The Institute research agenda was first established at the SUMMIT meeting in the summer of 2006. This executive driven research agenda focuses on questions and dilemmas that leaders of high performing organization face in trying to sustain high levels of performance and take their organizations to the next level. For more information on the research agenda and the dilemmas that high performing organizations face check out the Quality Management Journal article.

Leadership

• What are the impacts of leadership changes (turnover) on MBNQA organizations? How can these be mitigated?
• What are the characteristics of leadership transitions that continue the existing direction of success?
• How do organizations transition leaders without losing successful practices?
• How do leaders and leadership processes differ between Baldrige adopters and non-adopters?
• What are the most effective methods to institutionalize leadership development?
• Finally, how does one manage organizational change to minimize adverse impact on sustainability and constancy of purpose?

People

• What are the most effective approaches to recruit, hire, train, and motivate employees with an aptitude and passion for organizational performance excellence?
• What are the most effective approaches to get new employees to embrace the culture of continuous improvement and performance excellence?
• What are the most effective approaches to educate a pool of future employees who quickly add value to a high-performance organization?
• What are the most effective approaches to create a structure that rewards long-term contributions to overall organization performance?

Culture

• What are the common features in the cultures of high-performing organizations? If common features exist, how does an organization foster the implementation and institutionalization of these key features?
• What are the relationships of organizational culture to performance excellence? Are there different elements of organizational culture that sustain excellence versus those elements that move performance to the next level?
• Does a particular organizational culture facilitate performance excellence, or do excellent organizations develop strong organizational cultures? This question is a "chicken versus egg" question.
• Finally, what types and characteristics of organizational culture are most resilient to changes in organizational leadership?

Innovation and Creativity

• What are the most effective approaches to creating an infrastructure and culture to foster innovation? What are the most effective approaches to measure the value of innovation? In addition to these basic questions there is a bit of a paradox associated with the existing highly successful system and the creativity and innovation that might be necessary to move to the next level.
• What are the most effective approaches to maintaining high levels of quality while incorporating ways to encourage innovation and creativity to take the organization to the next level? For example, systematic processes that support quality may not embrace the open-ended, flexible steps required in portions of the process required to encourage innovation.

Stakeholder Education

• Why don't stakeholders understand the benefits of performance excellence and the MBNQA process? While this is partially explained by the constant turnover of members of the stakeholder groups, it is not clear if turnover is the only issue.
• What are the most effective approaches to continuously educate stakeholders about the benefits of pursuing high performance using the MBNQA process?
• How can organizations describe the benefits and values of performance excellence and the MBNQA process to stakeholders?

Knowledge Management

• What are the key characteristics and elements of a KM system that support and foster a learning organization?
• What are the criteria for evaluating effectiveness and the value of a KM system?

Strategy

• How does one integrate knowledge management, customer-focused processes, and strategic planning system to maximize competitive advantage?

Processes

• The first question focuses on the issue of execution excellence and the extent or depth of process deployment. Part of the interest here is based on setting priorities when deploying processes to new locations. What are the key factors that affect the successful deployment of processes to new locations?
• A related question focuses on the degree to which processes should be standardized when deployed to locations in different countries. This question involves understanding the aspects and characteristics of processes that need standardization versus those characteristics that can and possibly should be customized for the unique needs of the local country culture. What process elements and characteristics should be standardized when deploying processes in new country cultures?

Measurement

• What are the measures related to value creation for multiple stakeholders?
• What metrics and mechanisms are most effective for communicating organization performance and results to all types of stakeholders?
• What are the early external and internal warning signs that relate to failure or success in the marketplace?

Integration

• What is the value or benefit of achieving a high level of integration for categories 1-6 process items?
• What are the key characteristics of integration at the 800 level and above? What are the key integration points in the system? What are the best approaches to increased alignment and integration?

MBNQA Criteria System

• What are the common themes of the 600-point organizations? Do they share similar strengths and weaknesses?
• One question was developed to identify the key leverage points. Which process criteria (categories 1-6) have the greatest influence on results?