Excellence: a Wise Choice
“Excellence is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice among many alternatives.”
~unknown
This is one of my all-time favorite quotes. It packs a lot. And like baking a cake, if just one of these ingredients is missing, it will flop.
Although the source is unknown, it is often attributed to Aristotle. Oh, I wish I could have a conversation with the author – comparing notes, sharing stories, pointing to exemplars, and reflecting on situations where there was an essential piece missing.
Excellence is never an accident…
Organizations do not become excellent by luck, by chance, or with a flash in the pan.
Yes, some might have moments of great financial results, for example. Factors aligning in a perfect storm. But if the organization does not systematize around these factors, building in ways to anticipate future shifts, this moment of surge can easily be followed by significant decline.
I think of organizations who rode the COVID wave in home delivery products, video streaming, and vaccine development to name a few. Did some get lucky as they were at the right place at the right time? Versus others who were ready at that moment due to agile, repeatable, and scalable approaches. Which of these organizations have solidified their core competencies to position themselves for ongoing success?
Excellence is of course not equated solely with financial success. Rather excellence is:
- Consistently achieving high levels of performance in all dimensions important to the business
- Generating results that are trending positively and exceeding comparative benchmarks
- Having the methods in place that are capable of continuing to deliver high performance going forward
- Using approaches in all relevant business units in a consistent manner
- Evaluating and continuously improving methods to yield ever improving results.
These dimensions are further elaborated in the Baldrige Excellence Framework®, especially in the scoring concepts.
It is always the result of high intention…
Organizations who are excellent typically declare a vision – a lofty vision. They articulate a compelling future state. They align their work, and plans, their teams, and processes to achieving these ambitious intentions.
I think of an organization, having reached high levels of performance nationally, raised the bar with their vision to be the best in the universe in their industry.
Another organization, setting out on a journey to excellence from a modest place of average by any measure, established a BHAG (big hairy audacious goal): to be best in the region in their sector. When asked why (and with an implied tone of the asker of how audacious) the CEO would reply: what patient customer would want to be treated at the 137th best community health system? Our patients and community deserve nothing less than best.
What does this ambitious intention get us? Well…when the going gets tough and obstacles arise, which they will, a vision keeps the wind in our sails. It engenders perseverance and even grit.
And what about …sincere effort…
You won’t get it right every time. In fact, sometimes perfection is the enemy of good as they say. But the work to excel takes effort. A lot of effort! Sustained effort.
Getting everyone moving together in alignment for the good of the customers we serve. That takes effort!!
Being willing to say we took an intelligent risk in starting a new program and it didn’t work out as planned. So, let’s conduct an After-Action-Review to learn from the situation and embed our learnings into future endeavors.
As a leader, our efforts in the name of excellence must be sincere. When we set an ambitious goal, others are looking to us for signals. Do we really mean it? How will this be different from previous efforts that petered out?
Are we willing to roll up our sleeves and engage in true transformational change? Are we open to the personal leadership growth and development that is needed?
Sincere effort is needed in all of these ways (above) and more.
…intelligent direction…
Any major organization change needs a conductor. A person or group who can see the whole picture, is looking out past the immediate horizon, is asking what if, and one who thoughtfully gains “intel” to guide the transformation.
Without direction, it is easy to be veered off course or get bogged down by inertia.
One of the great attributes of the Baldrige organizational excellence program is the multiple ways in which one can gain intelligence from other high performing organizations and leaders. While each industry and market and organization is unique in its strategic challenges and opportunities, the Baldrige framework provides a lens to look at and learn from other organizations who are excelling within their domains. Forums such as the Quest for Excellence and the Fall Conference, and methods such as publishing written descriptions of winning approaches and expecting all national award recipients to share, provide a superb way for one to gain intelligence from national role models in organizational excellence.
It is not possible to know everything in advance to lead a transformational change process. I would argue that to be an effective change agent one simply needs to be willing to learn a lot quickly and to stay out ahead of the rest of the organization in this learning in order to be a trusted and valuable resource. I gained this wisdom from one of my early mentor’s David Hutton who said Kathy, you simply have to stay two to three steps ahead of the organizational transformation.
…and skillful execution;
I would argue a lot of change efforts falter when it comes to this ingredient: execution. Specifically skillful execution.
As I stated above, I agree with the author of this quote that all of the ingredients are necessary.
In my view, skillful means reading the situation and adjusting accordingly. What is working AND what is not? Where do we have a great approach but it was not well deployed? Where do we need more resources and attention?
Creating a well-oiled organization that is capable of excellence is a multi-year endeavor. And so, implementation needs continual attention and finesse.
Is skillful execution teachable? Yes…and…
If you personally find that you are easily distracted as a leader jumping from one thing to the next, I advise having a steadfast right hand person who will maintain focus, clarity, and delivery year over year over year. These types of individuals come with all sorts of titles, but having one or more on your senior team is priceless and, I would argue, absolutely essential.
It represents the wise choice among many alternatives.
Excellence is a choice. And one that after reasoned consideration of alternatives often proves to be the best choice, the wisest path.
In one’s pursuit of excellence, if one comes up short, they are often far better off than if they had accepted the status quo.
Other alternatives (to excellence) might include:
- a focus and narrow drive for performance in one dimension like financial results;
- being satisfied with good enough;
- bursts of improvement; and
- more…
Ever since I was bitten by the excellence bug, over twenty years ago, I have been full steam ahead. Whether in transforming a community health system from average to excellent or accompanying numerous leaders on their organization’s journeys, the benefits have been astounding to witness. Organizations who have transformed in the eyes of their customers and communities and regulators. Companies who have far surpassed their initial, modest improvement ideas. New clients who are just setting out in their pursuit of the wise choice of excellence with an ambitious vision and drive.
“Excellence is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice among many alternatives.”
~unknown
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Kathy Letendre, President and Founder of Letendre & Associates, advises organizations and leaders to create their excellence advantage.
Contact Kathy by phone or text at 802-779-4315 or via email.