Caelan's Story

This week's Excellence Agenda story comes from Caelan, one of our two whippets.  In an earlier post I suggested that Mission is the foundation of the Sustaining Agenda.  This is a story about mission and perseverance, and one dog's sustaining agenda.

Whippets are born with a mission:  catch the bunny.  They are called sighthounds because if something moves - they are attracted to it and have the acceleration and speed to catch it.  The "job" (sustaining agenda) of a whippet was to catch small game for the pot.    A whippet friend of mine tells the story of one of his original females who, riddled with cancer, was still catching squirrels in the last week of her life.  The mission lives on to the end.

We got Caelan because we were looking for a small sized sighthound.  What we did not realize is that what we got was an elite athlete.  As she approached a year old, we began to see her muscles develop and how quick she was.  We got invited to a race practice, to help train her for straight racing and realized this was her natural element. (Whippets race only for fun and the straight races are 200 yards in distance.  No betting and just fun prizes.)  Caelan loves to race - this is pure pleasure for her.  Over the past few years it has been a thrill to watch her develop and she has won her share of events and has earned three Certifications.

Caelan is now seven and a half years old and the youngsters are now much faster than her.  She won't be winning any more races, and I wondered if the competitive spirit was still there. This past weekend we attended a practice and it was a lesson in the value of an Excellence Agenda.  Caelan did three runs and it was like watching three years drop from her age.  Caelan was totally into her game.

An Excellence Agenda is not just for people, it is part of evolution and nature.  Caelan has an Excellence Agenda based on her natural athletic ability.  The ability to run at 35 miles per hour and to have total focus on her mission of catching the lure is her "job".  The fact that she will not win races against the younger dogs does not diminish her commitment to her agenda.  The ability to show up for the game and deliver her best effort is what counts. It is part of who she is as a whippet - her true being.

How often have we given up on our Excellence Agenda because we felt we could not compete?  How often have we not gotten into the game and lost the chance to be a part of something bigger because we could not be the "winner"? How often have we excluded others from expressing their Excellence Agenda because they would not be a "winner"?  By building on our community members individual excellence and abilities, we are building a community of excellence where everyone's contribution counts.

An Excellence Agenda is about being in the game.  It is about living our personal Vision and our Mission.  It is about contributing to communities of excellence, where every individual's abilities counts, that makes the world a better place.

Caelen was born with her mission; it is part of the breed, the encoded DNA of the dog.  Watching the new puppies at practice go after the lure, you can see the instinct coming into play.  This past weekend Caelan was living her mission, and living her Excellence Agenda.  And I learned a valuable lesson about showing up, being totally engaged and the value of contributing the best of your ability.

PS:  Whippets don't have owners, they have staff.

Seth Godin on The Forever Recession and the Coming Revolution

On his blog this morning Seth Godin posted this commentary on the Recession and the new world:

The Forever Recession

The concept of an Excellence Agenda and promoting/fostering Communities of Excellence, are part of the coming revolution.  Communities of Excellence can be the platform for "impromptu innovation and inspiration that involves connections between and among people."  And yes it is totally unlike factory work.  I believe that to succeed in this new world, an Excellence Agenda and fostering Communities of Excellence are vital.  The future is based on an ability to leverage you own personal excellence in environments that promotes creativity, innovation, experimentation and growth.  Computers, the Internet and software give us the tools that can leverage our creativity and distribute excellence in a real time world.  As Seth Godin suggests, this is a world of collaboration, not competition.  It is a world of multiple connections to different Communities of Excellence for different projects, gigs or creations.

Not a bad place to be at all.

Excellence vs. Perfection

I have been thinking a lot about this topic over the past few days.  I am not sure entirely what to say, just that it is important to say it. So here goes...

There is a profound difference between Excellence and Perfection. They are not the same things at all.

Excellence is an outcome.  We never achieve excellence, we contribute to it.  It is like healthy children or healthy food - we need to constantly strive to work towards healthy children or food.  Profitability, likewise is an outcome that we continue to work towards.

Philip Crosby in his book "Quality is Free", says that we do not have to be perfect to have zero defects.  What we have to do is meet the requirements.  Excellence can be defined as meeting or exceeding the requirements of your clients, customers, stakeholders or fans.  That is different than perfect.

Perfection is a target, a destination. Perfection is a how much. Perfect (the root of perfection) has two meanings.  One meaning of perfect is something without blemish.  As in "this rose is perfect".  This is the commonly accepted definition of perfect, but it leads us down a blind path of trying to achieve the impossible.  A study of Chaos theory or dynamic systems tells us that there is nothing in nature, including a rose that is without blemish.  Trying to achieve perfection can drive you nuts!

The second definition of perfect is that something has everything it needs to be what it needs to be.  When a baby is born with five toes on each foot and five fingers on each hand, we say it is perfect.  If we take this definition of perfect, we an see that many of our systems, organizations and businesses have everything they need to be what they need to be.  That does not mean they are without flaw or requiring development and improvement.  It does, however, give us space to be human, to listen, to be leaders and to respond to changing environments.

How do you know if you are Excellent?  You need to compare your actual results against the targets of the Performance Metrics in your Excellence Agenda. Then you need to validate your results with the people you serve.  Seth Godin suggests that if you have absolutely raving fans - then you know you have achieved some form of Excellence.

Excellence is a journey that we take.  Perfection, as in without blemish, takes us away from what is important.  Perfection, as in ensuring that we have everything we need to be what we are supposed to be - is a target we can all aim for.

An Excellence Agenda Fundamentals

An Excellence Agenda is based on the following fundamentals;

1. Excellence starts with individuals.  Every individual possesses unique talents and abilities that allow them to be excellent.  Every individual has a desire to matter to others because of those unique talents and abilities.  That results in a personal Excellence Agenda - an approach to how we are going to express our excellence and matter to the world.  However, each of us has areas of unexcellence and we therefore seek out other individuals who can balance us and give us excellence in all areas of our lives.   That leads to...
2. Communities of excellence.   A community is a group of people with an affinity or bond.  The affinity can be demographic, psychographic or utility based.   A demographic affinity could be a bond based on geographic location, family, professional interests, education, age, income etc.  A psychographic affinity is based on how we see ourselves and our self image.  We will associate with others who have a similar sense of attitudes, outlooks and values.  A utility based affinity or bond is when people create a community of a common sense of value delivered to the members.  A community of software users for instance may have a spectrum of demographics or psychographics, but they all share in the value delivered by the software.  Each of us belongs to a variety of communities of excellence, including our families, our workplaces, our clubs and even community and religious organizations. (For the balance of this posting we will look at communities of excellence within an organizational framework.  We will come back to individual Excellence Agendas in another post.)
3. Every community of excellence has an Excellence Agenda.  This excellence agenda sets out what the community aspirations are, and how it will strive to meet those aspirations.  At an organizational level the Excellence Agenda is often articulated in the Vision, Mission and Goals statements.  These represent the highest outcomes of the organization and managers work to develop a community of excellence that contribute to those outcomes.  Since Excellence is an outcome:  it is not something that is ever fully achieved.  You do not get to a place where you can say; "we have reached excellence, what's next!".  An Excellence Agenda is an ongoing journey and each agenda is unique to each organization.   
4. Every Excellence Agenda has two sub-agendas:  the Sustaining Agenda and the Change Agenda.  The Sustaining Agenda refers to the "meat and potatoes" of what a community does.  These are the day to day activities and outputs that contribute to the outcomes.  This is also known as "the work" that gets done.  The Sustaining Agenda is guided by the Mission of the organization.  The Change Agenda refers to the activities and outputs that will enhance An Excellence Agenda and take the organization to a higher level of excellence.  The Excellence Agenda is guided by the Vision.  The Change Agenda is typically a series of projects that could be related to infrastructure, building new knowledge, research and development, new product launches, new marketing initiatives etc.  The Change Agenda will eventually become the Sustainability Agenda as the Change gets embedded into every day operations.  (Thanks to John Harrison and BMB Consulting for the concept of Sustaining and Change Agendas)
5. So how do you know if your Excellence Agenda is working?  For that you need a Performance Measurement Framework (PMF).  The PMF is a tool that allows you to identify Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) that give you feedback on your progress in contributing to the outcomes, including Excellence, the organization desires.  There can be KPI's for both the Sustaining and the Change Agendas.  In working with PMF's and KPI's for a number of years, the key lessons learned are: what gets measured gets done, gets alignment and gets funded.  An Excellence Agenda without a PMF is only marketing.  An Excellence Agenda with an active PMF is an unstoppable force to be reckoned with. 
6. But we are not Excellent everywhere or consistently.  We need to be able to manage an Excellence Agenda. Managing an Excellence Agenda means managing the Gaps.  The Gaps are the areas where reality and expectations do not meet.  One of the paradoxes of managing an Excellence Agenda, is that we will always have Excellence gaps.  It is part of the journey.  As discussed above, we never actually achieve Excellence - we contribute to it.  We will discuss managing gaps in greater detail in a future posting.  
7. The role of Executives and Managers is to create environments in which an Excellence Agenda can be delivered.  This includes financial excellence, product or service excellence, customer excellence etc.  An Excellence Agenda has multiple facets and dimensions.  An Excellence Agenda can include outcomes of profitability, environmental sustainability, service standards, the development of social, cultural or intellectual capital.  In short, an Excellence Agenda can be as broad or as narrow as you require.  What an Excellence Agenda does is focus attention on what is important - what the key success factors are to contribute to the aspirations of the organization.

Stay tuned, there is more to come on all of these ideas.

Megan's Story

On Friday of last week, I needed to get a few grocery items and stopped in at our local Metro supermarket.  This supermarket is a typical suburban food store.  This is not a superstore or big box, but a standard food market with a great deli, in-house bakery and a great selection of produce.  It serves a local community of about 45,000 people in a community that is typically a blue collar type of crowd.

I checked out with my debit card and asked for some cash back.  I left the store and about a half hour later when looking to complete another purchase discovered I had no cash.

When I got home, I looked at the receipt from the Metro store.  I had not signed for any cash back - so probably the cashier and I had both missed it.  (An over 50 moment for me!)  I called the telephone number on the receipt and within two rings I heard;  "Hello Metro, Meagan speaking."  Wow, a real person answers the telephone without going through a prompt system.  I explained the situation and Megan said, no problem that when the reconciliation was done in the evening they could give me a call back.  I thought that would be ok, and then said I had the time and the transaction code on the receipt.  "Oh," said Megan, " I can look that up on our computer, just a moment."  In literally a few seconds, she had identified my purchase and told me what I had bought.  "The cashier is right beside me," she said, " if you don't mind waiting a few moments we can do a quick cash check."  In less than a minute she was back on the line with the news that the cash was over by exactly the amount I had requested.  We arranged for me to pick up the money the next morning.

Early Saturday morning I went in to get my money and met Megan face to face.  I was so impressed with the service - I wanted to know the source of the Excellence Agenda.  I wanted to know what had triggered her response to help me.  She said it was when I told her that I had not signed for the money and could give her the time and transaction code that she realized I was telling her the truth.  From that it was just a question of checking the computer.  But it was much more than that.

There are not one, but two Excellence Agendas here. It seems, this Metro store has an Excellence Agenda based on competing not just on prices and product selection, but also on exceptional and personal customer service.

Megan has her own Excellence Agenda.  Megan is in her mid-20`s and has worked at the store for more than 10 years - it`s the only job she has had.  She has a degree in Psychology and has an honest interest in making people happy.  She gets her people approach from her parents and upbringing and it is supported by the `family atmosphere`of the staff.  This store has a staff of over 100 - some family!

The fact that Megan has worked in the store for 10 years and really enjoys her job, tells me that she is not only working in a Community of Excellence, but that management has created a Culture of Excellence.

Megan explained that the computer used to be on the second floor and when there were customer enquires at the customer service station, someone would have to go upstairs.  So what did management do?  They installed a terminal beside the telephone so that she can look up information while she is on the telephone.   In other words, the corporate Excellence Agenda is supported by IM/IT systems that give the staff the ability to respond to enquiries in real time.  Megan is also given the freedom to make customer satisfaction decisions without having to go to senior management all of the time.  There is a belief that the customer is, for the most part, honest and trustful.  That creates a culture of trust within the store to serve with authenticity and credibility.

Congratulations to the Management and Staff of Metro store 257.  You are a wonderful example of An Excellence Agenda and the power of Communities of Excellence.

By the way, after talking with Megan, I went in to buy BBQ supplies and spent virtually all of the cash back.  An Agenda of Excellence pays rewards.

Communities of Excellence

One of the foundations of promoting an Excellence Agenda is recognizing the need to foster Communities of Excellence.  I will define Communities of Excellence in greater detail in later postings to the blog - but let me give you an example of a Community of Excellence in action.

Last weekend was the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.  As the airways over North America closed, transatlantic flights were redirected to smaller centres on the East Coast of Canada.   I was pleased to hear interviews with the Mayor of Gander, Newfoundland on how their community of 10,000 responded to the 6600 guests they had sent to them. Given only a few hours notice, the Mayor appealed to the community for help, everything was needed; bed clothes and linens, food for the emergency shelters, volunteers to help greet and register the guests, set up for telephones and email.  It was a monumental task, but this community came together and made it happen.  They even hosted a good-bye party for the guests before they left.

In interviews with some of the guests, who returned for the 10th anniversary gathering, they talked about the hospitality, the warmth and generosity.  They talked of making lifelong friendships.  Gander is now twinned with other communities because of what they did that day.  The Mayor talked about how important it was to make sure that the right people were put in the right volunteer places to make sure that it all worked. Everyone pitched in with their unique abilities and their own contribution to creating a Community of Excellence.

I lived through the Ice Storm of January 2008.  From that experience, I learned how resilient and adaptable communities really are.  How communities can actively learn from each other, share information and ensure that everyone gets taken care of.  In my work in community consultation and engagement, I have always marvelled at the level of talent, creativity and innovation there exists wherever I go.  The same goes for the organizations and businesses I have worked with.  People want to be associated with a Community of Excellence.  The challenge for leaders at all levels is to help create environments in which people feel that they are a part of a Community of Excellence.

Today, look at the communities that you belong to.  Which ones do you feel a sense of excellence and connection to?  Why is that, and what have you done to contribute to the sense of excellence?

Excellence is all around us - we just need to stop for a moment and see it for what it really is.

Welcome

Welcome to the An Excellence Agenda Blog.  This space will be used to focus on specific issues around excellence, performance measurement, creativity and innovation.  We will also review how to apply An Excellence Agenda in different kinds of organizations.  

So what is an Excellence Agenda?   Every organization, community or individual I have ever worked with, wants to be excellent.  I have never worked with any community or organization that wanted to be "unexcellent"! Individuals, organizations and communities are not excellent at everything, but every situation wants to demonstrate that what they do, matters.  An Excellent Agenda is a process that provides a process that contributes to Excellence. We do this with two primary tools; performance measurement and Communities of Excellence.

From my work in performance measurement, excellence is an outcome.  You never fully achieve excellence, you can only contribute to it.  An Excellence Agenda is an approach to management and organizational development/design that aims to liberate the latent excellence and unique abilities of all of the staff, and stakeholders to meet community, organizational or individual outcomes.

An Excellence Agenda, is a commitment to provide an environment in which excellence can occur.  That is the primary purpose of management.  If Managers and Executives focus on creating environments in which excellence can occur - staff and stakeholders will overcome massive obstacles to deliver to the mandate of the organization.  To accomplish that requires an performance measurement process that allows you to track where you are and where you are headed in the excellence agenda.

The benefits are numerous.  An community or organization that has an active Excellence Agenda will see:

• greater satisfaction and engagement from participants
• higher levels of innovation and creativity
• a positive ROI for the effort expended on the Excellence Agenda (Excellence is Free!)
• higher levels of sustainability; financially, environmentally and on any other dimension you can think of

In future posts we will outline some of the steps required to build and maintain an Excellence Agenda and in particular, discuss Communities of Excellence. 

Cheers

Francis