The Principles of An Excellence Agenda

Earlier this week I was working with a client on their Excellence Agenda.  As we talked about the concepts and clarified what it was and how it worked, the motivation and excitement took off.  Coming out of the meeting I realized I needed to find a better way to tell the Excellence Agenda story.  Yesterday, while walking the dogs (walking has a great impact on creativity) I had an "aha" moment and was able to simplify An Excellence Agenda to a series of basic principles.  So here they are:

1. Excellence isn't everything, it's the only thing.
2. Job 1 of every executive and manager is "to create environments in which excellence can happen"
3. Excellence is a journey, not a destination
4. Excellence = meeting requirements
5. Excellence does not equal perfect: Excellence is an outcome, Perfect is a target (generally unachievable)
6. There is a proven process for building an Excellence Agenda, that has definable steps and that engages the participants to build buy-in and execution commitment. 

I am looking forward to elaborating on these topics over the next week or so...

In the meantime check out the link about my Granddaughter: lifewithlol

Tom Peters on Excellence

No discussion of Excellence can ignore the profound influence of Tom Peters.  In Search of Excellence, A Passion for Excellence and Thriving on Chaos are fascinating, detailed examinations of what works.  In chapter 1 of A Passion for Excellence, Tom Peters describes the four principles he believes are at the core of Excellence. They are:

• Care of Customers
• Constant Innovation
• People 
• Leadership through Managing by Wandering Around.

His key theme is that Excellence is simple, not easy, but simple. The paradox is that you have to do all of these things with a single minded dedication to doing well.  This quote struck home with me again as I reread it:

"I turns out that neither superior customer service nor constant innovation - the two sustaining edges of excellence - is built upon genius in the executive suite, sleight-of-hand techniques or mystical strategic moves on a game board that allow one to gain a five or ten year advantage over one's competitors.  Both are built, instead, on a bedrock of listening, trust and respect for the dignity and creative potential of each person in the organization."  (Page 579, Tom Peters Two Complete Books, Wings Books, (c) 1995)

As Tom Peters so eloquently points out, Excellence is about people, creating communities of excellence through listening, respect and giving people the space to be innovative and creative.  I don't think the world has changed all that much.  I think we have forgotten the basics of Excellence. We have to get back to the fact that business is about people; looking after our customers, our suppliers, our team.  Leadership is about listening, trusting and building respect.  Imagine that. Leading by listening - really listening, not just to the words, but to the meaning, and the intention of the conversation.  The problem I see in organizations every day is that everyone is so busy talking, (through emails, text messages, and meetings) that no one has the time to listen. 

Excellence Agenda Interview

This past Monday morning I had a call from a colleague, David Cohen  inviting me to guest on a one hour teleclass scheduled for Wednesday evening.  It seems his planned guest had been in a bicycle accident and was unavailable and he needed a replacement in a hurry!  David really liked the Excellence Agenda concept and thought it would be great for the class.  This teleclass is offered by Alterna Credit Union  as a way of reaching out to their small business and entrepreneur clients.  The class offers an opportunity to connect with peers, get some one on one coaching on a topic that can help their business.  So Wednesday night we did the one hour teleclass.

It was really great.  Firstly, David, is a great host.  He makes his guests, me included, feel comfortable and his questions let you explore ideas and get into a conversation.  Alterna makes it easy for their clients to connect using a toll free teleconferencing system.  The participants asked great questions and we really got into the discussion. I was sorry to see the hour come to an end. One of the great lessons that I got from the discussion is that An Excellence Agenda works for all sizes of businesses, from one person self employed entrepreneurs, to mature organizations.  It was wonderful to hear people take the concept and run with it. 

Congratulations to both Alterna and David for making this happen.  Check out David's site for his weekly radio show Small Business, Big Ideas.  I will be interviewed on the show in January on the Excellence Agenda concept and will post the link here.  Check out Alterna for their unique focus on building and promoting small business and entrepreneurship. 

The Artistic Director

Deep in my past I was a classically trained musician. I played oboe, the instrument that Samuel Pepys called, " an ill wind that nobody blows good". I played in both orchestras and chamber ensembles. I much preferred chamber music because each player is one to a part, yet you are part of a whole. I moved on into arts management and worked with symphony orchestras and ballet training school.

One of the unique aspects of arts organizations is that they are structured differently from other businesses.  They have an artistic director. The role of the artistic director is to cultivate the Excellence Agenda for the company. They are intimately involved with both the Vision/Change Agenda and the Mission/Sustaining Agenda of the organization. The Artistic Director is, in fact, the Champion of the Excellence Agenda. The company is only as good at its ability to perform to the level of the Excellence Agenda. Every performance is unique, some are better than others, all of them may be excellent!

The role of management, in this structure, is to create the environment in which the Excellence Agenda can be deployed.

There is a similar structure in film production. The Director is the keeper of the vision or whole concept of what the film will be.  The actors and the production team work to support that vision.

In sharing the concept of the Excellence Agenda with colleagues, it has occurred to me that we need to look at our organization with an Artistic Director lens. Who in your organization is the keeper of the Vision and the Mission? How well is that Vision/Mission articulated or shared? How well understood is it by the rest of the production team? Look around this week and identify the Champion of the Excellence Agenda in your organization. If you can't find one, maybe you have a gap that needs addressing.

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!

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?

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.

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.