In Pursuit of Excellence

DISCLAIMER: I’m no guru. My focus is on practical application, not brilliant new theories. Sometimes common sense and real-world applications are the most elusive attributes of all.

The sub-title of In Pursuit of Excellence mirrors my focus… Engagement > Alignment > Execution, the three-legged stool that leads to excellence and results. As the quantity of posts grows, it becomes more difficult for viewers to find what they are looking for. So I am maintaining a Roadmap for each of these three topics, posted under “Pages” at the top right of the Home Page. These three roadmaps are linked below, and will be updated regularly with new posts.

In addition to the Roadmaps for these three topics, see “Roadmap of Categories and Topics” for a thumbnailed list of topics to help you find what you’re looking for.

My calling card has two simple graphics to illustrate the process of Engagement > Alignment > Execution. First, the pyramid and bottom-to-top arrow, a classic hierarchy / alignment diagram.

The bottom-up direction of the arrow illustrates how it all starts with engagement, at the first level and all levels. It’s a simple theory: involvement builds commitment. Engage people by seeking their input as early in the planning phase as possible, and as much as possible. Absolutely critical in the cascading of strategy process: involve people in establishing the HOW that will drive the WHAT.

While alignment involves cascading strategy from the top down, bottom-up engagement drives buy-in, ownership and accountability. These are critical to making the mission, vision, values come alive, and to achieving the strategy.

The goal: all hands on deck, pulling in the right direction. Flawless execution leads to results. Not just results, but the right results….IF engagement and alignment are established up-front.The Right Results are an outcome of engagement, alignment and flawless execution. Tough enough to accomplish with these three inputs, nearly impossible without them.

This is the basic premise of In Pursuit of Excellence: in the spirit of quality assurance, effective control of process inputs ensures quality of outputs.

A Roadmap: Engagement in the Education and Business Worlds (Input: ENGAGE!) These posts explore engagement in both the academic and business / industry worlds, as they are very much related. Key challenges: defining engagement beyond “we know it when we see it” and how to measure levels of engagement to identify where improvements can and should be made.

A Roadmap to Alignment  (Input: ALIGN!) Alignment, pet term “being on the same page”, comes in many shapes and sizes, the most critical being alignment…

• Between the company’s goals and values and your own;
• Of your position’s accountabilities to the company’s top strategies; and
• Of your job and career to your personal strengths and motivators.

Linked in the Alignment Roadmap are thumbnailed posts related to strategy and alignment. Scope of “strategy” includes vision, mission, guiding principles and how these are communicated and acted upon. Both personal alignment and business alignment are examined, per the three bullets above. NOT in scope is how to develop a plan. I’ll assume that your company already has a plan or you wouldn’t be here browsing around, you’d be on the street corner looking for spare change.

Roadmap to Management System Excellence (Input: EXECUTE!) Stuff doesn’t just happen. Robust systems make the process world go around. This roadmap includes links to posts for all things ISO and Baldrige Criteria-related.

People improvement is a process too, and the Human Resource Development system is critical to the pursuit of excellence. The HRD system topic is broad, as it includes performance management, succession planning, employee training and development. This is large enough that it may need to be split out in the future-will keep you posted.