D&D Newsletter Spring 2008: Excellence work examples
We seem have been involved in an even wider range of activities than usual recently, and this is an outline of few. Don't forget you can contact us if you think we can help with similar approaches in your organisation - or indeed anything to do with the EFQM Excellence Model.
For our many readers who do not live in England, we thought you might like to see a photograph of some English spring weather we experienced on our way to a client's premises. We do seem to have had a lot of rain recently! (The telephoto picture was taken by Derek in the passenger seat, and we were at a safe distance from the car in front.)
Applicant's Excellence submission support
We have enjoyed helping an applicant for Excellence honours to develop their portfolio of evidence prior to submission, and look forward to learning how they get on shortly. We were delighted to have it confirmed that we were able to add some value:
"Thank you for all your advice on this. It is, I believe, a much better document due to your input."
This role is not new to us, but we were also able to break new ground. The organisation wished to use, as part of their communication programme, a short awareness film on DVD about the submission and site visit to their own people. Somehow Derek got through the audition, and had a short 'mock' site visit interview between him and one of their senior people which was filmed to be edited and used for the DVD. He also did a short 'talking head' piece for them about how the site visit would be a positive experience. We have been promised sight of the finished DVD (and out-takes!) and we fervently hope that the staff do not find the sight of Derek in full flow too traumatic.
Southern England Excellence Award
This was launched in August last year and Dave has been supporting the British Quality Foundation, which is managing the award process, by delivering a number of training and awareness workshops to interested organisations who fall within the geographical area of the award.
All applications for the award have now been received and are being reviewed by teams of assessors with site visits lined up for May. We will keep you posted on who the finalists are when they are announced. More information about the award itself can be obtained from the BQF website. If you are within the Southern England Excellence Award catchment area it may be worthwhile planning for your own organisation to enter the 2009 award.
Levels of Excellence
The EFQM Levels of Excellence scheme, run in the UK by BQF, allows organisations to be assessed for Committed to Excellence (C2E) or Recognised for Excellence (R4E). These indicate where an organisation lies on their excellence journey and provides external acknowledgement. They can be a prelude to the more demanding UK Excellence Award or EFQM Excellence Award (EEA) .
We both carry out these assessments, and there seems to be growing interest from different sectors of the economy. In recent months, Dave conducted a C2E validation of a global electronics company on the south coast and Derek worked with an old friend, David Hurren, on an R4E for a financial services organisation. We have also teamed up on a couple of R4Es, one for a non profit business support organisation and the other a multi-site company in the transport sector. As well as giving recognition to successful organisations, they give us a chance to meet many committed people pushing forward with their excellence aspirations - always an enjoyable experience.
Highways Agency
Last autumn, we carried out further CAT assessments (Capability Assessment Toolkit) for the Highways Agency as part of their supplier selection process. Between us we must have carried out over 20 assessments since the scheme was launched. It has allowed us to site visit a range of construction related firms, and we remain impressed by what we have seen. Whilst the construction industry in the UK did not have the best of reputations in the past, which many of the industry people we have spoken with admit, we have certainly seen some great organisations. Indeed Derek believes that two of the best examples of continuous improvement cultures that he has ever experienced have been on specialist construction-related sites during CAT assessments.
