One of the contributions of healthcare’s participation in the Baldrige process has been the 90-day action plan, which is now being used by more and more businesses, educational organizations, and nonprofits.

The 90-day action plan is a systematic tool for deploying a strategic plan. Before it came along, organizations often had trouble reviewing performance to plan during the year with the result that initiatives were not completed and goals were not met.

Organizations use the 90-day action plan to break annual goals and objectives into the quarterly actions necessary to achieve them. By reviewing performance on the 90-day plans, senior leaders ensure that actions are on track or they can more quickly intervene to get them on track.

Baptist Hospital, Inc., which received the Baldrige Award in 2003, was one of the first to popularize 90-day action plans. Its award application summary describes the process:

Leader annual goals…are translated into 90-day action plans to facilitate goal accomplishment. 90-day action plans for BHI leaders are formulated or updated each quarter. This process for updating or reevaluating action plans on a quarterly basis enables the organization to be flexible and agile in accomplishing or reassessing longer-term goals and objectives. The 90-day action plan process is the fundamental and fully deployed method used to evaluate progress toward accomplishment of goals and address other strategic issues. Senior officers also maintain 90-day action plans, which are called senior management priorities. At quarterly retreats, the senior officers evaluate progress toward accomplishment of their own goals and formulate changes as appropriate.

The Baptist Leadership Group has identified the following benefits of the 90-day action plan:

• “Harnesses” the energy of the organization
• Focuses the organization’s resources on well-thought-out activities
• Aligns departmental activities with the overall goals of the organization
• Forces upward communication and negotiation
• Forces clarity of expectations
• Reduces work by establishing agreed-upon objectives

In the Strategic Planning Category, the Baldrige Criteria ask how “you develop and deploy action plans throughout the organization.” The 90-day action plan has proven to be a good response to that question.

Help grow our community 

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

 Loading ...