GRQC is your trusted partner on the path to sustained excellence.
GRQC helps area organizations achieve sustained performance excellence by helping their leaders and teams learn and adopt best practices in improvement processes and organizational culture. We offer a broad range of easy-to-access services to meet the needs of all organizations, regardless of size, sector or experience with continuous improvement.
2026 Performance Excellence Awards Recognizes 30 Award Winners, Including Nine Platinum Award Recipients
An enthusiastic crowd descended on the Memorial Art Gallery October 20 for the 2026 GRQC Showcase and Performance Excellence Awards. The attendees networked with friends and colleagues in beautiful surroundings, learned about this year's winning projects and several organizations highlighted in the exhibit hall, and celebrated a record nine organizations that won the coveted George K. Hansen Platinum Award!
Click below to meet this year's winners.
Click below to view photos from this exciting event. (coming soon)
Teams from CooperVision, Flight Wine Bar, Rochester Regional Health, and six teams from University of Rochester Medicine won the George K. Hansen Platinum award, which indicates an extraordinary level of excellence. It is named after the late George Hansen, who contributed so much to Rochester's quality community over the years.
The GRQC Performance Excellence Award Program helps organizations in all sectors of the economy gain valuable insights into strategic areas of their operations, connect with like-minded leaders in high performing organizations, and earn formal recognition for achieving excellence through continuous improvement methodologies. A GRQC review team, including experienced Malcolm Baldrige examiners and past Empire State Advantage and Partners in Performance Excellence examiners, evaluates each application using a simplified version of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award scoring guidelines. “GRQC is a beacon to local organizations seeking to be the best versions of themselves,” said Mark Gruba, who served as the emcee for the event.
Click below to view the list
of award winners and their projects.
Join us for these upcoming events
Learn About Partner Programs and Events
Upcoming PEN Programs
We are pleased to invite you to these programs presented by Performance Excellence Network (PEN).
Core Values: Cardboard or Culture? - October 29
Core values are often easy to define and difficult to operationalize.
Many organizations have values posted on walls, printed in employee materials, and referenced during important conversations. The real test comes when those values influence decisions, behaviors, priorities, and processes throughout the organization.
In this interactive webinar, Andrea Nunes will help participants explore a practical question: Are your organization’s values showing up in the work, or are they primarily serving as a statement of intent?
Together, participants will examine how values move from words to culture through leadership behaviors, workforce practices, operational processes, and day-to-day decision-making. Using a simple maturity framework, attendees will assess where their organizations fall along a spectrum ranging from values that are merely communicated to values that are consistently embedded throughout the organization.
Click here for more information and registration.
Delegation That Develops People and Expands Capacity - November 12
Great leaders inadvertently become bottlenecks when responsibility, decisions, and expertise remain concentrated in too few people. This practical webinar explores how leaders can delegate in ways that develop people, increase organizational capacity, and strengthen accountability without creating unnecessary oversight.
Many leaders know delegation is important, yet still find themselves holding onto work, making too many decisions, and serving as the approval point for everything. Delegation often breaks down not because leaders lack good intentions, but because they struggle with key questions:
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What should be delegated and what should remain with the leader?
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Who is the right person for the responsibility?
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How much authority should accompany the assignment?
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How do you create accountability without micromanaging?
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How do you coach without taking the work back?
In this interactive workshop, organizational design expert Andrea Nuse Jones will help participants will work through five practical delegation decisions that help leaders avoid becoming organizational bottlenecks while developing capability across their teams.
New Course Offerings at MCC
The Economic & Workforce Development Center of Monroe Community College offers easy-to-access programs for people with a wide variety of learning needs, schedules and budgets. Here are some of their offerings.
New sessions of the LSS Green Belt and Black Belt start in March. Here are links to full descriptions of both courses:
To ensure quality, cost control and on time project delivery, Project Management skills are essential not only for those leading key projects but also for project team members. MCC’s Corporate College is offering the following Project Management courses in February 2026:
Fundamentals of Project Management
Project Management Body Knowledge Best Practices
Click here for a listing of all of the Professional Development courses.
The Finger Lakes Workforce Development Center is designed to focus on rapid training, retraining and upskilling of technical middle-skilled workers in demand by local employers. Through innovative partnerships and technical programming, the FWD Center is a catalyst in developing our region’s economy. Employers and individuals, click here for more information.
New Courses from RIT|Certified
Yellow, Green and Black Belt certification via an academic (for-credit) pathway are available every semester. Use the following links for information about these programs:
We are launching four courses that would enable someone to gain entry into the semiconductor industry (three begin in March, one in May). Through four integrated courses, learners will explore the principles of semiconductor technology and its impact on society, gain hands-on knowledge of integrated circuit design, dive into thin film processes and vacuum systems, and master CMOS processing fundamentals. Participants will learn how to analyze, design, and troubleshoot fabrication processes while building a strong foundation in the physics and chemistry that drive semiconductor manufacturing.
Integrated Circuits Technology
Complementary Metal-Oxide Processing
Networking Technologies equips people with core networking skills and knowledge aligned with the CompTIA Network+ certification. Participants will learn how to install, configure, and troubleshoot networks across various environments, as well as how to support essential operations and apply security best practices.
Click here to visit the RIT|Certified website and search for courses.
GRQC Partner Programs & Events
View presentations and videos from recent
GRQC programs
Say the Hard Thing: A Practical Approach to Difficult Leadership Conversations
Most leaders know when a conversation needs to happen. The harder part is getting clear about what really needs to be said, and then actually saying it. In this practical session, Executive Coach Kellie Burns explores why leaders avoid or soften difficult conversations, how to recognize when a more direct conversation is needed, and how to prepare before stepping into it. Through a simple approach, real-world examples, and sample dialogue, participants consider how to communicate clearly, listen without losing the point of the conversation, and respond when things get uncomfortable. Participants leave better prepared to recognize the conversations they need to have, get clear about what needs to be said, and approach those conversations more intentionally.
Click below to view the presenter slides from this event.
Click below to view the Zoom recording of this event.
From Chaos to Cohesion: Standardizing Disparate Workflows by Identifying Common Elements
Creating a set of standard workflows across organizations or departments is harder than it sounds. While many processes share underlying similarities, teams often insist that their version is unique. This mindset can lead to the creation of dozens, sometimes hundreds, of one-off workflows, resulting in ballooning maintenance costs, inconsistent performance measures, and a steady increase in process and technical debt that becomes difficult to unwind.
Sarah Topham shares how one organization tackled this challenge using a component-based approach to workflow design. You'll learn how to look at your own work differently and leave with a fresh perspective for defining standard workflows in your organization.
Click below to view the presenter slides from this event.
Click below to view the Zoom recording for this event.
GRQC Resource Center
GRQC is your resource for tools and templates, case studies, local consulting resources, and links to industry-leading websites to aid you in your pursuit of performance excellence and quality improvement. Click on the links below to access information.
Download favorite tools of GRQC Board members
Dowload presentations from recent GRQC events.
Visit these websites for useful tools and templates.
Check back often to access new material that you can use!
Tools You Can Use - Free From GRQC!
GRQC has assembled a searchable library of tools developed by our members, partners and friends, and is offering them free to website users. Find tried and tested tools, templates and information about a wide variety of quality processes: control charts, FMEA, Lean, Pugh matrix, and many others. You can search the library by keyword or by sector (business, healthcare, education, etc.). When you find what you need, simply click on the tool name to download it to your PC.
Click the button below to go to the webpage Homegrown Tools in the GRQC Knowledge Center, and take advantage of the expertise of our members and friends.
Find Resources You Can Use On The Job
Be a Part of GRQC's Mission - Volunteer!
Would you like to partner with GRQC to advance performance excellence in the community without making a long-term commitment? We have just the thing for you – volunteering to help one of our committees! GRQC has eight committees that help us achieve our strategic objectives. These committees are staffed by GRQC Board members and volunteers. We invite you to visit our new Volunteer Opportunity website page and reach out to any of the committee contacts to lean more or to express your interest. Volunteer opportunities are open to GRQC members and non-members alike. We’d love to have you join us!
Become a GRQC Member
GRQC benefits its members through a wide variety of program activities and membership services, including:
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Participation in GRQC Workshops and Programs.
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Participation in GRQC’s community projects.
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Interaction with leaders and innovators regarding best practices in quality.
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Contributing to making the Greater Rochester area a community of excellence.
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Opportunities for networking with other organizations on the journey to excellence.
Our Champion and Advocate Level Members
