Posted by Dawn Marie Bailey Not too long ago, I did some research into the publicly available award application summaries of Baldrige Award recipients in the health care category on how they built community health (that’s item 1.2c in the Health Care Criteria for Performance Excellence). The research is inspiring. These health care organizations are able to provide role-model services and operations and care for their communities, too. Here are just some examples: 2009 Baldrige Award winner AtlantiCare partners with schools, businesses, and other stakeholders to counter drug use, gangs, and other harmful activities, and its Center for Community Health partners with schools, businesses, and other stakeholders to improve overall community well-being and to promote children’s nutrition and fitness. Examples include immunization of school-aged children, two federally designated Weed and Seed programs, gun buy-back programs, seminars, mobile health programs and services, screenings, and a program designed to address childhood obesity managed through the local school systems. As one of two safety net hospitals in its region, AtlantiCare’s medical center annually provides about 90 percent of the free medical care to people in need. Further, at the time it received the Baldrige Award, AtlantiCare provided nonhospital charity care through three Mission Healthcare facilities, with growth in patient visits from 8,277 in 2004 to 26,032 in 2008.   2007 Baldrige Award winner Mercy Health System founded the House of Mercy Homeless Center to help the growing number of emergency room patients who had been listing the family car as their primary address. The only shelter of its kind operated by a health system, the House of Mercy can shelter up to 25 women and children for 30 days at a time. Since its inception (through 2007), the center has provided shelter for more than 3,800 individuals, including 1,900 children. Further, at the time it received the Baldrige Award, Mercy annually provided more than $32 million in uncompensated care and free services to local communities; it also sponsors health screenings, community education classes, and other activities designed to meet community needs.   2011 Baldrige Award winner Henry Ford Health System (HFHS) supports and strengthens underserved communities through (1) its School-Based and Community Health Program, which takes primary and preventive care to Detroit classrooms; (2) the Institute on Multicultural Health, which provides research on health and health care ethnic and racial disparities, coordination of the Healthcare Equity Campaign, and community-based health screenings and education; (3) a partnership with the Detroit Wayne County Health Authority to facilitate care coordination and enhance efficiencies; and (4) SandCastles, which offers open-ended grief support for children and families suffering the loss of a loved one. In addition, HFHS supports more than 150 organizations that contribute to the overall health and wellness of its community, including YMCA’s school-based "Early Bird Fun and Fitness" program to provide Detroit Public School students with opportunities for physical exercise after the school system cut such programming. These are truly inspirational examples of how to build community health. What examples have you seen? Also, how might you use Baldrige application summaries to search for role-model practices in other areas?

Posted by Christine Schaefer Photo by Pat Hilton Anyone who is new to Baldrige—and takes a look inside a Criteria for Performance Excellence booklet for the first time—can see right away that there is a lot to learn! But Baldrige performance improvement practitioners around the world tell beginners that it will be worth the benefits to your organization’s performance to learn more. Here are seven ways to get started: 1. Scan the questions in the Organizational Profile (available online as a free download from our Web site and on page 4 in the 2013-2014 Criteria for Performance Excellence booklet), and see if you can answer them. Discussing the answers to these questions might be your first Baldrige self-assessment. 2. Study the 11 Criteria core values and concepts: visionary leadership, customer-driven excellence, organizational and personal learning, valuing workforce members and partners, agility, focus on the future, managing for innovation, management by fact, societal responsibility, focus on results and creating value, and systems perspective. (See page 37 in the 2013-2014 Criteria for Performance Excellence booklet for detailed descriptions). These beliefs and behaviors are embedded in the Baldrige Criteria and found in high-performing organizations. Consider how your organization measures up in relation to the core values. Are there any improvements you should be making? 3. Answer the questions in the titles of the 17 Criteria items to reach a basic understanding of the Criteria and your organization’s performance. 4. Look at the Criteria category titles, item titles, and area-to-address headings to see a simple outline of a holistic performance management system. See if you are considering all of these dimensions in establishing your leadership system and measuring performance. If you need more explanation, read the questions that follow the headings. 5. Use the Criteria and their supporting material as a general resource on organizational performance improvement. Use the content in this booklet and online as a source of ideas about improving your organization. The material may help you think in a different way or give you a fresh frame of reference. 6. Attend the Quest for Excellence® or a Baldrige regional conference. These events highlight the role-model approaches of Baldrige Award recipients, which have used the Criteria to improve performance, innovate, and achieve world-class results. Workshops on Baldrige self-assessment are often offered in conjunction with these conferences. 7. Consider becoming a Baldrige examiner. Examiners receive valuable training and gain experience in understanding and applying the Criteria that they can use within their own organizations. See the Alliance for Performance Excellence for contact information for your state, local, or sector-specific program and "Become an Examiner" for information on the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Board of Examiners. Related blog posts to come: "Baldrige Self-Assessment: Seven Ways to Get Started" and "Baldrige Self-Assessment: Seven Steps for a Full Examination"

Posted by Dawn Marie Bailey "Good people make us great; we cannot afford not to make that investment," said Jami Lummus, human resources manager at MESA, a 2012 Baldrige Award recipient. The small business, which designs, manufactures, and installs cathodic protection systems that control the corrosion of metal surfaces in underground and submerged structures,  considers being a great place to work a core competency-a strategically important capability that is central to fulfilling its mission and providing an advantage in the marketplace. So how does it find and invest in those good people and ensure that its workplace is one where people want to stay? Here are some ideas that I gleaned from MESA . (1) Recruit the right people. MESA is looking for people who are capable of learning and improving. "We want people who can see the possibilities and the problems. No whiners," said Lummus. "We want our environment to be happy and fun-a happy place to spend their time. We are looking for someone who comes to work with a smile and is ready to take on whatever comes." (2) Show employees how special they are to the company’s success. For all employees, MESA contributes 25% of pretaxed profits to a profit-sharing plan that is distributed once a year. In addition, an annual salary review for each position ensures that MESA is offering competitive salary and benefits. Each new employee, regardless of position, comes to MESA’s Tulsa, Oklahoma, headquarters for his/her initial orientation, going door-to-door to meet teammates. "We want people to know how excited we are to have them," said Lummus. As part of the orientation, new employees also meet with the organization’s president and the leadership team to learn about different areas of the business. Follow-up is done after 90 days and again after six months. "Orientation is not a one-day event," said Lummus, "but an ongoing process that needs facilitation." (3) Work as a team. It’s "one for all, all for one" at the small business, said Lummus, and the MESA team has a name: One MESA. Lummus added that the organization knows clearly that it is "not looking for lone rangers who want to take all the credit and make all the decisions. We want team players who want to come together and win as a team." The One MESA culture is defined with the words "honest, intelligent, positive attitude, appreciate team environments." (4) Encourage and guarantee learning and growth. The leadership team gives each employee a performance development plan that is continually revisited and revised as necessary, with established career paths so that everybody knows the next step on their path. This development plan also serves as a framework for training. All of MESA’s training links back to the corporate strategic plan and employees’ goals. Annually, $2,000 per employee is spent on training, and tuition is reimbursed at 100% if the training applies to the position, with the goal that MESA doesn’t just want to spend money on training but wants to develop employees’ capabilities, said Lummus. (5) Provide people with the right tools and training. CFO/COO Cary Hill said that some jobs within the pipeline industry are hard, in difficult conditions, with employees away from families for long lengths of time. "We do everything we can to provide people with the right tools and training, and integrate everyone into the One MESA culture as quickly as possible," he said. "Before we do anything, we make sure [the job] is safe," said Lummus. "This goes back to our people. We value them above all else." (6) Plan strategically. But sustaining a great place to work in an industry with hard conditions and retaining high performers are not always easy. "Our biggest challenge is people, quite simply," said Lummus. "We are pretty picky. We want someone who will be part of One MESA, who shares our beliefs and values." A shortage of talent and a  high turnover rate led MESA to develop a People Strategic Plan that covers sourcing, recruiting, and hiring; onboarding and indoctrination; strategic training; knowledge management; and talent management. In addition, succession planning is done for all leadership and key positions, and includes preparation for contingencies and cross training. "Our most effective resource for finding people is within our own walls," said Lummus. Some 20% of MESA’s employees are hired from within through mentoring and training. Employee referrals are solicited, and no nepotism policy exists. Lummus said recently MESA hired a set of brothers and the son of an employee. "A collection of families makes up the One MESA family," she added. Added Lummus, "I remember a time when people had one job and that’s where they retired. That idea of job security no longer exists in our environment. The idea of a stable job with no growth and no movement no longer exists, but at MESA we do everything possible to remove those fears [of job insecurity]. We treat people as if they were family, and at MESA they are. In 30 years, we have never laid off an employee." What type of environment have you created for your employees?

Using the language and implementing the core values of the Baldrige Criteria is a way of doing business for Robert Ellison from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral, FL.  As Chief of the Technical Management Division, Safety & Mission Assurance Directorate, he has been using terms like integration, partnerships, stakeholders, and strategic planning both as a Baldrige Examiner and a NASA civil servant. NASA Kennedy Space Center with Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) and mobile launcher in view Rob has been involved with quality and safety in multiple capacities at KSC.  He was a Baldrige Examiner for three years (1999-2001), challenged by then-Center Director Roy Bridges to go above and beyond ISO 9000 by becoming a Baldrige Examiner.  Three and one half years ago Rob became a Division Chief of the Integration Division, Safety & Mission Assurance Directorate (S & MA) after serving as the KSC Quality Discipline lead for four years. Rob reports to Russell Romanella (S & MA Director) who reports to Robert Cabana, KSC Director. According to Russell, Rob has significantly helped influence the leadership and strategic structure that is in place today. It turns out that both Baldrige and NASA / KSC have experienced several major changes since FY 2011.  First, there was a huge drop in funding level.  Second, a decrease in workforce and staffing levels.  Third, there is an ongoing need for shifts in business strategic planning.  Fourth, tasks that were government-only have changed to partial, if not complete, cost recovery. Fifth, use of the Baldrige Criteria concepts to drive success despite the first four. Leadership: Vision, Values and Mission While I was at the 2013 CQSDI Conference, S & MA Director Russell Romanella talked about the changes in NASA; "A new way of doing business for a new generation of explorers". This "new way of doing business" sounded familiar to me with the recent changes in Baldrige, so I thought I would explore this topic more thoroughly by interviewing Rob who is another annual CQSDI attendee. Rob sees this "new way of doing business" at his level as a partnering with commercial companies to enable commercial space exploration and help maintain Center infrastructure. NASA leadership wants to get out of the business of low-Earth orbit and explore the farther reaches of solar system via Rover-type vehicles and satellites around Mars and Pluto and eventually human exploration. The President has challenged NASA to visit an asteroid past Mars or capture a small asteroid and put it in a cislunar (space between the earth and the moon) orbit and send a crew to visit it within the next 10 years and KSC will be a key part of these efforts. Mars Science Lab launch with Curiosity Rover ; November 26, 2011 Strategic Planning: Strategy Considerations Kennedy Space Center is a part of the "Similar—Smaller Agency" NASA strategy.   What are the program changes that are driving strategic planning and action plan deployment? Perhaps the most dramatic change to a program for KSC was ending of the Shuttle missions.  As Rob explains, now the challenge is to find new purposes for entities and take advantage of one of their organizational environment assets to enable commercial space enterprises.  For example, the Shuttle Landing Facility at KSC is no longer needed by KSC but offers unique features such as an extra-wide runway and extra length, and its location at Cape Canaveral does not interfere with major air traffic.  So through a Request For Proposal (RFP), KSC selected Space Florida in a partnership agreement to maintain and operate the Shuttle Landing Facility.  This agreement will continue to expand Kennedy’s viability as a multi-user spaceport and strengthen the economic opportunities for Florida and the nation. Another challenge is the major funding uncertainty.  NASA’s budget is decided by Congress every fiscal year.  How do you plan and manage major projects in that dynamic environment?  Rob answers that this is a part of the space business and projects must have a base level of support or the program will be cancelled.  KSC always has to build in contingencies and alternatives based on the different levels of funding that may occur, and any project is subject to cancellation.  He stated as an example that the James Webb Space Telescope was almost cancelled a year ago, but the Maryland Congressional delegation interceded because it is being built at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD and Congress desires to continue astronomical science after the Hubble Telescope. Is there a challenge of other sites that are in the launch business?  Do you plan to compete for launches (such as Wallops, Vandenberg, Kazakhstan)? It goes back to knowing your mission. Rob reports that we are developing our own capability to launch our US crews to the International Space Station vs. using and paying for Russian launch vehicles but we don’t see it as a competition. Science and research are NASA’s mission not launches of commercial satellites, but KSC does help US commercial companies compete in the world market. Workforce Environment The ending of the Shuttle Program has had major impacts not only at Kennedy Space Center but also in the Brevard County, Florida area. Unemployment has approached 18%; restaurants and schools have closed and many people have left to pursue job opportunities.  However, he said that NASA "had done a phenomenal job to handle it ".  With a 3-year notice it was going to happen the fear was that too many people would begin to leave, and there would be insufficient support for the final Shuttle missions.  The problem was recognized by Congress and financial incentives were provided so that aerospace workers would stay with the United Space Alliance (contractor for Shuttle Support).  In Rob’s words, NASA KSC "not only were able to retain critical skills to the end of the Program but we also really helped and promoted their workforce" by bringing in companies and sponsoring job fairs for "this amazing workforce." Workers in front of Shuttle Endeavor before being placed on 747 to Los Angeles; September 14, 2012 Safety for KSC personnel is integrated into design considerations from the beginning.  It has to be, as Rob reports.  With 10 NASA centers; (Ames Research Center, Dryden Flight Research Center, Glenn Research Center, Goddard Space Flight Center, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Johnson Space Center, Kennedy Space Center, Langley Research Center, Marshall Space Flight Center, and Stennis Space Center), payloads can come from many sources such as deep space probes from Goddard Space Flight Center and JPL.  By partnering with other NASA centers, KSC can learn the specifications (fuel type, for example) and can therefore ensure that any vehicle being sent to launch from their facility is safe for KSC employees to handle and prepare. GOES-P for NOAA launching on a Delta IV from KSC; March 4, 2010 Customer-Focused Results: Customer Engagement Rob sees that NASA’s customers are the American taxpayer and Congress.  Rob reports that outreach and Congressional reporting are the function of NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC; nevertheless KSC can claim its share of customer engagement with the recent retirement of the shuttles and each one traveling to its permanent home causing major sensations in the public and the media.  Photos of the shuttles passing by major landmarks (the Capitol, the Statue of Liberty) and videos of Endeavour’s travel through Los Angeles generated half a million views on YouTube alone. Thanks to Robert Ellison for his service as a Baldrige Examiner and for taking the time to answer questions for this interview. NASA Kennedy Space Center’s focus on the future, agility, and visionary leadership take advantage of its unique capabilities to continue its mission for many generations to come. Children waving flags as Shuttle Atlantis passes by on trip to KSC exhibit; November 2, 2012 Perhaps you are not in the rocket launch business, but have you used your Baldrige experience to manage major change in your organization?

Posted by Dawn Marie Bailey The community is where we live, where we work, where we shop, where our kids go to school, where we seek health care, where we volunteer for or receive services from nonprofits. Who wouldn’t want community organizations to strive for excellence, even for general improvement? In Missouri, three communities are doing just that. They are learning together, in community-based groups, how to improve processes and customer service; increase innovation; and simply take their companies, hospitals, and schools to the next level of improvement. The foundation for the learning: the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence. A few weeks ago, just under 100 people gathered for an inaugural event in Kansas City-the founding of a Missouri Baldrige Community of Excellence group to focus on how to improve community organizations through use of the Baldrige Criteria. But this community-based sharing for improvement was not the first of its kind in the state. According to Dr. Raina Knox, president of the Excellence in Missouri Foundation, the Kansas City group is building off the success of groups in Columbia and the Lake of the Ozarks, MO. So what’s in it for the community? What can the Baldrige Criteria and their associated tools and products do for community members? "Adopting Baldrige principles has helped our health system improve processes and customer service, build teams, and increase innovation. It just makes sense to encourage other area employers, including area school districts, to join us in this effort," said Mike Henze, chief executive officer of Lake Regional Health System. "Together, we are building a stronger community through the Baldrige Community of Excellence." Lake Regional Hospital is the founding member of the Community of Excellence group at the Lake of the Ozarks. The Community of Excellence concept in the state was formed in 2010 when the Excellence in Missouri Foundation issued the first charter for a community-based group to the Columbia chapter. The founding member for the first chapter was Midway USA, a 2009 Baldrige Award recipient. The concept, said Knox, is to form geographically related groups in a chapter format for the purpose of supporting Baldrige efforts and providing education and networking opportunities for organizations in all stages of their Baldrige journey. Membership to the chapter is provided via membership in the Excellence in Missouri Foundation. The groups meet monthly, bi-monthly, or quarterly based on the needs of the chapter members. The foundation provides speakers on a quarterly basis; the chapters fill in with other events or speakers if they wish to meet more often than quarterly. A future planned enhancement to the program will be to form sector-based groups to address the unique needs of each sector. The purpose of the community-based groups is to provide an opportunity for organizations interested in Baldrige to meet with others with similar interests and to provide a community group with learning as a key component. The intended outcomes include increased adoption of the Baldrige Criteria and increased numbers of organizations applying at the state and national levels. The feedback received from these applications will allow the organizations to continue to improve their performance. Gary Rettman, president of Webco Manufacturing, Inc., the founding member of the Kansas City group, said, "Webco Manufacturing is beginning our Baldrige journey because we are ready to take our company to the next level. We selected Baldrige because it is the next step above ISO 9000 certification and encompasses more than product quality. It is organization-wide excellence. As we strive to be the best medium-sized company in America, we have selected Baldrige as the map for our journey. The national award is a great achievement for any organization, but our primary reason is to improve our company." Knox added, "We’ve seen a significant increase in and awareness of Baldrige through the formation of the Baldrige Community of Excellence Groups. Members have the opportunity to attend the meetings of their home group and to attend the meetings of other groups. The success of the Columbia, MO, chapter has served as a great example of the success of community-based events. I encourage anyone interested in the concept of forming a chapter in their community to call us. We can help those in our service areas, or can provide information and refer them to our peer state programs for assistance." Think your community’s organizations could benefit from Baldrige-based improvement?Knox said the Excellence in Missouri Foundation invites anyone interested to attend meetings in Columbia, Lake of the Ozarks, or Kansas City, MO. They also can email her at raina.knox@excellenceinmo.org or call the foundation offices at 573-659-1234 for more information on setting up their own Community of Excellence in their own state. The national Baldrige Program also has a wealth of information on getting started with the Baldrige Criteria. Could your community’s organizations use some improvement?

Posted by Christine Schaefer "Remember, agility is one of our core values!" That’s how a co-worker wrapped up the news of our organization’s planned migration to a new software suite for e-mail and other communication systems. This is how some of us may have translated that message: "Turbulence ahead!" Sure enough, after the installation of the new computer programs, I hit a bump or two in navigating the different ways of communicating. But with the benefit of training resources and troubleshooting support, I soon made a successful migration. I suppose I would have been less comfortable learning to navigate the new systems if my view of the conversion wasn’t tempered by an appreciation of change as a constant in today’s organizations in every sector—and of employee flexibility as essential to high performance. Still, can any amount of emphasis on the value of agility—or any of the other ten Criteria core values—ever prepare employees to wholeheartedly, surefootedly embrace workplace changes that appear to be frontloaded with challenges? To be sure, I consider agility both a professional and a personal core value. It recently helped me survive until the end of my first 90-minute Bikram yoga class. "I’m building agility," I reminded myself, trying to pay scant attention to the indicators that I may have lost most of my body weight in sweat in the 105-degree room. "These people are agile," I mused, shaking the simultaneous observation that the rectangular mats hosting preternaturally stretched bodies around me were spaced in a grid precisely like graves. Still, my commitment to agility paid off: for after the point at which my pores became, in effect, broken water mains, my muscles stopped arguing against their limits and my bones ceased to press painfully into my organs. I had reached a new level of agility: I had melted into a puddle on my mat. And since the towel I brought was too small to absorb me, fortunately, I’m now reconstituted and more agile than ever. Such agility-testing experiences have led me to dream up some Dilbert-like scenarios in which the 11 performance-enhancing beliefs and behaviors that are foundational to the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence might be viewed in a new (unfavorable but humorous) light. Here are a few of those comical examples I consider safe enough to share publicly (you can test that assumption by coming back here to see if I’m ever allowed to blog again for the Baldrige Program): Criteria Core Value/Concept                           When to Invoke It Agility: When a manager expects that coming changes are going to rile the workforce Visionary leadership: When a CEO appears to have made a series of short-term blunders Customer-driven excellence: When a new policy is making employees’ jobs much harder (and at least one customer requested the change) Managing for innovation: When a supervisor needs to pry a process away from a change-resistant lead who has long ensured its inefficiency Management by fact: When the boss has solid data to support an unpopular decision I’ll save the other six Baldrige core values for anyone who wishes to continue in a similar light-hearted vein: organizational and personal learning, valuing workforce members and partners, focus on the future, societal responsibility, focus on results and creating value, and systems perspective. And to end this blog on a positive note—and one of the few completely serious things I’ve written so far—I remind you that these interrelated Baldrige core values are embedded in and demonstrated by high-performing organizations such as the Baldrige Award recipients. All kidding aside, these key concepts are, as described in the Criteria, "the foundation for integrating key performance and operational requirements within a results-oriented framework that creates a basis for action, feedback, and sustainability."

Posted by Dawn Marie Bailey What’s in a word? And I’m thinking of a particular word, of course, "Baldrige." If your organization has adopted the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence and begun exploring their Core Values and items, do you say you do "Baldrige" or do you simply embed them in the way you do business? I learned that for the 2012 Baldrige Award recipients, the Baldrige Criteria and their concepts are embedded but not necessarily named outright. For example, at North Mississippi Health Services (NMHS), the Baldrige Criteria are weaved into the Physician Leadership Institute, which is designed to provide partner physicians with leadership training, personal development, and management/strategic planning skills, according to Mark Williams, NMHS’s chief medical officer. At every gathering of the institute physicians, the Baldrige Criteria are discussed through exploration of critical success factors to the physicians’ work. In addition, institute participants also discuss servant leadership, medical/legal issues, Lean, strategic planning, finance/operations, and other topics-all underpinned by the Baldrige Criteria, said Williams. The City of Irving utilizes a playbook outlining the values of the city, said Max Duplant, the city’s CFO; the playbook uses elements of the Baldrige Criteria, although the word "Baldrige" is not used. However, one city council member recently used the Baldrige Criteria to help explain to other council members where the city was trying to go in making operations more efficient and beneficial for city residents, said Duplant. In addition, city agendas are often focused on the seven different categories of the Criteria to reinforce the city’s continual improvement focus. The City of Irving also has been undergoing a cultural shift in order to be truly high performing, said Police Chief Larry Boyd. The distinctive characteristics of the desired culture can all be found in the Baldrige Criteria: daily practice of the leadership model and values; a focus on customers and the desire to serve them; a focus on the strategic plan, city’s mission, and results; a focus on creating value and improving work processes; and a team culture aligned with the strategic plan. Boyd said to achieve a shift in culture, the city had to overcome resistance. For staff resistance, the city’s leaders had to ensure transparency, open communication, and alignment, especially at the senior leader level. For resistance at the city council, it was important to present the facts; data-driven decisions; timely, transparent communications; and budget-aligned information and presentations. All of these elements, of course, are found in the Baldrige Criteria. At Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control (LMMFC), the entire organization operates with scorecards and measurements, said Steve Sessions, LMMFC’s deputy and director, Supplier Quality Engineering. The scorecards represent a cultural shift that includes a focus on cultural optimization, an increase in business agility (including processes and resources), extensive efforts to mine new opportunities, and a focus on expanding and developing the talent base. MESA doesn’t use the term "Baldrige," said COO/CFO Cary Hill. "To do Baldrige implies something you do in addition to your business," he said. "That’s why we coined the term ‘the MESA Way,’ which is eerily similar to the Baldrige framework. We’ve spent decades weaving  Baldrige concepts into our business model." At NMHS and MESA, discussion of the Organizational Profile is incorporated into employee orientations and town hall meetings. How do you Baldrige?

Posted by Christine Schaefer As a young child, I spent most Sundays visiting my paternal grandmother in a declining inner-city neighborhood of Detroit. By then, the city had already seen large-scale losses of middle-class residents. Many had fled to suburbs that offered better public schools, more reliable services, and safer streets. Over the decade stretching into the 1980s, I watched my grandmother’s well-built bungalow become a virtual jail cell for her. Yet my grandmother met the continual erosion in city services (and correspondingly, in her quality of life) with a ferocious obstinacy. No matter what happened, she would not  abandon the city she had loved in better times—and the home that had witnessed her immigrant family’s years of striving to secure the American dream (through decades of steady earnings from a manufacturing job). So she stayed indoors nearly 24/7 throughout her seventh decade. Redundantly deadbolted doors alone protected her from the pervasive robberies in the area. As family members urged her to move during weekly visits, I became a sentinel in the barred window of the back porch, awaiting the regular backyard parades of ever-more-robust rats scampering to and from a nest down the block. Along their route, the ironically thriving rodents were seemingly cheered by unruly rose bushes—which my aunt had stopped pruning after she was robbed at gunpoint in the driveway. I sometimes wondered about symbols of lost life, such as a charred shoe decaying unburied near the burned-out house next door (which had been rendered uninhabitable by a suspicious fire years before). And I listened for sirens that might signal another movie-like spectacle like the dramatic chase my grandmother had watched. As the story went, an alleged drug dealer reached his home across the street moments before police to flush illegal commodities into the city’s sewer lines. My grandmother could describe the growing pathology of her neighborhood and the city at large with alarming details from her daily observations and reading of the news. But she had no solutions beyond prayer. She had seen enough evidence over several decades to doubt the city government would save any such street from a further descent into blight. Recalling these memories, I was saddened but not surprised by recent news of the impending bankruptcy of the once-prosperous city. I realize my experiences were limited, and that even now there are pockets of hope in the city, for example, in historic neighborhoods with thriving businesses. So I wonder what Detroit might be able to do to leverage strategic advantages it still possesses and make progress toward tackling its colossal challenges. In considering the latest news of Detroit, I have been thinking about the excellent budgetary and other results achieved by two other U.S. cities (Irving, Texas, a 2012 Baldrige Award winner; and Coral Springs, Florida, a 2007 Baldrige Award winner) that have used the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence to improve their performance and become national role models. The Criteria focused them on treating their city governments as businesses—forcing them to consider financial stewardship, strategic priorities, customer engagement, and all the other considerations that must be addressed to keep a business sustainable. While those cities are smaller than Detroit—and their current and past challenges are not necessarily similar—the Criteria for Performance Excellence have been used by organizations of wide-ranging sizes and sectors to improve performance and achieve sustainability. (For examples, see profiles of nonprofit, education, health care, and business organizations on our Web site here and case studies and results in our book Baldrige 20/20.) So I have dreamed recently of the great possibilities of a Baldrige-based transformation in Detroit. What if its leaders were to embark in earnest on a Baldrige journey of improvement? Perhaps the city could begin such a journey by considering how it could adopt and demonstrate the core values of the Baldrige framework for organization-wide performance: visionary leadership, customer-focused excellence, organizational and personal learning, valuing workforce members and partners, agility, a focus on the future, managing for innovation, management by fact, societal responsibility, a focus on results and creating value, and a systems perspective. Next, Detroit could begin using the Baldrige Criteria requirements (which are phrased as self-assessment questions) to consider and improve its approaches to leadership; strategic planning; customer focus; measurement, analysis, and knowledge management; workforce focus; and operations focus (also known as categories 1 through 6). And it could track its results (category 7) in measures of all key processes. While the Baldrige Criteria do not provide for a quick or easy fix, using this framework has helped organizations in every sector of the U.S. economy build management systems that enable them to better serve their customers and other stakeholders and become profitable and sustainable. This is why I believe the Baldrige Criteria can help Detroit remake itself into a steadily improving and higher-performing city. My grandmother, who would be over 100 years old today, is long gone. But in my lifetime, I sure hope to see a Detroit commitment to major change and continuous improvement draw large numbers of new settlers and businesses to help rebuild and diversify the foundations of the municipal economy. And of pressing importance: to see the city be able to improve the quality of education and services for all Detroit residents. Note: Michigan organizations can look to the Michigan Quality Council for expertise and support in improving their performance using the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence (most other states are similarly served by local Baldrige-based programs that are part of the nonprofit Alliance for Performance Excellence network); Detroit also is fortunate to be home to a high-performing role model and national Baldrige Award recipient, Henry Ford Health System.  

Posted by Dawn Marie Bailey When Veterans Affairs (VA) Acting Assistant Secretary Bob Snyder presented trophies to the winners of the Robert W. Carey Performance Excellence award, he didn’t quite know what to expect. (The Carey award is a Baldrige-based program serving organizations within the VA; it is a member of the Alliance for Performance Excellence, which includes other state and sector Baldrige-based awards.) "My trips to Arizona and Tennessee have significantly altered my perspective on the Carey Program," Snyder said. "I did not realize how much this award means to staff and employees at those facilities." This quote really stayed with me. As a Baldrige Program staff member, I’ve also had the privilege of travelling to visit organizations in the running for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award or to talk with staff of organizations who are new to the Baldrige Criteria and just discovering the improvements in store for them. For the staff and employees of these organizations, by beginning a Baldrige improvement effort, there’s pride in that commitment to excellence, that commitment to patients and students, that commitment to missions, and that commitment to just getting better at whatever you do. Winning the Baldrige Award or a Baldrige-based award is simply more than just receiving an award; adopting the Baldrige Criteria means improvements for patients, students, and customers—as well as an engaged staff who really care about their work. Southern Arizona VA Health Care System in Tucson was one of the recent Carey award winners, and staff members celebrated their achievement with a Mariachi band and burrito breakfast. Mountain Home VA Medical Center was the other recent Carey winner, and winning meant so much more than just a new award on a shelf; said Mountain Home Director Charlene Ehret of her excited and engaged staff, ""I think they should be proud that we’re taking care of our nation’s heroes and that we’re providing them the best care anywhere." Similar pride in improvements and achievement can be seen across the military, where the Baldrige-based Army Communities of Excellence (ACOE) recently announced their award winners. According to the U.S. Army Installation Management Command, " The ACOE program is based on the principle that communities support people best by combining excellent services with excellent facilities in a quality environment. . . .  Soldiers who are convinced that their leaders care about them and their families perform their mission with more confidence." There are many, many more stories of engaged staff and happy customers, patients, and students honored by the Baldrige Program and the Baldrige-based programs across the Alliance for Performance Excellence. Check out the award winners in your state and nationally, and see just how much a commitment to improvements gleaned from adoption of the Baldrige Criteria means to them. Could your workforce find the same pride and engagement in your own Baldrige improvement initiatives?

Posted by Christine Schaefer Ready to assess your organization’s performance using an approach based on the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence? It’s easy to get started! Here are seven ways any organization (large, mid-size, and relatively small, and in business, nonprofit, health care, or education sectors alike) can begin a Baldrige-based self-assessment: 1.       Learn what your employees and senior leaders think. Distribute copies of the Are We Making Progress? and Are We Making Progress as Leaders? questionnaires, which are available as PDF files for free downloading from our Web site. Both surveys contain 40 questions organized by the seven categories of the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence framework. Having your leadership team complete the latter survey and your workforce members complete the former—and then comparing the groups’ responses can help you check your progress on organizational goals and improve communication between senior leaders and workforce members. 2.       Identify gaps in your understanding of your organization and compare your organization with others using easyInsight: Take a First Step toward a Baldrige Self-Assessment. This assessment tool is based on the Organizational Profile. 3.    Complete the Organizational Profile, two sets of questions about your organization’s characteristics (environment and relationships) and strategic situation (competitive environment, strategic context, and performance improvement system). Have the members of your leadership team answer the questions. If you identify topics for which you have conflicting, little, or no information, you can use these topics for action planning. For many organizations, this approach serves as a first Baldrige self-assessment. As a bonus, since this profile consists of the first two items of the Criteria for Performance Excellence (known as P.1 and P.2), you’ll have begun a Baldrige Award application when you’re done! 4.       Use the full set of Criteria questions as a personal guide to everything that is important in leading your organization. You may discover blind spots that you have not considered or areas where you should place additional emphasis. 5.       Review the scoring guidelines (see pages 32-33 in the 2013-2014 Criteria for Performance Excellence booklet). They help you assess your organizational maturity, especially when used in conjunction with "Steps toward Mature Processes" (page 30) and "From Fighting Fires to Innovation: An Analogy for Learning" (page 29). 6.       Do a self-assessment of one Criteria category in which you know you need improvement. Answer the individual questions in the category yourself or with leadership team colleagues, referring to the item notes and the Category and Item Commentary (available as a PDF that may be downloaded for free from the Web site) to guide your thoughts. Then assess your strengths and opportunities for improvement, and develop action plans. Remember to build on your strengths as well as tackle your improvement opportunities. Be aware, though, that this kind of assessment does not reveal key linkages between your chosen category and the other Criteria items, and you may lose the systems perspective embodied in the seven integrated Criteria categories. 7.       Have your leadership team assess your organization. At a retreat, have your leadership team develop responses to the seven Criteria categories, and record the responses. Then assess your strengths and opportunities for improvement, and develop action plans. If you already have a copy of the 2013-2014 Criteria for Performance Excellence booklet, you’ll see these seven suggested approaches spelled out near the start (page v). By taking a Baldrige-based approach to self-assessment, your organization—no matter your sector or size—will be on the way to improvement and excellence. Related blog posts: "Baldrige Criteria: Seven Ways to Learn More" and "Baldrige Self-Assessment: Seven Steps for a Full Examination" (to come).