The Baldrige Framework: In Pursuit of Excellence

The Baldrige Excellence Framework is an enduring tool that has been used by thousands of organizations worldwide since its inception in 1988. It aims to provide a framework to improve an organization's effectiveness and achieve sustaining results with an integrated performance management system that focuses on knowing the critical aspects of managing and performing as an organization. Baldrige is intentionally non-prescriptive and does not tell leaders how to manage their organizations. Instead, organizations assess their own system against the detailed material available based on seven categories, six of which represent a collection of processes and the seventh represents outcomes. The Criteria are built on a set of interrelated, embedded beliefs and behaviors found in high-performing organizations, and the core values and concepts are the foundation for integrating key business requirements within a results-oriented framework. Baldrige works if and only if leaders and the organization have the willingness and ability to develop an organizational culture based on the 11 core values of high-performing organizations defined by the Criteria and are willing to commit to a long-term journey of continuous learning and improvement. Moreover, Baldrige provides an organization-wide perspective that optimizes an entire system rather than just focuses on pockets of excellence.