Performance improvement, in one business sense, is the Delta, or
difference, between where you are and where you want to be--much as Jesse
White said. This difference is sometimes refered to as a gap.
In ISO, companies seeking certification undergo a gap analysis.
In an organization, a gap between current reality and expectations may
elicit self-examination. Whereas many entrepreneurs have attacked the gap
by singularly throwing more resources at the gap to build a "bridge" or
sorts (a strength orientation), there' s another anticipatory step to
think about now.
Taking a weakness orientation means looking at the way we currently work
in an organization to determine how to eliminate manifestations of the
five evils: defects, mictakes, delay, waste, accident/injury. I'm
speaking specifically about focusing attenti on onn a theme directly
related to basic satisfaction of the customer or next process.
In my business environment, performance improvement is built upon the
foundation of the market-in approach, as opposed to the product-out
approach. Why might a business organization come together in the first
place? An ancillary question might be: how much does an individual subsume
herself to the goals of an organization? Is there at least a tacit
acceptance that an employee or organizational member will have his
personal performance judged in relation to the organi zation's vision,
goals and objectives?
Best regards,
--Barry Mallis Manager - Quality and Development MARKEM Corp.
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>