We just completed our first post-COVID “educate the educator” class for our Safety Academy, and it reinforced that our road-to-world-class-safety framework is transformational. And it is broadly applicable.
There are five stops on the road to world-class performance:
1. It begins with a dissatisfaction with the current situation. This dissatisfaction can be the result of a crisis or a realization that there is a better future. Regardless, the future state becomes clear, and the desire to achieve world-class performance emerges.
2. To achieve world-class performance is a choice—a choice that begins with a commitment to be world class. In an organization, that begins with leadership’s commitment, and this must be uncompromising. With leadership’s uncompromising commitment to being the best, the organization has a chance.
3. Next, there must be a culture of being world class. Everyone in the organization must share the desire—the passion— and be willing to put in the effort and commitment to being world class. With leadership and everyone else in the organization aligned around achieving the future desired state, world class becomes possible.
4. Introducing world-class processes and systems into an organization with leadership’s uncompromising commitment to excellence and a culture of high performance is foundational for execution. The cool thing about this is if you have the leadership and the culture in place, you will naturally find the best practices—the passion of the organization will always seek out the best way to win and achieve.
5. Over the course of time, this will lead to continuous improvement of results year over year, infectious winning and, ultimately, world-class performance. Transformation can occur within three years of leadership’s choice to commit to a world-class future state. This is a proven process. Is it easy? Not really. Leadership is, after all, just a choice. But without leadership’s commitment, there is no chance at world-class performance.
