You may be wondering why anyone would want to become a Baldrige expert. As if you don’t have enough to do, right?

Here’s the value as I see it; you can decide if it’s worth your time:

• You learn how organizations work, which helps you understand how your organization works.
• You learn about each key component of an organization, which gives you context for what you are doing.
• You think differently about the work you do and the challenges you face, paying more attention to process, measurement, customers, employees, alignment, and integration.
• You acquire skills that make you more valuable to the organization and that give you more options in the future.

There are two ways to become a Baldrige expert: (1) participate in Baldrige assessments or (2) serve as a Baldrige and/or state award examiner.

Participating in a Baldrige assessment forces you to understand the Criteria questions and figure out how your organization should respond to them. Most people start by working on a Category team. For example, you may be part of the Category 3 Customer Focus team that must answer all of the questions in this Category. The task means understanding how Category 3 relates to the rest of the Baldrige model, interpreting the questions for which you are responsible, finding the answers through internal subject matter experts, and writing responses. You learn Baldrige by working with it, and that knowledge deepens with each successive assessment.

You can also become a Baldrige expert by serving as a Baldrige Award or state award examiner. Examiners are volunteers from all types of organizations who are trained in how to evaluate applications. They review an application to identify strengths and opportunities for improvement and to score it. In the process of doing this, examiners learn how Baldrige works, how other organizations have integrated it, and how their organizations could benefit from Baldrige.

Starting November 12^th, you can apply to be a Baldrige examiner in 2010. Information is available here.

For information about being an examiner for your state program, visit the Alliance for Performance Excellence and click on your state on the map.

In either case, nobody becomes an expert after just one year. You will need to work on multiple assessments or serve as an examiner for several years or do both to truly internalize the Baldrige model.

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