Getting the Most Out of Your Application Advanced Application Writing Getting the Most Out of Your Application Excellence in Tennessee Conference Sonja Wulff, MA, CLM February 20, 2018

Agenda Getting acquainted Putting Baldrige in context Approaching the application Let’s get to work! Lessons learned

Agenda Getting acquainted Putting Baldrige in context Approaching the application Let’s get to work! Lessons learned

What Is Baldrige? Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Objectives Presidential award administered through U.S. Department of Commerce Roots: How to improve competitiveness of U.S. manufacturing in global marketplace Today: Manufacturing, business, small business, health care, education, service, nonprofit Objectives Provide framework for organizational assessment & improvement Identify & share best practices

Baldrige Excellence Framework Evidence-based business practices for accomplishing what is important to your organization Can you answer these questions: How does your organization accomplish its work? How does your organization perform? Where should you focus your improvement efforts?

Baldrige Excellence Framework Process Categories Leadership Strategy Customers Measurement, Analysis & Knowledge Management Workforce Operations Results Product/Service & Process Results Customer Results Workforce Results Leadership & Governance Results Financial & Market Results

A System’s Perspective Leadership Strategy Customers RESULTS Workforce Operations Measurement, Analysis & Knowledge Management Organizational Profile Integration

Baldrige Cycle Feedback Self-Assessment Improvements Examiner Team, Feedback Report Feedback Self-Assessment Improvements Baldrige/TNCPE Application

Role of the Application Obtain actionable feedback on how to improve your organization Focus! Focus! Focus! Guide strategic discussions Identify blind spots Prioritize improvement effort Create organizational rhythm National level: Earn a site visit

What Is Your “Why”

Approaching the Application Step 1: Organizational Profile What is important to your organization? Step 2: Process Categories (1-6) How does your organization accomplish its work? Step 3: Results (Category 7) How does your organization perform?

Step 1: What Is Important to You? Organizational Profile Most important part of the application Goal: Define who you are & what is important to you Focus! Focus! Focus! What are your key organizational characteristics? What is your organization’s strategic situation?

Organizational Profile Road map for the rest of the application Provides “checklist” for self-assessment process Helps examiners & judges understand what is important to your organization so they can provide most meaningful feedback Helps you prioritize improvement efforts

Step 2: How Does Your Organization Accomplish Its Work? Process Categories (1-6) Can you answer the Criteria questions? Do you address ADLI? Basis for scoring More meaningful feedback Goal: Drive your organization to higher performance

Process Categories: Think ADLI APPROACH: How do you do it? What are the steps in your process? How repeatable is it? DEPLOYMENT: Is your approach consistently applied across your organization? Who uses it? LEARNING: Do you refine your approach through systematic evaluation and improvement? INTEGRATION: Is your approach aligned with your organizational needs as identified in the Organizational Profile? How is it linked to other approaches/processes?

Example: Employee Performance Review APPROACH: Annual process with standardized tool DEPLOYMENT: Every employee, all levels of the organization, all facilities LEARNING: Annual evaluation & improvement by Workforce Team & HR INTEGRATION Behavior Standards, Values, Key Customer Requirements, Core Competencies, Personal Goal Cards Building Blocks of Leadership Balanced scorecard: Timely completion of performance reviews

Translating ADLI How do you…? What are the steps? Who’s involved? When/how often does it happen? Evidence of hardwiring (e.g. policies, standard forms/templates, training curriculum) No laundry lists: How did you decide to do X,Y, Z? Who uses the process, or who’s involved in the process? Do all workforce groups & facilities do it the same way? Does it apply to all customer & stakeholder groups? How have you changed/improved the process? Who reviews the process & when? What data do you look at to determine effectiveness? Does it relate to a measure on your Balanced Scorecard? Does it link to another key process?

Step 3: What Are Your Results? Category 7 What are your key measures? Are you measuring what you should be measuring to support the Organizational Profile and Process Categories? Do you address LeTCI?

Results: Think LeTCI LEVELS: What is your current performance? TRENDS: How have you performed over time? COMPARISONS: How does your performance compare to other organizations? INTEGRATION: Do you segment your results? Do you show results for important customers, products/services, markets, processes?

Example: Voluntary Employee Turnover

Results: Explain Each Graph Assume: The examiners are not industry experts The examiners are exhausted So tell them: Why are you showing that result? Why is the comparison relevant? Which direction is “better”? Accentuate the positive, explain the negative

Results Must-Haves Balanced scorecard measures [4.1a(1)] Key performance measures for action plans [2.2a(5)] Satisfaction, dissatisfaction & engagement Key customer & stakeholder groups [P.1b(2)] Key market segments [P.1b(2)] Key workforce groups [P.1a(3)] Performance for main product/service offerings [P.1a(1)] Market share for key market segments Measures for key work processes [6.1b(1)] Don’t use bad results if you don’t have to!

Organizational Profile Weaving a Thread Organizational Profile Category 1 (Leadership) Category 5 (Workforce) Category 7 (Results) Workforce Groups & Key Engagement Factors Deploying Vision, Mission & Values, communication mechanisms Performance management, workforce development, climate, capability & capacity Measures of satisfaction & engagement, development, climate, capability & capacity

Table Exercise: Weaving a Thread Consider Organizational Profile question: What are your key market segments & your key customer groups? P.1b(2) Identify specific Areas to Address throughout the Criteria that should link back to this question

Weaving a Thread: Customers 1.1a(1) Deploy V/M/V 1.1b(2) Senior leader communication 1.2b(2) Promote/assure ethical behavior 2.1a(1) Participation in strategic planning Cat 3 Customer Focus 4.1a(3) Use of VOC information 4.2a(2) Make info available to customers 5.2a(4) Manage workforce performance to reinforce customer focus 6.1a(1) Determine key work process requirements 6.2a Balance cost control with customer needs 7.1a Product and process results 7.2a Customer results 7.4a(1) Senior leader communication with customers 7.5a Financial & market results

Levels of the Criteria Basic Requirements Overall Requirements Multiple Requirements

Scoring Implications

Scoring Implications

Let’s Get to Work!

Definition: Customers Customers: Actual or potential users of your organization’s products, services or programs External customers, not internal customers Keep workforce, suppliers & partners separate

Table Exercise: Customers Customer Worksheet: What are your organization’s key customer groups? Fill in the squares across the top row, as appropriate. Discussion Topic: How would you answer this question differently now than you did in your last application? Report Out: What did you learn from this exercise?

Table Exercise: Approach & Deployment Customer Worksheet: Fill in the grid to answer the questions for each of your Customer Groups. Address the responses to your own organization. Discussion Topic: Were you able to fill in all the squares? Report Out: What did you learn from this exercise?

Table Exercise: Learning Customer Worksheet: Fill in the far right column to describe how you have improved each of the approaches (i.e., listening to customers, assessing satisfaction, etc.). Discussion Topic: Were you able to fill in all the squares in that column? Report Out: What did you learn from this exercise?

Table Exercise: Results Customer Results Worksheet: Fill in the grid to identify results for each of your Customer Groups and for each of their Key Customer Requirements (from Customer Worksheet). Address the responses to your own organization. Fill in the far right column to identify sources of comparative data for each result. Discussion Topic: Were you able to fill in all the squares? Report Out: What did you learn from this exercise?

Definition: Workforce Workforce: All people actively involved in accomplishing the work of your organization, including paid employees, independent practitioners not paid by the organization, volunteers, and healthcare students, as appropriate

Table Exercise: Workforce Repeat the exercises using the Workforce Worksheet & Workforce Results Worksheet

Fitting It into 50 Pages Check your margins, column width & font size Remember a picture is worth a thousand words Use cross-references liberally Added benefit: Demonstrate integration Maximize the Glossary Prioritize based on Organizational Profile

Lessons Learned Become an examiner Work with your state program Use the entire Criteria book Learn the language Start with the Organizational Profile Remember ADLI & LeTCI Little value from warm-fuzzy stories & lists of accomplishments Refer to Baldrige recipient application summaries: www.nist.gov/baldrige

Lessons Learned Think 30,000 feet Remember the ripple effect Get out of your silo Think buckets, not laundry lists Remember the ripple effect No futures: Don’t embellish or write about things you haven’t done yet Never say never Results will take longer than you think Don’t focus on winning an award Make Baldrige how you do business Be patient

Questions? Sonja Wulff sonja@sonjawulff.com