All Posts Tagged With: "application"
10 Questions to Ask about Everything You Do
The Baldrige Criteria ask how an organization operates. How do you do what you do? Whether the focus is on leadership, strategic planning, customers, measurement, employees, or process management, the questions peel apart the processes you use to get things done.
Before you can write a Baldrige or state award application, you must gather the information you need to answer the Criteria questions. That means interviewing internal subject matter experts about the six process categories and one results category in the Criteria. One way to prepare subject matter experts for these interviews is to reassure them that you will be discussing how they do what they do. A Baldrige assessment is, after all, a snapshot of how your organization operates.
Another step in the preparation is to describe the scope of the information you will be looking for by sharing 10 process questions that we should all be able to answer about the work we do:
- What is your approach to _(the area you are focusing on)_?
- How do you determine customer and stakeholder requirements for it?
- How systematic is your process?
- How do you deploy it to all units that should be using it?
- How is it aligned with your organization’s mission, vision, and goals?
- How is it innovative, transformational, or a role model for similar processes?
- How do you use data and information to evaluate and improve the process?
- How do you compare your performance on key process measures to that of other organizations?
- How do you review performance and use these reviews to improve your processes?
- How do you…
Tracking Your Baldrige Journey
In the 1990s, Honeywell created an internal award program, based on Baldrige, called the Honeywell Quality Value (HQV). Each year, business units submitted HQV applications. Internal examiners evaluated the applications to identify strengths, opportunities for improvement, and scores. Honeywell tracked the scores. After a few cycles, they graphed the scores to see if there was a correlation with key financial measures.
In 1994, the average score for the business units was 330 points. That average increased every year through 1999 when it reached 550 points. In 1994, Honeywell’s operating profit rate was 7%. That rate also increased through 1999 when it reached 13%.
These and other data showed a strong correlation between HQV score and profitability. You see the same correlation when you examine the applications of Baldrige Award recipients. The applications, which you can find here, include results in six key areas. If you look at when an organization started its Baldrige journey and compare that to the trends in its results, you quickly notice the correlation between integrating Baldrige and improving performance.
This chart shows the typical path an organization takes as it integrates the Baldrige model. Most organizations score 250 to 350 points on their first assessment or application. By addressing the low-hanging fruit this first evaluation exposes, an organization can quickly improve during the next couple years.
At 500 points, your management system is becoming a competitive advantage. Earning half the possible points on a Baldrige application may not seem noteworthy, but it means you’re twice as good as almost…
4Dec2009 | Steve George | 0 comments | ContinuedHow to Become a Baldrige Expert
You may be wondering why anyone would want to become a Baldrige expert. As if you don’t have enough to do, right?
Here’s the value as I see it; you can decide if it’s worth your time:
- You learn how organizations work, which helps you understand how your organization works.
- You learn about each key component of an organization, which gives you context for what you are doing.
- You think differently about the work you do and the challenges you face, paying more attention to process, measurement, customers, employees, alignment, and integration.
- You acquire skills that make you more valuable to the organization and that give you more options in the future.
There are two ways to become a Baldrige expert: (1) participate in Baldrige assessments or (2) serve as a Baldrige and/or state award examiner.
Participating in a Baldrige assessment forces you to understand the Criteria questions and figure out how your organization should respond to them. Most people start by working on a Category team. For example, you may be part of the Category 3 Customer Focus team that must answer all of the questions in this Category. The task means understanding how Category 3 relates to the rest of the Baldrige model, interpreting the questions for which you are responsible, finding the answers through internal subject matter experts, and writing responses. You learn Baldrige by working with it, and that knowledge deepens with each successive assessment.
You can also become a Baldrige expert by serving as a Baldrige Award or state award examiner. Examiners are volunteers from…
9Nov2009 | Steve George | 0 comments | ContinuedIf you are new to Baldrige…
…and you want to know:
- what Baldrige is, click here
- what to tell your boss about Baldrige, click here
- what the Baldrige Criteria are, click here
- the core values embedded in the Criteria, click here
- the structure of the Criteria, click here
What to Tell Your Boss about Baldrige
Your boss asked you to find out if he or she should look at Baldrige, which means you need to know what it is, who uses it, how it works, whether it can help your organization, what it’s going to cost, how long it’s going to take, what good it will do you, how to win the Baldrige Award, and where to start.
Start here:
What is Baldrige?
Baldrige refers to the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, which the U.S. Congress legislated in 1987. The first Baldrige Awards were presented in 1988.
Each year, applicants for the Baldrige Award prepare detailed assessments of their management systems. Their applications respond to the Criteria for Performance Excellence (click here to read the Criteria booklet), which have seven Categories that cover everything important in a management system:
- Leadership
- Strategic Planning
- Customer Focus
- Measurement, Analysis, and Knowledge Management
- Workforce Focus
- Process Management
- Results
Who uses it?
Any organization that wants to systematically improve its management system. You can find a complete list of Baldrige Award recipients here. It doesn’t matter what size your organization is or what it does, you can use the Baldrige model and process to improve.
How does it work?
Organizations assess their management systems using the Baldrige Criteria to identify strengths and opportunities for improvement. They prioritize the opportunities for improvement and develop action plans to address the top priorities. A year later, most repeat the process. And the year after that and the year after that…
The application process is simple: Ask and answer all of the questions in the Criteria. The hard part is that…
26Oct2009 | Steve George | 0 comments | ContinuedIs Baldrige Right for Your Organization?
Absolutely.
It doesn’t matter what you do or how big or small you are, integrating the Baldrige model will make you a better organization. I’ve worked on Baldrige with medical centers, a K-12 school, a college and a university, a Wing Command of the National Guard and an Army base, a district court, a large market research company and a small one, a pharmaceutical company, medical device manufacturers and a computer manufacturer, a transport refrigeration manufacturer, a dental products manufacturer and dental insurers, printed circuit board manufacturers and a power supply manufacturer, and a gas and electric utility. Baldrige helped all of them improve performance.
But.
These organizations wanted to improve. Your organization may not. Baldrige is definitely right for your organization if you can answer these questions “yes”:
- Do senior leaders believe change is necessary?
- Will they support transforming your management system?
- Are senior leaders (preferably the senior leader) promoting Baldrige?
- Is your organization committed to performance excellence?
If you answer “no” to any of these questions, you can still conduct a Baldrige assessment and apply for the Baldrige and state awards and act on the opportunities to improve that are identified, but change will be slow and it will be hard to sustain. In the end, senior leadership must embrace Baldrige as a systematic, long-term approach to improving performance or you’re just diverting resources to a short-term program.
As Deming and Juran stated, 85-95% of an organization’s problems are caused by the system, not by the people working the system, and management controls the system. It will only…
2Oct2009 | Steve George | 0 comments | ContinuedFirst Steps on the Baldrige Journey
There are no better advocates for the Baldrige journey than the leaders of organizations that have received the Baldrige Award. A video by the Alliance for Performance Excellence, a nonprofit network of international, national, state, and local Baldrige-based award programs, features several of these leaders explaining why they started that journey and what their organizations have gained from it.
I was particularly struck by a comment made by Rulon Stacey, president and CEO of Poudre Valley Health System, which won the Award in 2008. He said, “We’ve got lessons learned that are saving people’s lives because we participated in the Baldrige process.”
Terry Holliday, superintendent of Iredell-Statesville Schools, another 2008 Award recipient, talked about how, when his schools improve, more children are successful.
Michael Levinson, city manager of the City of Coral Springs, which received the Award in 2007, listed world-class results in response to people who ask, “Why Baldrige?”: AAA bond rating on Wall Street from all three rating agencies, bringing capital projects in on time and within budget, 96% business satisfaction rating, and a 94% resident satisfaction rating.
Our goal at Baldrige.com is to support the development of well-run, world-class organizations. That’s where the Baldrige journey takes you. Together, we can move toward our vision: Every Organization a Baldrige Organization.
To watch the 11-minute video, click here.
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