OUTSTANDING! 47 Ways to Make Your Organization Exceptional
“To everyone who cares enough to improve the place. You are outstanding!”
Here at DSD Business Systems, we often read books and review them as a group during company meetings. Recently, we were given the opportunity to read the book Outstanding!, by John G. Miller. This book highlights 47 ways to make your organization exceptional. Miller takes complex ideas and makes you feel as if you already knew them by using real life stories and situations. Organizations would be wise to follow these “ways” if they intend to retain customers, grow revenue and build their reputation. Particularly, I wanted to highlight 3 specific “ways” described by Miller to be the most effective in making your organization exceptional.
See Everyone as a Customer
A customer is anyone who has a legitimate expectation of you. This chapter explains why we must treat everyone as our customer, with the lesson that serving our internal customers is as important as serving our external ones. With this way of thinking, our boss, co-workers, vendors, family members plus any “outsiders” who buy from, volunteer at, sell, or donate to our organization become a customer. If we treat these relationships with the same respect and regard as we give our “paying customers”, imagine the results we will see.
Make Meetings Meaningful
Miller mentions that someone once said the worst of all murders is the killing of time. We’ve all been in meetings where time has been killed, along with morale, productivity and enthusiasm. This chapter covers some practical ideas to making meetings become more meaningful. Having a clear leader is the first way to keep your meeting on track and to minimize confusion. A list of items that will be covered in the meeting should also be presented to attendees beforehand. It’s best to keep this list small so you can focus on the right topics and not spend time and energy on things that bring no real value to the organization. Meeting at the right time is also important to keeping attendees focused. Typically, right before and after lunch, at the end of the day, early Monday morning and late on Friday are not ideal times for a meeting. Organizations should also steer away from having a meeting, just to have a meeting. If there are no problems to solve or decisions to be made there’s no reason to hold a meeting. Lastly, it is very important all attendees are on time and prepared. As Miller mentions, “Outstanding organizations make best use of a most precious resource: time. Let’s get in, get out, and get back to work.”
Celebrate
This last topic of celebration might be surprising, but it is necessary for all organizations to practice. It’s important for all organizations to have employees who feel appreciated. People want to work for companies that value and celebrate its’ employees. Celebration can be anything from an “employee of the month” award, to simply saying “great job!”, to an all-out parade. No matter how big or small, a victory is a victory and it must be celebrated. These celebrations lead to employees feeling appreciated and part of the team; something that is larger than themselves. When people feel personally invested they will likely give more effort into making the organization outstanding.
Outstanding!
Outstanding means being superior and exceptional, while standing out over the competition. Outstanding organizations become attractive and people want to sell to them, buy from them, invest in them and work for them. The purpose of this book is to make organizations aware of what they need to work on, in order to become an outstanding organization. I’m proud to say that here at DSD Business Systems we are aware of what it takes to become Outstanding!
Written by Nathan Brown, Enhancement Coordinator at DSD Business Systems
