Guidelines for using Baldrige Tool with your MFI or organization

1
Guidelines for using Baldrige Tool with your MFI
or organization

• Carter Garber
• Milton Arguello
• Gerald Hildebrand
• Thursday, October 18th, 2001, SEEP Network,
  Washington, D.C.

2
Write up an Evaluation Plan

• Decide whether you are going to use external
  consultant(s)
• After defining what it is you want to accomplish,
• Write up an action plan with
• resources, timeline and deliverables
• Be clear on roles of participants

3
Participation of organization being assessed in
the Baldrige process

• Key to the Baldrige is self-assessment
• Can be supplemented by outsiders evaluative
  comments recommendations
• Start with buy-in and participation and buy-in of
  CEO and his/her key staff
• Buy-in exercise of other internal evaluators

4
Determine participants

• Define your clients PVO or MFI may have several
  types
• Define your providers (Are your funders a
  provider or another type of client?)
• Stakeholders
• Consultants to process Will you use external
  consultants or only internal ones?

5
Determine Critical Processes

• Business processes (lending TA T BDS)
• Support processes (outside capital accounting)

6
Study Baldrige Criteria for Performance
Excellence with internal evaluators

• Internal Evaluators have to learn how to use the
  tool
• 7 Categories
• 18 items
• 29 areas to address
• Make sure that it covers all aspects of your
  organization. Adapt to yours by adding items or
  areas.
• Adjust language.
• Add in your usual indicators or measures.

7
Adapting Baldrige to Microfinance

• Areas that need more emphasis
• Board leadership
• Relations with lenders to MFIs
• Network relations and other Linkages
• Donor and stakeholder relations
• Finances and Financial Operational
  sustainability are in category of Processes.
• In the write up there may be redundancies as some
  process areas also appear in the product section
  (ex R D) is both process and product

8
Work in small groups

• Break into different groups
• In Katalysis MG3 evaluation, we had seven field
  program staff working in three different groups
  to study blocks of categories.
• If have more people time, could break into 7
  groups
• Plenary to share results and add to

9
Determine Strengths and Areas for Improvement

• Describing the process is the first step.
  Comparing how done by competitors and allies.
• Identify strengths.
• Point out where can improve.
• Seek different points of view.
• Katalysis evaluation used Findings and
  Recommendations couplets

10
Each item is a mix of qualitative descriptions of
the process and quantitative measures

• Measurements are key.
• If you cannot measure it, you cannot control it.
  
• If you cannot control it, you cannot manage it.
• If you cannot manage it, you cannot improve it
• Business Process Improvement,
• H. James Harrington.

11
Using the results Focus on vital few

• Maintain competitiveness in those areas where
  organization is strong
• Devise action plans for improvement in those 2- 4
  areas that need it.

12
Supplementing Baldridge Tool

• Complement with SWOT Need vision of future to
  identify opportunities and threats to, and
  weakness of, current processes.
• Katalysis discovered some of the things that
  worked well in past, but would not be adequate
  for future.
• Complement with other types of interviews and
  tools.