42 2023–2024 Baldrige Excellence Framework

Changes from the 2021–2022 

Baldrige Excellence Framework

Revisions have one overarching purpose: for the framework and the Criteria to reflect the 

leading edge of validated leadership and performance practice while ensuring that they are 

as concise and user-friendly as possible.

For more than 32 years, the Criteria for Performance 

Excellence have evolved along with the drivers of organizational competitiveness and long-term success. Through 

this evolution, the Baldrige Excellence Framework offers 

today’s organizations a nonprescriptive leadership and 

management guide that facilitates a systems approach to 

achieving excellence. 

As the Baldrige framework and the Criteria evolve, they 

must balance two important considerations. On the one 

hand, the Criteria need to reflect a national standard for 

performance excellence, helping organizations address current leadership and management challenges and educating 

organizations in all aspects of establishing an integrated 

performance management system. On the other hand, the 

Criteria need to be accessible and user-friendly for a variety 

of organizations at varying levels of maturity. 

To address the first consideration, several concepts are 

woven into the changes reflected in the 2023–2024 

Baldrige Excellence Framework. For example, agility and 

resilience are integrated across categories, and innovation(s)

is clarified. Other examples include the changing nature 

of work and workplace arrangements, as well as diversity, 

equity, and inclusion, which are emphasized throughout the 

Criteria and in the notes.

To address the second consideration, many changes in 

this revision make the Criteria more user-friendly through 

updates, simplifications, and clarifications. For example, 

some notes that were not critical to understanding how to 

answer a Criteria question have been moved from the Criteria items to the online commentary or eliminated altogether.

The most significant changes to the Criteria items are summarized as follows.

Organizational Profile

• Some “what” questions have been moved into the 

Organizational Profile; for example, the concept of 

strategic opportunities was moved because it fits 

better with strategic challenges, and opportunities 

have implications across multiple categories. In other 

cases of “what” questions, the decision was made 

to leave them in the categories where they have the 

most impact. 

• Item P.1a(3), Workforce Profile, has been simplified 

for clarity. In addition, educational requirements

have been removed from the Criteria questions based 

on feedback that these were not regularly used in 

assessments.

• Questions have been embedded to provide a better 

understanding of an organization’s business model 

in P.1a(1; percentage of revenue) and P.2a(1; 

differentiators). 

Category 1: Leadership

• In 1.1a, mission is now referenced among key elements for which senior leaders are responsible for 

setting and deploying. Similarly, in 1.1c(1), safety

and diversity were added in relation to senior leaders’ 

responsibility to create an environment for success.

• Questions on the board’s role in organizational 

performance evaluation were moved from 4.1b to 

1.2a(3) to keep governance board questions together.

Category 2: Strategy

• In 2.1a(2), the strategy considerations list was revised 

to focus on key elements and risks.

• The term work systems was removed from the title of 

the area to address, which now references outsourcing and core competencies. The important concept 

of work systems still appears in 2.1a(4) and 5.1a(3), 

and in several notes, as well as in the glossary.

Category 3: Customers

• The cross-cutting concept voice of the customer is 

now embedded in items 3.1, 3.2, and 6.1 in listening 

to customers, identifying their requirements, designing products and services, etc.

• In 3.2b, areas to address on customer satisfaction, 

dissatisfaction, and engagement were streamlined for 

clarity. The concept of customer experience is also 

referenced as overarching for item 3.2. 

Category 4: Measurement, Analysis, and 

Knowledge Management

• Measurement agility was moved into 4.1a(1) to 

better fit with the other questions, and performance 

and performance projections were rolled into 4.1b. 

This revision makes performance projections a 

multiple-level versus an overall-level question and 

aligns the question better with the Results Scoring 
Changes from the 2021–2022 Baldrige Excellence Framework 43

Guidelines for projections, which are in the 70–85% 

and 90–100% ranges.

• Based on user feedback, cybersecurity was moved 

from category 6 to category 4 to be incorporated 

within information and knowledge management. The 

wording in the Criteria still conveys that cybersecurity is an organization-wide strategic imperative.

• Item 4.2c now features the pursuit of innovation, 

moving the concept from category 6 to category 4 

as an attempt to minimize confusion on where to 

respond to innovation in the Criteria. Item 4.2c has 

been reworded to indicate the importance of innovation to the overall organization and its relationship 

to an organization’s knowledge management system.

Category 5: Workforce

• Workforce dissatisfaction has been called out as 

an area to independently determine root causes 

and enable a systematic remedy to avoid future 

dissatisfaction.

• Learning and development system effectiveness

(formerly 5.2c[3]) is embedded in the Criteria’s learning 

element in the Scoring System and addressed in 5.2c(2), 

with effectiveness results reported in category 7.

• Compensation is now called out with workforce 

benefits and includes a consideration of fairness.

Category 6: Operations

• Items 6.1a and 6.1b were streamlined to focus first 

on product and or/service and process design, then 

on process management and improvement.

• Items 6.1a(2) and 6.1a(4) now include language 

that relates to minimizing harmful societal or 

environmental impacts of products and/or services 

and operations.

• Supply-network management was moved from item 

6.1 to item 6.2 under the umbrella of operational 

effectiveness. A note in 6.2b explains why the term 

supply network is used instead of supply chain in 

the Criteria, to reflect a more resilient approach to 

supplier management.

• Reducing waste associated with your products and/

or services was added as an example and as a note, 

reflecting a growing focus on a circular economy. 

• An area to address on your overall approach to risk 

management was added as 6.2c(2). 

Category 7: Results

• Item 7.2 now asks for customer experience results.

• Item 7.3 now asks for results for workforce dissatisfaction and retention.

• Item 7.4 now asks for results for how senior leaders 

cultivate a culture that values diversity and fosters 

equity and inclusion, innovation, and intelligent 

risk taking.

• Item 7.5 now asks for your results for key measures 

or indicators of innovation efforts. 

Scoring System

Scoring information, including maximum score values per 

item, has been moved into the Scoring System section. This 

reinforces use of the Criteria as a leadership and management guide, while still enabling self-assessments. 

Some point values have shifted among items to improve 

balance: (1) Five points have been moved from item 1.1 

to item 2.2 to give more weight to strategy implementation. There is not an intention to downplay leadership; 

category 1 is still the process category with the highest 

potential points. However, strategy is one of leadership’s 

key responsibilities, and strategy implementation is crucial 

for ongoing success. (2) Point values have been switched 

for items 6.1 and 6.2 because item 6.2 now has a strong 

focus on the supply network, safety/business continuity/

resilience, and risk management.

Core Values

• The concept of customer-focused excellence

now looks at reducing dissatisfaction as well as 

complaints.

• The concept of valuing people now references the fair 

treatment of all customers and workforce members. 

• The concept of focus on success and innovation

now references the pursuit of sustained growth and 

performance leadership as potentially entailing a 

business transformation.

Glossary of Key Terms

• Definitions have been added for the terms agility, 

culture, and system. 

• The term innovation(s) has been clarified; for consistency, the Criteria now use innovation as a process/

activity and innovations to refer to the outcomes 

(discontinuous or “breakthrough” improvements in 

results, products, processes, or societal well-being). 

Innovation is now included in 2.1a(3) as part of a 

focus on strategic opportunities. An entire area on 

the pursuit of innovations and managing innovation

has been consolidated in 4.2c. 

• There are a few terms that are intentionally not 

included in the Glossary for two reasons: (1) definitions in the Glossary are intended for words that may 

be used differently in the Criteria than in common 

understanding; and (2) definitions of terms that could 

be deemed sensitive politically may be spelled out in 

the notes (rather than in the Glossary) so that their 

context and usage can be made clear.