Using Baldrige to Drive Improvement
An Online Chat with Author David W. Hutton
Hosted by Quality Press: 8 November 2001
David Hutton
Hello to everyone, I'm looking forward to having a
lively discussion with you on a topic that happens to be my passion. I'd
also like to introduce Denise Cawley of Quality Press, who will
help me by moderating this session.
Denise Cawley (Moderator)
Thanks David. I will be stacking and sorting your questions as they come
in, and passing them on to David one at a time. So when you send your
question, don't be concerned if it does not appear immediately: it has to
wait in my 'stack' until David can get to it! You can start entering
questions any time now.
Let me share more about David for those of you who just joined us: David Hutton is the author of The Change Agents' Handbook: A Survival Guide for Quality Improvement Champions and From Baldrige to the Bottom Line. David Hutton is an experienced consultant working in the assessment field since 1990. He is the President of his own company, David Hutton Associates, Inc. which provides consulting services to many well known organizations. He has served as a senior examiner for Canada Awards for Business Excellence for eight years.
David Hutton
Let me make a few comments to get the ball rolling. I've been involved in
organizational change and improvement for most of my career – first
working within organizations, and then helping them from outside as a
consultant. During all of this time I've been on a quest: to find out how
to make the improvement process work better.
I spent the 1980's just learning how to get the process started in an organization: how to get senior management's attention, how to get the process launched properly, and how to get the essential parts working. (My first book covers this ground.)
I've spent the 1990's working on what seems to me the next problem: figuring out how to keep the process going once it has been started! Too many organizations have a 'flavor of the month' approach, and simply don't stick with any improvement approach long enough to reap the full benefits.
One way to tackle this problem is to change the annual planning process, so that it always includes a proper examination of the management system. By taking this step, the organization is essentially committed to examine and refresh their improvement efforts every year, and to keep working on improvement forever. This is my vision!
I spent the 1990's refining this methodology, which uses a combination of assessment and planning tools. Then I wrote my second book From Baldrige to the Bottom Line to share what I'd learned.
Denise Cawley (Moderator)
Does anyone have anything they would like to know about David's work?
Al
We all know about Baldrige in the context of an awards program-what's
different about using it as an improvement tool?
David Hutton
Good question. Simply put, applying for awards doesn't drive improvement!
You only improve by taking action on what you may find out through the
application award process (or by using the criteria yourself).
For most organizations it is too soon to think about awards: they first need to do a lot of work to improve. This is how most are using Baldrige – to guide a self-assessment and planning process that will drive their improvement efforts. Once they have made some solid progress, then perhaps it may be worth going after an award.
You will see in my book a strong emphasis on driving performance improvement, not seeking awards. Any other experienced examiner will tell you the same: organizations whose primary aim is to win an award rarely do well in the process! This just isn't a strong enough motivation to drive a substantive, organization-wide improvement effort.
Denise Cawley (Moderator)
David - what do you think of the latest Baldrige winners?
David Hutton
One of the trends I notice is more repeat winners. There are clearly a lot
of organizations making the assessment process an ongoing part of how they
run the business, rather than a one-time project.
Dimitri
Why do you think there are more repeat winners? Is it easier to maintain
that level of quality once you reach the pinnacle? Do you think seeing
repeat winners discourages others?
David Hutton
Good question. It's quite possible that seeing repeat winners might
discourage some others. I think the main reason why there are so many
repeat winners is because organizations that reach this level are so much
into this approach to management, it becomes inconceivable for them to go
back to the old ways of doing business – emotionally, and
performance-wise. They are using the program repeatedly to keep
challenging themselves to go to higher levels.
Maria
Hi David. With the economy struggling as it is, do you have any advice how
companies can continue to make necessary improvements following a limited
budget and without sacrificing quality?
David Hutton
This situation reminds me of the 1980s! At that time, there were so many
U.S. companies in deep trouble, or just going out of business. The ones
that did best in the end were often those who were on the verge of
extinction when they started [working on improvement]. Being in a tough
squeeze is a great discipline for the process. It forces you to
concentrate on making real improvements, that can then be harvested
to provide the resources to make more.
Volunteer
How can educational facilities, such as a city college, propose Baldrige
type improvement processes to acquire the necessary government funding for
implementation?
David Hutton
I have a slight concern when institutions have to ask for funding for
implementation. This links to the previous answer about doing improvement
in a budget squeeze.
You always need seed-corn resources, that's a given. But if you cannot use some fairly slender resources to make improvements that will fund further investments, then you may not be doing quality improvement. That's certainly been my experience in for profit organizations. In other sectors, it may be necessary to obtain more explicit funding, if you cannot 'harvest' early gains and re-invest these resources [e.g. because of central budgetary controls].
George
I've encountered some difficulty persuading upper management to commit to
following the Baldrige framework, even though it would bring about obvious
improvements. Do you have any advice for convincing them that this is in
our best interest?
David Hutton
George, you are onto one of the key issues. They will not buy into this
process (or any other) unless they see that it can help them accomplish
their goals. That's it.
In my experience, the best way of getting this message across to leaders is to give them a very carefully designed orientation, which enables them to use the assessment process. In this way, they learn how to look at the organization through an assessor's eyes, they immediately discover some gaping holes (e.g. in their own leadership approaches) and they realize "We need to do more of this [assessment stuff]"
This orientation is the most critical part of the entire assessment process. If you get this right, you are off to a great start. If you mess up here, you may get started apparently in fine shape, but all kinds of trouble may show up later [e.g. because the commitment is not there, expectations have not been set accurately, etc] .
Al
What about resistance from those outside management? There inevitably
seems to be some who drag their feet whenever we try to implement any type
of change.
David Hutton
Al, resistance from non management is usually in my experience the result
of 'herding' people (like dumb cattle) rather than getting them involved
as participants. I'm not saying that it is easy to do this [to involve
them] but it is essential – if it matters how they feel about the
changes! I dealt with this topic at length in my first book The
Change Agents' Handbook The phrase I would offer is "Allow
people to plan their own part of the journey"
Denise Cawley (Moderator)
Both of David Hutton's books can be purchased through the Quality Press
bookstore. As members you receive 20% off the list price.
Mac
What kind of advice would you have for schools that are beginning to use
the Baldrige in Education criteria as a means of self-assessment?
David Hutton
I would first say "good for you!" for taking this initiative! I
would suggest looking at initiatives like Baldrige In Education (BiEIN)
which is a major project supported by a consortium of educational and
business interests.
Also, do think about the process not in terms of winning awards, but helping people to learn what quality management is all about, and enabling them to identify the priorities for improvement.
There are issues specific to education, but I think that 90% of what educators are running into is the same as other sectors have encountered. So do be open to learning from people outside education! Another great resource is Koalaty Kid, from ASQ. We are using this very effectively here in Ottawa.
Denise Cawley (Moderator)
The link to visit Koalaty Kid and learn about their training programs is: http://www.koalatykid.org/
The next Koalaty Kid Conference: 13th Annual ASQ Koalaty Kid Conference
April 21-23, 2002 Hyatt Regency Woodfield Schaumburg, IL
Bart
What about implementing the changes (after the internal assessment)? How
should an organization prioritize these changes - and what about a
timeline for making the changes?
David Hutton
Bart, I have found that when the assessment itself is done well – i.e.
people go in with appropriate intentions, and do a good job – that
setting priorities for improvement is easy. It is important to keep the
number of improvement projects small and focused – you may need to do
some push-back here. But the choices are usually pretty obvious.
The real tough grind is implementation. This is where there is unlimited scope for dropping the ball! Common failure causes are: plans that are not sufficiently clear and specific; lack of expert guidance regarding methodology; weak review review processes that do not ENSURE that the work is being done – and having the desired effect. The timeline for an improvement project should generally not exceed about 12 months – anything really critical that will take longer than this should be broken into much shorter stages.
Volunteer
What are some examples of Baldrige Award's international counterparts? Are
they better or worse, per se, in any way?
David Hutton
There are a host of counterparts to Baldrige: for example, the Canada
Awards for Excellence, EFQM (Europe) and dozens of other national /
regional awards. They all differ in various ways – but they are clearly
all the same 'species' of animal. It can be interesting to make
comparisons, but you won't learn much that would make you choose one over
another: they are all good, and you will usually just choose the one that
is a good fit with your sector / language etc.
Many other ASQ Quality Press authors also work with Baldrige types of awards at local, state and international levels. You can search this topic on the Quality Press site.
Denise
Cawley (Moderator)
I was interested to read in your book that you warn against using the
exact same methods as the examiners for Baldrige (or a state award) would
use. Can you explain why?
David Hutton
This was driven home to me during the 8 years that I served as an examiner
for our national quality award in Canada, and was at the same time helping
clients with their assessments. I realized that these processes have very
different goals, and hence need to look quite different. I deal with this
on pages 36-37 of my book.
The first key difference is that the end-point in the awards process is the decision whether or not to give the applicant some kind of recognition. And so the examiners are quite rightly trained not to be prescriptive: their job is to evaluate the current status accurately, not to give advice on what to do. However, when the purpose is to plan for improvement, it is essential to arrive at a prescription!
This doesn't mean that the assessors themselves have to provide the prescription – but the overall process must lead to a sound, well thought out plan, and proper, committed implementation support.
Al
What do you view as the biggest obstacle facing businesses today as they
try to adapt for the future?
David Hutton
I think that we have a very high rate of change, and a lot of information
overload.To me, this says "Keep it simple" and keep searching
for what is really going on. Your improvement strategies need to address
fundamental, not superficial, changes in your organization's environment.
Denise Cawley (Moderator)
What about an organization that has taken ISO 9000 in its stride and would like to go to
a new level. Would using Baldrige be a good way to go?
David Hutton
Certainly. The current version of ISO 9000 is a great improvement over the
earlier versions, but a Baldrige-based process will enable you to go to a
higher level. The Baldrige framework is more comprehensive and demanding, and since
the process is a voluntary one, it can be more a voyage of self-discovery
rather than an audit.
This process enables people to learn more during the process and to come out with a positive shared commitment to take action, not because the 'standard' requires it, but because these are obviously the most important things to be working on in order to improve performance.
Dimitri
Considering your history as a change agent and knowledge about using
Baldrige, what is your opinion of the seeming "tunnel-vision"
and/or fascination of current companies with the Six Sigma phenomenon?
David Hutton
Dimitri, we don't have time for me to do your question justice!
Six Sigma is a sound, well-developed methodology, which is often being applied superficially and without adequate understanding. The consequence, which we have all seen before, is widespread failure, followed by blaming of the tool rather than the incompetent user. We really need to wake up on this. It is the North American disease!
Denise Cawley (Moderator)
David, do you have any final advice for our audience or resources to look
for further knowledge.
David Hutton
We are living in interesting
times. It seems as if the 21st Century has finally begun. I feel that
quality is going to undergo a resurgence, in response to the many serious
problems we face in the economy and our society, world wide.
Here are some links to my website, where you can find out more about my books:
From Baldrige to the Bottom Line:
http://www.dhutton.com/roadmap
The Change Agents Handbook:
http://www.dhutton.com/cbook
Denise Cawley (Moderator)
I want to thank you David for being with us today. It was great to learn
how to apply Baldrige principles to improvement
David Hutton
Thank you everyone, and good luck with what you are trying to accomplish.
Goodbye!
End of Chat
ASQ Quality Press is the publishing arm of the American Society for Quality. This transcript is from an online chat session conducted on 8 November 2001