The SME Excellent Path

The Easiest Option

There is probably no organizations that will tell you that they are not in the business of excellence. Organizations all over the world have been working towards excellence for as long as we can remember. I am sure the generations before us have worked in organizations that are also pursuing excellence. The definition (What) and reasons (why) of getting to Excellence is clearly understood by all. 

Yet, how many organizations today have reached what they would called themselves as an “Excellent” organization and are able to sustain it? Excellent organizations are so far and few in between. How many companies that were deemed to be “excellent” in the past and were even regarded as global role models are no longer in business today?

The road to excellence is a tough, hard, and very unforgiving. Sustaining excellence requires leaders at all levels who are able to continuously make predictive and preventive changes. You are continuously challenged at every step of your excellence journey to make difficult decisions and there are times unpleasant ones. Decisions that you probably want to “put it off” and hope that a miracle will happen and the problem just goes away. Some leaders will take the easier route by not doing anything as eventually someone will make the tough decisions for them.

They know what needs to be done, but they wait for others to tell them what they already knew. Sometimes, a creative way is to form a "committee" or a feedback group. That way, it was not their idea in the first place to make the tough calls. It will help their conscious that they can at least direct their blame to someone else who have instructed them to do what they should have done themselves.

Unfortunately, by the time these problems reached the next level, the infection has developed into such an acute stage, that the damage done over the “passage of time” now requires a major life threatening surgery where the outcome is a 50:50 chance of survival. 

Sadly, we could have just perform a minor cosmetic surgery if the problem was dealt with much earlier. There are many reasons why some leaders prefer the option of doing the minimal, i.e. fear of losing people, fear of no longer being popular, fear of losing friendship, fear of losing trust, fear of losing respect, being prideful, etc. 

There is an Alternative Option

There is another option that one can consider. It is the “road less traveled”. It is often not the most popular decision to make because most people shun from making them. It is taking charge of what is given to you. Every one of us is given a “blank canvas” upon which you are empowered to draw your own destiny, to “decorate” the room with your own special “touch”. Unfortunately, most of us prefer to re-paint the frame rather painting our own picture.

Even the thought of landing the first “ink” on the blank canvas is something we are so fearful. The fear of what if we drew the wrong picture? Yet, not doing anything on the “blank canvas” will eventually come to haunt us. One have to realize that to do nothing, you would very likely know the final outcome. It is so obvious, that people still prefer not to make any changes. 

There are those who would prefer to take a “safer route”. Continue to paint the same picture that you have been painting for many years. The logic is that the picture that you have been painting have got to where you are today. The notion of totally painting a different picture is always an uncomfortable decision to make. What if the final picture is not been accepted by most people?

The Business Landscape

Today’s business has less to do with how long you have been with the organizations, it depends on what changes you are making today to equip the organizations to be agile to face the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) landscape.

Today’s agile leaders must recognize that "speed of execution" is important. Don't spend too much time to produce a "Gold Standard".  It is a world that wants and accepts that your solution and/or product will go through several iterations and it will never reach its final form.  Most importantly, do the underpainting first. As you begin to paint your picture, the need to continuously know that it is a situation of a picture being painted upon another layer of picture.

Like the famous Mona Lisa picture, Leonardo Da Vince created a detailed underpainting and thereafter layers of glazes to create the final form.

Tips for Drawing a Different Picture

There are many ways of ensuring that the “new” picture that you are drawing have an above average chance of success.

Research: Most people just rely on their tacit (what’s in their head) knowledge. You need to do your research! The internet world of ours provides us a huge reservoir of explicit knowledge upon which we can explore and get more ideas.

External Benchmarking Visits: When was the last time you have actually gone out and learn from another company? Find another company that have similar process but doing entirely different products.

Internal Benchmarking Visits: Don’t forget about our own organization. Reach out to other sites and learn from them.

Taking time to Reflect: This may sounds “common sense” but sometimes it is not a “common knowledge”. You just have to make time to go do a “quite spot” to reflect. Sometimes taking off and finding some “ME TIME” is important for you to clear your head from all the baggage, in order for you to let new ideas flourish.

Difficult Decision: If the decisions you are going to make is probably the most popular and will not “rock the boat”, that will probably give you some indication that the changes that you are about to make may not likely be significant.

Get a Coach or a “buddy”: Make sure this coach is help you to be able to think of alternatives. He or she must be someone who is able to be in “your face” to tell you what you don’t like to hear! It is best to get someone who does not have any vested interest in what you are doing.

Key Points:

1.   The outcomes are very predictable if you continue to do “nothing”.

2.   Hoping the problem will go away is not the best strategy to take, i.e. what happens if the situations worsens?

3.   Knowing what to do but not having the heart to do and waiting for others to make the call is probably not a wise thing to do!

4. Embrace the following disciplines when painting your own pictures: research, external and internal benchmarking visits, reflection, getting a coach (buddy), etc. 

Raymund Chua is the Managing Director for Heraeus Materials Singapore Pte Ltd, General Manager of Heraeus Photovoltaic Singapore, Head of Regional Center for Heraeus Asia Pacific Holding as well as Head of HR, Asia Pacific for Heraeus Asia Pacific Holding.  His experiences spans across multiple disciplines: business strategy, culture, leadership, organizational design, human resource, and HR. Ray is an advocate of “communities of practices”. Ray is also the inventor of the HRGame as well as a coach. Ray can be contacted via Linkedin or [email protected]

Disclaimer: This is a personal linkedin blog. The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer.