FAQs
- What is an excellence model?
Excellence models were developed in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. The models defined the principles and best management practices common to high performing organizations.
- Who developed the first excellence models?
The leading excellence models were EFQM (Europe), Baldrige (United States), Canadian Framework for Excellence, Australian Business Excellence Framework.
- Who uses excellence models?
Many nations around the world have a national excellence award program. Most programs are based on the EFQM model, Baldrige or a combination of the two. Excellence models are applicable to any size and type of organization. Leaders with a desire to have a high performing organization use an excellence model.
- Are excellence models updated?
Yes, there are updates to the models every few years that have been validated by research.
- What are the latest developments in excellence models?
Recently, the Organizational Excellence Framework (© Dawn Ringrose, 2010) was authored. This model integrates the leading excellence models and provides implementation guidelines for the user. Effectively this model has filled a gap in the literature by merging ‘what is known in excellence’ with ‘how it is implemented in management consulting’. It is a neutral model that is not associated with any award program and is intended to provide a reference to support any excellence approach. The publication is accompanied by a turnkey toolkit designed to make the excellence journey simple and straightforward, cost effective and time efficient.
- What is included in the Organizational Excellence Framework toolkit?
The tools that an organization requires to transfer knowledge to employees and engage them in the excellence journey; a consultant requires to deliver programs and services to client organizations. These tools include: a publication, scenario games, holistic and modular workshops, automated assessment and reporting tool, global OE index, train-the-trainer program.
- Who are the best candidates for the train-the-trainer program?
Professions that have knowledge about organizations and an interest in contributing to organizational performance such as those engaged in: management consulting, business advisory, accounting, mergers and acquisitions, quality assurance and management, project management, occupational health and safety, human resources, supply chain management, statistics, research, executives, entrepreneurs and managers on the executive track.
- How do we know excellence models work?
Since inception, research has been carried out on organizations that have successfully implemented an excellence model and validated the positive relationship between implementing an excellence model and improving organizational performance across a balanced system of measurement.
- What is a balanced system of measurement?
A balanced system of measurement provides feedback on how an organization is performing by key management area and for the organization overall. The most commonly used measures are provided in the Organizational Excellence Framework publication in Chapter 9 and Appendix 3.
- What is the awareness about excellence models across the working population?
Global research suggests that only 10% to 20% of the working population is familiar with excellence models.
- Why is there low awareness about excellence models?
There are likely six reasons: missing curriculum in schools; missing curriculum in professional development programs of professional and industry associations; the excellence community has a tendency to deliver programs that are expensive, time consuming and difficult to understand; the excellence and quality management community is extremely fragmented and professionals promote a specific approach, tool or technique that collectively creates confusion with leaders; leaders have a tendency to adopt quick fix solutions for challenging issues rather than implement a platform for long term organizational success.
- How does an excellence model compare to other quality approaches such as ISO 9001 and tools and techniques such as Lean and Six Sigma?
An excellence model has a more robust set of principles and best management practices across key management areas (~50 for micro size organizations, ~100 for larger size organizations). The ISO 9001 standard has an abbreviated set of practices (~25) and both Lean and Six Sigma focus mainly on a particular key management area (Work Processes) and process improvement.