The opportunities for improvement revealed by a Baldrige assessment contain the logic for acting upon them: Your results are flat or negative because this or that process is broken. Fix the process and improve your results. Measure your progress. Validate it with your customers. Repeat.

Unfortunately, the logic of the change is usually lost to everyone but the leaders who enact it, which can render it ineffective. In a recent article on Forbes, author Carol Kinsey Goman explains why human beings resist change. According to brain analysis technology, our work habits are controlled by a part of the brain called the basal ganglia. When we do things the way we’ve always done them, we feel good. Change stimulates the prefrontal cortex, which is linked to the amygdala, which controls our “fight or flight” response. When change overwhelms the prefrontal cortex, the amygdale triggers physical and psychological disorientation and pain. Even if we know logically that a change is necessary and positive, our brains can react negatively.

Goman offers six suggestions for helping your workforce handle change:

1. Trust people to see the need for change. Communicate information that shows why change is needed. Provide opportunities for people to ask questions and discuss the implications of the change. Help employees reach the conclusions that prompted you to act.
2. Make new ideas become familiar. You cannot over-communicate the reasons for change or how the changes will occur. Develop a communication strategy that uses all available mechanisms—town hall meetings, focus groups, staff meetings, shift meetings, intranet, newsletters, etc.—to talk about the change. As Goman notes, “It takes a lot of repetition to move a new or complex concept from the prefrontal cortex to the basal ganglia.”
3. KISS your communication. Keep is simple. Condense the change into two or three critical goals.
4. Never underestimate the power of a vision. Gorman writes, “I’m talking about a clearly articulated, emotionally charged, and broad picture of what the organization is trying to achieve.
5. Don’t “sugar-coat” the truth. Be honest and realistic about expectations the how the change will unfold. Any deception, whether intentional or not, will be exposed and will heighten anxiety and distrust.
6. Watch your body language. “When discussing organizational change initiatives, there are two conversations taking place, and the second, nonverbal one, can reinforce or sabotage your verbal message,” says Goman. People believe what they see more than what you say, which means you must totally believe in the change before you can convince others of its value.

Every organization must change to survive and thrive. A systematic approach to change that addresses these six suggestions and considers the way our brains are wired can help make change just another work habit.

Baldrige Award winners integrate Baldrige by performing regular—usually annual—Baldrige assessments. The process of producing assessments and prioritizing and acting on the opportunities they reveal institutionalizes a culture of continuous improvement. It keeps everyone focused on what is most important for the organization to grow and excel. It improves the alignment of people and processes with the organization’s goals, objectives, and strategies. Best of all, it delivers results, as the award application summaries of Baldrige Award winners show.

IndustryWeek recently reported on a survey it conducted with TBM Consulting about the impact of continuous-improvement programs on three financial metrics: anticipated revenue growth, operating income growth, and cash flow over the past year. “Across the board, companies with no continuous improvement programs performed worse across all three measures,” Jill Jusko concluded here:

• More than 50% of respondents with no continuous improvement program said they expect revenue growth to be 3% or less in 2012, compared to fewer than 20% of companies with mature continuous improvement programs.
• Nearly half of respondents with no continuous improvement program anticipate operating income growth of 3% or less in 2012, compared to less than half that percent from firms with continuous improvement programs.
• Slightly more than 20% of companies with no continuous improvement programs reported an increase in cash flow over the past year compared to more than 50% of companies with mature continuous improvement programs.

Dabbling in continuous improvement is like dabbling in Baldrige: You may get quick performance bump but it won’t be sustainable. The only way realize the full benefits of integrating Baldrige, which is a proven approach to continuous improvement, is to commit to annual assessments at least until your management system exemplifies the Baldrige core values.

To learn more about how to integrate Baldrige, click on these articles:

• Baldrige Gets Results
• Baldrige Core Values
• How to Integrate Baldrige
• 10 Steps to an Effective Baldrige Assessment

I doubt if there are many on Wall Street who agree with this opinion, which was put forward in this article by S. Sivakumar, group head of the Agri & IT businesses of Indian conglomerate ITC. But then, I’m not sure anyone on Wall Street really cares about shareholder value either. Accumulating personal wealth seems to be their driving force.

The Great Recession being felt worldwide can be laid at the doorstep of corporate—and personal—greed, housed by soulless companies like Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Bank of America, and others. By wrecking the economy for the 99%, they spawned Occupy Wall Street, a movement that has become an international voice against the damage being caused by these companies.

Sivakumar’s company is a refreshing alternative to Wall Street gluttony. ITC has been “water positive” for nine years (created twice as much freshwater potential than it has consumed), “carbon positive” for six years (sequesters twice as much carbon as it emits), and “solid-waste-recycling positive” for four years (recycles all wastes from its industrial operations). “In addition, these innovative business models have led to the creation of sustainable livelihood opportunities for over 5 million people from among the most vulnerable of Indian society,” Sivakumar writes.

ITC has delivered these results without damaging financial performance: Total shareholder returns have grown at a compound rate of 25.6% per year for the last 15 years.

Here’s what Wall Street companies—and the rest of us—can learn from ITC:

• Define a larger overarching purpose for your organization beyond creating shareholder value and then walk the talk.
• Inspire and align employees to a set of defined values for legal and ethical behavior.
• Encourage and reward innovation that spurs business models that deliver both economic and social value. The Baldrige model can provide direction in how to do this.
• Do social good not just by philanthropy but by forming partnerships with governments and local communities.
• Involve the consumer in supporting sustainable business practices by creating unique value propositions that enrich the consumer experience.

Sivakumar concludes with a statement that more and more business leaders are embracing: “The recognition that societal value creation—and not shareholder value creation alone—holds the key to the long-term sustainability of business.”

To read more about the value of corporate social responsibility, click on these articles:

• Guided by Your Culture
• How to Build a Culture of Social Responsibility
• Corporate Social Responsibility Is Unstoppable
• Save Money – and the Environment
• Baldrige Model: How do you govern and fulfill your societal responsibilities?

The report looks a how seven Award recipients answer the question: How do your senior leaders lead? It describes leadership systems that reflect the cultures of these organizations, including diagrams of three systems that are very different from each other but that help their senior leaders make and communicate decisions, align people and activities, improve processes, and focus on customers.

As the report concludes, effective leadership shares common elements that your organization can use to improve performance:

• A well-defined and deployed leadership system clarifies the roles of senior leaders and aligns strategies, plans, and actions with your mission and vision.
• Effective senior leaders understand that they cannot over-communicate.
• Senior leaders must be personally involved in promoting legal and ethical behavior.
• Building a sustainable organization requires profound knowledge of all of the factors that will help your organization last.

To receive a copy of this free report, enter your name and email address in the boxes on the right of this page. You will receive an email asking you to confirm your request. Once you do that, the report in PDF format will be emailed to you.

To read more about quality leadership, click on these articles:

• What Great Organizations Achieve
• One Step to Better Results
• Baldrige and Superior Execution
• 30 Principles of Effective Leadership
• Communication Tips for Leaders
• Leading Also Means Managing
• Leadership Matters Most
• 10 Critical Questions: Senior Leadership

Galvin helped launch the Baldrige program. Under his leadership, Motorola had become a global quality leader. Six Sigma became a systematic approach to quality improvement at Motorola, where Galvin notoriously demanded 10x improvements in quality and cycle time from one year to the next. In a Financial Executive report, he bragged that “we hardly take a serious interest in less than a 50% improvement” in cycle time. To make his point, he described a Motorola pager that had taken 44 days to make to customer specifications that, through quality and cycle time improvements, was being delivered in less than two hours.

He took these improvements personally. I interviewed him at his office in Schaumberg, Illinois, in 1991 for my first Baldrige book. He talked about lobbying for a national quality award, Motorola receiving one of the first Baldrige Awards given in 1988, and serving on the Baldrige Board of Overseers. But his eyes really lit up when he described his company’s efforts to improve quality and reduce cycle time. He pointed to the “In” basket on his desk, which contained one bound report. He told me he had set a personal cycle time goal to turn around any report that crossed his desk for feedback within 24 hours of receipt and he was tracking performance on that goal. He wasn’t at 100%, but he was getting close.

Galvin believed that, if a company takes care of quality and cycle time, the bottom line will take care of itself. To get his point across, he attended the company’s four-hour performance reviews, held eight times a year, to discuss quality and cycle time performance and issues. They did this during the first half of the meetings, after which Galvin left—before they talked about finances. His action affirmed his personal belief that, if quality and cycle time are improving, financial performance will improve with them.

While the Baldrige program currently faces some financial uncertainty, it’s interesting to remember Galvin’s perspective. In 1991, he lobbied to make the Baldrige Award a national policy. “If every company prepares to compete for the award through the early Nineties, it will change the growth rate of the GNP by a minimum of one-half of one percent,” he told me. “To do that we need a catalyst, and that catalyst is to make competing for the Baldrige Award a national policy.”

That’s an opposing view to the one currently held by our political leaders. When it comes to how to make American industry more competitive, my money’s on the Baldrige legend, Bob Galvin.

Along with Mette Norgaard, Conant has written a book about his leadership philosophy called Touchpoints: Creating Powerful Leadership Connections in the Smallest of Moments. IndustryWeek reviews the book here.

In his book, Conant describes how he turned around Nabisco Food Company, his gig before going to Campbell Soup, “with a philosophy of being tough-minded on the standards and tender-hearted with people.” “Some joked that my approach was a cross between Pollyanna and Don Quixote,” he said, “but I have no apologies. The people were highly engaged and delivering excellent results. We grew earnings at a double-digit rate for five straight years. If that’s a sign of weakness, I’ll take it every time.”

He used the same approach—successfully—at Campbell Soup. The approach focuses on TouchPoints, those moments when two or more people get together to deal with an issue and get something done. As the authors write, “in our experience, these TouchPoints are the real work. They are the moments that bring your strategies and priorities to life, the interactions that translate your ideas into new and better behaviors.”

The book describes how effective leaders use their head to ask questions and listen, their heart to reflect on goals and options, and their hands to practice and get involved. Conant also offers a formula for making the most of a TouchPoint interaction: (1) listen to what is said and not said; (2) frame the issue to determine if it is your issue, someone else’s issue, or both; (3) advance a course of action by deciding what to do about it.

I believe Baldrige would be invaluable for leaders who want to make the most of their TouchPoints. In every interaction, leaders need to be clear about where their organization is going and how it is going to get there. They need a framework that helps them understand all elements of their organization and how they work together to deliver results. Leaders who have integrated Baldrige gain a systems perspective of their organizations that provides context for these interactions and clarity about questions to ask and the direction to take. Within a Baldrige framework, the outcome of every TouchPoint interaction contributes to the short- and longer-term objectives of the organization.

To read more about leadership and Baldrige, click on these articles:

• Baldrige and Superior Execution
• Baldrige Promotes Resilience
• Servant Leadership Boosts Employee Engagement
• How to Integrate Baldrige

• I must meet the goals that I and others have set for our organization.
• I need to know what is or might keep us from reaching those goals.
• I need to think long-term but I also need results now.
• I need to get everyone on the same page.
• I need to make good decisions about allocating resources, both human and financial.
• I want to minimize surprises and firefighting and make our continued success predictable.
• I want to keep my job—or get a better one.

The list can be overwhelming if a senior leader has to focus on each concern individually, but it is manageable if all concerns are addressed by a systematic approach to leadership.

The Baldrige model provides a proven, systems approach.

A leader sees his or her organization through the filter of his/her area of expertise. The CFO views the organization differently than the COO. While the CEO has broader responsibilities, he or she arrived at that position with a filter, having been a CFO or COO or leader of another function before taking the top post. This inhibits a systems perspective of how the organization does what it does, and without that systems perspective, it is very difficult for a leader to identify the right goals and strategic objectives, align every employee and activity with achieving those goals and objectives, and integrate the daily work of all employees to move the organization as one toward its mission and vision.

Leaders who understand and integrate the Baldrige model develop a systems perspective. They gain knowledge about all of the key components of a world-class management system, not just the components in their areas of expertise. They gain access to all of the controls a successful leader must have, and they can work those controls to leverage their strengths and address their opportunities for improvement.

Best of all, integrating Baldrige addresses all of the concerns listed above. It is the one action that can help any leader of any organization get the results he or she desires.