Using Baldrige to Lead Change
In its last issue, News for a Change
focused on an analysis of past and anticipated future
trends related to quality and teams. Now, we’re
considering how AQP members and their organizations can
prepare for the future—no matter what it ultimately
may offer.
We feel that one of
the most reliable methods for identifying required
changes is a Baldrige-based self-assessment. So,
let’s take a look at the some of the criteria and
how they can be used to assess performance, set
priorities, and lead change.
Self-Assessment: A
Starting Place
Self-assessment is a
process for comparing your organization’s processes
and results to an accepted standard. Unlike a traditional
audit, which is conducted by an independent evaluator,
self-assessments are conducted by the people involved in
the processes being examined. By comparing existing
processes and results to a standard, such as the Baldrige
criteria, performance gaps can be determined in a
factual, noncritical manner.
The Baldrige criteria
provide a comprehensive set of evaluation questions that
are nationally and internationally accepted and can be
applied flexibly to each unique organization. Using the
Baldrige criteria ensures a systematic approach to
self-assessment because the Baldrige criteria are updated
annually by representatives from a wide cross section of
organizations, which helps them maintain a broad-based
and unbiased perspective. Additionally, networking and
benchmarking are easier because so many organizations use
the Baldrige criteria for
self-assessments.
Self-assessment
should be used as an organizational learning tool. Not
only can it be used to monitor progress, but it also can
serve as a foundation for strategic planning efforts,
helping the organization to focus on its most serious
issues and most significant
opportunities.
The booklet
Getting Started with the Baldrige National Quality
Program Criteria for Performance Excellence: A Guide to
Self-Assessment and Action (which is available at
www.quality.nist.gov)
is provided by NIST and lists the following indicators of
readiness for self-assessment:
- Senior leaders are
aware of the key issues facing your organization and
need communication and employee “buy-in” to
take action.
- Senior leaders
support self-assessment, action, and improvement
initiatives.
- You have talked to
the organization’s opinion leaders to identify
possible objections to self-assessment and action and
their feedback increased your interest in starting the
process.
- A champion for
self-assessment and action is on your leadership
team.
There are many
different approaches for using the Baldrige system for
self-assessment:
- Some organizations
involve all employees in the process; some select
representatives from different locations, functions,
and/or levels of the organization; and others rely on a
small group, such as an expert
panel.
- Some organizations
look at the whole enterprise during the process, some
examine segments of the organization independently and
summarize the findings to get an overall perspective,
and others encourage individual work units and/or
project teams to conduct self-assessments without any
compilation across the
organization.
- Some organizations
begin by addressing only the information in the
organizational profile, some tackle one category at a
time over a period of time, and others evaluate all the
categories at once.
- Some organizations
follow the process used by Baldrige applicants and
examiners, some use facilitated discussions to reach
consensus, and others use survey
instruments.
Regardless of the
approach chosen, the key is in selecting an approach that
will provide credible findings within your
organization—one that people at all levels of the
organization will accept and be willing to
address.
A 10-step process for
self-assessment is described in the booklet as
follows:
- Identify the
boundaries of the organization to be
assessed.
- Select seven
champions, one for each category in the
criteria.
- Decide on the
format for and scope of your self-assessment and action
plan.
- Have the
organizational profile prepared by senior leaders and
champions.
- Practice
self-assessment techniques with the seven category
champions.
- Select category
teams and prepare a response for the assigned
items.
- Share responses
among teams and finalize findings to identify strengths
and gaps.
- Prioritize key
strengths and opportunities for
improvement.
- Develop and
implement an action plan for
improvement.
- Evaluate and
improve your self-assessment and action planning
process.
Organizational
Profile: Identifying Your Unique Business
Situation
One of the most
useful design features of the Baldrige system is the fact
that it is not prescriptive; every organization chooses
its own processes for addressing the key areas of the
holistic business model. For a self-assessment to
succeed, however, the evaluators must be able to reach
agreement on which processes are effective and which need
improvement. Some process needs to be used to provide an
analytical platform that uniquely fits the
organization.
The organizational
profile was designed for that purpose. It asks questions
that make it possible for an organization to summarize
its key business requirements, including competitive
pressures.
No matter what
self-assessment approach your organization chooses to
use, your interests will be served best by taking the
time to prepare the organizational profile first. An
added benefit of preparing the organizational profile is
that it can help your leaders document the key business
requirements that exist, so they can be shared with all
members of the organization and other
stakeholders.
The organizational
profile documents the key influences on how your
organization operates and the key challenges it faces,
including the environment, relationships, and challenges
that exist now and are expected to exist in the future.
These provide a context for the organization, affecting
its business results’ requirements and the
processes it uses to achieve those results. There are two
portions to the organizational profile: the
organizational description and the organizational
challenges.
Here is a summary of
the areas to be addressed in the organizational profile
from the Baldrige National Quality Program 2002
Criteria for Performance Excellence (which are
available in their entirety at www.quality.nist.gov).
Organizational
Description
- Main
products/services and how they are delivered to
customers.
- Vision, mission,
and values.
- Educational level,
diversity, bargaining units, contract employees, and
safety requirements.
- Technologies,
equipment, and facilities.
- Regulations—occupational health and safety,
accreditation, environmental, financial, and
product.
- Key customers
and/or market segments.
- Suppliers’,
dealers’, and supply chain
requirements.
Organizational
Challenges
- Competitive
position, size, and growth in
industry.
- Factors that
determine success relative to
competitors.
- Strategic
challenges, such as operations, human resources,
business, and global issues.
- Performance
improvement focus and organizational learning and
knowledge sharing.
Specific Categories:
Determining Acceptability of Your Processes and
Results
The Baldrige model
for performance excellence is divided into seven
categories, six that deal with the organization’s
processes and one with its results, as
follows:
- leadership,
- strategic
planning,
- customer and market
focus,
- information and
analysis,
- human resource
focus,
- process management,
and
- business
results.
A comprehensive
self-assessment involves evaluating all seven categories,
but it is not uncommon for organizations or business
units within organizations to evaluate a sub-set of
categories—generally one of the process areas and
its associated results.
The process
categories are evaluated based on the approach used and
the level of deployment, using the following
questions:
Approach
- How well do the
organization’s methods, tools, and techniques fit
the requirements?
- Do these methods,
tools, and techniques used by the organization ensure
that key customer requirements and key operational
requirements are addressed?
- Are these methods,
tools, and techniques repeatable, integrated, and
consistently applied?
- Are these methods,
tools, and techniques regularly evaluated and improved,
building cycles of learning?
- Are these methods,
tools, and techniques based on reliable information and
data?
- Are these methods,
tools, and techniques
prevention-based?
- Do these methods,
tools, and techniques fit the organization’s
environment, relationships, and
challenges?
- Do these methods,
tools, and techniques incorporate approaches or
adaptations that have been proven in other applications
or types of businesses?
Deployment
- For every
requirement from the criteria that is pertinent to your
business context and performance, does your
organization have methods, tools, and/or techniques in
place?
- Are these methods,
tools, and techniques used as designed by all work
units, locations, employees, and suppliers/partners
when intended?
- Are these methods,
tools, and techniques used as designed for all products
and services for which they were
intended?
- Are these methods,
tools, and techniques used as designed for all
transactions and interactions with customers,
suppliers/partners, the public, and other key
stakeholders for which they were
intended?
Business results are
evaluated quite differently. Actual performance is
compared to selected internal and external references and
both its level and trend are taken into account. Here are
the questions used to assess
results:
- Does the current
level of performance ensure that key customer
requirements and key operational requirements are
achieved?
- How does the
current level of performance compare to organizational
goals, industry standards, competitive performance, and
other benchmarks?
- What rate of
improvement is being
achieved?
- How long have the
results been improving?
- How widespread are
the improvement trends?
It’s important
to remember that the answers to these questions must be
evaluated in context to the information identified in the
organizational profile. Additionally, the following
questions should be considered when assessing
results:
- Are the outcomes
related to the important customer, market, process, and
action plan performance requirements identified in the
organizational profile achieving the targeted
levels?
- Are the outcomes
related to the important customer, market, process, and
action plan performance requirements identified in the
organizational profile
improving?
- Does a cause and
effect relationship exist between the methods, tools,
and techniques used and the organization’s
outcomes? In other words, is there evidence that the
methods, tools, and techniques used are directly
responsible for the outcomes
achieved?
Although it’s
possible to assign specific scores during the assessment,
this may bring out a competitive spirit in some
assessors—particularly in initial assessments.
Instead, the focus should be on reaching agreement on the
findings—the strengths and opportunities for
improvement—not on defending current practices and
results. The use of facts and data, such as flow diagrams
and trend charts, can enhance the decision-making process
greatly, aiding in building consensus. When the
self-assessment provides a set of findings that can be
accepted without debate, it is much more likely to
provide a platform for change.
Setting Priorities:
Putting the Assessment to Use
Once your
organization has identified its strengths and
opportunities for improvement, it can begin to prioritize
them. Leaders can determine which require the most
immediate action and how much effort should be put into
them. People can be assigned and resources can be
allocated. Because the assessment is based on the
organization’s key requirements, the priorities
that are set should enable progress against the strategic
plan and achievement of the mission and
vision.
Subsequent
assessments can check to see if the actions taken
resulted in better findings, creating an upward
improvement trend. Decisions can be made on where to
continue current efforts, where to implement new efforts,
and where to discontinue
efforts.
In the end, this
cyclical process can provide a highly effective method
for identifying required changes and determining how
effectively they’ve been designed and implemented.
The assessment findings can be used as justification for
the planned changes and the organizational profile
information can help develop a shared view of the
organization’s direction and challenges. These are
just a few of the reasons that so many U.S. organizations
rely on Baldrige-based self-assessments to help them lead
change effectively.
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