Perspective

Ask an organization how good they are, and they will tell you they are above average. But the truth is, when you measure an organization’s sustained performance in comparison to their peers, less than 20% are above average, 60% are average, and the rest are in serious trouble. And that status is constantly changing because we operate in a dynamic, competitive global marketplace.

High performing organizations are different. They have an effective performance management system that has the capacity and capability to achieve and sustain high performance.

Every organization has a performance management system.  Often, this system is misunderstood, and has serious gaps.  You can put great people in a bad system and the system will win every time.  So, what is your organization’s performance management system?  How well do you understand your system, and how it operates?  What are its’ strengths, and what urgently needs improvement?  Where do you find great examples of high performing organizations?

Established in 1987, the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award is the highest level of recognition that a U.S.-based organization can receive for performance excellence.  The award has evolved from a focus on manufacturing quality to a comprehensive focus on overall competitiveness in all sectors of the U.S. economy, including service, manufacturing, government, non-profit, healthcare and education.

The Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence provides a comprehensive framework for organizations that want to become high-performing.  The Criteria are updated every two years, and represent the leading edge of validated best management practices.

However, many organizations that begin participating in the Baldrige national award process or a Baldrige-based state award process find that the process is complex.  There is so much to learn and apply that they become frustrated and overwhelmed.

Some organizations overcome these challenges, make a few improvements, and begin achieving some early performance gains.  However, their organizational culture resists the change, and short-term gains are lost.

The Better with Baldrige Process

Bracken and Associates created the Better with Baldrige process to provide customized solutions for organizations that want to transform and improve their performance, but either do not want to, or are not ready to apply for an award.

This Baldrige-based organizational assessment and consulting process helps organizations unlock the power of their performance management system, and achieve and sustain measurable performance improvement.

The process focuses on your organization’s entire performance management system so that performance can improve in all key areas of your performance scorecard such as profitability, return-on-investment, market share, customer satisfaction, productivity, quality, cycle time, cost, employee satisfaction, and employee engagement.

Here is how the process works:
 

There are three options to choose from.  Each option can be further customized to meet your unique needs and requirements.

1.  Better with Baldrige Fundamentals Process – This is designed for organizations that want to provide their senior leaders and key people an opportunity to become familiar with the Baldrige process. It is a low risk, low cost way to become acquainted with the overall process, gain valuable perspective and insight about the basic strengths and weaknesses of your organization’s performance management system, and prepare a specific one-year Improvement Action Plan.

2.  Better with Baldrige Intensive Process – This process is ideal for organizations that may already have some familiarity with the Baldrige process or a related performance improvement method, and achieved some measurable improvements. Senior leadership is now ready to engage the entire organization in a more advanced assessment, action planning and improvement process, and take their organizational performance to the next level.

3.  Better with Baldrige Comprehensive Process – These highly customized consulting engagements are intended for organizations that are already committed to a long-term journey of performance excellence, and have demonstrated significant improvement trends in key results areas. They are now ready to conduct an in-depth assessment using the entire set of the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence. This process requires a multi-year commitment to consulting and coaching in order to accelerate culture transformation and achieve sustained measurable performance improvement.

Following is a summary of the benefits and results of the process.

Better with Baldrige Benefits

• Learn the Baldrige Criteria Framework, Core Values and Concepts, Criteria for Performance Excellence, and validated best practices of Baldrige Award recipients
  
  
• Choose a customized process and pace that are right for your organization in your journey to performance excellence
  
  
• Create the infrastructure needed to achieve and sustain continuous performance improvement
  
  
• Receive professional training, facilitation, coaching, consulting, tools, and templates to accelerate your learning, and streamline the assessment, action planning, and implementation of performance improvements
  
  
• Assess your organization’s performance management system against the Baldrige Performance Excellence Criteria, and identify your unique strengths and opportunities for improvement
  
  
• Develop an action plan to leverage your organizational strengths, address opportunities for improvement, and prepare a focused roadmap to improve performance
  
  
• Receive ongoing coaching and consulting support to achieve and sustain measurable improvements
  
  

Better with Baldrige Results

• Focus, align and energize the entire organization to achieve your vision and mission
  
  
• Create an improved strategic plan and enhance your ability to execute strategies and action plans
  
  
• Improve customer satisfaction, loyalty and repeat business; attract new customers
  
  
• Enhance your measurement system and your approach to information and knowledge management
  
  
• Improve employee satisfaction and engagement
  
  
• Achieve improvements in process performance such as productivity, quality, cycle time and cost
  
  
• Improve performance in all key areas of your organizational scorecard
  
  
• Transform your organizational culture and create the work environment needed to achieve and sustain high-performance, continuous improvement and innovation