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Baldrige Journey

Baldrige and Delmarva Foundation’s Quality Journey

The Delmarva Foundation Board of Trustees is the governing body that sets and guides the organization in its mission, vision, values, strategic directions and policies–all aligned so that Delmarva Foundation continuously strives for the highest level of quality for its customers. We understand that quality is a journey and with Baldrige we found a powerful framework to guide our internal quality improvement efforts.

We began our journey in 2003 by training a core group in the Baldrige framework. We supplemented this by selecting five Delmarva Foundation associates to become Baldrige examiners and relied on their expert advice to quality improvement teams and to conduct our self-assessments. Over the years, we have rotated membership and leadership in the core group and on project teams–thus allowing us to spread awareness of the Baldrige framework and embed it in our culture. Our successful application for the 2005 Maryland Performance Excellence Award represented our third effort. The first two times we used the application to conduct self-assessments and identify opportunities for improvement. With each iteration, we have seen improvements in our process and results. We believe the true power of Baldrige is this process of continuous improvement.