Quality Award Programs
Buzzword: Baldrige?
Spreading the word about Baldrige is one of the biggest challenges faced by the Baldrige community. The principles of the Criteria are simple, logical, and brilliantly successful when implemented correctly, yet sometimes it seems as though only a small segment of organizational leaders seem to know about them. Those that are in the loop are fanatics, but I think many of us struggle to understand why the rest of the world hasn’t caught on yet. At the Quest Conference earlier this month, a new session was added to the lineup that this author thinks was on the cusp of something great, which actually reminds me very much of what the EFQM Excellence Model is doing over in Europe. Let’s discuss.
At Quest this year, a session entitled Category Best Practices Panel was held. Three organizations were represented; Maury Regional Medical Center, Northwest Vista College, and PricewaterhouseCoopers Public Sector Practice. Each group shared best practices from two categories of the Criteria, and one of the common threads throughout the 
session was the subject of benchmarking, both within and outside of their industries. They told about the specifics within their strategic plans, and why they did things the way they did. For example, Maury Regional Medical Center made a point of observing the Baldrige examiner teams interviewing their employees, so that they could get a feel for the culture of their organization …
Conducting Collaborative Assessments
As the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program celebrates its 25th year, it continues to evolve to meet the needs of key stakeholders. Recently, the program announced that it will offer Collaborative Assessments as a new service. The announcement states that this assessment against the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence will provide timely, actionable feedback to be used immediately to improve organizational performance. While not explicitly stated, the service seems to be targeting organizations that may be new to the Baldrige Criteria.
So you may be wondering, “What is a Collaborative Assessment?” Good question!
The collaborative assessment is a proven method that has been used in multiple organizations worldwide. It is not a new concept; this author has been successfully implementing this approach to assessment for over 15 years. In general, it is an event-focused approach to efficiently complete an assessment in a short period of time. The approach uses the input from subject matter experts with assistance from criteria and assessment experts. The participants collaborate to identify the vital few strengths and opportunities for improvement within the organization. These strengths can be used as input to generate an application for a state or national quality award. The opportunities for improvement can be prioritized and converted into action plans for improving organizational performance.
While this article will focus primarily on collaborative assessments using the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence, the approach …
4Apr2013 | Er Ralston | 0 comments | ContinuedUsing Quality Awards as a System Assessment Tool
Many organizations use the criteria from national quality awards for the benefit of getting a thorough organizational assessment, often with no intent of even applying for award recognition. There are various methods that can be used to complete an assessment, based upon many factors, including the size and geography of the organization, the number of facilities, and the availability of internal expertise to conduct an assessment.
Written Responses
Without completing a formal application, organizations can use a question-and-answer approach to respond to the criteria question from an awards program. There could be multiple responses for each question if more than one input is desired for the response. Some more advanced formats for written responses could seek more probing information for each question. For example, a Baldrige-based written response questionnaire may be formatted to seek a specific response for approach, deployment, learning, and integration for each process-related question. This provides richer information for the purposes of scoring the application using the awards process scoring guidelines.
Survey
This approach can be used to gather assessment input from a large number of people. Questions are designed to gather the collective input of the performance of the organization as it relates to the awards criteria. The Baldrige National Quality program provides a free survey for this purpose called Are We Making Progress? This is a 40-question survey which can be completed in about 10 …
6Mar2013 | Joseph A. De Feo | 0 comments | ContinuedPost University Honors Malcolm Baldrige
SOURCE: Post University
Post University honored former Waterbury business leader and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Malcolm Baldrige at an event at Waterbury City Hall on Wednesday, October 17th. The event celebrated the naming of The Malcolm Baldrige School of Business at Post University. More than 100 guests honored “Mac,” including his daughter Molly Baldrige. An oil painting of the honoree, which will hang in Post University’s Traurig Library, was unveiled.
Dr. Thomas Samph, President and CEO of Post University had this to say on Wednesday evening: “We are deeply honored that the Baldrige family has have granted us permission to extend Malcolm Baldrige’s legacy in this way. Like Baldrige’s impact on the international business community, the reach of our ideas and commitment to business excellence extends far beyond our Waterbury campus to nearly every corner of the world. And similar to the way Baldrige changed the way people think about business, we want to change the way people think about higher education. It’s something we are very passionate about because we know our future, the future of Waterbury and the future of our nation as a whole depends on a steadfast commitment to innovation, continuous improvement, quality and ethical leadership.”
Dr. Don Mroz, Provost of Post University and Dean of The Malcolm Baldrige School of Business was also very enthusiastic about the opportunities and responsibilities that lay ahead: “As someone …
25Oct2012 | Joseph A. De Feo | 0 comments | ContinuedNew Conditions for Baldrige Award Eligibility
The Baldrige program has announced new conditions for applying for the Baldrige Award. In addition to the existing eligibility requirements—i.e., headquartered in the U.S., in existence for at least one year, able to share information, and categorized as a business, educational institution, healthcare organization, or nonprofit—an organization must meet one of the following conditions to apply for the Baldrige Award:
- Be a previous Baldrige Award recipient
- Have received the top-tier award from a member of the Alliance for Performance Excellence within the past 5 years
- Have received a Baldrige site visit within the past five years
- Have received a combined scoring band range of 8 or better in the past five years
- Have 25% or more of its employees outside the organization’s home state
- Have no Alliance member program available for your organization
The new requirements “leverage the larger Baldrige enterprise—in particular, the state and local Baldrige-based award programs,” according to Harry Hertz, Baldrige program director. The new requirements will compel first-time applicants to use their state programs unless one is not available, which is currently true for just one state: Utah. You will find a complete list of state and local award programs here.
The change will likely strengthen the state programs while reducing the number of applicants for the Baldrige Award. Fewer applicants should help cut costs for the Baldrige program, which is necessary in 2012 and …
21Dec2011 | Steve George | 0 comments | ContinuedBaldrige Program Update
Our misguided Congress decided not to fund the Baldrige program in 2012. However, the Baldrige program will continue through the support of the Baldrige Foundation, a 501(c)3 organization that has pledged up to $5.2 million for the 2012 cycle. While that does not match the federal funding that was lost, it will keep the program going.
According to an email from Debbie Collard, chair of the Foundation, it “is committed to provide funding for FY2013 and beyond, commensurate with a budget-neutral private sector-funded business and financial model which is under development by a team of members from the Baldrige Enterprise.”
To reassure those organizations and leaders who are considering Baldrige or taking the first steps toward integrating it, the Baldrige program is not likely to end because it lost federal funding. The Foundation will provide essential support during the transition that must occur for the program to survive and thrive. In a Blogrige post, Baldrige program director Harry Hertz outlined the steps being taken to ensure the program’s sustainability:
12Dec2011 | Steve George | 0 comments | Continued“We are actively working with our Enterprise partners (the Baldrige Foundation, the Alliance for Performance Excellence, and ASQ) to develop an Enterprise business and financial model that looks at Baldrige processes on an enterprise-wide scale, looking for revenue sources and efficiencies that can be gained. At the same time our internal Enterprise Transition Team, composed of five Baldrige staff members,
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2011 Baldrige Award Winners
Four organizations, three in healthcare and one nonprofit, have won the 2011 Baldrige Award:
- The Henry Ford Health System, a nonprofit organization based in Detroit, has more than 24,000 employees and operates 30 general medical centers and seven specialized medical facilities.
- Schneck Medical Center in Seymour, Indiana, is a nonprofit institution with 114 beds and a staff of more than 800 employees.
- Southcentral Foundation is an Alaska Native-owned, nonprofit healthcare organization serving nearly 60,000 Alaska Native and American Indian people in and around Anchorage.
- Concordia Publishing House in St. Louis is the publisher for The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, offering more than 8,000 products to families, individuals, Christian schools, and congregations.
Gary Meyer, president and CEO of Schneck Medical Center, noted that his organization first implemented the Baldrige framework four years ago. “The Baldrige criteria and our unwavering commitment to quality, satisfaction, and continuous improvement have helped us toward our vision to be an organization of excellence, every person, every time,” he said.
In 2011, 69 organizations applied for the Baldrige Award, of which 11 reached the final, site visit review stage. Six of the 11 were healthcare organizations. Baldrige examiners visited these site visit finalists for several days in October to clarify and verify the content of their application. For example, during four days at Henry Ford, examiners spent time at three dozen medical sites and interviewed executives and …
22Nov2011 | Steve George | 0 comments | Continued
