All Posts Tagged With: "service"
Smart Question #2: How Do We Know That?
(This excerpt is from The Baldrige Edge, an e-Guide from Baldrige.com. You can learn more about the guide by clicking on the black-and-red box on the right.)
Next to blaming people for process problems, making assumptions is a surefire way to miss the right solution. Which of these scenarios is more common in your organization?
(a) Options are debated based on what people think about a problem or issue and how they think it should be handled; or,
(b) Options are debated based on reliable data and information that illuminate the nature and causes of the problem or issue and point to possible solutions.
Most people act as if “a” is really “b”: My assumptions are based on experience and they’re as good as facts. They’re wrong. Guessing that you know what’s going on is not the same as actually knowing what’s going on, and the only way to know what’s going on is to collect and analyze relevant data and information. That’s where the second smart question comes in: How do we know that?
You have to be careful how you ask this question. If your boss says, “We’re getting customer complaints about how long they have to wait for service so we need to put more people on the phone lines,” you can’t just blurt out: “How do we know that?” It’s absolutely the right question to ask. Just don’t say it out loud quite yet.
If you work in an office where assumptions pass as facts, you have a terrific opportunity to differentiate…
1Feb2011 | Steve George | 0 comments | ContinuedSmall Business Fundamentals
Small business owners and leaders must wear many hats. With fewer employees than a big company, they are closer to the action, their days filled with pivotal moments when decisions must be made and steps taken that could alter the fortunes of their company.
In such a challenging environment, it helps to have a management system that can guide your decisions and support the steps you take. The Baldrige model provides such a framework.
Twenty-two small businesses have won the Baldrige Award, including three in 2010. While a company may have up to 500 employees to qualify for the small business category, several winners have had fewer than 100 including Stoner, the smallest company ever to win. Stoner had 43 employees when it received the Baldrige Award in 2003.
I worked with Custom Research, which had 75 employees at the time, when it won the Award in 1996. I remember the tension that the Baldrige framework created by requiring formal processes in a few key places, like strategic planning, where informal approaches had served the company well. Custom Research strengthened its processes and, to the Baldrige program’s credit, Baldrige examiners received specific training on how to better evaluate small businesses.
The small business leader who is looking for a proven approach to building a strong, sustainable, high-performing company should consider integrating the Baldrige model. It can help:
- Define the roles of senior leaders and improve communication, accountability, and performance
- Clarify what factors should be considered when planning for the near and long-term future
- Get everyone the same…
The Universality of the Baldrige Model
Any organization of any size or type can integrate the Baldrige model. It wasn’t always that way.
When the Baldrige program started, the Criteria reflected the quality movement in manufacturing. While service organizations could apply for the Award, few had similar experience with quality management. They had trouble relating the Criteria to their businesses. It took three years for the first service company, FedEx, to win the Award.
The Criteria evolved. With the feedback of experienced examiners, NIST made the Criteria more “user-friendly” for service companies and then, in the mid-90s, for small businesses. In this decade, the Criteria have become relevant for healthcare and education and then for nonprofits and government agencies.
Today, every organization can integrate the Baldrige model. Scan the lists of state award winners if you need evidence of that (click here to find their Web sites). And it’s not just every organization in the United States: International programs based on the Baldrige model demonstrate its universality (click here to find out more).
Every organization likes to think it’s unique—at some level, it is—but on the key factors that affect organizational performance, it doesn’t matter what you do. A manufacturer can learn how to improve strategic planning from a medical center. A school district can learn how to manage processes from a small business. A nonprofit can learn how to engage employees from a service company. It’s not even that big a stretch.
What makes this possible is the Baldrige model, which asks the same questions, in the same language (most of the…
5Nov2009 | Steve George | 0 comments | Continued
