Most of you know that Glenn Bodinson is the other half of BaldrigeCoach. Did you know that he also started running at age 77?  That year he completed a 5K. The next year he completed his first 10K. At 79, he completed a half marathon. When he turned 80 in March of this year, he decided to start running marathons, and he set as his BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) running the 50th Anniversary Honolulu marathon earlier this month.

Now Glenn has been working with the Baldrige Excellence Framework a lot longer than he’s been running.  In fact, he has a copy of one of the first Baldrige Criteria booklets.  I’m pretty sure that his long history of working with the Baldrige Criteria influenced his approach to running, and especially this marathon.

As a strong believer in best practices, he aligned himself with several coaches over the months after he began running to learn the proper running form.  And he deployed those systematically – well-ordered, repeatable, and with facts and data so that learning was possible.

One of the things that one of his coaches, Jeff Galloway, recommended was that he set a quantifiable goal and then track measures that would tell Glenn how  he was progressing toward his goal for the Honolulu marathon.  Glenn’s BHAG was to finish the entire marathon according to the pace he had established using Jeff’s proven Run-Walk method.  Rather than establishing a BHAG that would have focused on achieving his best PR (personal record), Glenn wanted to have the satisfaction of finishing safely.

This approach reflects the Baldrige Core Value and Concept of “Management by Fact,” as well as criteria from Item 4.1, “Measurement, Analysis, and Improvement of (Organizational) Performance where measures are selected to reflect and reinforce the requirements of a strategic objective (or BHAG). Glenn had a plan for each run and tracked performance in a running journal that measured time, distance, pace, cadence, stride, and heart rate.

Glenn also demonstrated another Baldrige Core Value and Concept of Agility and Resilience when he developed a blister at Mile 15, which disrupted his stride and slowed his pace.  He adjusted but kept his BHAG in mind and crossed the finish line several hours later.

Needless to say, I am extremely proud of him, but I also think his personal adaptation of the Baldrige Excellence Framework is illustrative of many important features for organizational leaders.

1. What’s your BHAG?

2. How will you measure your progress toward achieving your BHAG?

3. Does the rest of your team know and support your BHAG?

4. What best practices have you identified and implemented?

5. What are you learning along the way?

6. If circumstances change, how can you demonstrate agility and resilience to ultimately achieve your BHAG even if it deviates from your original plan?

And on a more personal note, what BHAG have you discarded because you think you’re too old?  Time to rethink that!