People ask why an organization should apply for the Baldrige Award or a state award based on Baldrige. There are three very good reasons:

1. Answering the Criteria questions will give you a new and deeper understanding of how your organization works—or doesn’t work.
2. Getting feedback from the Baldrige or state program will help you identify strengths you can build upon and opportunities for improvement.
3. Acting on what you learn during #1 and #2 will make you a better organization.

I described the application process in an earlier article. In this article, I want to discuss the feedback you receive when you submit an application.

First, a quick overview of what happens to a Baldrige application after you submit it. (State programs follow a similar process.) Trained examiners are assigned to evaluate and comment on the application. A team of examiners then reviews the application and observations by conference call to reach consensus on your strengths, opportunities for improvement, and scores. If the Panel of Judges does not select your organization for a site visit, one of the examiners on the consensus team produces your feedback report. If you do receive a site visit, the site visit team leader finalizes your feedback report after the judges decide who should receive the Award.

The feedback report begins by identifying the key themes both for the process Items, which are Categories 1 through 6, and the results Item, which is Category 7. It lists your most important strengths or outstanding practices and your most significant opportunities, concerns, vulnerabilities, and gaps.

The bulk of the report details your strengths and opportunities for improvement (OFIs) for each of the Criteria’s 18 Items. Applicants will tell you that the greatest benefit of applying for a Baldrige or state award is these OFIs. Cargill Corn Milling, which received the Baldrige Award last year, got 131 of them in its feedback report—and it won the Award! Getting a list of important areas to improve, agreed upon by consensus of trained examiners, offers priceless insight into the things you need to work on to achieve performance excellence.

If a high-performing company like Cargill Corn Milling can learn from the application process, imagine the value of the feedback to an organization that has more to learn, and more to gain.

You can find Baldrige Award application forms here. To learn more about a state award program, click here.

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