Project in Leadership

Are We Making Progress?

Use This Tool to Quickly Assess Your Employees’ Perceptions

Baldrige Performance Excellence Program • www.nist.gov/baldrige

In today’s environment, if you are standing still, you are falling behind. Making the right decisions at the right time is critical. Following through on those decisions is challenging: deploying strategy is much more difficult than developing strategy. If deployment is so challenging, the questions are, Are you making progress? How do you know?

Are We Making Progress? and the companion document for leaders, Are We Making Progress as Leaders?, are designed to help you know. These tools show you whether your perceptions agree with those of your workforce. They will help you focus your improvement and communication efforts on the most critical areas.

The questionnaires are organized by the seven Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence categories, part of the Baldrige Excellence Framework. These questionnaires identify opportunities for improvement and direct you to more detailed questions in the Criteria. They also may help you identify some ideas for making improvements and recognizing opportunities for innovation.

Ask the members of your workforce their opinions. They will appreciate the opportunity—and your organization will benefit from their responses!

(Im)Prove Your PerformanceTM

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3Download Are We Making Progress? http://www.nist.gov/baldrige/ publications/progress.cfm

3If necessary, modify the questionnaire to address your specific needs (e.g., add questions, use language specific to your organization).

3Distribute the questionnaire to your senior leadership team and your workforce, including managers, supervisors, and volunteers.

3Download the companion document, Are We Making Progress as Leaders?, to see if your employees’ perceptions agree with those of your leadership.

How do you know?

Are your values, vision, mission, and plans being deployed?

Does your leadership team understand them? Do the members of your workforce understand and support them?

Are your communications effective?

Is the message being well received?

Are We Making Progress? Your opinion is important to us! There are 40 statements below. For each statement, check the box that best matches how you feel (strongly disagree, disagree, undecided, agree, strongly agree). How you feel will help us decide where we most need to improve or change. We will not be looking at individual responses but will use the information from our whole group to make decisions. It should take you about 10 to 15 minutes to complete this questionnaire.

Senior leaders, please fill in the name of organization or unit being discussed. Note: This refers to what is meant each time the word “organization” is used below

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Are We Making Progress? • www.nist.gov/baldrige

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Leadership 1A I know my organization’s mission (what it is trying to accomplish).

1B I know my organization’s vision (where it is trying to go in the future).

1C My senior (top) leaders are ethical and demonstrate our organization’s values.

1D My senior leaders create a work environment that helps me do my job.

1E My organization’s leaders share information about the organization.

1F My organization asks what I think.

Strategy 2A As it plans for the future, my organization asks for my ideas.

2B My organization encourages totally new ideas (innovation).

2C I know the parts of my organization’s plans that will affect me and my work. 2D I know how to tell if we are making progress on my workgroup’s part of the plan.

2E My organization is flexible and makes changes quickly when needed.

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Are We Making Progress? • www.nist.gov/baldrige

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Customers Note: Your customers are the people who use the products of your work.

3A I know who my most important customers are.

3B I regularly ask my customers what they need and want.

3C I ask if my customers are satisfied or dissatisfied with my work. 3D I am allowed to make decisions to satisfy my customers.

3E I also know who my organization’s most important customers are.

Measurement, Analysis, and Knowledge Management 4A I know how to measure the quality of my work.

4B I can use this information to make changes that will improve my work.

4C I know how the measures I use in my work fit into the organization’s overall measures of improvement.

4D I get all the important information I need to do my work.

4E I know how my organization as a whole is doing.

Workforce 5A The people I work with cooperate and work as a team.

5B My bosses encourage me to develop my job skills so I can advance in my career.

5C I am recognized for my work.

5D I have a safe workplace.

5E My bosses and my organization care about me.

5F I am committed to my organization’s success.

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Contact For information on the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program: www.nist.gov/baldrige | 301.975.2036 | [email protected]

Are We Making Progress? Revised 2015 Photo credits: ©Tsyhun/Shutterstock

Baldrige Performance Excellence Program • National Institute of Standards and Technology • Department of Commerce

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C Operations 6A I can get everything I need to do my job.

6B We have good processes for doing our work.

6C I can improve my work processes when necessary.

6D We are prepared to handle an emergency.

Results 7A My work products meet all requirements.

7B My customers are satisfied with my work.

7C I know how well my organization is doing financially.

7D My organization has the right people and skills to do its work.

7E My organization removes things that get in the way of progress.

7F My organization obeys laws and regulations.

7G My organization practices high standards and ethics.

7H My organization helps me help my community.

7I My organization is a good place to work.

Would you like to give more information about any of your responses? Please include the number of the statement (for example, 2A or 7D) you are discussing.

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