Competitive Advantage

The Final Frontier to Sustainable Competitive Advantage

Stiff attitudes and ineffective communications are the greatest choke points within most organisations. The greatest effort in maximising the performance of the whole organisation should be to attack this choke point. Most organisations, however, are unaware of this. They fix the wrong problem. Of course, fixing a link that is not the weakest link in the chain does not strengthen the overall chain. Many of those who recognise it as their choke point don’t know HOW to free that choke point.

They may have been neutralised by past negative experiences. I believe the place to start is with developing total quality thinking.

We have grown and developed through generations of bad management and faulty management structures. I believe the best place to start creating business advantage is with personal communication and attitudinal development.

You need a toolbox from which to re-programme how you do things. You need to manage the transition from the present status quo to the future vision. It needs individuals, teams and organisations to unlock potential and, like a snowball rolling downhill, it grows in pace and momentum by giving individuals the tools to understand goal focus, personal change, organisational change, employee involvement, creativity, core values, continuous improvement, innovation, quality, work and performance, and excellence.

The process used by our team of consultants at Century Management allows individuals and teams to have a forum in which to deal with the real issues and core problems that have been preventing them from moving forward at the pace at which they are capable. It allows them to look constructively at obstacles of performance blocks, barriers to effective communication and other competitive impediments. These obstacles have the cumulative effect of being a major choke point for the entire organisation.

Above all, this kind of process helps to reactivate all current competencies that are under-utilised or not used at all. ‘If only we knew what we know now’. Most people have vast stores of knowledge, skill and potential lying dormant within their nature, nurture and learned practices.

The reality check for most organisations will show that the real enemy is rarely outside the organisation, but is working surreptitiously within the framework and makeup of the organisation. ‘The enemy is invariably US.’

Use a Mental Toolbox with Internal Champions

In my view, the best place to start ‘to improve things around here’ is to use the human performance improvement model outlined below.

Step 1: Help each individual to acquire an appropriate understanding of the personality factors of temperament, knowledge, skills, attitude, values and intelligence etc. to define, measure and develop their personal and task competencies.

Step 2: Learn interpersonal competencies to maximise relationships internally with colleagues and with customers and other stakeholders.

Step 3: Help groups of individuals become teams. The natural extension of personal and interpersonal development and growth is team development and growth. You need to experience, learn and apply team development competencies. What are the competency levels required for different job families?

Step 4: Help organisations to provide the right conditions, environment, climate, culture and learning opportunities for teams to reach their potentials. It has a ripple effect. Ultimately leadership is about getting extraordinary performance from everyone in the organisation to help achieve its strategic goals.  However most organisations have not defined, measured or developed core competencies for the overall enterprise for now or for the future!

Step 5: The customer is the ultimate arbitrator. Customers vote with their feet every day. So keep everything customer focused. But is everyone clear what constitutes ‘best customer practice’?

Use a Mental Toolbox with Internal Champions

The key to successful transformation of an organisation is the systematic application of the tools in a mental ‘toolbox.’ It is impossible to fix the whole organisation in one fell swoop. You need help and support from people who are on the same mental wavelength as yourself. Developing these internal champions takes time, investment and total commitment to the application of this ‘toolbox’. We are all cogs in wheels – one small cog helps another and so on.

When everyone is working in co-operation for the achievement of the mission, the vision and strategic goals of the organisation, it is as though many extra people are working and supporting the individuals on the teams.

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