An Excellence Agenda Conceptual Model

In a discussion with a colleague recently, I started sketching a conceptual model of An Excellence Agenda.  I decided to turn it into a proper slide that can be shared in presentations.  So here it is.

An Excellence Agenda is a high level umbrella that articulates an outcome oriented mandate that describes the enduring status that an organization wishes to maintain.  This approach allows for the inclusion of high order outcomes, guiding principles and values, and the ability to link the mandate of an organization to an implementation and performance framework.

There are two sub-agendas:  the Sustaining Agenda and the Change Agenda.  The implementation of these agendas is guided by the Strategic Plan, which provides the linkage between the goals and implementation priorities of the two parallel agendas.  The Strategic Plan articulates clear goals and objectives and is time based.

The Sustaining Agenda represents the "meat and potatoes" business of any organization or company.  These are the activities that deliver the day to day outputs that contribute to the ongoing development of the Excellence Agenda.  The Sustaining Agenda is guided by the Mission, the key executive role is management, and there are specific business/operational plans that management uses to monitor progress.

The Change Agenda represents the initiatives that are required to move the organization forward.  The Change Agenda is guided by the Vision, the key executive role is a leadership role, and there are project plans that management uses to monitor progress.

The foundational base is the Performance Measurement Framework or Strategy that gathers the data, and does the analysis to tell the performance story of all three Agendas and the progress on the Strategic Plan. The PMF is the glue that binds the whole process together.

What makes the Excellence Agenda different from a Strategic Plan is that the Excellence Agenda provides a rigour in the identification of the enduring outcomes that an organization is mandated to contributes to.  This is bedrock.  The Strategic Plan will be updated over time.  Activities and outputs in the Sustaining Agenda and the Change Agenda will undergo regular updates but will always contribute to the Outcomes in the Excellence Agenda.

The Excellence Agenda, with the Performance Measurement Framework are the enduring pieces of the "sandwich".  The filler of the Sustaining and Change Agendas can be modified to fit the menu - but the bread is always the same!

Performance Measurement and Management for Government Conference

I just spent Tuesday and Wednesday this week at the Performance Measurement and Management for Government Conference.  The conference was organized by ALI Conferences.  I have never been to one of ALI's conferences before, but was impressed.  As a speaker, we had great facilities, the technology worked and the participation level from the group was extraordinary.  We had about 45 in total at the conference, and because of the size the conference turned more into a workshop than a series of presentations.  The sessions were informal, interactive and really great.  Over the two days I attended, you could see the participants take in the information and start to apply it to their own situations.

From the municipal space there were attendees from four municipalities.  I will post the presentation from City of Brockville on my website here: Clients and Resources.  In talking with the organizers, there is an interest in the possibility of doing a Performance Measurement for Local Government conference.  I will keep you updated!

Be the Excellence You Want to See

“We must become the change we want to see.”  Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi's quote, above, reminds us that if we want to see change in the world, that we need to demonstrate or be an example of the change we want to experience.  If we wish to get more love, we need to give more love.  If we wish to see more prosperity, we need to promote prosperity.  

In the same way, if we wish to experience excellence in the world around us, we need to demonstrate and promote excellence in our own lives.  In my own life, there are areas that are more excellent and areas that are less excellent.   My desk is a case in point.  One of the joys of a messy desk is all the great discoveries I make!   There are many areas in my life where I have an ongoing excellence journey.  Some areas in life are just more excellent than others.  That means I can have different excellence targets for different aspects of my excellence agenda.  It gives me the freedom to accept that there are areas of growth and development, and areas of high functionality.

As you start this week, what are the areas where you have natural excellence?  How will you share that with the world?  Are there areas of clean-ups where you can continue to demonstrate a willingness to promote excellence, at a lower target level?  What is your excellence agenda for this week?

Upcoming Events

I will be speaking on performance measurement at the Performance Measurement  and Management for Government Programs event being held in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada next week.  I am co-presenting with Dave Paul from the City of Brockville on work we did to develop a comprehensive performance measurement framework for the City's Strategic Plan.  More information can be found here: Performance Measurement and Management for Government

I will also be doing a presentation for the Brockville Chamber of Commerce on The New Key Success Factors on November 24th.  When I get the details, I will post a link.

On Steve Jobs

The passing of Steve Jobs gives us all a moment to reflect on the extraordinary genius and influence he had on our world.  I first purchased a Macintosh computer in the late 1980's to do graphics for the marketing firm I was running at the time.  We went through several versions and in 1994, I brought one home, put it on a table, plugged it in and left it.  By the time I came home the next day, my ten year old son had it all figured all out and could literally make it sing.  My children use only Apple products.

I think the key to Steve Jobs genius can be summed up in four words: the stuff just worked.

Apple products move you away from needing to understand the technology - to getting stuff done. You move from process to outcome without interference from the technology.

A couple of Christmases ago I was given the book Inside Steve's Brain.  It was a fascinating exploration of how Steve Jobs created an innovation culture at Apple. Dozens of prototypes were developed and discussed and reviewed in great detail.  Then more prototypes were created until a consensus was reached on function, form and ease of use.  The user interfaces that Apple pioneered have resulted in devices that give us access to the stuff we want quickly and easily. Steve Jobs obsessed over how the product was packaged so that the consumer had a major Wow factor when they open the box.

The genius of Steve Jobs was understanding, before we realized it, what we wanted and creating the technology and devices to give us that.  One of the conclusions of the book was that Jobs has successfully transferred the innovation culture and process to Apple and that it will continue long into the future, even without him.

Jobs recognized the value of the experience.  That dedication to the customer's perspective resulted in raving fans willing to pay a premium for the products and the lifestyle he created.

His excellence approach is an inspiration to all of us.

Managing the Gap

"Ordinary people are capable of acommplishing extraordinary things."  

Barack Obama

After reviewing the concepts of An Excellence Agenda with one of my clients, she said;  "Francis, this is all great, but we are not excellent."  What my wonderful client was missing was the concept of The Gap.   The Gap is one of the basic tools for managing An Excellence Agenda.

If you have ever been frustrated, anxious, worried, angry or upset, it is probably because you are experiencing a Gap in your life.  The Gap is the difference between your expectations and your performance.  The greater the gap between your expectations and performance, the higher the level of frustration, anxiety etc.  Motivation comes when the Gap is very small - we then feel that with some additional effort, we can meet our expectations, and our performance and expectations will be aligned.

Gaps are built into our system as human beings.  We cannot get rid of the gaps, we can only manage them.   In managing An Excellence Agenda, we need to manage the gaps between our expectation:  what we believe Excellence is and the performance we see in front of us.  

There are three ways to manage the gap:

• lower our expectations
• raise the level of performance
• let go of our expectations - and work with the performance only

Lowering our expectations

  

This is often called compromise or making do, which many people resist.  There is, however, another side to this.  In a series of interviews with business leaders, virtually every business leader felt that that they were above average in abilities, decision making and accomplishments.  Our natural self regard puts us in a high achievement category.  We are, each of us, legends in our own minds.  The problem is that it isn't true, all of us are excellent in a several areas, average in others and downright dangerous in others.  Don't ask me to do brain surgery !  

One of the key ways we frustrate people as colleagues, managers and leaders, is that we believe that our personal performance is close to 100%, and we expect those around us to be at a similar level.  After all, if we can do it, so can they.  Our actual performance is actually probably closer to 80 - 90%. If we lower our personal expectation to 85% and set our acceptable performance standards at 75% we will see a huge positive impact on both ourselves and those in communities of excellence around us.  One of the keys to promoting environments in which excellence can happen is to lower our expectation levels slightly, and then celebrate like heck when those around us perform at levels that are more average.  

The result of the positive feedback is that those communities of excellence will start to perform at higher and higher levels and the accomplishment cycle goes through the roof.  

It's worth a try.

Raising performance

See note above.

Eliminating Expectations

There is another way to build excellence capacity.  That is to let go of expectations.  In Eastern Philosophy, this is seen as a key way to achieve a sense of peace and accomplishment.  By letting go of expectations, you eliminate the Gap and can free yourself up to enjoy what you are doing right now - today's current performance.  In this way you give yourself permission to be as excellent today as you can be.  Some days are really high performance days, other days are less high performance days.  The key is to let go and let excellence emerge. 

If we truly believe that everyone in our COEs, comes to the table desiring to be excellent, then we can let go and let each of them be excellent.  Where performance is suffering, then we need to understand the gap in the performance (resources, capacity, expectations, other blocks) and either accept them, or eliminate them.  Sometimes our expectations cannot be fulfilled because the environment just will not allow it.  Letting go is the only solution.

I decided several years ago that I no longer have problems in my life - only Gaps.  What gaps are you experiencing today?  Are you willing to lower your expectation?  Can you enhance performance?  What would happen if you lived in the moment and let the expectation go?

In managing An Excellence Agenda if we look at managing the Gaps, we get to let people around us be excellent in their own way.  The result is enhanced Communities of Excellence and unbelievable performance.