Our examiners help our nation become an excellence-seeking people, one organization, one community, at a time.
"Becoming a MassExcellence Baldrige Examiner seemed like a good idea at the time—an opportunity to learn, explore and engage with others committed to true performance improvement and organizational transformation. I figured I could pick up some approaches or tools to help my own organization and the time commitment would just substitute for my usual personal development time. Boy, was I wrong! It was a rigorous, disciplined and time-consuming immersion in Baldrige theory and practical application. It was akin to a part-time job in scope. It challenged my own learnings and applications and led to numerous discussions and debates about how to move our organization towards true excellence. I put a lot more effort into it than I expected and the returns justified every bit. I would highly recommend the examiner route to any healthcare executive considering the Baldrige journey—it continues to reward long after you're done." —Peter J. Holden, President & CEO, Jordan Health Systems
The MassExcellence Performance Excellence Awards Examiner Experience is our signature program. We use the nationally validated Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence as an comprehensive framework for organizational improvement and innovation. At this time of foolish Congressional politics you may be thinking this is not a good idea. That would be wrong.
Important Note: If you have been watching the inept Congressional Politics seeking to zero-fund the Baldrige Program in the 2012 NIST Budget, you may think Baldrige may end, so why get involved with MassExcellence? That would be a mistake for at least two reasons. Most important, the intellectual property of Baldrige is not in Washington. It is in every state of the nation. The intellectual property of Baldrige is the Criteria for Performance Excellence and that is available to the public. It is what we teach in our Examiner Training and what our applicants will use as the best available framework for leading and managing their organization. That should encourage you to become a MassExcellence examiner and be an applicant in our 2012 organizational excellence and awards program. So even if Baldrige does lose its federal funding, MassExellence will have its Baldrige-based 2012 performance excellence program, and you can learn this most valuable and beneficial leadership skill. Second, the privately-funded Baldrige Foundation has funds to continue Baldrige in the short-term and has pledged to work to continue it long-term.
The Baldrige Criteria includes, integrates, and aligns seven categories that every organization must optimize as a united focus:
- Leadership
- Strategic Planning
- Customer Focus (Patient and stakeholder focus in health care; student and stakeholder focus in education)
- Measurement, Analysis, and Knowledge Management
- Workforce Focus
- Operations Focus
- Results.
A two-day workshop is the beginning of your experience which qualifies you to be selected from our pool of trained state examiners to perform a full Baldrige-based assessment of an applicant to our Award Program.
The Examiner Experience is often compared to an intense, accelerated MBA program because it teaches you how to create total organizational excellence – being a member of an examiner team in this program is the ultimate in professional leadership development. Once completed, you’ll never look at companies in the same fragmented and piecemeal way ever again. It’s enlightening!
Being an examiner may seem like a lot of work and it is. But to put it into perspective, it involves about the same amount of time and effort one would put into a serious commitment to a typical 3-credit graduate course. Only you'll be part of a learning team that benefits your own learning and experience while helping to improve another organization's journey toward performance excellence.
All our faculty and team coaches guiding you in this program are highly experienced past or present National Baldrige Senior Examiners or Judges. Our state program is amongst the best, as evidenced by the frequent participation of individuals from outside of Massachusetts. We have recently had examiners from Texas, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and New York. For those completing the entire award cycle process, we will place your name on our website as a certified state examiner.
The Two-Day Workshop
Our two-day workshop is where we use the actual Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence to build your systems thinking and skills in assessing a mock organization’s application developed for training National Baldrige Examiners. This in–depth view of the criteria will incorporate practical exercises in team settings that closely mimic the work for the actual award cycle process. There is minimal required pre-work (8 hours maximum) for attendees to become intimately familiar with one small element of the case study application as this will be the focal point for your work throughout the two days. This workshop is designed for senior leaders, department managers, practitioners, business and non-business professionals that want to learn more about what’s important to their organizations
Examiner Cycle for the 2012 Excellence Awards Cycle:
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Examiner applications due: Monday, April 23, 2012
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Applicants notified of acceptance: Monday, May 14, 2012
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Examiner training (tenative): Wednesday and Thursday, June 6-7, 2012
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Independent review of application: June — August
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Consensus meeting: Late August or early September
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Site Visit & Report Writing: Late September or early October
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Awards presentation ceremony: Likely to be in mid-November, 2012
The Workshop in Brief
In the course of two days, we will use the newest Baldrige application case study to:
- Help you understand the key requirements of the seven Baldrige Categories and 18 Items
- Score responses using Approach, Deployment, and Results dimensions
- Focus on understanding and reducing scoring variability
- Pool our knowledge in team-building exercises, learning from each other in the process
- Learn how to evaluate a organization's Award application, appropriately applying the Criteria with due regard for the organization's size, industry, and other factors
- Understand and apply the consensus scoring process
- Add value to the applicant with Feedback Reports
Benefits of Being a MassExcellence Award Examiner
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I have been involved with continuous improvement at several companies for many years. During that time I have seen and used many tools and techniques. Without question my involvement with the Baldrige criteria, and more specifically as a MassExcellence Examiner, has been the most rewarding experience of my career. The Baldrige Criteria represent a model for performance excellence—a roadmap for excellence. Engulfing myself in the Criteria as an Examiner was not always easy, but it was the best way to learn, understand, and apply the Baldrige performance excellence principles. Interacting with and learning from other Examiners was invaluable. Not only did we challenge and learn from each other, we developed lifelong friendships and networking contacts. Based on my experience as a MassExcellence Examiner, my company is adopting the Baldrige criteria as our performance excellence model, and we are introducing our management staff to Baldrige by having them participate as Examiners. —Christopher Hutchins, Continuous Improvement Manager, Hasbro
- Learn a Team-Based Process for Improving the Whole Organization as a System
- You take away your new organizational system-level skills and understanding to build more economical and sustainable organizations. Depending on your reasons for coming, this program adds to your professional value in your present organization, and for your career in general.
- Do I have to participate in the award cycle
- No, you are welcome to attend a workshop without committing to participate in the examiner award cycle. We understand the difficulty for some to take 8-9 days time away from the office between January and April to participate in the examiner cycle in addition to the approximately 60 to 80 hours of individual work. If you decide to participate in the examiner cycle, we do need full commitment and follow-through.
- Am I guaranteed to be selected for an examiner team?
- Our goal is to place everyone who takes our training and has the appropriate education, experience and true commitment to following through to the finish. Although rare, it is not always possible to place everyone on a team. In addition, we reserve the right not to place an individual on a team or to remove someone once they’ve been assigned. Maintaining the integrity of the process is an absolute must for us. We are all professionals and if there are options available, we will talk to you about them.
- If I take the training and participate as an examiner, are there any additional costs?
- No, the only cost is for the two-day workshop. No charge for our consensus meetings in February, or for potential overnight accommodations during the consensus and site visit.
- How much time is required of an award cycle examiner?
- Other than the 16 hours for the two-day workshop, the time spent in conference calls, individual review, preparation, consensus meetings, and the on-site visit will take about 150 hours in between January and April. Time away from the office is between 7 and 9 days.
Before you make this commitment, this is important for you to know – Many do this for their own benefit, meaning they have no company support. If this is your situation, it may be frowned on by your employer to work on your assignments during company time. In this case, there may be instances requiring flexibility in your personal life to ensure completion of the work for the process. - What are the necessary qualifications for me to become an examiner?
- Top leaders, managers, business and non-business professionals from diverse functional areas and sectors are encouraged to participate. You do not have to be in the quality sciences. Our examiners often include engineers, leaders and mangers from all organization levels, CEO’s, COO’s, MD’s, RN’s, CPA’s, PhD’s, EdD’s, PharmD’s, and so on. The desire to participate depends on personal or organizational goals. What are yours?
- Is this a certification?
- Yes, but to be certified and listed on our website as an examiner, you need to successfully complete all the training, individual review, consensus meetings and planning, a company site visit, and inputs to the feedback report.
The Examiner Experience Activities
- Take the first step. Call us and discuss your interest, experience and what the MassExcellence Award program is all about.
- Those who are participating in this years full examiner cycle, submitted this Examiner Application link, with their resume to info@massexcellence.com. We began in January and end in April. Adequate time is given between assignments to complete the work and minimize the impact to your time. Realistically, the entire process takes approximately 150 hours of time over this four month period which includes time for all off –site activities. (Comparatively, a National Baldrige Examiner participating in the same activities may require about 300 hours within a six-month period.)
- Your first assignment, your independent review, will take approximately 40 to 60 hours.
- 4. After completing your review, there will be some planning activities to prepare for your facilitated three-day team consensus meetings. During consensus, your team will come to a single outcome originating from the examiner reviews. The team will then create issues to review on your site visit. Although three days seems a lot, you have actually saved a day or two with this facilitation.
- Prep for your site visit. After several conference calls, all teams will visit their applicant’s site for about three days. This is where your major learnings happen. As a category lead, you and each team member will have items to clarify and verify. This will involve interviews and reviewing specialized documents. You may even find it necessary to attend an internal meeting or two.
- Immediately after the Site Visit, there is a 2 day off-site session where the team's observations and learnings are captured and refined in a final Site Visit Report which will ultimately be sent to the applicant.
End of process. Congratulations! You’ve made it and (State Baldrige Examiner Training are now one of our most recent certified state examiners.
Team Leaders
The Team Leader is pivotal in guiding a team through the process and completing the feedback report. Our Team Leaders all have leadership and teaming skills, and prior State or National Baldrige Examiner experience. We occasionally make exceptions with individuals demonstrating relevant and related skills. If you possess these attributes, enjoy managing volunteers and activities, and would like to keep your skills sharp, and able to facilitate a team to full closure, this is something we’d be glad to talk to you about. Our Team Leaders are assisted at certain points in the process by our National Baldrige-experienced faculty and coaches.
Once the Team Leader completes the feedback report with your inputs, it is sent to our Panel of Judges for their decision on award level to be given. Team Leaders participate in the deliberations by the judges by answering any questions relevant to the feedback report.
Thank You to Our 2011 Board of Examiners
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MassExcellence Certified Baldrige Examiner Teams, Faculty and Coaches |
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All Examiners have taken part in an actual Baldrige-based assessment, by completing an independent application review, participating in consensus meetings and completing an on-site visit to an applicant |
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2011 Board of Examiners Faculty and Coaches |
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Steven Cano, MS, R.Ph., FASHP Chair, Examiner Recruitment & Retention |
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Dick Eppig Chair, Examiner Training & Team Coach |
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Steve Hodlin Team Coach |
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2011 Board of Examiners |
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Steven Cano, MS, R.Ph., FASHP Team Leader |
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Christopher Hutchins, Ph.D. Team Leader |
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Cindy A. Reilly, RN, BSN Sr. Director, Quality and Performance Improvement |
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2011 Board of Examiners |
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Peter J. Holden President & CEO |
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Mary Ellen Crittenden, RN, MS, CPHQ Director of Quality |
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William J. Kirkwood, PhD Vice President, Organizational Development |
wkirkwood@jordanhospital.org |
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Frank Silvia Executive Director, Ledgewood Rehabilitation and Skilled Nursing Center, Beverly, MA |
frank.silvia@kindredhealthcare.com |
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Nicole Helstowski, BSN, RN Administrative Director of Quality |
helstowskin@ellismedicine.org |
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Eve Bankert, MT (ASCP) Director of Infection Prevention and Epidemiology |
bankerte@ellismedicine.org |
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Sharon Marie May, PhD World-Wide TS IPG Marketing Manager |
sharon.may@hp.com |
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2011 Board of Examiners |
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Brian Hettrick Chief Integration Officer |
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Samuel Kornreich Organizational Performance Consultant |
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Janet Hilton, RN, CPHQ Ellis Hospital, Schenectady, NY |
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