The results reported in Category 7 of a Baldrige application should show current levels of performance, trends, and comparisons. They should address what is important to your organization as described in the first six Categories and the Profile and they should include valid indicators of future performance.

Consider this chart.

It shows current levels of performance and a trend over a longer period of time than most organizations display. When performance shows this kind of variability, some organizations include a trend line to clarify the direction this measure is heading, although, in this case, the direction is pretty clear.

The “organization” in this chart happens to be Earth, with temperature data from the National Climatic Data Center. “Normal” is the average temperature from 1901 to 2000. In an article in the October 27, 2009, StarTribune (“Statisticians downplay the notion that the Earth is really cooling”), Seth Borenstein includes this chart as evidence of global warming.

Of course, in the interest of impartiality despite all evidence to the contrary, he quotes Don Easterbrook, a Western Washington University geology professor, who said, “I don’t argue with you that the 10-year average for the past 10 years is higher than the previous 10 years. We started the cooling trend after 1998.”

Actually, even after a warm 1998 we’ve continued to get warmer, as this chart shows.

As Deke Arndt, NOAA climate monitoring chief, said, “The last 10 years are the warmest 10-year period of the modern record.” And it’s getting warmer, not cooler, which is a valid indicator of future performance unless we act to stop the trend.

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