Performance Excellence
By José P. Fernández, CQE - President, Performance Consulting Group

Have you reached perfection yet? That may not be a question we often ponder &endash; and we shouldn’t &endash; but some people do strive for it, without realizing that perfection is not possible for us mere mortal beings. However, we should be asking ourselves a different question: “Am I excelling at what I do?” And if not, “What am I doing about it?”

That is what performance excellence is all about. It’s about a never-ending journey that takes us (and our organizations) through sometimes uncharted waters (for many), but it is a journey that has continuous rewards along the way. I firmly believe that hard work will make us shine above most others, but if we want to go to levels that we thought were not possible to attain, then we must have certain elements in our “plan” if we are to be differentiated. Traditionally, Hispanics have adhered to the hard work philosophy that I espoused before, without necessarily having defined a systematic process for success. More and more Hispanics today are embracing a systems thinking approach to excellence.

Whether you work for a large multinational corporation or whether you are in business for yourself, you need a system &endash; complex or simple &endash; that will guide you on your journey, tell you if you are headed in the right direction, and help you make course corrections along the way.

Performance excellence can only be attained if everything we do is focused on those we serve &endash; many people call them customers or clients. “But I don’t deal with customers,” you say, or “I am not sure who my customers are,” or “I don’t know what my customers want.” These questions are not atypical, but these are questions that require answers if we are to achieve and surpass our goals. Perhaps a more apropos question would be: “WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME OR FOR MY ORGANIZATION?” Let’s read on.

There are seven key components to performance excellence:
* Leadership
* Strategic Planning
* Customer and Market Focus
* Information and Analysis
* Human Resource Focus
* Process Management
* Business Results

Leadership looks at how an organization’s senior leaders address values and performance expectations, and focuses on customers and other stakeholders, empowerment, innovation, learning, and organizational direction. It also looks at how an organization addresses its responsibilities to the public and supports its key communities. Many often overlook this last part.

Strategic Planning addresses an organization’s strategy development process, including how the organization develops strategic objectives, action plans, how these plans are deployed and how performance is tracked. This is what I call the “roadmap.”

Customer and Market Focus has to do with how an organization determines requirements, expectations, and preferences of customers and markets, how the organization builds relationships with customers, and how it determines their satisfaction. As previously mentioned, this needs to be the focal point of what we do, the “center” of our professional and personal lives.

Information and Analysis examines an organization’s performance measurement system and how the organization analyzes performance data and information.

Human Resource Focus looks at how an organization enables employees to develop and utilize their full potential, always aligned with the organization’s objectives, identified in the Strategic Plan. What kinds of efforts does an organization employ in order to build and maintain a work environment and an employee climate conducive to performance excellence, full participation, and personal and organizational growth?

Misunderstood by many, Process Management deals with the aspects of an organization’s management of its key design, product, and service delivery, support, and partner-ing processes in all work units. Does the organization have a systematic and repeatable process in place to manage the above?

Finally, Business Results is what I call “Show me the money,” or the proof of the pudding. Even today, many leaders think only in terms of financial results, which are essential to any business &endash; for profit or otherwise &endash; but fail to effectively identify and track other key business indicators, i.e. customer focused results, human resource results, supplier and partnering results, and organizational effectiveness results.

As you can see, the above are not “magical” components of a complicated puzzle, but rather, common sense initiatives that everyone would agree are time-proven and necessary in order to be considered “world class” performers. Many people have some or several of the above components, but only those who include all of these have a real good opportunity to succeed and be recognized.

This is all good and well, but “it doesn’t apply to me,” you say. Why not? I say. Is it because you have to change how you conduct business? Is it because you are afraid of change? In today’s business world, if we are not prepared to deal with change, this would be an excellent “blueprint” for all to adopt and follow.

This “roadmap,” if you will, is all based on the Florida Sterling criteria for performance excellence. If you would like to find out more about how you can help yourself or your organization strive for performance excellence, you may want to check out the Florida Sterling’s website at www.floridasterling.com.

I have been involved with Florida Sterling for 9 years as an examiner for its Quality Award, and now I am an individual member of the Sterling Council. There are more and more Hispanics getting involved with Florida Sterling each year and understanding the power that can be unleashed by embracing these guidelines for performance excellence. The bottom line of this is just that &endash; that my bottom line or the bottom line of my organization will increase as a result of improving performance. There’s a subtle but very powerful twist to all I have described above: as overall performance (or quality if you will) improves, costs decrease. The key point is to focus on overall performance improvements. Bottom line improvements will definitely follow. Just think, “if I can obtain the loyalty of my customers, they will stay with me because of the service I am providing to them.” They will not be tempted to jump ship because they can get it slightly cheaper somewhere else.

Why don’t you give it some consideration?

Mr. Fernandez is the President and CEO of Performance Consulting Group, Inc., a Miami, FL consulting firm specializing in organizational excellence. He has 33 years of experience in the service, government, manufacturing, and healthcare industries, where he held various management, staff, and line positions in performance improvement, strategic planning, customer satisfaction, and supply chain management. He can be reached at jpfernan@bellsouth.net.