Trust and Execution

Jeffrey Phillips, over at Thinking Faster, posts his views on "A Matter of Trust."

His premise?

• Trust is probably the most important and least discussed aspect of working effectively and efficiently.
• Trust is something that is earned by a manager or by a co-worker.

Trust comes from:

1. Doing what you say and saying what you'll do.
2. Trust comes from being honest about your skills, your abilities, the things you know and can share with others.
3. Trust is built when people can look around and see that the "values" in the value statements and mission statements aren't just words but are put into practice by the people in the organization
4. Legacy - what you leave behind.

BOTTOMLINE: At Six Disciplines, our research shows that top-performing organizations have a high-trust culture. High trust cultures lead to higher execution of strategy.

• What does your firm do to establish and retain your trust?
• Does it enforce a positive and effective culture?
• Does it do the right thing, regardless of the consequences?
• Is the communication open and honest?
• If not, what can you do to change it?"

The ROI of Employee Engagement

Several studies over the past few years reiterate the return on investment of strategy-driven employee engagement programs, confirming the importance of an engaged workforce on bottom-line results.

• The 2007 Global Workforce Study by Towers Perrin established a definitive link between levels of engagement and financial performance. Firms with the highest percentage of engaged employees collectively increased operating income 19% and earnings per share 28% year to year.
• A 2006 Watson Wyatt study involving 12,750 workers across a range of different sectors demonstrated that the three-year total return to shareholders was 36% higher in organizations with high-employee commitment.
• A 2005 ISR study (now Towers Perrin) showed that companies with above average employee engagement profits rose by 2.06% and operating margin rose by 3.74% over the same period.
• A 2004 Sirota Consulting study of 28 multinational companies found that the share prices of organizations with highly engaged employees rose by an average of 16% compared to an industry average of 6%.

BOTTOMLINE: Employee engagement starts with a strategically-aligned recognition system that is directly tied to the strategy (mission, vision, values) of the entire organization. This does not mean motivational posters and a simple pat on the back. Successful engagement programs must be embraced company-wide, supported by senior executives, and executed strategically.

Four Dimensions of Employee Engagement

Excerpted from their new book Human Sigma: Managing the Employee-Customer Encounter (Gallup Press, November 2007), authors John H. Fleming and Jim Asplund explore the four dimensions of employee engagement.

Their premise?

"Executives cannot legislate culture with mission or vision statements or through values clarification; it must also grow organically one workgroup at a time."

So how do we manage people for success and high levels of productivity in the new economy?

BOTTOMLINE: "The answer is employee engagement or the ability to capture the heads, hearts, and souls of your employees to instill an intrinsic desire and passion for excellence. Engaged employees want their organization to succeed because they feel connected emotionally, socially, and even spiritually to its mission, vision, and purpose."

Read the entire excerpt here.

The Strategist Notebook Reviews Six Disciplines for Excellence

Kim Soon Lye, editor of The Strategist Notebook has posted a review of Six Disciplines for Excellence.

The review steps through the book, chapter by chapter and offers a good summary of Gary Harpst's top-rated business improvement book Six Disciplines for Excellence.

(Speaking of books, watch for Gary Harpst's new book, coming in mid 2008, entitled "Execution Revolution"....stay tuned to this blog for more details coming soon!)

Execute the Things That Matter

Good friend Bud Bilanch, The Common Sense Guy, offers this timely post on "Successful Businesses Skillfully Execute the Things That Matter," which come from his book 4 Secrets of High Performing Organizations.

The focus of his post is on our favorite topic: EXECUTION.

According to Bud:

"Execution is where the rubber meets the road. An outstanding mission, vision and business plan and the most committed people in the world, still must do what it takes to turn an organization’s vision into reality. They start with well defined metrics that are linked to their strategic and annual business plans. They use these metrics to manage their business and measure progress towards their goals. They use both quantitative and qualitative measures to determine their performance versus metrics. They revise their plans based on the information they glean from regular reviews of their performance versus metrics."

(And, what's NOT to like about Bud's collection of expert quotes on the importance of execution?)

Check 'em out here.

Stephen M.R. Covey Speaks in Atlanta

Stephen M.R. Covey, author of the best-seller The Speed of Trust, was in Atlanta on Monday, speaking to business leaders about the importance of building trust and its effect and return on organizational performance. The event was sponsored by Six Disciplines and the Vail Leadership Institute.

In the picture, L-to-R: Gary Harpst (Six Disciplines); John Horan-Kates (Vail Leadership Institute); Riz Shakir (Six Disciplines Atlanta); Stephen M.R. Covey (CoveyLink)

Six Disciplines Client Featured In WSJ Forum

The Oct. 22 Small Business Link in the Wall Street Journal looked at ways small companies had planned for a change in management at the top.

Wall Street Journal reporter Simona Covel asked Tim Berry, founder and president of Palo Alto Software Inc. in Eugene, Ore., and Andrea Fetterman, director of corporate-image consulting at City Apparel, an offshoot of uniform and dry-cleaning business Kramer Enterprises Inc., in Findlay, Ohio, (and a Six Disciplines client) to be guest moderators.

Here are the edited excerpts of the reader forum on WSJ.com about succession planning.

Author Gary Harpst Appears on iBusinesschannel.com

Six Disciplines for Excellence Author, Gary Harpst, Talks Exclusively with Ruth King on iBusinesschannel.com.

Listed as Accounting Today magazine’s “Top 100 Influential People in Accounting”, Gary Harpst’s reputation does more than precede him. As a veteran corporate executive he’s dynamic and brilliant, but as the founder and CEO of Six Disciplines Corporation and noted author of the acclaimed Six Disciplines for Excellence he’s inspiring.

Gary Harpst will make his debut on Atlanta’s premier internet broadcasting network, iBusinesschannel.com, as he talks about his latest book and long-term fitness program for an empowered, successful, and better quality of life.“Having a guest like Gary Harpst appear on our network is both thrilling and motivating. We aim to bring our viewers top-notch professionals with a genuine story to tell, and we’re proud to say that we’re achieving that.” says Susan Roman, Production Manager for iBusinesschannel.com about the quality of guests invited to appear on the network.

Gary Harpst was interviewed by Ruth King on iBusinesschannel.com’s breakout program “Cover Stories”. Designed to spotlight authors of business books, “Cover Stories” has garnered tremendous support from publishers and the media because of its high quality content. Internationally-known speakers-turned-authors have appeared on the program, and Gary Harpst will help in maintaining that standard. The methodologies and principles illustrated in Gary Harpst’s book parallels the insightful and timely programming iBusinesschannel.com strives to sustain. In addition to its compelling content, iBusinesschannel.com offers and interactive experience for its viewers by allowing people to chat in questions during the live program. This innovation is what makes “Cover Stories”--and the network as whole—an industry leader in internet broadcasting.

Viewers can watch Gary Harpst's web TV interview for free here.

(Thanks to Jennifer Colter at Biz Biz for the coverage)

Effective Succession Planning

Succession planning, along with workforce performance management in general, is increasingly regarded as a significant influence in determining the success of an organization. If it is undertaken effectively, you can ensure that your organization has capable and trained managers to guide its growth.

So what are the benefits of an effective succession planning process?

• A study of more than 100 companies found that organizations that routinely use a formal succession planning process to help workers advance, are also consistently high-performing firms, as measured by total shareholder return. (Source: Hewitt Associates, November 2003)

Unfortunately, many people think of succession planning too narrowly, as if it were something done only to plan for CEO transitions, emergency contingencies, etc.

1. Succession planning is a part of the process of preparing for the future of your company.
2. Succession planning is a learning process.
3. A succession plan is also a documented road map.
4. Succession planning is about sustaining your firm throughout constant change.

Kramer Enterprises is an example of a company in transition. They've adopted the Six Disciplines program to help them with the challenges of succession planning. Read about them here in this Wall Street Journal article.

When Success Isn't Enough

The November issue of Entrepreneur Magazine offers an article entitled "When Success Isn't Enough."

The premise of the article?

"Business is good, but it could be better. So get out of that rut and take it to the next level--here's how. "

This is exactly the scenario we at Six Disciplines find many companies in. A few years ago, we conducted quantitative research with over 300 CEOs from small and mid-sized companies. We asked the senior leadership, “If you could only choose one area of focus in your business, what would it be?” (The graph above indicates their responses.)

What appears from our questioning of top performing businesses that their leaders want something beyond being successful.

These CEOs are very passionate about their businesses, and their companies are financially sound. They have strong leadership teams and they attract and retain quality people. They’re already disciplined in their approach to business, they use technology strategically, and they effectively engage external trusted relationships. Using Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as an analogous construct, these CEOs had already experienced success. What they sought was Maslow’s highest level of attainment: the business form of self-actualization . . . or what they responded to as “business excellence.”

Six Disciplines Client Video - TRUFAST

TRUFAST, great at aligning resources to manufacture fasteners, worked with Six Disciplines to better align its people for sustaining that success.

Brian Roth and Kip Winzeler of TRUFAST talk about how Six Disciplines helped them to optimize operating efficiencies and to get its workforce to become more engaged and accountable.

Watch this short video as Brian and Kip explain the benefits of Six Disciplines, and what it does for their growing company.

How Can We Pursue Enduring Business Excellence - Video

Watch this short video as Six Disciplines CEO and founder Gary Harpst explains "How Can We Pursue Enduring Business Excellence?"

During the interview, Harpst talks about the years of field research that went into the development of the Six Disciplines program, and about the four essential component of an enduring business excellence program.

Employee Engagement Starts With Leaders

From The Employee Factor blog comes this post "Employee Engagement Starts with Leaders!"

Their premise?

"A number of studies and other literature related to employee engagement shows similar definitions for employee engagement:

• Commitment to the organization
• Job ownership and pride
• Passion and excitement
• Commitment to execution and the bottom line

Engagement is an amalgamation of commitment, loyalty, productivity and ownership.

What can leader’s do to drive employee engagement? Companies need to spend more time helping their leader’s be authentic, consistent and real."

Read the entire post here for nine specific suggestion on how to drive employee engagement.

BOTTOMLINE: While employee engagement starts with leaders, they are not the only ones who drive engagement. Six Disciplines uses both a top-down and bottoms-up approach to drive total organizational engagement. It's the only way cultural change can be endure over the long-term.

How Does Six Disciplines Actually Work - Video

Watch this short video as Six Disciplines CEO and founder Gary Harpst explains "How Does Six Disciplines Actually Work For My Company?"

During the interview, Harpst talks about the changes that occur in companies as they begin to adopt the Six Disciplines business excellence program.

Six Disciplines Co-Sponsors Stephen M.R. Covey Jr. to Speak in Atlanta

Stephen M.R. Covey Jr. - author of the bestseller “The Speed of Trust – The One Thing that Changes Everything” is speaking on November 5 from 3:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m., including a Q&A session at the Gwinnett Performing Arts Center, 6400 Sugarloaf Pkwy, Duluth, GA 30097.

Covey will be speaking on the topic “High Performance Organizations at The Speed Of Trust.” In this fast-paced and engaging presentation, Covey will demonstrate the leadership benefits of trust from the informed perspective of a CEO and show how to establish and grow a high-trust, high-performance organization.

Covey is the former CEO of Covey Leadership Center, the largest leadership development company in the world. He led the strategy that propelled his father’s book, “7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” to one of the most influential business books of the 20th century. Covey is currently CEO of CoveyLink—which is a learning and consulting practice focused on enabling leaders and organizations to increase and leverage trust to achieve superior performance.

Business owners, executives and managers; non-profit leaders and board members; community leaders and public officials are encouraged to attend.

Individual registrations – $45/person, group registration (5+ people) – $35/person, $55 if paid in person at the event. Local Chamber of Commerce members - check your Chamber's website for discounted pricing code.

REGISTER HERE: www.SixDisciplines.com/Atlanta

Six Disciplines and the Vail Leadership Institute are co-sponsors of the event.

Employee Engagement A Key Factor

Interesting findings from a recent Gallup Management Journal ( GMJ) survey of U.S. employees.

Gallup researchers studied employee responses to see which factors differed most strongly among engaged employees (26% of respondents) and those who were not engaged (56%) or actively disengaged (18%).

Gallup uses its employee engagement survey, the Q 12, to measure workplace engagement and glean insights about the kinds of manager behaviors that are most likely to cause employees to disengage from their workplaces.

Not surprisingly, engaged employees aren't the ones wanting to bid their manager farewell. Just 6% of engaged workers say they would fire their boss if they had the chance.

BOTTOMLINE: Engaged employees consider their relationship with their manager to be crucial to their success. Employees' disengagement with their supervisor can have real -- and negative -- consequences for their companies.

CEOs Describe Benefits of Six Disciplines - Video

Six dynamic CEOs tell you how Six Disciplines transformed their companies like no other business improvement program could.

From publishing to technologies to nonprofit, the business categories are diverse, but the results are the same – remarkable!

View the short video here.

Six Disciplines Client Video - Flexware Innovation

Flexware Innovation is a 10-year old leading provider of manufacturing software.

Scott Whitlock, President of Flexware Innovation, talks about how Six Disciplines helped him to optimize operating efficiencies and to get its workforce to become more engaged and accountable.

Watch this short video as Scott explains the benefits of Six Disciplines, and what it does for his growing company.

Implementing A Framework for Accountability

In his post about Risk Management Made Easy…, Mike Myatt, the chief strategy officer for N2Growth (and author of the N2Growth blog) asserts that:

"Accountability is the lowest cost, most practical and most productive form of risk management and quality assurance that can be implemented across an enterprise. It is really nothing more than a common sense understanding that decisions made within a framework are going to have a greater chance of success than those made in a vacuum."

In his post, Myatt "examines not only the benefits of accountability, but also how to implement a framework for accountability within your business…"

His solution? Setting up an enterprise wide framework for accountability is as simple as implementing the following three items:

1. Have a clearly articulated statement of corporate values.
2. Have a written delegation of authority.
3. Implement a good leadership development program.

Read Mike's entire post on accountability here.

Six Disciplines Client Video - Kramer Enterprises

Paul Kramer, CEO of Kramer Enterprises, a Midwest uniform and dry cleaning company, was just featured in the Wall Street Journal in an article about succession planning, where he explained why they decided to use Six Disciplines to help make the transition smooth.

Watch this short video as Paul explains the benefits of Six Disciplines, and what it does for his growing company.

What a week for Six Disciplines client - Kramer Enterprises!

The Employee Engagement Gap

From Management-Issues, comes this article on The Disengagement Gap, in which a study by workplace consulting firm Towers Perrin found:

• Many employees did not believe their organisation or senior management were doing enough to help or keep them engaged.
• Just a fifth said they felt engaged in their work
• More than a third admitting to feeling partly or fully disengaged.

The Global Workforce Study establishes a definitive link between levels of engagement and financial performance and, for the first time, begins to quantify that link. The most striking data about the linkage between employee engagement and financial performance come from a study of 40 global companies that involved a regression analysis of company financial results against engagement data.

• Firms with the highest percentage of engaged employees collectively increased operating income by 19 per cent and earnings per share by 28 per cent year-to-year.
• Companies with the lowest percentage of engaged employees showed year-to-year declines of a third in operating income and more than a tenth in earnings per share.

BOTTOMLINE: The importance of an engaged workforce on a company's bottom line is critical to its long-term success. "When companies are looking for every source of competitive advantage, the workforce itself represents the largest reservoir of untapped potential."

What to work on?

• Communicate a clear strategy and how their work contributes to reaching the company's goals
• Offer ways to have employees to enjoy challenging work that will allow them to learn new skills

"Turning people's energy and ambition into engagement – and ultimately into significant performance lift – demands attention, focus and some very different behaviours from senior leaders, as well as clear follow-through on a number of organizational practices."

Six Disciplines Business Excellence Coaching Expands Into Atlanta

ATLANTA, OCT. 23, 2007 — Six Disciplines, LLC today expanded its award-winning national business excellence network by signing a franchise agreement launching Six Disciplines Atlanta. Six Disciplines provides organizations with a complete program that encompasses four elements for enduring business excellence: a repeatable methodology; ongoing external coaching; proactive organizational alignment software to ensure individual and team accountability; and the competitive advantages of a shared learning community.

Six Disciplines Atlanta is led by President Riz Shakir, an Atlanta-based serial entrepreneur with more than 20 years of experience growing and running businesses. Shakir is a certified executive coach and consultant with the Vail Leadership Institute and has completed executive development programs at The Harvard Business School, The University of Chicago School of Business, The Wharton School of Business and The Kellogg Business School of Northwestern University.

“Six Disciplines is a brand and methodology that will compliment the dynamic Atlanta business environment,” said Shakir. “I look forward to helping area companies identify and bypass roadblocks impacting their long-term success, regardless of industry or challenge.”

Shakir is joined by Senior Vice President Larry Smart, a certified business excellence coach who has led high-growth technology companies in turn-around strategies throughout North America and overseas. Smart has been chief executive officer and chief operating officer of international businesses such as Atlanta-based InfoTouch Corp., DL Technology Partners, Inc., Ross Systems, Inc. and Western Data Systems, Inc.

“Entrepreneurial CEOs in Atlanta have made it one of the top business markets in the U.S. because they are constantly looking for ways to innovate and sustain their success,” said Gary Harpst, founder and CEO of Six Disciplines. “It’s an alarming fact that only four percent of businesses survive past ten years. Riz and Larry bring to our network a tremendous combination of expertise, resources and commitment to help top-performing organizations pursue lasting excellence and ensure they sustain growth to be one of the four percent that endures.”

To commemorate the opening, Six Disciplines is sponsoring a series of business seminars:

• Stephen M. R. Covey, acclaimed author of The Speed of Trust – The One Thing that Changes Everything and former CEO of Covey Leadership Center, will address the importance of trust and how it impacts organizational performance. Covey will be the guest of Six Disciplines and Vail Leadership Institute on Nov. 5 from 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., including a Q&A session at the Gwinnett Performing Arts Center, 6400 Sugarloaf Parkway in Duluth, Georgia. Event registration and details can be found at www.SixDisciplines.com/Atlanta.
• To provide insight into the resources and guidance Six Disciplines can provide to organizations, Six Disciplines’ Founder and CEO Gary Harpst will speak at the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce Dec. 6, 10:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. He will focus on what it takes to pursue enduring business excellence, based on insight from his upcoming book Execution Revolution: Introducing the First Enduring Business Excellence Program. For registration and information, call 404-586-8432.
• As a primer to the Metro Atlanta Chamber event and to discuss goal setting for businesses, Shakir will host a teleconference with the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce on Nov. 1. For registration and information, call 404-586-8432.

Based on years of field testing, client feedback, 100 man-years of research and development and a $20 million investment, the Six Disciplines business excellence program provides organizations with a holistic, enduring approach toward strategy, planning, organizing people and processes, and execution management.

Compared to other business improvement and quality programs like Baldrige, TQM, Six Sigma and Lean, which are prevalent in much larger businesses, Six Disciplines is the first enduring business excellence program designed specifically for small- and mid-sized businesses. Features normally associated with these much more expensive approaches – similar to balanced scorecard, project management, key performance management metrics, integrated activity alignment, and business excellence rating systems – are all elements of the Six Disciplines program.

About Six Disciplines Six Disciplines, LLC, founded in 2000, developed the first enduring business excellence program, specifically for small- and mid-sized businesses. A business excellence program is an organized way to grow a company’s ability to address an ever-changing and ever increasing series of business challenges. The Six Disciplines program integrates a repeatable methodology to drive organizational learning, ongoing external coaching to ensure accountability, a proactive organizational alignment system to align daily activities of every stakeholder, and a shared learning community of like-minded people to accelerate and sustain business excellence. The program is offered exclusively through a locally owned national network. The organization was awarded the 2006 Entrepreneur Magazine Top Gun Franchise distinction and among its clients are several from the Inc. 500, ISO-9000 certified companies, and a Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award finalist. For more on Six Disciplines, visit http://www.sixdisciplines.com/.

How Trust Improves Ethics and Return on Investment

Six Disciplines and Vail Leadership Institute are co-sponsoring an event in Atlanta on November 5, bringing best-selling author Stephen M.R. Covey to speak on "High Performance Organizations at The Speed of Trust."


BPM Magazine recently spoke with Covey about how trust can boost corporate performance and how companies can foster trust through transparent business performance management processes.

Read the article Why Trust Improves Both Ethics and Returns.

Wall Street Journal Offers Forum on Succession Planning

In conjunction with the article on succession planning - Three Ways To Plan for Change - which showcases Six Disciplines client Kramer Enterprises, the Wall Street Journal is also offering an open forum on succession planning.

Andrea Fetterman (Paul Kramer's daughter) is one of the forum hosts.

Check out the Planning for Change forum here.

Wall Street Journal Profiles Six Disciplines Client

In the October 22 issue of the Wall Street Journal Online, reporter Simona Covel covers a story "Three Ways To Plan for Change" about three companies and their approaches to executive succession planning.

In the online article, Six Disciplines client Paul Kramer, CEO with Kramer Enterprises, a 95-employee uniform and dry cleaning business is interviewed.

Kramer highlights the use of Six Disciplines, with accountability coaching services from Six Disciplines Northwest Ohio as contributing to their successful transition of the business to the next generation.

BOTTOMLINE: The Six Disciplines program is being successfully adopted and practiced by many companies across the nation, to help them address issues such as succession planning, employee accountability, team alignment, individual goal planning, etc. How can it be that one program can address all of these challenges? Because Six Disciplines is the first enduring business excellence program, designed specifically to help organizations increase their capability to address an increasing variety and number of challenges.

Overcoming Resistance to Change

"If you’re attempting to transform a legacy organization into an Enterprise of the Future, you’ll recognize that the irresistible force is the tidal wave of change brought about by an ever-flattening world."

According to an article by Art Murray called "Overcoming Resistance to Change," there is a way to shift the weight of the resistance and turn it into positive momentum will focus the energy where it will do the most good.

Using the analogy of a martial arts master, Murray offers his tips on accelerating change.

Here are a few basic techniques to speed up the transformation process:

1. Focused concentration.
2. Force, speed and precision.
3. Relentless repetition.
4. Living embodiment.
5. Refocus negative energy

Read the entire article here.

(Art Murray is CEO of Applied Knowledge Sciences and co-director of the Enterprise of the Future Program at the George Washington University Institute for Knowledge and Innovation.)

Five Secrets of High Performing Organizations Teleconference

The Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and Six Disciplines are hosting a teleconference on "Excellence."

Come learn what separates the best from all the rest. Riz Shakir, Owner of Six Disciplines Atlanta will present: "Five Secrets of High Performing Organizations."

His presentation will also set the stage for Gary Harpst, author and founder of Six Disciplines presentation “Execution Revolution: Introducing The First Enduring Business Excellence Program” on December 6, 2007 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce.

Register and attend the teleconference to receive your FREE copy of the White Paper “Five Secrets of Highly Performing Organizations." RSVP at events@macoc.com with “Excellence” in the subject line.

Six Disciplines for Leaders - On COSE Mindspring

From the COSE Mindspring site, comes this article "Six Disciplines for Leaders" authored by CEO and founder of Six Disciplines, Gary Harpst.

Read the entire article here.

Harpst will be speaking at the COSE Small Business Conference in Cleveland on Friday, October 19.

(Go Tribe!!)

Excellence Quotes for 10/16/07

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." (Aristotle)

“Excellence is the unlimited ability to improve the quality of what you have to offer.” (Rick Pitino)

“If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.” (Colin Powell)

“Excellence is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.” (John W. Gardner)

“Excellence is not an act but a habit. The things you do the most are the things you will do best.” (Marva Collins)

“Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better.” (Pat Riley)

Gary Harpst To Speak At Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce

Gary Harpst, CEO and founder of Six Disciplines, LLC, will be conducting a presentation entitled “Execution Revolution: Introducing The First Enduring Business Excellence Program" at the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce on Thursday December 6, 2007 from 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.

Harpst, the author of the top-rated business excellence handbook "Six Disciplines for Excellence," will be revealing insights from his newest book "Execution Revolution," which is scheduled to be published in 2008.

Click here for a calendar summary and to register for the event.

Using Technology Strategically

According to a recent NFI Research study, the majority of business leaders spend more than 60 percent of their time using technology in the course of a business day.

Three-fourths of senior executives and managers spend more than half of their time using technology (cell phone, BlackBerry, computer, etc.), according to the worldwide survey of 194 senior executives and managers by NFI Research.

Almost one-quarter (23 percent) spend between 70 and 80 percent of their time using technology, and 18 percent spend between 81 and 90 percent of their time using technology.

BOTTOMLINE: It's not how much time you spend using technology that's important. It's how you use technology to support the overall strategy of your organization, and more specifically, how you use technology to support the execution of your organization's strategy.

Ingredients for Good Decision-Making

In a 2007 survey of 154 global C-level executives, conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and commissioned by Business Objects, the research found that more than 9 out of 10 corporate executives admit they are making important decisions on the basis of inadequate information.

Other findings from this decision-making research:

• Less than 10% of executives receive the information they need.
• 72% of execs believe management decision making is only moderately efficient or worse.
• 25% of executives believes management frequently, or always, gets its decisions wrong.
• 56% of executives are concerned about making poor choices because of bad data.
• 55% of executive decisions are based on ad hoc consultation instead of corporate metrics.
• 70% of senior managers rate decision-making as moderately efficient or worse vs 52% of C-level superiors.
• Yet, only 29% of executive think poor decision-making structures are a common cause of bad decisions.

The ingredients for good decision-making?

The report's authors identify five ingredients of good decision-making. Obviously, supporting good decisions requires a lot more than technology, but business intelligence systems can help with each of these:

• High-quality data
• Access to advanced systems and training
• Sound judgment
• Trust
• Flexibility

Three Ingredients for Success

From a recent New York Times article (subscription required), the co-authors of the book “Success Built to Last” (Wharton School Publishing, 2006) write that “extraordinary people, teams and organizations are simply ordinary people doing extraordinary things that matter to them.”

Their premise? Successful people are “builders.”

Builders find lasting success when three essential elements come into alignment in their lives and work.

1. The first element is meaning. “What you do must matter deeply to you."
2. The second is a “highly developed sense of accountability, audacity, passion and responsible optimism.”
3. And finally, these successful people “find effective ways to take action.”

Introducing Change within Your Company

When introducing any new business process improvement approach (like the Six Disciplines™ program), change management is a key to successful implementation. Since Six Disciplines can lead to a positive transformation of your company’s culture, it’s important to understand how to introduce this kind of change – BEFORE it actually occurs.

Consider these research findings about organizational change:

• Change can be painful: Organizational change is unexpectedly difficult because it provokes sensations of physiological discomfort. Trying to change hardwired habits requires a lot of effort, in the form of attention. This often leads to a feeling that many people find uncomfortable. So they do what they can to avoid change.
• Behaviorism by itself doesn’t work: Change efforts based on incentive and threat (the carrot and the stick) rarely succeed in the long run (e.g. offer the right incentives, and the desired change will naturally occur.) Yet there is plenty of evidence from both clinical research and workplace observation that change efforts based on typical incentives and threats (the carrot and the stick) rarely succeed in the long run.
• Humanism by itself doesn't work: In practice, the conventional empathic approach of connection and persuasion doesn’t sufficiently engage people. This phenomenon provides a scientific basis for some of the practices of leadership coaching. Rather than lecturing and providing solutions, effective accountability coaches ask pertinent questions and support their clients in working out solutions on their own.
• Repetition, consistency, perseverance are keys: Repeated, purposeful, and focused attention can lead to long-lasting evolution and continual improvement. For insights into why change is necessary, they need to be generated from within, not given to individuals as forgone conclusions.

BOTTOMLINE: Knowing these factors before going into your business process improvement can help set expectations appropriately.

Communicating Organizational Change

Although always important, communication is absolutely critical when deciding to adopt a business improvement process like Six Disciplines. Most importantly, this needs to occur BEFORE the actual change initiative begins.

Consider the following change management research findings:

• The #1 contributor to the success of a business improvement initiative is active, strong and visible sponsorship (commitment) throughout the process.
• The top obstacle to successful change is employee resistance at all levels: front-line, middle managers, and senior management.
• The top reason for employee resistance is a lack of awareness about the change initiative that is coming, why it is necessary, what is expected as a result.
• Employees want to hear messages about change the change from two people: the CEO and their immediate team leader. The message they want to hear from each of these individual is very different.

BOTTOMLINE: It’s difficult to manage the transition if people have no sense of where the changes are headed. Painting a picture for them can be difficult. The truth is that many organizations head into a transition state with nothing more than some basic goals and cherished values to guide them on their journey.

Promoting Company-Wide Accountability

"Whether the goal is elevating employee performance, strategic alignment, spurring innovation, or something else, leaders earn their keep by creating the conditions of accountability in their organization."

In "How to combat a culture of excuses and promote accountability," author Jeff Grimshaw offers his advice on how to promote company-wide accountability.

You can also download an 8-page whitepaper on accountability here.

Excellence of Execution is Top Concern for CEOs Worldwide

According to The Conference Board's most recent survey of 769 global CEOs, execution is taking precedence over profit and top-line growth as a focus for CEOs around the world.

The survey of 769 global CEOs from 40 countries is from The Conference Board report, CEO Challenge 2007: Top 10 Challenges.

When asked to rate their greatest concerns from among 121 different challenges, chief executives participating in this year's survey chose excellence of execution as their top challenge and keeping consistent execution of strategy by top management as their third greatest concern. Sustained and steady top-line growth, which led the pack last year, now ranks second, with profit growth fourth, and finding qualified managerial talent fifth.

Read the entire summary of this new study here.

BOTTOMLINE: This study validates our major premise here at Six Disciplines. Execution IS the most commonly mentioned challenge by CEOs - regardless of size of company or type of industry. In fact, Six Disciplines founder and CEO Gary Harpst's next book named "Execution Revolution" is all about the challenge of execution, and how small and mid-sized businesses will be able to harness and leverage the advances of the past two decades to leapfrog past much larger organizations to deal more effectively with this never ending challenge.

Harpst and Kurjan to Speak at COSE Small Business Conference

Gary Harpst, founder and CEO of Six Disciplines, LLC will be a guest speaker at the COSE Small Business Conference on Friday, October 19, 2007 at the International Exposition Center (I-X Center) in Cleveland, Ohio.

Gary will be speaking from 2:45-4:00 pm in Room 9 - on the topic "Driving Growth Through Goals and Scorecards."

Eric Kurjan, President of Six Disciplines Northwest Ohio will also be speaking at the event. Eric will be speaking from 10:45 am-12:00 pm in Room 11 - on the topic "Evaluating Employees."

Toyota Management Principles

The SystematicHR blog posts a series of articles about Toyota management principles based on the book “The Toyota Way” by Jeffrey Liker.

All are well worth reading.

The Toyota Way: Principle 1 - Base your management decisions on a long-term philosophy, even at the expense of the short term financial goals.

The Toyota Way: Principle 2 - Create continuous process flow to bring problems to the surface.

The Toyota Way: Principle 3 - Use “pull” systems to avoid overproduction.

The Toyota Way: Principle 4 - Level out the workload.

The Toyota Way: Principle 5 - Build a culture of stopping to fix problems, to get quality right the first time.

The Toyota Way: Principle 6 - Standardized tasks are the foundation for continuous process improvement and employee empowerment.

The Toyota Way: Principle 7 - Use visual control so no problems are unhidden.

Managing Energy vs. Managing Time

The new article from the Harvard Business Review entitled "Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time" explores the science of stamina, which has advanced to the point where individuals, teams, and whole organizations can, with some straightforward interventions, significantly increase their capacity to get things done.

Check out this HBR article now, (while it's still free!)

Top Small Business Workplaces 2007

The Wall Street Journal has an article about the "Top Small Workplaces 2007," in which they teamed up with Winning Workplaces, an Evanston, Ill., nonprofit that helps small and midsize companies create better work environments, to spotlight 15 Top Small Workplaces.

Common themes among these businesses?

• These small businesses tend to let employees at all levels make key decisions, and they groom their future leaders from within.
• They offer generous traditional and untraditional benefits (how about a six-week sabbatical?).
• They constantly hunt for new ways to improve the employee experience or engage employees.

According to the article, "many share a sizable slice of their profits with employees, teaching them to read company financial statements so they grasp how their job is connected to the success of the organization."

BOTTOMLINE: While teaching employees how to read financial statements can be a good idea, it's more important for each person to understand how their daily activities connect to the goals of the organization. That's one of the key focuses of the Six Disciplines business excellence program.

Getting The Most Out Of Business Books

Listen to this 10 minute Six Disciplines founder and CEO Gary Harpst as he is interviewed on Biz Magazine Radio on the topic "Getting The Most Out Of Business Books."

Six Disciplines Centers - On FranchiseGator

If you've been following our blog, you're familiar with the Six Disciplines Methodology, as described in the top-selling book, "Six Disciplines for Excellence."

What you may not be familiar with, is our method of service delivery, which is the Six Disciplines Center.

Six Disciplines Centers offer a comprehensive business excellence service that combines a systematic business-building methodology, practical Internet technologies, and local coaching to help the best performing organizations to pursue enduring excellence.

Six Disciplines Centers are offered as premiere business services franchises throughout the United States. Six Disciplines Center franchises are now operating and helping top-performing organizations to achieve lasting excellence in:

• Findlay, OH
• Tampa, FL
• Cleveland, OH
• Cincinnati, OH
• Columbus, OH
• Indianapolis, IN
• Raleigh, NC

...and very soon coming to Atlanta!

For more information, see the profile of Six Disciplines Centers on one of the top Franchise Portals, FranchiseGator.com.

For additional information about Six Disciplines Leadership Centers, contact Scott May.

Gary Harpst Interviewed on Small Business Advocate Radio

Last Friday, Gary Harpst was interviewed by Jim Blasingame, host of the Small Business Advocate radio program, on the topic of "Business Excellence"

Go here and listen to their 9/28/07 interview, or download the MP3 here.

Execution Is All That Matters

Serial entrepreneur Wil Schroter brings this article on "You can’t protect a good idea" - and it all comes down to EXECUTION.

While great companies can benefit from good ideas, they require superior execution.

Wil's advice:

• There's a simple and effective way to protect your idea from the world -- focus on actually executing on the business plan. It’s rare that a company loses to its competitors because they “stole the idea” and somehow instantly created a huge company with it.
• If your idea is good, it will be stolen.
• If your idea has a "secret sauce" - simply explain what the product does, not how it does it.

BOTTOMLINE: "A good entrepreneur believes not only in themselves, but also in their ability to execute better than anyone else to turn the smart idea into a great company. Ideas are a dime a dozen -- execution is ultimately what matters."

New Six Disciplines Web Site

Check out the newly revamped web site for Six Disciplines!

While you're there, make sure to view some of the Customer Stories, and see for yourself why a growing number of already successful organizations are adopting the Six Disciplines program for enduring business excellence.

Leadership: It's Not About You

The minute you transform from being a task-oriented professional to being a manager of people, it stops being about your individual talents, your successes, and starts being all about coaching, motivating, teaching, supporting, removing roadblocks, and finding resources for your employees.

At that point, leadership is not about you. It’s about the people who work for you.

Leadership is about celebrating their victories and rewarding them; helping them analyze when things don’t go to plan.

Read all about it from this article from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Are You Ready for Change?

For most business book readers, the concept of change is intriguing, even attractive. At least the concepts must hold some interest for you.

The most important question to ask yourself is "How ready are you -- and your organization - for this type of challenge?"

Here's a simple checklist of things to think through to gauge your readiness:

• Is there a hunger for quality, excellence and continual improvement?
• Do you "get" the difference between working on your business - and working in your business?
• Is your organization of sufficient size to understand the challenges that growth brings?
• Does your organization have a high trust culture?
• Is your business stable - decent balance sheet, not running from one crisis to another?
• Does your organization use technology effectively - and strategically?
• Do you value the advice from outside experts?

BOTTOMLINE: If you're ready for change, contact a Six Disciplines Center near you. By adopting the Six Disciplines business excellence program, you'll transform your organization into a place where the leadership team becomes expert at setting the vision for the company and engaging people in the pursuit of that vision.

Emory University Reviews Six Disciplines for Excellence

The Goizueta Business School of Emory University, in conjunction with the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, has published their review of "Six Disciplines for Excellence."

Some excerpts:

"Six Disciplines is clearly, concisely and engagingly written. Its ideas are not new, but they are not meant to be."

"..author Harpst has distilled the best advice he’s found in popular business books that promote strategic thinking by business leaders, and has created clusters of routine activities, or disciplines, for leaders to follow. The goal: Turn strategic thinking into strategic action."


Read their entire review here. (ID and password required)

Ready for Q4?

Q3 is almost over.....

Did you meet your quarterly goals?

Are you still on track to meet your annual goals?

James Sagar over at Marketing M.O. provides a great list of things to do (even if you're not in marketing!)

BOTTOMLINE: If you were working from an Individual Plan (IP) as described in Discipline IV. Work the Plan, you'd know exactly where you were toward meeting your goals.

What Differentiates Growth Champions From The Rest

The Mercer Delta Consulting firm looked at the 10 practices that statistically differentiated "growth champions" from all other companies.

It found that growth champions:

(For the sake of continuity, the appropriate discipline from Six Disciplines for Excellence has been inserted)

• Were very clear about their markets or businesses and where growth will come from. (Discipline I-C Renew Strategic Position)
• Articulated clear profit models that were well understood by managers and focused the whole business on a few initiatives. (Discipline I-E Define Vital Few Objectives)
• Engaged in the disciplined execution of growth initiatives at all levels of the organization and translated customer insights into new offerings and/or business improvements.
• Maintained strong metrics/feedback to identify what was or wasn't working. (Discipline IV-E Monitor Measures)
• Made effective trade-off decisions about which opportunities to invest in (Discipline V - Innovate Purposefully)
• Ensured there was sustained alignment of their leaders and actions to support growth strategies (Discipline III-F Align People)
• Built on their leaders' capabilities to grow the company from within (Discipline VI-D Review Individuals)

BOTTOMLINE: What set growth champions apart was their ability to implement (execute) these business practices in conjunction with one another and to pursue the practices with a greater level of intensity. The growth champions implement these key practices in a systematic way.

(Thanks to our friends at Management-Issues for the tip)

What Are Six Disciplines Clients Looking To Solve - Video

Watch this short video as Six Disciplines CEO and founder Gary Harpst explains "What Are Six Disciplines Clients Looking to Solve?"

During the interview, Harpst talks about the challenges that companies have as they decide to adopt the Six Disciplines business excellence program.

Who Is Six Disciplines For - Video

Watch this short video as Six Disciplines CEO and founder Gary Harpst explains "Who are the Customers for Six Disciplines?"

During the interview, Harpst talks about the kinds of organizations that are ready and able to adopt the Six Disciplines business excellence program.

Management Training and Leadership Development

Most American businesses don't understand the difference between management training and leadership development, and wrongly believe the answer to middle manager shortages is simply to throw money at the problem.

As reported by Management-Issues, a recent Bersin study found that more than half of American businesses say they are facing leadership shortages, primarily at the mid-management and director level -- yet often do not know what to do about it.

Other findings:

• Four out of 10 firms put leadership development programs in place simply because they are desperate to plug this shortage of internal leadership candidates.
• The best leadership programs need to be guided right from the top and not solely led by the training and development side of the business.

Bersin found that most organisations still confuse management training with leadership development. More than a third of companies outsourced at least half of the content of their leadership development programs. Just over a tenth – 13 per cent – kept all their programs in-house.

BOTTOMLINE: There is a big difference between management training and leadership development. "To be successful, the best leadership programs need to be guided right from the top and not solely led by the training and development side of the business. Successful initiatives must have strong internal executive sponsorship and engagement."

Gary Harpst Speaks on High Performing Organizations

Gary Harpst, founder and CEO of Six Disciplines, LLC, recently spoke to the Toledo Area Small Business Association (TASBA), on the topic of "Five Secrets of High Performing Organizations."

Thanks go to WTVG-Channel 13 Toledo (an ABC affiliate) which covered the event.

Here's a quick look at the event from their perspective.

How is Six Disciplines Delivered - Video

Watch this short video as Six Disciplines CEO and founder Gary Harpst explains "How is the Six Disciplines program delivered?"

During the interview, Harpst talks about the delivery of the Six Disciplines program through a growing nationwide network of local business excellence centers.

CEO Confidence Hits All-Time Low

According to a Q3 2007 Vistage CEO Confidence Index by Vistage International, CEO confidence has hit an all time low since their research began in 2003.

Key findings:

• Chief executives of small- and mid-sized businesses are becoming increasingly concerned about the turmoil in financial markets and the effects it may have on their businesses.
• The concern is not only about the economy, but also about the availability and cost of credit to their companies.
• Because of this, executives plan to put some of their planned investments on hold for the remainder of the year.
• One-third of all firms noted finding and retaining qualified staff is still the most significant problem they face.

BOTTOMLINE: Overall, the survey indicates business leaders expect a slowdown, but not a turndown in the economy. Companies still expect strong growth in their revenues, and have no plans to cut payroll. Just like the prior quarter, recruiting and retaining talent is the most important challenge executives face, although uncertainty about the economy may also slow hiring.

What Makes Six Disciplines Different - Video

Watch this short video as Six Disciplines CEO and founder Gary Harpst explains "What Makes Six Disciplines Different?"

During the interview, Harpst refers to other improvement programs (Covey, Baldrige, Six Sigma) and how Six Disciplines differs from the rest.

What Is Six Disciplines - Video

Watch this short video with Six Disciplines CEO and founder Gary Harpst, as he describes "What Is Six Disciplines?"

Succession Planning And The Aging Workforce

The times they are a changin'.....and it's looking like "60 is the new 30."

• According to data released by the Census Bureau, almost 1 in 4 people between the ages of 65 and 74 nationally - 23 percent - were still in the labor force in 2006, up from close to 1 in 5 at the beginning of the decade.

The good news?

• People are healthier, they want to remain engaged in the community, and they find fulfillment through employment.

The bad news?

• There are people who don't have the financial resources to live without working, and they need the supplemental income to make ends meet.

Actually a third factor is at work: the growing talent shortage in the United States (and other countries too).

• 70 million Boomers will reach "retirement" age in the next five years - and the numbers coming up behind them are much, much smaller.

Companies are more than willing to keep older workers employed for the simple reason that there aren't enough younger people to replace them.

BOTTOMLINE: Succession planning should be part of your annual strategic plan - and not just at the CEO level -- but all levels within your organization. Blending succession planning with a touch of contingency planning will enable your company to weather the coming aging workforce challanges.

The Symphony-Business Analogy

As one of the top ensembles in classical music, the Medici String Quartet has enjoyed a long and creative collaboration. But it hasn't always been harmonious.

Harvard Business School professor Robert Austin explains what innovative businesses can learn about managing creative people.

Key concepts covered:

• Businesses emphasize technical mastery and the creation of predictable patterns. The Medici String Quartet aimed for more. The goal of each performance was never to render a piece exactly as the composer intended, but to interpret it in fresh and new ways.
• Financial pressures for the quartet could be intense. Among musicians, it's an old (but good) joke: How do you become a millionaire as a classical musician? Start as a billionaire.
• Businesses enjoy the notion that innovation happens when everyone is happy and satisfied. As the quartet proved, harmony comes in unexpected ways.

BOTTOMLINE: The challenge of executing strategy sneaks up on us. In some ways, when we first start a business, there’s a kind of simplicity. It’s sort of like an individual whistling a simple tune he’s made up in his own head. As the business grows bigger and more complex, however, this person’s simple tune gradually transforms into a “symphony,” requiring an orchestra to play it and a conductor to lead it.

Unfortunately, many of us are caught trying harder and harder to “whistle a symphony” when we should really be building an orchestra.

An orchestra is a complex system made up of many different parts, all of which have to be aligned so their tempo, mix and volume all synchronize around the composer’s music and the conductor’s leadership. A business is an even more complex system. Continuing the analogy of a symphony, in Disciplines I and II we’ve written the composition we want to play (goals statement). Discipline IV—Work the Plan (coming up in the next chapter) focuses on actually playing the music. However, the purpose of this chapter’s Discipline (Discipline III—Align Systems) is to make sure we have the right “types” and number of instruments, the right musicians, the correct floor layout, sound systems, electrical services, music stands and
copies of the music before rehearsal starts.

Interest Grows in Workforce Performance Management

Aging workforce dilemma...challenges with knowledge transfer....lack of workforce engagement and accountability.

These issues are helping to grow interest in workforce performance management software.

In a report last year, IDC forecasted that worldwide spending for workforce performance management software and services would grow at an annual rate of 16.3 percent between 2006 and 2010.


BOTTOMLINE: The Six Disciplines System provides a holistic approach to workforce performance management - specifically for small and mid-sized businesses. The system helps organizations learn how to do strategic planning, goal setting, alignment of resources, initiative and project management, daily activity alignment, execution of plans, idea and innovation management, performance reviews and succession planning. In conjunction with the Six Disciplines Methodology, and local coaching, the Six Disciplines System supports workforce performance management for the entire organization.

Aligning Recognition With Strategy Execution

According to a recent article in Human Capital Management Magazine:

"A major new trend will affect corporate recognition in 2006 and beyond: aligning recognition practices with strategy execution."

In a recent survey, CEOs across America were asked to list their top 10 challenges for 2006. In response, these CEOs answered that sustained, steady top-line growth and profit growth were the two most important challenges.

No surprise.

But it may surprise you to know that No. 3 on the list is “consistent execution of strategy by top management.”

Intensifying market pressures are requiring companies to make very deliberate strategic choices about what they will be become. However, most organizations fail to implement their
strategy successfully.

Why? Because culture eats strategy for lunch.

Unless carefully cultivated, company culture is an underestimated force that will smother change efforts. If senior leaders are to be effective in driving strategic initiatives (change initiatives), they must engage their people."

BOTTOMLINE: "The the consistent results of successful companies are achieved through
thousands of small but significant actions."

Discipline II. Set Goals That Lead

No organization has the resources to do all things at once; goal setting by itself, it not enough.

The purpose of Discipline II. Set Goals That Lead - is to help organizations to formulate goals and initiatives that lead people to take action that is aligned with what's most important (Discipline I. Decide What's Important) to the organization

Well-defined goals are among the most powerful and effective communication tools available to any business leader -- yet most leaders don't know how to set goals that lead their people in the right direction.

While working on Discipline II. Set Goals That Lead, organizations produce annual goals that are clear and measurable.

Pursuing these goals will lead the people in the organization to align their activities with the Vital Few Objectives set in Discipline I. Decide What's Important.

The goal statements produced take into account past experiences, including previous measures and goals, as well as misalignments of activities and people (organizational mismatches).

BOTTOMLINE: The result of Discipline II. Set Goals That Lead is a brief company goals statement that every team member can understand. There's no greater tool for improving the performance of an organization than setting well-thought-out goals -- it's one of the most effective communication tools of leadership. But it takes a long-term, disciplined approach for an organization to learn how to Set Goals That Lead.

On Discipline

Often we're asked: "Why did you call it Six Disciplines?"

To many, "discipline" has a negative connotation.

An article here helps to understand what discipline is all about:

"There’s something to this, I think. Although it was necessary for us as children to be disciplined by our parents, it was often negative. Most of the time for good reason and with love -- for our safety and general well-being."

"Gradually, our parents disciplined us less and less and we assumed more and more responsibility for ourselves. However, others took over our parents’ roles -- teachers, coaches, employers, et al. As a result, discipline as a matter of practice remains essentially an external control for many of us. Sometimes I think even our use of Day Timers and other such systems are as much an effort to provide discipline from outside ourselves as they are to remind us of meetings and tasks to be done."

"Time management is all about self-discipline. And self-discipline depends on saying "yes" to ourselves to accomplish what is important to us. So, spend some time determining how your work reinforces your personal values, create your goals on that foundation, and keep those goals fixed firmly before you."

BOTTOMLINE: And so it is in business. Six Disciplines is about learning how to continually improve processes that reinforce the organization's mission, vision and values. It's about deciding what's important, setting goals that lead, aligning people, processes and technologies to attain those goals, working the plan, innovating purposefully - then stepping back and repeating the process annually, quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily.

Six Disciplines is a holistic business-building methodology than enables organizations to continually improve, to learn how to work ON their business rather than just IN it. Want to know more? Read Six Disciplines for Excellence.

Management Tools for 2007

For the past fourteen years, strategy consulting firm Bain & Co. has been tracking the most popular management tools worldwide, including just about everything from strategic alliances to corporate blogs, and from benchmarking to offshoring.

This year's report outlines the major trends and examines some exotic newcomers.

In terms of the management tools used, here's what the top 15 look like for 2007:

1. Strategic planning
2. Customer relationship management
3. Customer segmentation
4. Benchmarking
5. Mission and vision statements
6. Core competencies
7. Outsourcing
8. Business process reengineering
9. Scenario and contingency planning
10. Knowledge management
11. Strategic alliances
12. Balanced scorecard
13. Supply chain management
14. Growth strategy tools
15. Total quality management

New MP3 - What Are The Six Disciplines?

Listen to this MP3 as Six Disciplines founder and CEO Gary Harpst describes the idea behind Six Disciplines, and as he describes each of the Six Disciplines:

Discipline I. Decide What's Important
Discipline II. Set Goals That Lead
Discipline III. Align Systems
Discipline IV. Work The Plan
Discipline V. Innovate Purposefully
Discipline VI. Step Back

Satisfaction and Employee Engagement

What's the difference between a satisfied and an engaged employee? Only everything, argues Globoforce, a Westborough, Mass., work force solutions company in this eWeek article.

Satisfaction is a measurement of the past; engagement is more future-looking.

Research to support this claim?

• A recent study by the Corporate Leadership Council, a human resources research company, found that increased engagement could be the "tipping point" in retaining employees; in fact, increased engagement was found to lead to a 57 percent improvement in discretionary effort.
• Furthermore, increased discretionary effort improved performance by 20 percent and reduced attrition by 87 percent.
• Highly engaged organizations grew profits three times faster than their competitors.

BOTTOMLINE: "Beyond a lack of recognition, unclear demands had a significant impact on the engagement of employees. It's up to the manager to recover this discretionary work enthusiasm."

Aligning Technology To Business Strategy

Bain & Company recently released some very interesting research on IT spending.

Some highlights from Bain's research on over 450 publicly traded companies:

• 85% of respondents characterized their IT operations as ineffective
• Bain finds that nearly one-in-two IT projects are considered partial failures upon completion, having gone over budget, past deadline and/or with under-delivered features and functionality
• Bain found companies whose IT operations were ‘effective’ though not aligned with business priorities grew ~10% more than average and spent over 15% less on IT
• Companies that focused on strategic alignment at the expense of effective IT operations grew almost 10% less than average and spent over 8% more on IT

BOTTOMLINE: Bain's research shows that CIOs who focus on alignment before effectiveness spend more, and their companies grow less, than those who do not focus on alignment. The conventional wisdom about aligning IT to business doesn't mean much without operational excellence.

Jim Symcox Reviews Six Disciplines for Excellence

Jim Symcox, a business coach, posts his review of Six Disciplines for Excellence.

Jim's assessment?

About the book's influences:

"The book’s title sounds a little like Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and the author acknowledges that books help. He also acknowledges the book’s debt to others such as Michael Gerber and Peter Senge and I would say also to Edwards Deming the quality guru too. "


Jim's summary:

"Six Disciplines of Excellence is not just a book to read, place carefully in your bookshelf and forget. Gary Harpst has written it into a tool that any business can use to successfully grow bigger, more profitable and more consistent."

"Any smallish company of between one and a hundred people will definitely benefit from buying, studying and applying the Six Disciplines found in this book. Gary Harpst has taken strands of so many different methods for improving business and cooked them up to produce a recipe for building a better small business. If you’re a small company this book can get you well down the path to a better and more profitable company and improve your own personal growth."

"So go buy it from Amazon (UK) or Amazon (USA) or Amazon (Canada) and strike while the iron’s hot!"

We're humbled Jim - thank you!

Gary Harpst Speaks About Six Disciplines With FranchiseInterviews.com

Six Disciplines offers the first enduring business excellence program, specifically designed for small and mid-sized businesses.

Six Disciplines is delivered through a growing network of local business excellence centers located throughout the U.S. The Six Disciplines Centers are independently owned and operated franchises, offering accountability coaching on the Six Disciplines Methodology, Six Disciplines System and value-added services.

Six Disciplines Franchising Corporation offers the opportunity for qualified professionals to own a Six Disciplines Center franchise.

Click here to listen to Gary Harpst, as he speaks about the Six Disciplines Franchise Opportunity with Franchise Interviews.com.

Excellence Quotes for 9/11/07

On this, the sixth anniversary of 9/11, rather than taking a political stance, we'd prefer to take a proactive, positive stance to our world situation, and offer these quotes on excellence:

"The more we sympathize with excellence, the more we go out of self, the more we love, the broader and deeper is our personality." (Edwin Hubbell Chapin)

"What is excellent, As God lives, is permanent; Hearts are dust, hearts' loves remain, Heart's love will meet thee again." (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

"Excellence, is never granted to man, but as the reward of labor." (Sir Joshua Reynolds)

"Those who attain any excellence commonly spend life in one common pursuit; for excellence is not often gained upon easier terms." (Samuel Johnson)

"Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way." (Booker T. Washington)

"The noblest search is the search for excellence." (Lyndon Baines Johnson)

"The quest for excellence is a mark of maturity. The quest for power is childish." (Max Lucado)

"Excellence is best described as doing the right things right -- selecting the most important things to be done -- and then accomplishing them correctly, year after year." (Six Disciplines)

The Impact of Technology on Small Business Growth

Want to grow your small business? Growing your technology savvy is a good place to start, according to a survey of mid-size companies conducted by tech services firm CDW.

In fact, 48 percent of respondents to a recent survey by Baseline Magazine who described themselves as “total geeks” said their companies grew from startups to 100-employee businesses in five years or less.

BOTTOMLINE: Six Disciplines conducted similar research that supports this claim. High performing organizations give more emphasis (109 percent more!) than lower performing organizations to using technology to impact the business in strategic ways. Underlying this rating is the greater use of long-term technology plans aimed at delivering competitive advantage. Such organizations have developed a culture that figures out ways to deploy technology, not for technology's sake, but to better serve their strategy.

Succession Planning: Passing The Torch

According to this article in CareerJournal, giving up command is never easy. But it may prove especially difficult for the large number of retiring baby boomers, accustomed to working hard in a fast-paced economy.

Many aging presidents/CEOs choose to move on slowly, and want to do their part to ease the transition and shape their legacy.

Consider this:

• More than half of the 50 coaches at Marshall Goldsmith Partners LLC are seeing increased demand from senior leaders for advice on a gradual transition at small employers as well as big, according to the coaching network.

BOTTOMLINE: Succession planning, while often thought of as a CEO-only planning process, needs to be considered for every key position within your firm. Make sure succession planning becomes an integral part of your strategic annual plan.

A Reviewer Ranks Six Disciplines for Excellence In Top 5

Gary Tomlinson is president of Tomlinson & Associates, an organizational development firm in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Gary has read Six Disciplines for Excellence, and posts his review here on BusinessLeader.com.

In a separate communication, Gary indicated to us:

My favorite five books are these:

1. Good to Great by Jim Collins
2. The E-Myth Manager by Michael Gerber
3. How to Win Customers and Keep Them for Life by Michael LeBoeuf
4. The People Principle by Ron Willingham
5. Six Disciplines for Excellence by Gary Harpst

I rank the “Six Disciplines for Excellence” right up there with the other four. In fact, I feel that Harpst's book is the first book I’ve read that takes the best education from the first four books and combines them into one book. As you can tell, I’m a fan of “Six Disciplines for Excellence.”

Thanks Gary!

What Makes Six Disciplines for Excellence Different?

What makes Six Disciplines for Excellence different from other business improvement books?

“Six Disciplines for Excellence is what the E-Myth Revisited wants to be when it grows up.” (David Rothacker, Rothacker Reviews)

”We interrupt our coverage of meaningless business books to review a book that made the cut: Six Disciplines for Excellence by Gary Harpst.” (Ethan Johnson, The Vision Thing)

“How does his (Harpst’s) book differ from others which also discuss business improvement? First, [unlike most other books] which focus 80% on principles and 20% on implementation, this book's content is focused 20% on principles and 80% on implementation.” (Robert Morris, Top 10 Reviewer for Amazon.com)


“Six Disciplines differs in that respect – it’s all about teaching a system of getting done the things that we all know need to be done.” (Bob Shuneman, Small Biz Matters)

“This is the type of book that each time you read it you’ll find new pearls of wisdom and – better yet – practical advice.” (Bob Schuneman, Small Biz Matters)

“What I found also fascinating is that the book was influenced by many people (the same people that I had read and liked the theories but didn't know how to act) including: Michael Porter (Competitive Strategy), Stephen Covey (7 Habits of Highly Effective People), Michael Gerber (The E Myth Revisited), Robert Kaplan and David Norton (Balanced Scorecard), Peter Senge (The Fifth Discipline), and Jim Collins (Good to Great) to name a few. (Skip Angel, Random Thoughts of a CTO)


“This is a guidebook, with practical business advice, that if followed, will enhance your business and provide solutions to every day small business problems.” (Gary Whitehair, High Performance Business)


“Here’s what differentiates this book: it bridges concept and principles to execution.” (Sam Decker, Decker Marketing)


“But the book doesn't stop there! Therefore, there is also a Six Disciplines company that was established to help companies long-term get established and maintain using this methodology.” (Skip Angel, Random Thoughts of a CTO)

“In reading the book, I’m struck that the author spends time focusing on HOW to achieve maximum benefit from each of the six interdependent Disciplines, and not just providing a laundry list without explanation.” (Gary Slinger, Slinger’s Thoughts)

“Full of incredibly useful tools and charts -- all about how small businesses execute strategy.” (Anita Campbell, SMB Trend Wire)


“However, the power of this book is in how it integrates these time tested, common sense ideas into a useful whole.” (Bud Bilanich, The Common Sense Guy)

“What makes this book unique, not to mention worthwhile? The book is filled with concrete examples, processes and checklists that will help a business owner in creating a successful business.” (Trevor Hall, Servant-Leadership Blog)

“I've read and participated in many 'best practice' methodologies over the years. Unfortunately most are skewed towards theory, with minimal attention to practice and implementation. Gary Harpst is the direct opposite.” (David Daniels, Business & Technology Reinvention)

“The approach is current and I love that it ties technology and systems with strategy. Most importantly this book is about execution.” (David Daniels, Business & Technology Reinvention)

”Overall, I found this book to be well-organized, yet a slow read because my brain kept exploding with ideas while reading selected units.” (Ethan Johnson, The Vision Thing)

”And that is indeed what sets this book apart from more typical business book fare: Gone are the grandiose declarations and cheeky labels.” (Ethan Johnson, The Vision Thing)

“Instead, this is meant to read more as a how-to manual. Not so much “read”, as “used.” (Ethan Johnson, The Vision Thing)

“Harpst's book is the first book I’ve read that takes the best education from (Good To Great, E-Myth Manager, others) and combines them into one book. As you can tell, I’m a fan of “Six Disciplines for Excellence.” (Gary Tomlinson, Tomlinson & Associates)

BOTTOMLINE: Read Six Disciplines for Excellence.

Company Founders and Organizational Performance

USA Today posted an interesting article about how founder-led companies perform better than their non-founder-led counterparts, with a 15-year stock price appreciation of 970% vs. the S&P 500 average of 222%.

While most business leaders will not be surprised by this finding, it's a finding that has been of interest to the investment community.

What are the reasons?

• Company founders have a deep, emotional, passionate connection to the business, which contibutes to them becoming great leaders
• Company founders typically have deep industry knowledge
• Company founders typically have risked a considerable amount, and have a large financial stake in the success of the business
• Company founders tend to take the long-term view
• Company founders tend to learn from their mistakes and rarely make the same mistakes twice

Annual Planning To Improve Business Performance

The Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce and Six Disciplines Northwest Ohio are sponsoring an executive workshop for established businesses that are not satisfied with the status quo.

You will learn how to align your organization and your management team to develop a practical plan for improving your business, and more importantly, to execute it company-wide, every
month, quarter and year.

While many business leaders are successful at growing their businesses, they struggle to consistently deliver long-term results. This is symptomatic of a gap between a company’s annual plan and its execution.

When: Tuesday, September 18, 2007 - 8:00 a.m. - Registration & Continental Breakfast
8:30 to 11:30 a.m. - Seminar

Where: The Toledo Club, 235 14th Street, Toledo, OH 43604

Presenter: Scott Gray, Partner & Certified Business Coach, Six Disciplines Northwest Ohio

Guest Speaker: Brian Roth, President & CEO, TRUFAST, LLC

Cost: $50 for Chamber Members, $65 for Non-Members

To Register: Contact Marsha Schroeder, Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce, at 419-243-8191 ext 228 or marsha.schroeder@toledochamber.com - visit http://www.toledochamber.com/

Six Disciplines Radio Interview With Eric Kurjan

Listen to this MP3 radio interview from WFIN Radio, as Eric Kurjan talks about Six Disciplines and what benefits it brings to his small and mid-sized business clients in Northwest Ohio.

Eric is the President of Six Disciplines Northwest Ohio, located in Findlay, OH.

Building An Enduring Organization

Thinking holistically about your business -- how to make all of its components, people, processes, policies, key measures, assets and strategies work together to meet the promises made to customers and other stakeholders in a repeatable and predictable fashion - is KEY to pursuing lasting business excellence.

Warning signs that prevent leaders from building an enduring organization include:

• Critical business processes are missing or poorly defined (e.g., strategy, planning, measurement, execution, learning, leadership development, recruiting, training, etc.)
• Processes aren't measured, so there's no way to evaluate the effectiveness of new ideas
• Team members don't understand the measures that are critical to company performance - or their own
• Trended data to support long-term learning are either absent or inadequate

Time Management and Execution

According to Rich Fredricksen, principal of the execution consulting firm, Paiva•Fredricksen Group:

“longer hours, constant connectivity, more meetings, multitasking, a 24/7 mentality and a global economy are making it more of a challenge for leaders to stay focused on strategy, much less execution which is the key to productivity.”

And....

A Harvard Business Review article entitled “Beware the Busy Manager,” states up to 90% of managers squander their time in all sorts of ineffective activities, while only 10% spend their time in a committed, purposeful, and reflective manner.

BOTTOMLINE: Some general guidelines for leaders looking to conquer the “busy manager” syndrome, according to Fredricksen are: “prioritize your work, simplify, work from detailed metrics, provide clarity, focus on execution, and think.”

Look for an in-depth discussion of both time management and execution in CEO's Gary Harpst's upcoming new book "Execution Revolution."