Getting Started with Baldrige

Introduce the Baldrige Excellence Framework to your organization. Your organization’s experience with the Baldrige framework will help you decide where to begin.

Beginners

Are We Making Progress? and Are We Making Progress as Leaders?

Two questionnaires that will introduce the seven Baldrige Criteria categories to your organization and help you quickly identify strengths and opportunities for improvement.

easyInsight: Take a First Step toward a Baldrige Self-Assessment

Online survey helps identify gaps in understanding your organization and allows you to compare your organization to others.

Create the Organizational Profile

First step in a full self-assessment against the Baldrige Criteria.

Are You a Role-Model Leader?

Assess yourself and your leadership team against these role-model leadership attributes and behaviors.

Beginners to Intermediate

Download the Baldrige Excellence Framework

Answer the 17 Criteria Item Title questions to reach a basic understanding of the Criteria and your organization's performance.

Download the Baldrige Excellence Builder

Use the Baldrige Excellence Builder (PDF), an abridged version of the Baldrige Excellence Framework, to answer key questions for improving your organization's performance.

Download the Baldrige Excellence Builder for free or purchase (link is external) bulk copies of 10 today!

Ready to Conduct a Full Self-Assessment

Download the Baldrige Excellence Framework

If your organization has some experience with the Baldrige Excellence Framework or has completed smaller-scale assessments, you may be ready to conduct a full self-assessment using the seven categories of the Baldrige Excellence Framework Criteria. Below are six basic steps for conducting a full self-assessment. We encourage you to modify this process to meet your own organizational needs.

Step 1.  Identify the boundaries/scope of the assessment
The self-assessment might cover the entire organization, a subunit, a division, or a department.

Step 2.  Select Champions
Then select seven champions, one for each category in the Baldrige Excellence Builder or Criteria. These champions each lead a team in preparing responses to the questions in a Criteria Category. If they have not already done so, have the champions prepare an Organizational Profile describing your organization and its challenges.

Step 3.  Select Category teams, and collect data and information to answer the questions
The champions select Category teams, and the teams collect information and data in response to the questions in their respective Categories.

Step 4.  Share the answers to the questions among the Category teams
In sharing the answers, the Category teams identify common themes.

Step 5.  Create and communicate an action plan for improvement
Each Category team creates and communicates an action plan for improvement based on their answers and organizational priorities. The Self-Analysis Worksheet Word can help your Category teams identify strengths and opportunities, set priorities, and develop action plans.

Step 6.  Evaluate the self-assessment process, and identify possible improvements
Senior leaders, champions, and teams evaluate the self-assessment and think about ways to improve it. 

Begin your organization’s full self-assessment today!

Baldrige Products and Services

Baldrige offers a wide array of educational and assessment products/services to help organizations improve their performance. These include best practices conferences, collaborative assessments, individual and organizational training, executive education, and more.

Find More Information and Sample Assessments

• Award Recipient Application Summaries show how role-model organizations wrote applications.
• Case Studies show how fictitious organizations write applications.
• Case Study Scorebooks and Feedback Reports (part of case study packets) show how organizations were assessed.
• Criteria Category and Item Commentary (Business/Nonprofit, Education, Health Care) provide details into Criteria categories and items.
• Award Recipient Profiles show Baldrige Award recipients results (only recipients are made public; Baldrige Award applicants and their results are kept confidential).

Resources