Leadership program for Mason Health COO

Winfried Danke, chief operating officer at Mason Health in Shelton, has been selected to participate in the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program this year.

Danke is one of 17 people who are set to begin a yearlong leadership development experience in the program this month, Mason Health announced in a news release. The competitively selected fellows will gain one-on-one access to Baldrige Award recipients, recognized as role-model organizations across all sectors of the U.S. economy.

Danke has extensive senior leadership experience in health care, including with rural health systems.

“I am honored to have been selected for this prestigious executive leadership program, and I look forward to applying advanced performance management concepts and techniques from the fellowship to help Mason Health achieve performance excellence,” Danke said in the news release. “Becoming a Baldrige Fellow will make me a better leader.”

Through planned visits to Baldrige Award recipient sites across the country, as well as networking with other executives, the new Baldrige Fellows will learn from U.S. organizations and their senior leaders.

They will have the opportunity to compare the perspectives of executives across sectors, share advice on leadership challenges, and use the insights they gain to address a strategic challenge or opportunity within their own organizations as part of individual capstone projects.

“Winfried brings a highly approachable and collaborative leadership style that aligns well with our culture at Mason Health,” Mason Health CEO Eric Moll said in the news release. “Throughout his career, he has worked with organizations to improve population health through collaboration. His experience is undoubtedly of great benefit to our patients, community members and teams across the district.”

Since its inception in 2010, the Baldrige Executive Fellows Program has graduated more than 168 executives. The graduates’ capstone projects have documented the improvements they have designed, including overhauling strategic planning processes, innovating supplier networks, creating high-reliability health care organizations, lessening patients’ reliance on opioids after surgery, improving employee engagement, engaging physicians, overhauling communication processes for dispersed work forces, standardizing work processes, better preparing students for professional careers, and reimaging population health and community health outcomes.

“The Baldrige Executive Fellows Program is the only executive leadership fellowship that provides one-on-one access to Baldrige Award recipients and the opportunity to learn role-model management strategies from these high-performing executives,” Laurie Locascio, under secretary of commerce for standards and technology at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, said in the news release. “Now is a perfect time for executives with vision and foresight to understand and apply the Baldrige concepts as a means to improving their organization and its sustainability.”