Baldrige User's Guide: Organization Diagnosis, Design, and Transformation

by John Latham and John Vinyard

"I wholeheartedly endorse "The Baldrige User's Guide" written extremely well by John Latham and John Vinyard. They have taken a systems approach and have provided a visual version of the Baldrige... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 047169777X
• ISBN13: 9780471697770
• Release Date: May 2004
• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
• Length: 412 Pages
• Weight: 2.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 8.5" x 11.0"

Customer Reviews

Excellent aid for aspiring organizations or examiners

Anyone contemplating responding to the Baldrige Criteria should have this book in their library. Baldrige examiners can also use it as an aid in writing their assessments but should not replace the actual Criteria guidelines as stated in each year's "Performance for Performance Excellence." It is useful for linkages between Categories, Items and Items to Address. Readers should be aware that Item 7.4a is not the 2007 Criteria but the 2006 version. I'm not sure if this is being corrected by the authors but if you are a Baldrige examiner enough said.

Mostly Strengths but a couple of OFIs

The book per se, is an excellent resource for understanding the overall Criteria. Further, as a previous reviewer put it, the linkages between categories is worth the price (almost!). A few additional things I would have liked are : 1] All the blueprints printed consecutively to be able to see the linkages in one place. 2] A more detailed explanation of the Areas to Address. Sometimes it is not easy to understand why certain words / phrases have been used, and it would have been nice if these could have been explained in more detail. 3] A separate document (as a part of the software kit) with all the Survey questions that are currently given with each Criteria item. This would make it possible to either email to respondents or print.

A Strategic Masterpiece

I have been privileged to a member of a Baldrige team at a major service company who won the award, and consulting projects where the criteria was the major template for improvement. This is, by far, the best effort I have seen which strategically presents and describes the criteria, then provides practical counsel on how to apply it. As such, it is invaluable to examiners and consultants, and especially so to senior leaders and internal change agents attempting to improve performance within the Baldrige framework. The authors' lucid explanations of the key linkages within the criteria are alone worth the purchase price. The software included is worth many times the price. If you are serious about using the Baldrige criteria, this is a book you cannot afford to be without.

The Guide Meets Your Need

If the Baldrige Framework represents a 1987 U.S. milestone towards a comprehensive approach to organization excellence, the Baldrige User Guide by John Latham and John Vinyard represents a landmark synthesis of our collective learning and applications to date. The guide faithfully concatenates Categories, Items and Areas To Address of the Baldrige criteria into, of all things, a process description of what it all means for new users, assessors and even advanced users of the performance criteria. The authors accomplish this with comprehensive blueprints that link key elements of the criteria, with brief and effective explanatory comments, real-time examples from Baldrige winners plus assessor question and worksheets. For new and committed users of the Baldrige Framework, the User Guide makes intuitive, practical and valuable "connections that previously were not obvious" (David Sprong, Foreword). Who should invest in this paperback/CD toolkit? Those getting acquainted with the criteria as well as national and state examiners will clutch the user guide as indispensable. I say this as a practitioner (for profit, non-profit) who has benefited from services delivered by a Baldrige winner, has participated in a team that delivered an application for assessment and has experience on a state board of examiners. What catapults the value of the guide is its A-B-C organization around Focus, three Competencies for Performance Excellence and the Journey undertaken by willing organizations. The authors' approach towards an egalitarian Baldrige Framework successfully deconstructs the terminology of the official BNQP criteria, organizes and visually clarifies linkages real and implied using blueprints, breaks through (by at least 20%!) new understandings about exactly HOW and WHAT's Leadership, Execution Excellence or Organizational Learning. You can get the hands-on experience, but the user guide cuts your time investment without cutting corners. After all, the book is the authentic product of "thousands of person years" (though not from the authors). Indeed, the authors dispense contribution credit far and wide to those intimately involved with Baldrige Framework development as well as those committed to achieve extra-ordinary results through their work within winning (and learning) organizations. There is clarity and closure throughout the text, illuminating the authors' substantial knowledge of customers (government, industrial, worldwide) with generous sharing of applied criteria nuance in challenging environments. For example, Thoughts For Leaders vignettes (over 20 are sprinkled throughout) address the value of process documentation, innovation through leadership, sustainable competitive advantage, etc.). The nuggets help organization architects of all stripes arrive at additional insights with respect to systems thinking, core values, organization factors and the maturity of business competencies. Get the CD! Actually, a CD comes with the t