****

The comments from the Malcolm Baldrige Board of Examiners arrived the following week, both in printed and electronic form.  

Dalvin, Katrina, and CJ booked a room at the local Hampton Inn and went through the comments line by line.  There were comments that one of the three might say “Doh - that’s obvious.  How could we miss that?”  The comments suggested that some of their graphs were a little hard to read, and their values statement could be written better.

They distributed copies to the relevant staff and scheduled a half-day workshop next month.  CJ and Benita had worked on some better data capturing and improving the questionnaires.  

Epilogue

Tomlinson, Barnes, and Susez pursued the Baldrige award two years later.  This time, they reached the finals and they would have visitors from the Malcolm Baldrige Board of Examiners at their headquarters.  

******

Epilogue.

For Tomlinson, Barnes, and Susez (TBS), being a finalist in such a national quality competition was amazing, but that wasn’t the end.  They got a reputation for being an honest, quality, no-nonsense company.  Their business grew as their defects shrank.  

*****

Quality is important in all of our activities.  Even as an Austin area resident, I understand the process Rudy’s Barbecue had to go through to win the Baldrige award in 2011.  They surveyed their staff, their customers, their suppliers, the equipment makers, and any other entity that affected their business.  They even put on training sessions for other companies who wanted to improve their products and services.

*****

How can I be a quality person?  (I know there are times like Dalvin the story, where I need a walk to clear my head, and a nap to let my body catch up).

I need to be “on” every day, every hour, every minute.  I need to live LOVE WINS without exceptions.  (And, that can be hard.  There can be a person who just drives you over the wall, and you have to deal with it and love that person!!!

LOVE WINS

LOVE TRANSFORMS

KAREN ANNE WHITE, © JANUARY 14, 2023