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THE IMPACT OF CHANGE MANAGEMENT IN THE EFFECTIVE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE BALDRIGE CRITERIA

The implementation of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Criteria (Baldrige) to an organization is no small task.  Not only does it involve organization wide training, self assessment, coordination of a range of initiatives and disciplines but also in many cases a huge culture change.  A heightened awareness of change management can significantly facilitate the effective implementation of Baldrige.

Change is defined as the process of transforming the manner in which an individual or organization acts from one set of behaviors to another; it may be systematic or planned, or it may be implemented in a random manner. Major change is defined as some situation where corporate performance requires most of the people within the organization to learn new behaviors and skills. During implementation of a major change in the organization such as the Baldrige Criteria, the leaders should have a good reason for the change, involve people, put a respected person in charge of the change (senior leader and Baldrige Champion), provide training in new values, skills and behaviors, and acknowledge and support the employees.  

Kotter 1 & 2 advocate’s leaders need to understand how to orchestrate change management as more organizations will be pushed to reduce costs, improve the quality of products in the global economy. They will also need to explore new opportunities for growth, and increase productivity. Leaders must allow themselves to adopt creative steps and ideas to lead the change effort 3.  Kotter’s model has been utilized by one of the authors from 1990-2006 in over 85 different organizations which have applied for Baldrige-based awards in local, state, and national programs. Those types of organizations include education, health care, manufacturing, government (military), and businesses.  

Kotter proposes eight steps to leading organizational change and avoiding key mistakes. Step one is establishing a sense of urgency by examining the market, competitors, and identifying potential problems and major opportunities. Step two suggests leaders create a guiding coalition by assembling a team of people with sufficient power to lead the change to fruition while continuing to work as a team. Step three is developing a vision and a strategy to direct the change effort while developing solid strategies for completion. Step four is communicating the vision of the change to all employees and subordinate leaders. Step five involves empowering broad-based action by getting rid of obstacles, changing systems or structures as necessary, encouraging risk taking, and generating new ideas. Steps six is generating short-term wins and recognize the people who make the wins a reality. Step seven is consolidating gains and producing more change by hiring, promoting, and further developing change agents in the organization. Finally, step eight in the change process advocates anchoring new approaches in the newly defined culture thereby creating more value for the customer and employees alike.

Since, establishing a sense of urgency is the first step in driving change; Kotter posits the leading causes of complacency include, too much success, a lack of a visible crisis, low performance standards, and insufficient feedback from external constituencies. If organizations catapult into changes without considering how and what they are trying to change, leaders and employees will fail to appreciate and fully comprehend the necessity for the change. Transformations fail if the objectives are not clearly understood by everyone. Therefore, establishing a sense of urgency is the first step in driving change. In order for the criteria to be implemented systematically, a sense of urgency must be maintained promoting full implementation. The organization must see the benefit from top to bottom and the senior leaders need to be up front and supportive of Baldrige-based efforts.

Point number two deals with failing to create a powerful guiding coalition of people who will support the change. The senior leader must support the change and direct the change by continual and periodic evaluation and reviews. These periodic evaluations and reviews must be designed to determine the status of the change and if any impetus is needed by the leaders to drive or energize the change further. If the change is on track, the leader may need to praise, reinforce, and continue to monitor. In the implementation of the criteria, senior leaders must appoint a strong guiding coalition from all levels of the organization who can must the necessary changes forward.

Point number three suggests leaders most often underestimate the power of vision.  Vision helps to align, direct, and inspire action by the employees. Without a vision, a transformational effort can dissolve into a list of confusing, incompatible, and time-consuming projects leading nowhere. Additionally, the vision must be simple and clearly understood to actually be accomplished. With regard to the criteria, the vision should be to improve customer service, improve the financial posture, or some other major improvement needed to improve overall organizational efforts. The senior leaders must ensure they have the right priorities assigned and build human talent around those priorities.

Point four is failing to communicate the vision sufficiently. Generally speaking, according to Kotter, most leaders have a pattern of ineffective communication by sending out memos or having a few meetings, making speeches, and by not setting the appropriate example about the change for subordinate leaders and the employees. To fully adopt and implement the criteria, the senior leaders must continually focus on what they are improving, establish firm priorities, and monitor purposefully. The monitoring of key metrics emphasizes the most important aspects of the organizations. Failure for senior leaders to require periodic briefings about the key processes reinforces apathy at all levels.  

Five, failing to lead change properly, occurs when leaders permit obstacles to block the new vision or by disempowering people with unrealistic requirements caused by barriers within the organization. The organizational structure, narrow job descriptions, low compensation and antiquated performance systems, along with demands of the employees which are inconsistent with the requirements of the change, are a few of the barriers that block organizational change and work towards disempowerment. Implementation of the criteria will underscore organizational inefficiencies, expose wrong thinking about work, illuminate weaker employees and leaders, and reveal inconsistencies with organizational priorities. The leaders must remove the barriers to efficiency which may point to some human problems as well as organizational barriers.

Kotter lists number six as failing to create short-term wins. Real transformation and organizational change takes time with few shortcuts. Momentum must be maintained by allowing the organization to celebrate success periodically. Short-term and intermediate goals which are accomplished can be a strong motivational tool leading to more success and more positive change. In order to promote the implementation of the criteria, senior leaders must capitalize on those short-term wins and build upon intermediate success toward the major goals. Failure to accomplish wins early works to doom the implementation and will most assuredly limit success.

Declaring the victory before the change is completed is seven. Celebrating a win is positive reinforcement but the leader cannot celebrate too much or too soon and loose the precious momentum necessary to accomplish further successes. Monitoring the signs of intermediate goals can help keep the subordinate leaders and employees focused on the path of success to accomplish long-range goals. Senior leaders must not believe that winning an award or gaining recognition at a local, state, or the national level equates to organization success and a validation of worthiness. Senior leaders must set the pace and ensure continual improvements are embedded in the organization. Even national Baldrige Award winners gain great insight from their feedback reports listing in graphic detail their gaps and inconsistencies.

Finally, eight deals with leaders neglecting to anchor the changes firmly in the corporate culture. Change will be most effective when it becomes the way business is conducted on a regular basis. Conscious attempts to show employees how their behaviors and attitudes helped improve performance are necessary. Additionally, the next generation of management must be trained and shown how to apply change management principles in order to establish a positive change culture.

In summary, change management is a significant and driving factor in implementation of the Baldrige Criteria. Organizations considering implementation of the Baldrige Criteria, need to consider how change will be approached, what impact it will have and the factors involved in resistance to change.

1. 1.Kotter, J. P. (1996). Leading change. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press, 3-15.
2. 2.Kotter, J. P. (1999). What leaders really do? Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 75-92.
3. 3.Kotter, J. P., & Cohen, D. (2002, Winter). Creative ways to empower action to change the organization: Cases in point. Journal of Organizational Excellence, 22(1)

Denis Leonard PhD
Denis is a Senior Member of the American Society for Quality (ASQ) a Certified Quality Manager, Auditor and Six Sigma Black Belt.    He has been an Examiner for the Wisconsin Forward Award and Baldrige National Quality Award.  Denis is Quality Manager for Veridian Homes in Madison WI.

Mac McGuire PhD
Mac is the Founding President and CEO of his own consulting company, McGuire & Associates Consulting. He has worked extensively with the Quality Texas Foundation as has been a member of the Panel of Judges for six years serving the last two as the Lead Judge and is a National Baldrige Examiner.

Denis & Mac are both members of the QMD Baldrige Committee. This paper is an extract from their recently published An Executive Guide to Understanding & Implementing The Baldrige Criteria: For Organizational Excellence and Financial Impact through Quality Press.