Why Would You Want to be a Superb Organization?
Because a “Superb Organization” is
- Competitive, profitable, and sustainable!
- It outperforms the competition;
- Makes optimum use of its resources;
- Survives and prospers in the face of change and challenge;
- Manages growth successfully;
- Performs better in the present and builds a solid foundation for the future;
- Is effective, successful, balanced and fulfilled.
Organizations are complex systems, composed of constantly shifting and always inter-related and interdependent elements. Successfully addressing Strategy, Talent and Culture in order to be Competitive, Profitable and Sustainable means understanding the relationship among all these elements and addressing all the key aspects of those connections.
Like the human body, your organization is a living system.
Implemented Strategy, like the skeletal system, is the framework and foundation upon which everything else is built. Just as the bones define the basic shape of the body, so does your overarching strategy define the shape, direction and priorities of your company. Without the right strategy, correctly implemented, you risk being a company that's strategically a shapeless blob (like a body with no bones) or worse yet, a company striding rapidly in precisely the wrong direction.
We all know that people are the life’s blood of an organization. They provide and circulate the energy that makes the life and work of the organization possible. It is essential to Leverage Your Company’s Talent to create the power to succeed. Does your company make consistent strategic talent acquisition, retention and development a true priority or does the "people end" of your equation fare badly when it comes time to set priorities for your attention and resources?
Like the nervous system of your body, culture and communication permeates your company, reaching into every corner and touching every person. It carries all the messages and meaning throughout the organization, including beliefs and values, expectations, the flavor of relationships, the nature of decision-making, coordination, cooperation and more. To be a superbly successful company, you must Create Optimal Culture and Communication that support and reinforce the essence of who you are, where you are going and what you believe in.
How Do You Become a Superb Organization?
You address the key elements in the areas of Strategy, Talent and Culture.
Develop and Implement the Right Strategy
- Integrate implementation of strategic & operational plans;
- Install a focused scorekeeping and measurement system that is integrated with plans and accountability systems;
- Capitalize on your competitive and market advantages;
- Ensure that branding, marketing and sales strategies are fully integrated with your overarching strategy;
- Manage growth consciously;
- Determine if your legal structures support your long-term strategy;
- Address all elements of financial management and planning, both tactical and strategic
Leverage Your Company’s Talent
- Install and consistently use systems to get the right people in the right jobs at the right time - qualified and passionate people;
- Make selection, retention, and development performance-based;
- Ensure that accountability and reward systems clearly support the strategy;
- Do strategic talent planning regularly;
- Have effective and ongoing executive and managerial succession planning;
- Create an organizational structure that is capable of making your strategic goals a reality;
- Optimize your company’s leadership, management and teamwork.
Create Optimal Culture and Communication
- Emphasize, role model and enforce corporate ethics and integrity;
- Define expectations for quality of your products or services, communicate them, and use systems to monitor and support the desired outcomes;
- Make crystal clear what “customer focus” and “customer loyalty” mean in your company and empower employees to make it happen;
- Create an environment that expects and rewards effective creativity, initiative, risk-taking and decision-making;
- Expect and empower positive relationships at every level – individuals, groups and organizations, internal and external;
- Imbue the organization with a culture of cooperation, collaboration, mutual respect, individual and group responsibility;
- Map, orchestrate and implement major transitions with care and attention to both the business and the human issues
A Broader Impact
Creating a Superb Organization has an impact far beyond the organization. Stable, successful, fulfilled companies are an important foundation for countries and societies. Our work impacts our total quality of life significantly, so its effects spread exponentially. Increasing both performance and fulfillment at work is a very powerful way to make a positive contribution to society as a whole.
By Marie Kane