Many paths lead to higher performance. The high-performance route is individual and unique for every person, team and organization. There is no single best way. What works for me, or anyone else, may not work for you. We can't follow someone else's path—we need to blaze our own trail.
Even though no route is exactly the same, change and improvement efforts cover similar territory. Highly successful organizations have passed most of the following change checkpoints and improvement milestones as they move toward ever-higher performance levels:
__ Clear and compelling reasons for changing and improving
__ Balanced focus on people, management and technology
__ Strong ethic of self-determination
__ Comprehensive and balanced improvement model
__ Clear and compelling picture of our preferred future
__ Three or four core values
__ Definitive statement of purpose, business we're in or why we exist
__ Rich and continuous customer/partner performance gap data
__ Intense exploring of and searching for new markets and customers
__ High levels of experimentation
__ Robust process for disseminating team and organization learning
__ Three to four strategic imperatives for each annual improvement cycle
__ Direct links between all improvement activities and strategic imperatives
__ Comprehensive and balanced improvement plan
__ Improvement-planning structure, process and discipline
__ Well-designed, proven approach to process management
__ Clarity on the preferred types and focus of all teams
__ Well-trained team leaders and members
__ Intense levels of technical, management and leadership skill development
__ Simple customer/partner, innovation, capabilities, improvement and financial measurements
__ Active feedback-loops that foster learning and improvement
__ Flat, decentralized and team-based organizational structure
__ Systems that serve and support customers and partners
__ Extensive and continuous education programs
__ Effective communication strategies, systems and practices
__ Partner-designed reward and recognition programs within a vibrant culture of appreciation
__ Strong development of champions for change
__ Support for local initiatives
__ Annual progress reviews and improvement assessments
__ Frequent celebrations of major breakthroughs and small wins
__ Annual refocus and planning for the next year's improvement cycle
Management teams can use this list in a variety of ways. They might use it as a simple checklist for the development of improvement strategies and plans. They might have everyone on the team rate how well the organization and/or team is doing in each area. Or, they might have everyone rate the improvement urgency of each of these 31 areas. Another possibility is to have everyone do both rating exercises to provide performance gap data.
By Jim Clemmer
Jim Clemmer's practical leadership and personal growth books, workshops and team retreats have helped hundreds of thousands of people worldwide improve personal, team and organizational performance. Clemmer's website, JimClemmer.com, has more than 300 articles and dozens of video clips covering a broad range of topics on change, organizational improvement, self-leadership and leading others. Sign up to receive Jim's popular monthly newsletter, and follow his leadership blog. Jim's international best-sellers include: "The VIP Strategy," "Firing on All Cylinders," "Pathways to Performance," "Growing the Distance," "The Leader's Digest" and "Moose on the Table." His latest book is "Growing @ the Speed of Change."
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