0:00:00.239,0:00:06.210

Welcome to the Performance Excellence Awards Ceremony.

0:00:06.210,0:00:11.030

We are very excited as this is our second awards recognition in less than one year.

0:00:13.709,0:00:15.740

Secretary Locke has challenged us to improve, demanding that bureaus within Commerce develop measureable standards by which to judge their customer service and their internal performance.

0:00:25.150,0:00:28.539

An integral part of his vision has been the Performance Excellence program, which brings us here today and is thriving only 10 months into its inception.

0:00:30.159,0:00:33.649

Today we're recognizing teams from NOAA, from the Census and from the Economic Development Administration, each of which went the extra mile to develop better ways to serve the public.

0:00:44.980,0:00:48.280

Process improvement is now becoming part of our culture and so is fact-based management where ambitious goals that are outcome-based and data driven are created with definite, measurable targets for reaching them. 

0:01:00.450,0:01:05.690

What you're doing is very much what we want accomplish, how do we get more, how do we deliver more how do we connect with the American people in a way that accomplishes more and at the same time keep our eye on the costs because we've got to be smarter about that.

0:01:17.859,0:01:21.690

I think it's a great program and we hope to have more projects in the future at NOAA.

0:01:21.690,0:01:23.930

It's very inspiring, it's good to know where you fit in the big picture.  It kind of helps.

0:01:28.280,0:01:30.240

I'm very proud of the team that assembled to put this together.  The award is just icing on the cake.

0:01:36.220,0:01:40.619

It really is motivating to be able to get recognized periodically and it really brings a lot of meaning to the job on a day-to-day basis.

0:01:44.479,0:01:48.310

It's a system and approach that can really, really elevate everyone's lives and as we improve customer service, we also improve service to each other, so it becomes a nicer place to work. So it's a very win-win approach to good government.