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By Christine Schaefer
Did you know that the most recent revisions (2021-2022 and 2023-2024) of the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence (part of the Baldrige Excellence Framework booklets) have added specific assessment questions related to cultural diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA)? More important, would you like to learn how to use the Baldrige framework to address DEIA in your workforce and improve your organization’s results?
If so, you may benefit from information shared in a recent webinar produced by the Association of Manufacturing Excellence (AME) in collaboration with the Virginia-based Senate Productivity and Quality Award (SPQA)—a member of the Alliance for Performance Excellence (the nonprofit network of regional and state-level, Baldrige-based award programs across the nation). The virtual training was presented by Lisa Tabor from CultureBrokers, LLC, a company that works with organizations to help them improve equity—which the company defines as “performance results that do not vary across racial and ethnic groups.”
Tabor described her organization’s approach as addressing the role of diversity (defined as “difference”), inclusiveness (defined as “behavior,” in particular, how people interact and work independently to achieve equity), and discipline (defined as “the systems, frameworks, policies, practices, processes, and built environments that impact equity as an outcome”). “Discipline is the key that is needed to get to … equity results,” she noted. “So we’re leveraging … the power of those influences to then develop a system that generates equity results.”
This approach, she added, “is very similar to how Baldrige … applies its framework … The Baldrige framework now is about that rigor, that discipline. … It has evolved to be … more clear about the role of diversity, inclusion, and equity in performance improvement and ultimately in … performance excellence.”
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