Baldrige Resource Center

Changes from the 2011–2012 Criteria
With the issuance of the 2013–2014 Criteria for Performance Excellence, we celebrate 25 years of the Baldrige Program. The most significant and foundational contributor to achieving this milestone is the ongoing relevance of the Baldrige Criteria.

The Criteria have been regularly revised with one purpose in mind: that the Criteria always reflect the leading edge of validated management practice, a term first articulated by a chair of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Judges’ Panel in the 1990s. The operative words in this purpose statement are “leading edge” and “validated.” The Criteria have always been based on role-model practices successfully implemented by businesses and other organizations. They are the practices that lead to sustainability and competitive success when embedded within an integrated systems perspective on organizational performance management.

The year-to-year changes to the Criteria have been evolutionary. However, viewed in comparison to the Criteria at the Baldrige Program’s inception 25 years ago, the changes have been profound. And “profound” is necessary given the changes we have witnessed in global economies, technology, customer behaviors, workforce expectations, and societal concerns and responsibilities. The changes in the 2013–2014 Criteria continue this evolutionary process, but with a strategic focus that is significant far beyond the wording changes in the Criteria items. These changes are at the core of decisions that senior leaders in every organization must make to set the path for business and organizational sustainability.

This strategic focus relates to three key considerations that should be on the minds of all leaders committed to their organization’s next-generation viability: (1) designing and implementing competitive work systems, (2) cultivating and managing innovation, and (3) mastering the evolving opportunities and challenges presented by social media.

Designing and implementing work systems. Decisions about work systems are strategic. These decisions involve protecting intellectual property, capitalizing on core competencies, and deciding what should be procured or produced outside your organization in order to be efficient and sustainable in your marketplace. Decisions about your work systems affect organizational design and structure, profitability, and viability. These decisions are the domain of senior leadership and are at the very core of strategy building. In 2013, we have incorporated the information and decision process for work systems into the strategic planning category.

Cultivating and managing innovation. An area that has progressed from a potential competitive advantage to a sustainability imperative is innovation and innovation management. Innovation is defined as making meaningful, discontinuous change to products, processes, or organizational effectiveness in order to create new value for stakeholders. Innovation results from a supportive environment, a process for identifying strategic opportunities, and the pursuit of those strategic opportunities that you identify as intelligent risks. Achieving innovation requires resource support and the tolerance of failure. Fostering the right climate is the domain of senior leaders, identifying strategic opportunities and intelligent risks is part of strategy, and pursuing the intelligent risks must be embedded in managing organizational operations. Therefore, the various aspects of achieving innovation have been incorporated throughout the 2013–2014 Criteria.

Mastering social media. While a social media strategy is not necessarily an embedded practice in all role-model organizations today, waiting until the next revision of the Criteria to increase the emphasis on social media will leave us behind the leading edge of validated management practice, given the current pace of change. Social media already play a role in (1) reaching customers and potential customers, (2) connecting employees with each other and organizational leaders, (3) coordinating with suppliers and partners, and (4) gathering data and performing research. While engaging more heavily in the use of social media poses risks for organizations, the best mechanism for mitigating these risks is a strong sense of organizational values as a guide. In 2013–2014, the Criteria incorporate the use of social media in fulfilling the four roles listed above.

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