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| Baldrige Award
Why the Baldrige Criteria?
Because nothing can move an organization forward faster than applying the Baldrige Criteria. It is not just the satisfaction of receiving a prestigious award from the President of the United States. It is the improvement that happens from rigorously and uniformly implementing world-class business practices.
The Baldrige framework provides a comprehensive description of an effective organization. The Criteria are based on world-class management practices, and they provide a framework for driving Performance Excellence through organizations already perceived to be high performing.
One of the key characteristics of the Baldrige framework is that it is results-oriented but non-prescriptive. It specifies what areas of your business to focus on, but never tells you what to do. You know your organization best, and these Criteria acknowledge and respect your expertise. They require you to think about aligning your organization to achieve results in the areas that are most important to your business, but don’t tell you how to go about it.
Leading an organization to greatness is a difficult task. If it were easy, every organization would be excellent, and as we know, few are. If your organization is ready for this challenge, there is nothing better to help move you forward and up than the Baldrige Criteria. Baldrige has a long history of helping organizations move from good to great.
Is it worth the effort? We are firm believers that it is. Application of the Baldrige Criteria has significantly changed many of our client organizations for the better, and we have the data to prove it. One example is described in the attached Client Case Study. (View Metalwest Case study.)
What are the Benefits of being a Baldrige applicant or recipient?
According to a survey conducted by Booz-Allen for the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Program Award recipients expressed the following:
- When asked about the benefits or advantages of winning the Baldrige Award, recipients listed the marketing, publicity, and networking that accompany the Award as an overwhelming benefit. One recipient said, "The reward of it all has just been amazing. Being able to share and have validation of what's been happening and being able to reach so many more organizations that have had the same experience.”
- It was clear, however, that the internal advantages of being an Award recipient were equally important, from the improvements in business processes and the corresponding business results, to the pride and morale boost from winning, to the feedback from the site examination process.
- When asked about the difference between organizations that achieve intended results and those that don’t, respondents often cited the Criteria as having shaped their organization’s perspective on the issue. Leadership and strategic alignment were most often mentioned. A results-focused commitment, discipline to plan for the long-term, and commitment to people were also mentioned.
- We estimate that each feedback report we received from the Examiners is worth at least $50,000 in consultant services. That is a good return on investment for the time it takes to write the application.
The Pitfall
Thousands of organizations have used the Criteria for Performance Excellence to assess and improve performance of the critical factors that drive their businesses. Writing a Baldrige Award application is an important step toward improving an organization’s performance.
Many organizations have learned that it can be hard to apply the Criteria without an experienced coach – and even then, a significant time and effort investment is required.
The Solution - BaldrigeCoach.com is ready to help
BaldrigeCoach.com is one of the premier U.S. firms specializing in Performance Excellence. Our primary goal is to help clients achieve significant and sustained performance improvement in order to gain and sustain a competitive advantage in the marketplace. We’ve earned the reputation of developing and implementing innovative methodologies that bring focus and alignment to client organizations to help them become more productive, efficient and profitable.
Based on client results, BaldrigeCoach.com has one of the best track records for working with the Baldrige Criteria of any firm in the United States -- including helping seven companies that received the Baldrige Award and eleven that received State Quality Awards.
Our Client Testimonials - We prefer to let our clients speak for themselves about our contributions.
Overcoming Concerns
Let's deal with a few common concerns:
I really don’t know how to get started. There are several resources to help you learn more about the Performance Excellence Award process. First, go to the Baldrige Award Web site at http://www.baldrige.nist.gov for a copy of the Criteria and a self assessment. Then contact us for a copy of our simple but powerful Baldrige Core Values and Concepts assessment to identify strengths and opportunities for improvement. You may also want to learn best practices from recent Baldrige recipients by attending the Quest for Excellence Conference, held each spring in Washington, D. C. B&A Performance Partners conduct coaching sessions for clients and prospects each night at the Quest.
Writing fifty pages feels like asking me to complete a seven-foot high jump. Start at the state level to get valuable experience. Check to see if your state is one of the forty-one states that have a Performance Excellence Award based on the Baldrige Criteria. Many states like Iowa, Tennessee, and Texas have multiple levels of participation. Some require only a 10 or 15 page application. 29 of the last 38 Baldrige recipients have been recipients of their State Award program. They used their State Award programs as an effective steppingstone to applying for the Baldrige.
Some leaders don't want to submit an application until they believe they can be a winner. Remind them that Xerox found 512 “warts” or major gaps when preparing their application the first year they became a recipient. Raymond Marlow, CEO of Marlow Industries has often stated, "The worst thing about being a recipient the first year is that you miss the annual cycles of refinement that come from being a multi-year applicant."
Playing the Baldrige Game
It is important that your organization learns to write an examiner-friendly application. A well-written application makes it easier for the examiners to award you all the points your organization is entitled to. Often 50 points can make a difference in receiving or not receiving a site visit. Also, when an application is well written, examiners can spend their site visit time on identifying your organization's real strengths and opportunities for improvement. When an application is good enough to receive a site visit but isn't examiner friendly, the examiners spend most of their site visit time trying to figure things out rather than digging into the issues. As a result, the feedback report won't be as useful.
What are the Judges and Examiners looking for? The Judges want to know "What makes this a role model organization? What are they especially good at?" The Examiners want to know “How well does the application score? What are the strengths? Where are the opportunities for improvement? What are the potential site visit issues?”
The trick is to have a good process and results story to tell and to tell it well. Most organizations are focused on their issues and problems that need to be solved. For your application, the trick is to focus on the things you would brag to a potential customer about.
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