Breakthrough Improvement

Although innovation is often associated with technological innovation, it is applicable to all key organizational processes that would benefit from change, whether through breakthrough improvement or change in approach or outputs. It could include fundamental changes in organizational structure to more effectively accomplish the organization’s work.

Organizations engage in benchmarking to understand the current dimensions of world-class performance and to achieve discontinuous (non-incremental) or “breakthrough” improvement.

The term “stretch goals” refers to desired major, discontinuous (non-incremental) or “breakthrough” improvements, usually in areas most critical to your organization’s future success.

Projections integrate estimates of your organization’s rate of improvement and change, and they may be used to indicate where breakthrough improvement or change is needed.

Go to Baldrige Best Practice: Improvement Action Process

The term "breakthrough improvement" appears in the Baldrige Criteria in the following location (click to go there): Item 4.1 - Area b(2)