Avoid the most common pitfalls
Tips for a successful Assessment
3. Match the thoroughness of the assessment to the maturity of your organization
In designing an assessment, one of the most important rules is to match the thoroughness of the assessment to the maturity of the organization. There is a whole range of assessment designs possible, with varying degrees of thoroughness, suitable for different levels of organizational maturity.
For example, an organization just starting out on the improvement journey often needs no more than a simple workshop-style assessment, which can be completed in a couple of days (including development of initial improvement plans). For this type of organization to conduct a lengthy, in-depth assessment would be massive overkill.
An organization that is more mature needs a more thorough process: typically using an internal assessment team, facilitated by an outside expert, to conduct interviews and write up their findings. These findings are shared with the leaders, and a planning workshop follows, to identify the 'vital few' priorities for improvement and develop initial plans for these. This type of assessment clearly requires more time and effort than a simple workshop, but it can be made streamlined and efficient, without sacrificing thoroughness.
For a very mature, high-performing organization, neither of these simpler approaches will do the job. These organizations require the most rigorous process possible: using an internal team to create a detailed 50-page 'Application Report'; and then subjecting themselves to scrutiny by a team of outside experts. The awards programs do a great job of providing this service – if the organization is able to obtain a site visit. Also, a mature organization has much more ability to interpret the findings properly, identify the priorities for improvement, and develop improvement plans.
For a mature organization, it would clearly be a mistake to conduct an assessment that is too superficial, since this would not reveal useful priorities for improvement.
However, being too thorough is also a serious mistake: the process can overwhelm people and consume so much effort that there's little energy left to work on the improvements required!
It only takes one bad experience like this for people to conclude that Baldrige is just 'too bureaucratic and cumbersome' for them. There's no need to let this happen.
Further reading
This
article just touches on some of the key issues.
For lots more information on how to conduct an assessment effectively, see
"From Baldrige
to the Bottom Line".