The Pursuit of Excellence
Creating sustainable high performance and results requires changing the mindset, capabilities, and behaviours for the long-term gains. All the initiatives in the world will not change a culture.
Leaders in high-risk industries are waking up to the fact that transforming their organisation’s culture may be their greatest lever for driving operational excellence. Unfortunately, many leaders don’t know where to start.
And it isn’t just about checklists – an operator doesn’t just hit a button just because a procedure says to hit the button; they hit it because they understand why they’re doing it, what it’s going to do upstream and downstream, and how it impacts and affects other things in the chain of events.
Creating an organisation capable of sustained high performance and results means you have to be able to identify the cultural gaps that are impacting your business. You can expect to invest one percent of your people in continuous improvement activities ten percent of the time; and expect to receive a return on that investment somewhere in the ratio of 5:1 to 10:1 (whilst doubling your productivity).
The linkage between culture and financial performance is a key driver for all operational excellence initiatives, and it is a tangible relationship. One of our customers saw a five percent improvement in asset utilisation over the course of a year – just by focusing people on the right behaviours.
An outside perspective enables you to perceive things and observe behaviours that others internally would maybe filter out or not recognise. The bigger the organisation – the more challenging it is.
If your people are just “going through the motions” you will tend to see:
- Lack of/deflected ownership
- Lack of attendance
- Slight improvement in new systems/processes (seen by some but not others)
- Improvements may only be skin-deep/cosmetic
- A “Let’s see what happens” attitude
- Dissatisfaction with current and new processes
- Poor Impact on Performance
- Difficulty in making further necessary improvements
- Increased risk of decline/lack of sustainability
Whereas for “successful change” you will tend to see:
- Ownership through involvement
- Belief in new processes
- Performance Improvements
- Improvement Culture
- Lets”make it work” attitude
- A ‘tick in the box’ for every ‘vision’ statement
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