Virginia SPQA

07/17/2025

🚀 Discover What’s New with SPQA!

We’ve updated our web page at www.spqa-va.org with the latest on Baldrige Performance Excellence and the services we offer to help organizations achieve sustainable success.

You can also follow us on LinkedIn for timely updates, resources, and opportunities to engage with the performance excellence community.

Let’s work together to drive excellence across Virginia and beyond!

👉 Visit today and stay connected.

12/10/2024

Join us for an exciting two-day Baldrige for Beginners training session on December 12-13, 2024, hosted by SPQA. It’s an opportunity you won’t want to miss! Register at https://spqa.regfox.com/baldrige-for-beginners-december-2024

In this Introductory course, SPQA offers individuals and organizations an opportunity to learn the foundations of the Baldrige Excellence Framework using the Baldrige Excellence Builder to help achieve long-term success.

The Baldrige Performance Excellence Framework is a national model for performance excellence. Through questions, the Framework guides organizations to a systemic and integrated perspective of their processes. Process improvement professionals and organizational leaders who are seeking structures and processes that will improve customer service, workforce engagement, efficiency, innovation, strategy, and more should attend this workshop.

The Baldrige for Beginners Workshop is an ideal starting point for organizations seeking a guide for systemic organizational improvement. We will review the foundation of the Baldrige Excellence Framework, the Baldrige Core Values and see how the components fit together as an integrated system. We will also explore how to document a Work System using a SIPOC chart. Attendees will walk away with practical skills they can immediately use to improve their organizational processes.

Get tickets online for Baldrige for Beginners December 2024 here.

12/10/2024

The process for the 2025 Baldrige Award, the nation’s highest recognition for excellence in organizational performance, is now underway, with the 2025 Baldrige Award Criteria now available.

The Baldrige Award Criteria are used to identify and recognize organizations that are U.S. role models of resilience and long-term success and from which other organizations can learn and improve. Feedback from customers and stakeholders, including from examiners and Baldrige Award applicants, was used to validate, refine, and improve the criteria and award process.

Award Criteria
The 2025 Baldrige Award Criteria consist of sections that contain three types of questions: context, results, and process. Context questions are first, followed by questions on results/outcomes. Context questions are not evaluated. Finally, process questions related to results are requested.

During the Application Evaluation phase (which includes Independent Analysis and Consensus Evaluation), applicant responses to results questions are rated using a rubric that determines responsiveness to the question, performance levels, performance trends, and relevant comparisons. Applicant responses to process questions in five sections will only be reviewed and rated by examiners if the applicant is selected as a finalist. Processes will be rated for being regular and repeated as well as improved based on evaluation.

There are five Baldrige Award Criteria sections that ask for results/outcomes:

Leadership and Governance
Operations (includes Operational Continuity)
Workforce
Customers and Markets
Finance
There are also three Baldrige Award Criteria sections (Strategy, Organizational Learning, and Community Relationships) that only request context and process questions because the efficacy of these core activities are demonstrated through the results presented in other sections. Applicants’ responses to process questions for these three sections will be evaluated during the Application Evaluation phase of the award process, along with results.

https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2024/12/now-announcing-2025-baldrige-award-criteria

04/25/2024

The Baldrige Criteria as depicted by AI image generator

Description: The ornate compass is the central element, symbolizing guidance and strategic direction, with each direction point labeled with critical aspects of the criteria: North for Leadership, South for Workforce, East for Customer, and West for Strategy. Surrounding the compass, various interconnected gears represent process management, each gear intricately detailed to signify the complexity and interdependence of processes. Above the compass, a glowing light bulb symbolizes innovation and knowledge management. In the foreground, diverse groups are depicted working together around a large table, discussing plans and data, representing workforce focus and customer engagement. The overall atmosphere conveys a sense of harmony, precision, and dedication to excellence.

04/25/2024

Pathways to Excellence
SPQA is now offering Pathways to Excellence! We’ve created four pathways in which our team can interact with your organization in order to create a platform for success. Our goal is to promote continual improvement strategies and to provide training, mentoring and recognition to organizations in pursuit of performance excellence.

https://www.spqa-va.org/pathways-to-excellence/

03/30/2024

Baldrige for Beginners

Apr 11 – 12, 2024

We are pleased to share that SPQA will be providing Baldrige for Beginners training sessions. In this Introductory course, SPQA offers an opportunity for individuals and organizations to learn the foundations of the Baldrige Excellence Framework using the Baldrige Excellence Builder to help achieve long-term success.
April 11th and 12th (8:00 AM - 12:00 PM)

Register at

Online registration for Baldrige for Beginners April 2024.

03/30/2024

https://communitiesofexcellence2026.org/what-we-do/spring-course---preparing-for-your-communities-of-excellence-journey/2024-spring-course-registration.html?blm_aid=30203913

You will receive a separate invoice from Communities of Excellence within 3 business days of submitting this form. The registration deadline is February 27, 2024 or until the course fills.

01/23/2024

SPQA Chair Letter
Happy New Year
Board Chair Message 1/16/2024

Since 1983, the US Senate Productivity and Quality Award (SPQA) has been recognizing organizations for outstanding performance.

The Medallion of Excellence was awarded in 1983 to Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Portsmouth, VA and to Philip Morris USA, Richmond, VA. The enduring testimony is that organizations want to improve using a disciplined approach. It is hard to count all the time spent to change organizations using the Baldrige framework. The journey is unique to every organization.

Central to this effort are SPQA examiners. January starts an annual cycle of welcoming back returning examiners and training of new examiners. All examiners receive essential training and experience in applying the Baldrige criteria to organizations. In the award process, running from January to June, they spend 80 hours on average doing independent reviews, team consensus reviews, and site visits of applicants. An examination team of 8 – 10 people, led by an experienced team leader, is responsible for the examination of one applicant. They are backed up by mentors, editors, and judges. Organizations gain valuable feedback on all areas of their operations and clear opportunities for further improvement. Examiners gain in learning a systems perspective, consensus building skills, and new methods of analysis that they can take back to their organization.

Happy New Year from the SPQA board! Reach out to me personally for additional information and how you and your organization can engage.



Sincerely,

James (Jim) Spengler

02/24/2023

Meet our Chair

James (Jim) Spengler is currently employed by The Recreation, Parks and Cultural Activities Department (RPCA) in Alexandria, Virginia. Their mission is to create meaningful experiences through public space, cultural activities, and programming. Working as the Director of the Office of Organizational Excellence, they combine the offices of Organizational Effectiveness, Performance Analytics, and Internal Audit to develop and implement a high-performance organization model and practice for the City of Alexandria. The result is higher workforce engagement, productivity, and engaged residents, business, and visitors.

Jim has a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Education from the University of Virginia as well as a Master of Business Administration from the University of Texas.

Jim also has the following certifications:

Certified Organizational Development Professional
Certified Leadership Development Professional
Certified Executive Coaching Professional
Certified Balanced Scorecard Professional
Examiner Senate Productivity and Quality Award
Examiner Ohio Productivity and Quality Award
Examiner Texas Productivity and Quality Award

James Spengler James (Jim) Spengler is currently employed by The Recreation, Parks and Cultural Activities Department (RPCA) in Alexandria, Virginia. Their mission is to create meaningful experiences through public space, cultural activities, and programming. Working as the Director of the Office of...

02/10/2023

Have you visited our website lately?

https://www.spqa-va.org/

01/24/2023

Did you know that the most recent revisions (2021-2022 and 2023-2024) of the for ® (part of the Baldrige Excellence Framework® booklets) have added specific assessment questions related to cultural diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA)? More importantly, would you like to learn how to use the Baldrige framework to address in your workforce and improve your organization’s results?

https://www.nist.gov/blogs/blogrige/how-baldrige-framework-can-help-you-improve-deia