ABSTRACT
When an organization stops improving, it starts slipping backwards.
H. James Harrington
All too often an organization will implement initiatives that bring about very positive changes in its operations and output performance and all of a sudden take a deep breath and relax. No, that’s wrong; they take a deep breath and collapse. They feel that they have succeeded because they reached their goals, wherein in truth, they have just reached one milestone in the evolution of their organization. Yes, it’s the right thing to do to take time to celebrate the accomplishment and to recognize those who have contributed greatly to meeting these goals. But, as soon as goals have been reached, it is time to move the bar up and renew your effort to be even better. You have to feel good about being better today than you were yesterday, but you need to be better tomorrow than you are today. It’s a lot like competition in sports. As soon as a record is set, you need to strive to beat it and be better. Every organization needs to strive to break its own records as well as the records set by its competition (Figure 8.1).
