“The more senior your management position is, the more important it is to connect the organization or the project to the outside world,” said Alan Mulally, president and chief executive officer of Ford. “How does this fit in with what we’re doing? What is the real goal, the real mission? And it makes you think about: What business are we in?”

The comments come from an interview for The New York Times, “Planes, Cars and Cathedrals,” published online on September 5, 2009. Throughout the interview, Mulally addressed the first questions asked in the first category of the Baldrige Criteria:

• How do senior leaders set organizational vision and values?
• How do senior leaders deploy your organization’s vision and values?
• How do senior leaders’ personal actions reflect a commitment to the organization’s values?

“I think the most important thing is coming to a shared view about what we’re trying to accomplish—whether you’re a nonprofit or a for-profit organization,” said Mulally. “What are we? What is our real purpose?”

High-performing organizations focus through a shared vision. Creating such a vision requires leaders who will listen to employees and customers and find the common themes and interests that everyone can support. “The higher the calling, the higher the compelling vision that you can articulate,” Mulally said, “then the more it pulls everybody in.”

To make his point, he recounted one of his favorite stories. “This reporter stops by a construction site and he interviews three bricklayers. He asks the first bricklayer, ‘What are you doing?’ And he says, ‘Well, I’m making a living laying these bricks.’ The reporter says: ‘Oh, that’s great. That’s very noble.’

He asks the next bricklayer, ‘What are you doing?’ And he says, ‘Well, I am practicing the profession of bricklaying. I’m going to be the best bricklayer ever.’

And the reporter asks the third bricklayer, ‘What are you doing?’ And he says, ‘I’m developing a cathedral.’ There is technical excellence and professionalism, but we all want to contribute to making a cathedral.”

Mulally listed four things he has “to really come through on” as the leader of Ford, along with critical questions he must answer:

1. Connecting what Ford is doing to the outside world. “Where is the world going? Where is the technology going? Where are the customers going? Where is the competition going?”
2. Identifying the value proposition of the company. “What business are we in? What are we going to focus on?”
3. Balancing the near term with the longer term. “Do we have a plan that works in the near term and also creates value for the long term?
4. Focusing on the values and standards of the organization. “What are the expected behaviors? How do we want to treat each other? How do we want to act?”

These and other critical questions are asked and answered as part of a Baldrige assessment. To learn more about the assessment process, click here.

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