The Solution

Removal of any or all of these barriers will allow your organization to have greater success in all endeavors. Though it may not be easy, these barriers can be overcome. Here are 5 keys to removing these barriers and to creating greater excellence in all aspects of your organization.

1. Elevate Your Vision. Get everyone in your organization to function as a team by identifying a common, compelling vision that not only motivates them to work together, but to give their very best effort. To create a vision statement that elts all employees know where the organization is headed and what the future holds requires careful planning. Your vision becomes the primary compass for your strategic plan - from which will flow your 3-5 year goals and then your annual goals.
   
   
2. Measure Progress. Develop a systematic way of measuring your progress towards your organization's vision. Too often, organizations only measure themselves against their peers and/or competitors. This becomes a difficult way to measure progress unless they are consistently striving for excellence. You need to find a way to take a regular measurement ever 6 months or so to determine if your organization has moved closer to your vision and has improved in its ability to create excellence. Your key performance indicators for this measurement need to be much more than financial numbers.
   
   
3. Standardize Every Process. Develop greater excellence in your organization by standardizing proceeses - those repeatable things you do within your organization. Quite literally, you are no better than your repeatable business processes. John Maxwell was on point when he said, "We overestimate the event and underestimate the process. Every fulfilled dream occurred because of dedication to a process." Your organization is made up of dozens of repeatable processes. One of the fundamental keys to creating excellence wthin your organization is to create excellent proceeses.
   
   
4. Use a Strategic Goal Process. Develop a process in your organization for setting and accomplishing goals - both stategic goals and improvement goals. This process should include a clear defition of the goal, identification of the goal benefits and critical success factors, and a detailed task list identifying the due date and responsible party for each task. Identify the progress that needs to be made each month towards longer-term goals. This will go a long way towards creating a high achievement culture within your organization.
   
   
5. Ensure Accountability. Develop a process in your organization where employees are set up for success and then held accountable to an account plan. David H. Maister wisely said, "If people are not prepared to be held accountable for what they do, it is unlikely they will achieve much. To choose a goal without being prepared to be accountable for progress towards it is to choose nothing."