The organizational Gallery Walk is a five-hour interactive exercise that brings an organization’s leaders into an environment of trust and innovative thinking outside the workplace. Led by IQC facilitators, the Gallery Walk introduces participants to a framework—the Malcolm Baldrige Criteria for Continuous Improvement—and then relates that framework back to the participants’ organization.
The session encourages leaders to ask penetrating questions about how processes are working or are not working in the organization, which stimulates useful conversations among members of the leadership team. Dramatic changes in relationships have resulted from the Gallery Walk experience as leaders engage in dialogue that brings new ideas to light.
Key objectives of the Gallery Walk include:
- Understanding the top issues affecting your organization, specifically in the areas of leadership, strategic planning, customer focus, human resources, process management, information analysis, and organizational results.
- Identifying goals and action plans for using a continuous improvement framework to improve your organization.
- Learning more about customer relationships and how they are measured.
- Understanding the need for benchmarking and utilizing comparative data to make data-driven decisions.
Upon completion of the Gallery Walk, participants will have created a comprehensive list of prioritized opportunities for improvement and a list of strengths, including:
- 12 strengths in six process areas, and
- 12 opportunities in six process areas.
IQC-led Gallery Walks have sparked continuous improvement in hospitals, banks, colleges, universities, manufacturing companies, service organizations, and nonprofits as the session encourages leaders implement a plan for working toward a systems approach for continuous improvement. Several Gallery Walk participants have commented that it was the best five hours a group could spend together.
For maximum effectiveness, it’s best to pair the executive-level Gallery Walk with the employee-level Performance Snapshot Survey.
What Iowa’s Leaders Say About the IQC Gallery Walk…
“One of a leader’s biggest challenges is to get the entire organization aligned. The Gallery Walk, recently conducted here by the Iowa Quality Center, was an outstanding experience. It was successful in bringing our leaders together in agreement on the strategic actions we need to make Des Moines University a better institution than we are today. Our leaders take pride in being innovative, so this innovative approach was a perfect fit for us…”
- Former Governor Terry Branstad, President/CEO, Des Moines University
“We were fortunate to find the Gallery Walk process just prior to our yearly strategic planning retreat. The ability to bring our senior leadership team together and follow the performance excellence framework allowed us to better focus on our opportunities for improvement and build upon our strengths during our strategic planning process. It was four hours of fabulous discussion with outstanding results.”
- Dr. James LaMorgese, VP, Chief Medical Officer, St. Luke's Hospital
“One important thing to remember about the Gallery Walk is that this is the beginning, not the end. It helped us be certain that all of our management staff is on the same page. The process was fun, and it helped set the stage for better planning and processes in the future.”
- Larry J. Helling, President/CEO, Cedar Rapids Bank & Trust
Fees:
$1,200(plus expenses) IQC members
$1,500 (plus expenses) Non members