One of the ways organizations integrate Baldrige is by putting an executive in charge of each Baldrige category. The executive is responsible for:

• Understanding what the category addresses, which means understanding the category questions in the Baldrige Criteria

• Knowing how the organization performs on those questions, which means understanding your organizations’ strengths and opportunities for improvement (which requires some type of Baldrige assessment)

• Developing strategies and actions to address the opportunities, which often become part of the organization’s strategic plan

• Being accountable for improving performance on the areas addressed by the category, which usually involves reviewing performance with the senior leadership team on a monthly or quarterly basis

In some organizations, the executive/category “owner” leads a category team that shares these responsibilities. This approach is less effective if the team ends up doing all the work and the executive is a figurehead. Effectively integrating Baldrige will transform your organization, bringing significant change that requires senior leadership. It will be less effective—if it occurs at all—if executives delegate that integration.

Most organizations take a logical approach to assigning executives to categories (with equivalent positions in schools and government agencies):

• The CEO takes Leadership
• The head of marketing and/or sales takes Customer Focus
• The CIO or head of IT takes Measurement and Analysis
• The head of HR take Workforce Focus
• The COO takes Process Management

You may have to shuffle the order if one of these folks is responsible for the strategic planning process. If not, the remaining two categories are often assigned to the senior leaders that are left, with the CFO getting either Strategic Planning or Results. It’s interesting to note that nobody ever asks the head of legal to lead anything.

As with most organizational change, integrating Baldrige will succeed or fail because of leadership. Making senior leaders responsible for improving performance in the Baldrige categories engages them in this process.

To read more about integrating Baldrige, click on these articles:

• If you are new to Baldrige…
• Is Baldrige Right for Your Organization
• 5 Added Values of the Baldrige Process
• How to Integrate Baldrige
• 10 Steps to World Class

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