Innovative Public-Private Program Employs Coaching to Build Stronger Communities

The three stars on the flag of the State of Tennessee represent three geographic regions–East, Middle, and West Tennessee–but the three stars have taken on new meaning with Tennessee’s “Three-Star Program,” which uses coaching as a critical tool in helping rural and urban communities improve quality of life and grow jobs.

“We at the state value this partnership immensely, and their demonstrated commitment to excellence bodes very well for the long-term economic health of Tennessee,” said Tennessee Economic and Community Development Commissioner Matt Kisber, who recently announced the Three-Star Program had won a 2010 Innovator Award from the Southern Growth Policies Board. “The Three-Star Partnership is an excellent example of a program that helps communities focus their local efforts on specific actions to improve quality and face the future,” said Ted Abernathy, Southern Growth Policies Board’s Executive Director.

The Three-Star program dates back to 2007, when the Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence (TNCPE), an economic development non-profit, entered into a partnership with the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development (ECD) to provide services to Tennessee communities. The idea was to help communities become stronger and healthier, with better schools, more jobs, and governments that serve the people well.

Three-Star helped communities make the changes by guiding them in developing strategic plans, and then sending coaches to provide one-on-one support.

“The Criteria for Performance Excellence, which is what we’re delivering to the communities, is pretty intensive, and it takes the hands-on efforts of our coaches to make it palatable to county leadership,” said Jennifer Frazier, Communications Manager for the TNCPE. “Sometimes we find that the challenge isn’t so much teaching HOW to use these concepts, but WHY putting them into play can make a significant difference in their economic and community development initiatives. This is when the coaches become invaluable. We’ve found this type of person-to-person interaction to be highly effective, especially when communities get to know their assigned coach, and vice versa. Everyone gets a lot out of it.”

Over the last 40 months, Three-Star has brought together community leaders, business leaders and state economic officials in 16 Tennessee counties. In that time, those communities have benefitted from over 500 hours of performance improvement coaching, all provided free of charge.

“For the past three years, (Three-Star and TNCPE) have shared resources in order to provide local communities with coaching and assessment services centered on implementation of the Criteria for Performance Excellence,” said Jeff Lucas, Deputy Director of the Baldridge Program, the public-private partnership dedicated to performance excellence.

With Three-Star, Tennessee became the first state to implement Baldridge criteria in a statewide effort to build communities in the same fashion that corporations like Memphis’ FedEx have used the principles to build their business.

“The goal is to make these communities more attractive locales for attracting new businesses and providing their citizens with a stronger community, a more diverse economy, and expanded job opportunities,” said Lucas.

“The Baldrige Criteria help regional businesses and organizations deliver value to customers and put into place sustainable processes that will weather any storm – economic or otherwise,” said Frazier. “As organizations grow and advance, regional revenue and job opportunities increase, schools improve and citizens enjoy better government and health care services.”

This unique partnership–with coaching at its core–has worked so well the State of Tennessee’s just invested in keeping it going, with a grant of $100,000 to extend Three-Star, which was set to expire in 2010.

The grant will mean communities can continue to take advantage of the program–and the coaching–free of charge.

“We believed all along this was an innovative approach to economic and community development, but winning the Southern Growth Policies Board Innovator Award for the State of Tennessee confirms it,” said Katie Rawls, president and CEO of TNCPE.