1. 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

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

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

4. 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

5. 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?

6. 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

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

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

9. 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

10. What Is Your “Why”

11. 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?

12. 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?

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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?

16. 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

17. 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?

18. 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?

19. 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?

20. Example: Voluntary Employee Turnover

21. 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

22. 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!

23. 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

24. 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

25. 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

26. Levels of the Criteria Basic Requirements Overall Requirements
Multiple
Requirements

27. Scoring Implications

28. Scoring Implications

29. Let’s Get to Work!

30. 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

31. 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?

32. 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?

33. 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?

34. 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?

35. 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

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

37. 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

38. 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:

39. 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

40. Questions?
Sonja Wulff