Business excellence in a sector is rarely achieved by accident. The most effective examples are seen in organisations which have a strategy in place for achieving business excellence in all that they do.
Where there is a strategy, it allows for processes and improvements to be introduced, analysed, and developed on a sustainable and consistent basis. The regular review and assessment of how your organisation operates is a powerful tool for discovering where performance levels may be enhanced or maintained in vital areas. Strategy needs to address all areas of operation to avoid your organisation operating in a “silo” culture.
It is ultimately the responsibility of the leaders to establish the strategic direction required, but it is seldom that such an exercise is undertaken without input and support from a selection of people. At IiE we have used our famous Red Dot to focus on What Matters Most. It will not necessarily be the same for each part of your organisation, but nevertheless, each focus will involve the following factors.
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Leading
Ensure goals are achieved and that your people are part of the journey. The key to success in the introduction of a business excellence strategy will be the championing of the effort from the very top of the organisation or department. The leading of an executive or team will benefit from direction and support at the highest level.
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Resourcing
An Investor in Excellence optimises its resources to deliver What Matters Most to the organisation and achieve success. Having established a focus for the strategy,there needs to be sufficient resources put in place to permit the excellence strategy to be viable. This resourcing will consist of a mixture of financial and non-financial factors and assets that are made available for the use of the people involved in the strategy on an organisation-wide basis.
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Delivering
Create the foundations to build long term sustainability in your organisation. With the establishing of the correct levels of resources, there must be effective methods employed for the delivery of the agreed strategy. A proven method of ensuring that this route is positive, is the employment of trained facilitation within teams. Returns are raised when decisions are part of the team’s own contribution, rather than being imposed by weight of authority alone.
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Achieving
Stay on track and ensure What Matters Most to your organisation is achieved. Agreeing a strategy, and delivering it with the requisite resource, is the first step. The regular monitoring of results achieved will enable the identification of areas that need further investigation for improvement. The strategy of the organisation’s business excellence will succeed best when the approach of continuous improvement is deeply embedded within its culture.
IiE are skilled in assisting in the setting and measurement of strategy. You can contact us to find out more here.