Baldrige Systems Perspective

October 3rd, 2011 • Related • Filed Under

Filed Under: Baldrige Process

Tags: Baldrige • customer • financial • quality • results • systems perspective • workforce

How do you make the argument for integrating Baldrige at your organization?
Those of us who have “witnessed the miracles,” as Joseph Juran described it, know that integrating Baldrige can help any organization achieve its goals. Organizations that have fully integrated the model and received the Baldrige Award in recognition of their efforts have produced world-class results in key customer, quality, employee, and financial measures.
So start there, with the results. Senior leaders seek improvement in the measures of the organization’s – and of their – success. Figure out which measures matter most and show how similar organizations achieved excellence by integrating Baldrige.
Next, identify the critical goals and strategic objectives for senior leaders and the obstacles or issues that stand in their way. Chances are, these obstacles fall into common categories:

• Not clear what customers or markets want
• Quality, cycle time, and/or cost need to be improved
• Need innovation in products and services
• Processes do not produce needed results
• Employees not engaged
• No consistency or alignment with what’s really important

All of these issues will be addressed by integrating the Baldrige model, and that’s a key point to make: All of these issues will be addressed, not just the top one or two and not just the most visible obstacles. Every organization functions as a system. You can make tremendous improvement when you understand how your system works and make changes with that systems perspective.
For more information about integrating Baldrige at your organization, click on these articles:

• Study Confirms: Baldrige Gets Results
• How to Integrate Baldrige
• 10 Steps to World Class
• Baldrige Model Item by Item
• 80 Critical Questions