Excellence In Missouri Program

The Excellence in Missouri Program (EIMP) is established to generate performance excellence among all Missouri organizations and drive higher levels of quality in Missouri produced goods and services. The program is administered and managed by the Excellence in Missouri Foundation (EIMF) and consists of two components, one of which focuses on education and training, the other focuses on organizational assessment. Each component is based on the Baldrige National Quality Program management philosophy, which is the most successful and widely used approach to leading and managing an organization available in the United States and throughout the world today.

This page is divided into two sections: Education and Training and Organizational Assessment. The index for each is listed below.

Understanding and Implementing the Baldrige Management Model

Understanding the Baldrige management model can be a daunting task, and implementing the concepts contained in the model can be even more challenging. EIMF has the expertise and know-how to explain these concepts in terms all employees can understand, and develop techniques that can produce successful implementation in a relatively short period of time. In addition, EIMF can conduct assessment training on site to teach organizations how to conduct a variety of Baldrige-type assessments, and can participate in the assessment process as desired. For further information, see our Using the Baldrige Criteria as a Business Model brochure.

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Application Development

EIMF can assist your organization in developing a Missouri Quality Award or Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award application. Services include meeting with your staff to train them on the Criteria and the application and assessment processes, developing an application development strategy, assessing the application as it is being developed to ensure it is the best possible product and accurately reflects the organization's performance, and working with your application team to prepare them for the site visit experience. Once the feedback from the assessment is received, EIMF will also analyze that feedback and facilitate development of action plans to address the high priority requirements.

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Performance Excellence Tools

Strategic Planning - EIMF can provide training on strategic planning, assist an organization in developing a strategic planning process, facilitate development of a strategic plan, help develop a plan deployment process, and assist in deploying the plan throughout the entire organization. Foundation staff members have worked with numerous organizations of all types to develop effective approaches to strategy and plan development and deployment.

Balanced Scorecard - EIMF can bring a customized training workshop to organizations to educate employees on the Balanced Scorecard measurement system or provide specialized consulting services to facilitate development and deployment of a Scorecard within your organization. Foundation staff members have many years of experience with the Balanced Scorecard, and have worked extensively with organizations of all types to assist in developing this highly effective measurement approach.

Customer Relationship Management - EIMF can provide training on customer relationship management to help organizations understand how to determine customer needs and preferences, how to build long-lasting relationships, and how to determine customer satisfaction. EIMF can also develop customer needs and satisfaction determination instruments for organizations to use, and can provide support in the customer satisfaction determination process.

Human Resource Management - EIMF possesses expertise in methods to generate a high performing work force including the effective design of work systems, the development and use of teams, motivating employees, determining employee needs and preferences, and determining employee satisfaction. EIMF can provide training and/or consulting help in each of these areas.

Six Sigma Process Management and Improvement Methodology - EIMF can provide six sigma orientation training to help organizations understand this highly effective process management approach so they can make an informed decision regarding implementation of this technique.

Benchmarking - EIMF can provide training on how to conduct benchmarking activities and collect comparative data to help organizations understand how to use this technique to improve processes and set goals and targets for the future.

Show Me Challenge

The Show Me Challenge is an entry-level organizational assessment that provides a simple methodology to determine organizational strengths and next steps to enhance a focus on customers and performance improvement.

The Show Me Challenge is a self-assessment tool. An assessment, unlike an audit, is a comprehensive and integrated tool that recognizes the strengths as well as opportunities for improvement within your organization. This allows you to identify effective processes to continue building upon, and to identify the appropriate next steps for your organization to take in order to improve performance. Thus, this assessment tool seeks to build a comprehensive understanding of your organization's performance and develop actionable steps to improve.

The Missouri Quality Award Criteria for Performance Excellence provide the framework for the Show Me Challenge. This proven business model has been validated at the state and national levels through quality award programs such as the Missouri Quality Award and the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.

The Criteria consist of seven major categories that address all major systems making up any organization. The concepts embedded in the Criteria Categories may be complex or unclear to those organizations just beginning a formalized performance improvement process. The Show Me Challenge simplifies the seven Categories in order to create a more general, yet highly effective assessment tool that can be used to baseline your organization's performance levels and embark on improvement efforts. There are a number of ways for an organization to conduct the Show Me Challenge. The method you choose depends on the specific needs of your organization. The Foundation is happy to provide you guidance as you select an approach that takes your organizational constraints into account and best meets your desired outcomes. If you would like additional information on the Show Me Challenge please contact us or call 573-659-1231.

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Show Me More
The Show Me More is an intermediate-level organizational assessment, similar to the Show Me Challenge, but with more in-depth assessment questions. There are a number of ways for an organization to conduct the Show Me More. The method you choose depends on the specific needs of your organization. The Foundation is happy to provide you guidance as you select an approach that takes your organizational constraints into account and best meets your desired outcomes. If you would like additional information on the Show Me More please contact us or call 573-659-1231.

Show Me Commitment

The Show Me Commitment is a top-level assessment that allows an organization to receive feedback on its progress toward performance improvement without applying for the Missouri Quality Award. Participation in this level of assessment requires the organization to develop, as a minimum, a five page Organizational Profile (OP) to describe itself to a team of examiners who will conduct the assessment. The guidelines for developing the OP are contained in the Missouri Quality Award Criteria for Performance Excellence. If possible, the organization should also submit some performance-related information based on the seven Criteria Categories as a prelude to the assessment. A team of examiners, typically consisting of from three to five people, and often including members of the organization, will review the materials provided, prepare a site visit plan, conduct the site visit and write a feedback report for the organization. This approach provides the most comprehensive assessment the organization can undergo short of a Missouri Quality Award application and typically produces a set of highly valuable opportunities for improvement. For more information please contact us or phone 573-659-1231.

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