Over the past 20 years, I have had the opportunity to work with or review more than 250 Baldrige and state award applications, Shingo Prize applications, and feedback reports. The goal of an application is to receive the most useful feedback report possible while earning all the points your organization is entitled to. In my experience, most beginning organizations, especially those writing an application entirely on their own, make five basic mistakes that keep them from reaching this goal:

1. Not using figures, including tables and graphics, effectively in the application
2. Not providing key information
3. Not providing key results
4. Ignoring the scoring guidelines
5. Not having someone knowledgeable about the Criteria and the examination process review the application before submission

There are two types of questions in the Criteria: “how” questions asking for the description of a process and “what” questions asking for information. A root cause of mistake #2 often results from not answering a “what” question. One applicant’s feedback report read, “The applicant did not describe the most important goals for its strategic objectives.” The Criteria ask what these goals are.

It is critical to provide the information requested in a space-saving format, which is why bulleted lists and tables are commonly used, thus avoiding mistake #1. Space is limited in the Organizational Profile and Categories 1-7. The use of a single table that covers the responses to multiple questions is very efficient.

Another best practice is the addition of a column to a table that identifies related Category 7 results. You can find an example of this in ARDEC’s application summary here. Check out Figure P.1-4 on page iv. This table has two advantages. First, it assures you have the most important results in your application, which is mistake #3. Second, since it simplifies the examiners’ effort in finding results, they are able to do a more sophisticated analysis of your organization.

Another type of figure that is common in applications is used to illustrate a major process or system. For an example of this, see Figure 2.1-1 on page 9 of ARDEC’s application.

Mistake #4 is caused by applicants over-focusing on answering the Criteria questions without due consideration that the scoring guidelines are part of the Criteria as well. Beginning applicants often forget to describe cycles of evaluation and improvement for their approaches and how they integrate with other key processes in Categories 1 through 6. They also forget to show sustained trends, appropriate segmentations, and relevant comparisons for their results in Category 7.

The solution to mistake #5 is to have someone review a draft early in the process. The more knowledgeable the reviewer is about the Criteria and the examination process, the more the person will help improve the clarity of the application and its initial score.

Whether it’s your first application or your next one, you will avoid beginner mistakes and produce a better application by:

• Answering the “what” questions with tables and bulleted lists, when appropriate, and using figures to show complex systems
• Identifying all the places where the Criteria call for requirements, goals, or measures
• Using tables to respond to questions for requirements and then cross-referencing them to Category 7 results figures
• Testing your responses for each Item and Category against the Scoring Guidelines
• Having a knowledgeable person review your application before you submit it

Glenn Bodinson
Founder, BaldrigeCoach

To visit BaldrigeCoach, click here.

This is a guest article by Glenn Bodinson. If you want to contribute an article to Baldrige.com, check out the guidelines here.

(5 votes, average: 4.80 out of 5)

 Loading ...