When you’re doing Baldrige, it’s easy to get immersed in fixing the problems with your management system, which is good as long as you also keep looking outside your organization to see if adopting a new system should get as much attention as improving the old one.

For example, Padmasree Warrior wrote on Cisco’s blog (click here) about the Next Generation Collaborative Enterprise (NGCE), which is a very different type of management system. Here’s how she describes it:

“Priorities are set by clusters of experts that make decisions. Decisions are communicated real-time through social media applications. Work is shared on a secure collaboration technology platform. Individuals are able to apply themselves to the work based on their skills and availability, regardless of their geographic location. Expertise outside the Enterprise is included ‘on-demand’ to bring necessary knowledge to bear. Funding is directed based on milestones. Direct accountability is embedded into the social network. Finally, organizational functions become less relevant and ‘Re-orgs’ become obsolete. Leadership is defined as the ability to influence, envision, and execute―rather than the authority to command and control.”

Despite its innovative design, NGCEs must still address the components of a management system addressed by the Baldrige Criteria, which Warrior lists as “strategy and planning, delivering value to customers and partners, human capital, innovation and design, manufacturing and distribution, marketing, and messaging.”

For an NGCE to work, it will need a “next-generation workforce” characterized by:

• More emphasis placed on an individual’s visibility and reputation
• Flexible scheduling based on working moments
• Rewards and compensation based on expertise and the value of the contribution
• Managers who act as coaches
• Communications that use richer mediums and are multi-lingual
• Organizations formed on business priorities and staffed by a global marketplace of talent

Cisco itself is moving toward becoming an NGCE. It has documented how to achieve value from collaboration by focusing on process, culture, and technology as part of the Cisco Collaboration Framework. As Warrior writes, “The decade ahead will see the emergence of the Next Generation Collaborative Enterprise that will leverage innovation and operational excellence without boundaries.”

Since the Baldrige model promotes both innovation and operational excellence, it makes sense to integrate Baldrige so that you have something to leverage if you wish to become an NGCE.

To read more, click on these articles:

• Making Your Organization Adaptable
• Anticipating Disruptive Change
• Making Innovation Part of Your Culture
• 3 Systematic Innovation Processes
• Management System Innovation
• Innovation and Quality

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