Questionnaire based self-assessments
Many initial self-assessments are undertaken using a questionnaire-based format. These do not necessarily require a detailed knowledge of Excellence, although in practice clients have found major benefit in having some understanding and agreement on a number of areas before diving 'head first' into the process. So we include an element of education as part of any preparatory work.
We have developed two questionnaires: one at a relatively simple level, one more comprehensive. They are really intended as inputs for discussion and agreement about strengths and areas for improvement - we don't see them being used purely for 'answering and averaging' to get a score. We do not believe that the most useful outputs of a self-assessment come from the average response to a number of questions, whatever their complexity. In line with this, we only suggest using them for relatively small numbers of people, and so we do not have a huge 'survey analysis' infrastructure in place to support them.
Whilst questionnaires can require less resource than other approaches, they can still give a reasonable picture, which can act as a baseline for further action and assessments. However, we will discuss each situation with you before suggesting which is the most appropriate.
We have given some examples of the questions used in the introductory questionnaire and the Excellence Survey.
What's involved
A number of people from your organisation answer questions, either computer or paper-based, the answers of which help to paint a broad picture of your organisation in Excellence terms.
This then forms the basis of discussions in a workshop about Strengths, Areas for Improvement and next steps - it is only the actions taken after a self assessment which can deliver improvement.
How we can help
D&D Excellence can help you design the process using one of its own Excellence Surveys to ensure that the results are consistent and useful as you move forward. In addition, we can facilitate the 'consensus' workshop using your outputs and start the prioritisation of improvement actions. As we've said above, these workshops give the main benefits as broader team understanding of the organisation is increased.
