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:

1. What is your approach to _(the area you are focusing on)_?
2. How do you determine customer and stakeholder requirements for it?
3. How systematic is your process?
4. How do you deploy it to all units that should be using it?
5. How is it aligned with your organization’s mission, vision, and goals?
6. How is it innovative, transformational, or a role model for similar processes?
7. How do you use data and information to evaluate and improve the process?
8. How do you compare your performance on key process measures to that of other organizations?
9. How do you review performance and use these reviews to improve your processes?
10. How do you share refinements and innovations with other relevant work units and processes in your organization?

Every organization, business unit, work unit, division, department, team, and individual can improve performance by asking and answering these questions about everything they do. The answers will reveal opportunities for improvement that can help you build a world-class management system.

To learn more about using Baldrige to improve your organization, read:

• Is Baldrige Right for Your Organization?
• How to Integrate Baldrige
• 10 Steps to an Effective Baldrige Assessment
• 10 Tips for Answering Criteria Questions
• Applying for the 2010 Baldrige Award

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 everyone else. You have effective, systematic, and well-deployed approaches in place for all areas of your management system. You systematically evaluate and improve these key processes, which are aligned with what your organization needs to accomplish. Most results show positive trends and good current performance and hold up well when compared to competitors or other benchmarks.

Baldrige Award recipients typically score around 700 points. They’re good at everything and great at a few things, for which they become role models the rest of us can learn from. They move from 500 points to 700 points by improving processes, strengthening alignment, and integrating their approaches to achieve strategic and operational goals.

By correlating Baldrige scores and performance on financial, customer, quality, employee, and other key metrics, you will not only track the pace of improvement in your organization, but you will also show the measurable benefits of the journey.

To find out more about the Baldrige journey, read:

• Is Baldrige Right for Your Organization
• 10 Steps to World Class
• How to Integrate Baldrige
• The Baldrige Criteria
• 10 Steps to an Effective Baldrige Assessment

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 all types of organizations who are trained in how to evaluate applications. They review an application to identify strengths and opportunities for improvement and to score it. In the process of doing this, examiners learn how Baldrige works, how other organizations have integrated it, and how their organizations could benefit from Baldrige.

Starting November 12^th, you can apply to be a Baldrige examiner in 2010. Information is available here.

For information about being an examiner for your state program, visit the Alliance for Performance Excellence and click on your state on the map.

In either case, nobody becomes an expert after just one year. You will need to work on multiple assessments or serve as an examiner for several years or do both to truly internalize the Baldrige model.

• 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 questions the Criteria ask, click here
• 10 critical questions for:
  • your organization, click here
  • leadership, click here
  • strategic planning, click here
  • customers, click here
  • information management, click here
  • workforce, click here
  • process management, click here
  • results, click here
• how to answer those questions, click here
• how to conduct a Baldrige assessment, click here
• how the Baldrige Award works and who is eligible, click here
• how Baldrige scoring works, click here
• the results possible with Baldrige, click here, here, here, and here
• if Baldrige is right for your organization, click here
• who has received the Baldrige Award, click here
• how they won it, click on a winner’s profile or award application summary here
• what Baldrige-related state, regional, and local awards exist, click here
• what Baldrige-related international awards exist, click here

If you have any other questions, send them to us and we will do our best to answer them.

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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:

1. Leadership
2. Strategic Planning
3. Customer Focus
4. Measurement, Analysis, and Knowledge Management
5. Workforce Focus
6. Process Management
7. 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 many of the questions have probably never been asked before and you are unlikely to have high-quality answers for all of them. It also takes some time to research and write an application that responds to nearly 150 questions.

You don’t have to apply for a Baldrige Award to follow this process. Some organizations do internal assessments using the Criteria, hire one or more experts to evaluate them, and use the feedback to drive improvement. Others apply for state quality awards, which you can learn more about here. The pros and cons of each option are presented here.

How would we know if it can help our organization?

Easy: It will. I’ve worked with industry leaders and industry laggards and everything in between and the Baldrige process has helped them all. The tangible evidence of the value of integrating Baldrige is the results of Baldrige Award recipients. You will find a good summary of those results in their Profiles, which are online here. Scan the list for an organization you want to know more about and click on “profile” under the organization’s name. You can also see a list of financial results achieved by Baldrige Award recipients here and a list of their customer-related results here.

What’s it going to cost?

That depends on how you do the assessment. If you do it all internally, you can expect to spend 300 to 400 hours researching and writing an application/assessment. You may also choose to spend a few thousand dollars on an outside consultant to facilitate the process and/or provide initial feedback on your application. If you hire an outside person or group to do the research and writing, it could cost from $40,000 to $75,000 or more depending on the size and complexity of your organization.

Baldrige Award application fees for 2010 are $1,250 for education, nonprofit, K-12; $3,500 for other educational institutions, businesses, healthcare organizations, and nonprofit organizations with 500 or fewer staff/employees; and $7,000 for organizations with more than 500 employees. You can find complete award application guidelines here.

State award programs charge less. You can find out if there’s an award program in your state and how to contact it here.

How long is it going to take?

You can produce an application/assessment in three months—but I wouldn’t advise it. Give yourself at least six months for the first one. Subsequent applications will not take nearly as long.

As for how long it will take to integrate Baldrige, the answer depends on your organization. You can produce a world-class management system in three years. Five years is more common. For organizations hungry to remain on top, the journey never ends.

What good will it do?

If you produce just one application/assessment, you will come away with a powerful list of things to improve that will help you become a better organization. You can use the list to get consensus from senior leaders on priorities, develop action plans that address them, and allocate resources to support the improvement effort. Such lists tend to feature “big picture” opportunities like developing a performance measurement system/balanced scorecard, gaining a better understanding of customer requirements, improving employee engagement, deploying a systematic approach to process management and improvement, or reengineering strategic planning. Without a Baldrige assessment, these opportunities rarely appear on leadership’s radar, which means your organization will continue suffer ineffective and damaging approaches.

If you do annual Baldrige assessments and close the gaps they reveal, you will develop an outstanding management system that will give you a competitive advantage, enable you to provide world-class service to your customers, patients, students, or constituents, and move you toward the vision for your organization.

How do we win the Award?

Very few organizations win the Baldrige Award on their first try. In fact, most of the organizations I’ve worked with, including some industry leaders, scored in the 250 to 350 point range the first time out. Baldrige Award winners typically get around 700 points. So there’s a lot of work to do identifying and closing gaps.

You win the Award by having effective, systematic, well-deployed approaches to every area addressed by the Baldrige Criteria, by providing evidence of evaluation and improvement and organizational learning, and by reporting good-to-excellent results on most areas that are important to your organization. To see what this looks like, read the award application summary of a Baldrige Award recipient. You will find the summaries here. Scan the list for an organization you want to know more about and click on “award application summary” under the organization’s name.

How do we start?

Start by assembling enough information for senior leaders to make an informed decision. You should be able to do that with the explanations and links provided in this article and with other relevant articles and pages on Baldrige.com. Invite leaders of organizations that have won the Baldrige Award or been using the Baldrige model to speak to your leadership team. Ask senior leaders what else they need to know to make a decision. If your state has an award program, have one of its representatives meet with your leadership team.

The best use of the Baldrige model is to integrate it into the way you do business, and that will transform your organization. Senior leaders need to be on board with that.

If you do all this research only to be asked for a quick summary, try this: Baldrige is a proven approach for understanding how your management system works and where it needs to be improved to achieve performance excellence and world-class results.

And you’ll have the information you need to back up that statement.

If you still have questions, post them in a comment to this article and we’ll get answers for you.

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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 improve if leaders act to improve it.

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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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