You manage what you measure, which is why, for decades, leaders managed their companies’ financial performance: They reviewed financial data regularly and other types of data sporadically if at all.

Category 4 in the Baldrige Criteria asks how you measure organizational performance, which for most organizations involves some type of balanced scorecard. It asks how you analyze and review performance and how that leads to performance improvement. And it asks how you manage your information, organizational knowledge, and information technology.

As we noted, the best way to evaluate your measurement system—and your management system—is through a Baldrige assessment using the Baldrige Criteria. You can find out how to do that here.

The Criteria consist of powerful questions, rarely asked, about how an organization functions. If you cannot do a full assessment but want insight into how to improve your measurement system, here are 10 critical questions to ask and answer:

1. How do you select and collect the data and information you use to track (1) daily operations and (2) overall organizational performance, and how do you align and integrate these data?
2. What are your key organizational performance measures?
3. How do you select and use comparative data and information to provide benchmarks for these measures and to support decision making and innovation?
4. How do you review organizational performance and capabilities, including competitive performance and progress on your strategic objectives and action plans?
5. What analyses do you perform to support these reviews and to ensure that the conclusions of these reviews are valid?
6. How do you translate the findings from these reviews into priorities for continuous and breakthrough improvement and into opportunities for innovation, and how do you deploy these priorities throughout your organization?
7. How do you ensure the accuracy, integrity, reliability, timeliness, security, confidentiality, availability, and accessibility of your organizational data, information, and knowledge?
8. How do you manage organizational knowledge to collect and transfer workforce knowledge, transfer knowledge to and from stakeholders, assemble and transfer relevant knowledge to your strategic planning process, and rapidly identify, share, and implement best practices.
9. How do you ensure that hardware and software are reliable, secure, and user friendly?
10. How do you ensure the continued availability of hardware and software systems and the continued availability of data and information in an emergency?

To read the world-class responses of Baldrige Award recipients to these questions, click here and then click on the award application summary you wish to review. Go to Category 4, Measurement, Analysis, and Knowledge Management, to learn about its measurement system.

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