Applied Excellence

As we know that Natural / Pure / Basic sciences define principles / develop information to predict or understand a specific phenomenon occurring in the world and applied science is the discipline of science that applies this existing scientific knowledge to develop more practical applications, like technology or inventions. Physics is a pure science; however Applied Mechanics is the science which uses laws of physics for the applications to design structures and appliances. Multiple Applied sciences emerge based on the nature and area of application of principles of pure science. Continuing with example of Physics; the disciplines of optics, quantum physics, materials science, applied mechanics, nanotechnology, micro-fabrication, mechanical engineering, biophysics,  electrical engineering,  control theory, aerodynamics, energy, solid-state physics, etc. are all applied sciences emerging by applying specific principles of Physics in different areas.

Excellence is also kind of basic science, which can be applied to various aspects and provide us process or methodologies to be adopted in the specific areas. E.g. Baldrige Excellence Framework has been created by applying excellence principles to overall business performance. This framework coupled with methodologies, processes, measurement KPIs, etc. has emerged as one of the Applied Excellence Science called “Business Excellence”. Several corporations have taken cue from this and built their own global excellence frameworks to be followed creating a number of flavors of this.  Deming applied principles of excellence to product quality and defined 14 principles to be followed for achieving excellence in Product Quality which ultimately became a TQM movement still in practice. This is another example of Applied Excellence. Henry Ford applied the principles of excellence to assembly style of manufacturing giving rise to Manufacturing Excellence stream of thinking. There are several such examples of application of excellence principles to build a new science altogether.

I have made an attempt to apply some of the key principles and aspects of excellence to an Individual and define certain signs to identify if one is progressing on the path of excellence or not. The idea is to keep them simple to understand, simple to apply and simple to measure. Ideally one should be able to do it in “self-service” mode without any external intervention or help.  

First and foremost thing about excellence is, that it has a start point, which is when one realizes and takes up this journey consciously, but no end point. It is a continuous process of going to a better state / stage of performance level from where you are today in any aspect of life. When this aspect is applied to an individual, it means one needs to learn something new every day, one needs to do things better and better as the days pass, one needs to move forward in the achievement of current goal of excellence on daily basis. If one asks three simple questions to self before sleeping and answers them with honesty to oneself; one can provide a clue as to if he/she is on the journey of excellence or not; these are  

Have I done anything today to improve myself?

When we talk about an individual, it could be relationship with spouse / Children on personal side or Boss / Subordinate / Customer at work. or it could be reading a new technical article to improve your knowledge about specific technology or it could be doing some experiment to learn or it could be something as simple as complimenting someone for good work. The key here is to identify proactive actions which we have initiated and executed to seek an improvement in the desired area/s during the day. We might face a little trouble in the beginning to differentiate between proactive and reactive/ suggested actions but once we start getting hang of this, each action identified creates a positive feedback to us and pushes automatically to do more of these actions driving us ahead in the excellence journey.   

Have I done anything NEW today to improve myself?

This question is different than the first question. One word “NEW” differentiates both. We can do things which we have done in past again and again to improve the situation and we would be achieving some results. But it is important if we are trying something NEW which can give us different results and with a possibility of better / faster improvements. A person trying new things is positioned better to receive better and differentiated results than a person using the things which he / she has been using for many years. If you are taking certain actions again and again, you expect the similar results again and again and after a while the effectiveness of the actions and results starts diminishing. So, one needs to ask this question separately.

What I am going to do tomorrow to improve myself?

This question provokes oneself to do something new, different for improvement. It also allows oneself time to think about it in advance and assess if there is anything different one can try the next day for areas where one wants improvements or one has to continue what one is doing currently to ensure results. It also helps one to plan for the next day which is a key in getting things accomplished.

What is my SAY-DO ratio?

Last and most important question one needs to ask is what is their SAY-DO ratio? Many a times we make plans when we are thinking but are not able to act on the same as planed and do not realize that we are really not acting as we desired. Our SAY-DO ratio is poor. We realize this when some external source points out that results are not changing. Normally it is too late for any correction and we might have missed the bus. So it is important to consciously assess one self using this question which will help us to ensure that we do what we plan.

When we ask these 4 questions to oneself before sleeping, we apply some of the basic principles of Excellence and create a Applied version for improving Personal Excellence.  

Achieve Excellence by jumping from your Hamster Wheel

I was discussing with one of my friend in sales function and he was explaining me his secret sauce of his success in winning a deal. Since he was a close friend of mine, we were discussing various aspects and during discussions he mentioned that offlate, when he was trying for little bigger deals for improving his play and he was not able to win the deals using the same formula; he did everything that needs to be done which used to win him deals but he was not getting results, he was working like crazy but results were alluding him.

Many a time we also get in to such situation, where in we plan to do big things, make significant efforts in the manner we know and still do not achieve results. We came across same types of hurdles, we came across similar types of team members whom we need to teach the process from scratch and get them to speed, we get similar types of disagreements within the team, we get in to same type of last minute frenzy at every toll gate and many a times result does not show any co-relation with the efforts that we put in or the team size that we employ.

I have seen many people who move from one organization to another and miraculously they face same type of people everywhere and same type of interactions (+ve as well as –ve) and same types of reasons to make a decision to find another job. This cycle goes on, they really do not move upwards in the career through the jobs they undertake one after other.

All these people are on HAMSTER WHEEL of their own creation. The Secret Sauce for selling deals for my friend in sales function was his hamster wheel. It will allow him to win the deals only in that segment and whatever efforts he puts using the same sauce, they remain only as efforts and quantum of efforts does not have any relation with the results so even if he runs fast or for long duration, he remains at the same place. Same is the case with the project manager who gets in to same types of troubles in every project; the “Project Management Method” ingrained in to his mind is his hamster wheel and he is running on the same to get a predictable result with no improvements.

So if we are on our hamster wheel, we behave in the same manner every time; we do the things in exactly the same way again and again; and we typically get the same kind of results. We do not improve ourselves nor we deteriorate. We remain stationary. It does not allow us to improve our excellence levels. It actually deteriorates over a period of time and we realize it when the deterioration is significant. Result is we change job and try our luck at next. We really do not pay attention to our Hamster wheel; we actually are oblivious of the same so the cycle repeats.

So how do we check if we are on any sort of hamster wheel?

We can start asking some questions to oneself like Am I connecting with customer in the same manner as I used to connect a few years ago? Am I planning my projects in the same manner for a while? Do I conceptualize & build the presentations to customers or management in the same manner for some time? Do I delegate work to my team in the same manner for all my life? Do I review work of my subordinates in the same manner as I used to do two years ago? If the answer is yes, then you are on your hamster wheel and will need to dig deeper in to things like, have you been getting similar results or have you been observing a cyclical pattern in any of the areas to get a better clarity on your hamster wheel. Another easy way to put it across is IF YOU ARE COMFORTABLE IN YOUR JOB, YOU ARE ON YOUR HAMSTER WHEEL. Your comfort levels will not allow you to change or do things differently, thus you do not improve.

Once we get an understanding about our hamster wheel, the things become easier for us. We just need to jump from the hamster wheel, get in to doing things differently, experimenting with new things, take up new challenges beyond your comfort zone, learn new things and deploy the learning in to your work even though it might contradict your earlier beliefs. There are several ways to improve your excellence levels as explained in my earlier blogs on “Simplify for Excellence”, “Just Do it for Excellence”, “Questioning”, “Excellence through Say-Do ratio”. First step out from hamster wheel is the most difficult and most important step; once you take it, rest is simple.

Simple + Relevant = Excellence

We have been discussing a lot of things about excellence in this blog and trying to build a mechanism which can become a second nature for us to help ourselves become excellent in whatever we do. I have come across two more things that will help us in this transformation.

If one is trying to excel at something, it is critical that he/ she understands what it is completely and is able to define it in simple terms. He/she could remember even in sleep and does not have to refer to some powerpoint or some book or some notes stored in. This will also help in explaining the same to others easily to help them understand what you are trying to do and they too can remember these things themselves. It also becomes easy for one to assess if these simple things that one is trying to do are moving in the direction one wants and take the necessary course corrections. If you observe many successful people, you will observe that they follow this principle knowingly or unknowingly. Each one of them manage their operations with just 3 or 4 or 5 key parameters / strategies / thoughts which they will be able to remember every time and the organization can work around these 5 strategies and build the details. So the important thing to build excellence is make it SIMPLE – Simple to define, Simple to understand, Simple to monitor and Simple to do midway correction. Anything you initiate which required more than few bullet points to explain, will be difficult to achieve.

Now that we have been able to define what we want to do or what approach we want to take etc. in simple manner, it is necessary to keep all the activities true to what we have set to achieve. There are several actions we or our teams might initiate which may not be directly RELEVANT to the objectives and although these actions might be defined in a few simple bullets, it will not regally give the results we desire.

So Keep it Simple and Relevant to achieve anything in Excellent manner.

This looks very beaten down thought but try and observe yourself if you are really following this rule. You will find more times when you are not following than the times when you are following this rule and the results you achieved would tell you the story.