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Blogrige

The Official Baldrige Blog

Eight Blogs on How the Baldrige Framework Supports the U.S. Military

By: Christine Schaefer

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Camouflaged military officer using a radio and laptop giving orders to other soldiers in a tent in the forest.
Credit: Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock

In consideration of Memorial Day, when Americans mourn those who gave their lives in military service to our country, this blog provides a reading list (with hyperlinks) for learning how the Baldrige Excellence Framework has been used to strengthen the performance of organizations involved in the support of veterans and in the nation’s defense.

Baldrige Award Facts

First, a few facts about the Baldrige Award—the nation’s highest honor for U.S. organizations that achieve excellence—in relation to U.S. veterans, military organizations, and defense-sector manufacturers:

  1. The first federal government organization to earn a Baldrige Award—in 2007, a year after Congress passed legislation that extended award eligibility to U.S. nonprofit organizations—is a unit of the U.S. Army: the U.S. Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering (ARDEC). 
  2. Just two years after nonprofits became eligible to apply for a Baldrige Award, a second organization associated with the U.S. military earned the high honor: the VA Cooperative Studies Program Clinical Research Pharmacy Coordinating Center (the Center). The Center, a unit of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, became a Baldrige Award recipient in 2009. 
  3. Baldrige Award-winning manufacturers that have supported U.S. military organizations as suppliers include

Baldrige Highlights High-Performing Military Organizations

The following Blogrige posts describe further how some of these high-performing organizations have benefited from using the Baldrige Excellence Framework® (which includes the Criteria for Performance Excellence®). 

  1. Learn How One Role-Model Organization Inspires Its Team to “Ride for the Brand” while Serving America’s Veterans (November 2021)
  2. How a Veterans’ Agency Realized Excellence for the “Sake of Customers, Employees, Stakeholders, and the Country” (January 2018)
  3. Baldrige Principles Bring Organizational Change, Learning to National Guard (August 2017)
  4. Using Baldrige to Support Our Military, Veterans (March 2017)
  5. A Baldrige Award Recipient Shares Leadership Practices That Support Operational Excellence (September 2015)
  6. For Manufacturers, Baldrige Could be the “Cure” for Focusing on the Future (Part II, June 2015)
  7. A Role-Model Government Center That Keeps Getting Better (September 2014)
  8. Boiling the Ocean: How a Manufacturer Leveraged the Criteria to Improve its Supply Chain (February 6, 2014)

See Blogrige for more stories of organizations using Baldrige resources to support their customers and meet their missions.
 

2021-2022 Baldrige Excellence Framework Business/Nonprofit feature image

Baldrige Excellence Framework®

The Baldrige Excellence Framework has empowered organizations to accomplish their missions, improve results, and become more competitive. It includes the Criteria for Performance Excellence, core values and concepts, and guidelines for evaluating your processes and results.

Purchase your copy today!

Available versions: Business/Nonprofit, Education, and Health Care

Award Recipients, Baldrige Excellence Framework (Criteria), Impact of Baldrige and Sector Focused

About the author

Picture of Christine Schaefer

Christine Schaefer

Christine Schaefer is a longtime staff member of the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program (BPEP). Her work has focused on producing BPEP publications and communications. She also has been highly involved in the Baldrige Award process, Baldrige examiner training, and other offerings of the program.

She is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Virginia, where she was an Echols Scholar and a double major, receiving highest distinction for her thesis in the interdisciplinary Political & Social Thought Program. She also has a master's degree from Georgetown University, where her studies and thesis focused on social and public policy issues. 

When not working, she sits in traffic in one of the most congested regions of the country, receives consolation from her rescued beagles, writes poetry, practices hot yoga, and tries to cultivate a foundation for three kids to direct their own lifelong learning (and to PLEASE STOP YELLING at each other—after all, we'll never end wars if we can't even make peace at home!).

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