1. AN IDEAL-STRIVING ORGANIZATION

Continuous performance improvements, continuous human resource development, and continuous adaptation to changing situations characterize an ideal-striving organization. An ideal-striving organization is a higher-performing, agile, learning organization.

An ideal-striving organization is not an ideal organization. It is an ordinary organization with superior leadership, who knows how to challenge their workforce to produce extraordinary accomplishments. Those leaders set ideal standards, even beyond best-in-class operations. Ideal standards are unattainable ends but shine as beacons encouraging steady progress in their direction. Such leaders use comparisons with prior and current performance as milestones on the road to progress toward new objectives. An ideal-striving organization is constantly raising the bar after each success.

The acronym ‘AIM’ indicates the flow required by an ideal-striving organization.

‘A’ stands for ACTION

Action is what the organization is doing to move toward the ideal standards.

‘I’ stands for INQUIRY

At regular intervals the organization inquires of its stakeholders about its current action through a variety of formal and informal means. The feedback from this check on ‘how are we doing?’ provides the measures so that progress can be monitored.

‘M’ stands for MOBILIZATION

The results of the inquiry are used to mobilize the energies of the entire workforce toward both small-scale improvements as well as dramatic breakthroughs. New planning takes place, which direct the organization toward further actions to be implemented.

The result is a continuous upward spiral of organization renewal.

A > I > M >....A > I > M >…. .etc.

 

2. FIVE UNIVERSAL STRATEGIC CHALLENGES

This abstract concept of an ideal-striving organization needs to be rendered more concrete so that everyone in the organization, employees and management alike, can readily understand and identify with the organization vision. Success will come only with dedication and commitment to becoming an ideal-striving organization. Those who carry out the day-to-day work of the organization need a way of linking this lofty vision to their daily round of activities. They require an action map as a guide on this journey forward, a journey with no fixed end point.

Moreover, this concept of an ideal-striving organization needs to be operationalized. The concept should be synonymous with a corresponding set of long-term objectives that are capable of being pursued by the workforce. These long-term objectives must be amenable to measurement. Base-line measures of the current status of these objectives provide the starting line. Progress in the desired directions needs to be quantified via repeat measures. Measurement puts the teeth into an ideal-striving program to ensure that it is not reduced to empty sloganeering.

Based upon my own extensive review and analysis of the appropriate literatures, I have evolved a framework consisting of five long-term, open-ended objectives. I call these objectives ‘Strategic Challenges’. A challenge is a call to action. These challenges are considered ‘strategic’, as they are essential for fulfillment of organization purposes. These strategic challenges require long-term commitment of resources.

Here is a list of these five strategic challenges with a brief definition of each.

1. CREATING CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

-Delivering outstanding value to each customer.

2. INCREASING OPERATIONS EFFECTIVENESS

-Doing the right things in the right way at the right time.

3. REALIZING INNOVATION OPPORTUNITIES

-Seeking and realizing breakthrough innovations.

4. GENERATING ORGANIZATION AGILITY

-Assuring that the organization adapts to change.

5. EXPANDING THE LEARNING CULTURE

-Creating conditions that support continuous learning.

Each strategic challenge can serve as an ideal-striving standard. There is no ceiling on achievements that produce satisfaction, effectiveness, innovation, agility, and learning. Taken together they represent a powerful, comprehensive overview of the pursuits of an ideal-striving organization.

These five strategic challenges can be applied to any type of organization, whether in the private or public sector. They are appropriate for large and small firms, government departments, hospital units, municipalities and community agencies. Organizations in any country of the world can adopt these strategic challenges as a guide for action.

I recommend that each of the first four strategic challenges in turn becomes the theme that occupies center stage for the whole organization for a six-month period. Thus the complete cycle for organization renewal will take two years. A new inquiry of stakeholders is conducted at the end of each half-year. The sequence of strategic challenges should follow the order in which the strategic challenges have been listed above.

Where a company in the private sector functions within a rapidly evolving industry, there may be a need to speed the process. A company with high-speed management could spend only three months per strategic challenge and thus complete an entire sequence of the four strategic challenges each year.

The fifth strategic challenge, ‘Expanding the Learning Culture’, is the means of implementing each of the other four challenges. The Human Resource Development Department, [usually with support from external resources], champions and directs this entire process of organization self-transformation.

This article focused on ‘what’ is an ideal-striving organization. The second part will focus on ‘how’ to launch and sustain the momentum for continuous performance improvements, continuous human resource development, and continuous adaptation to changing situations.