Improvement capability that develops and is carried in everyday work.
The question we start from
How do we develop the organisation through the people who work within it?
Reading depth
Four ways to read the same topic. Start wherever you like.
The organisation develops when people understand their situation together, create direction, prioritise what matters most, test actions and learn from the results.
Operational Excellence is about building this improvement capability into everyday organisational life. Knowledge and the capacity for development reside within the organisation. Structures, mirrors and dialogue help turn them into shared capability.
DirectWhat do we want to achieve, and within which frames?
UnderstandWhat does our situation look like when we bring our perspectives together?
PrioritiseWhat matters most to us right now?
ActWhat do we choose to test and commit to?
Follow upWhat happened, and what does it tell us?
LearnWhat do we see differently now, and what do we carry forward?
DirectWhat do we want to achieve, and within which frames?UnderstandWhat does our situation look like when we bring our perspectives together?PrioritiseWhat matters most to us right now?ActWhat do we choose to test and commit to?Follow upWhat happened, and what does it tell us?LearnWhat do we see differently now, and what do we carry forward?
A recurring rhythm of work. The movements are equal and can be entered from several directions; learning feeds new understanding back into the whole.
Six movements — direct, understand, prioritise, act, follow up and learn — sit in an open ring connected by thin lines. No numbering, no arrows and no starting point.
Collective intelligence builds the improvements
When different experiences, knowledge and perspectives meet, a group can form a richer picture of its situation, make better priorities and develop solutions together. Collective intelligence develops the quality of a group's shared understanding and development work.
Operational Excellence gives that capability a recurring practice for direction, prioritisation, action and learning.
The perspectives are equal. Together they make the situation clearer.
The organisation wants to develop its work and its results, and does so together with the people who work within it.
Me
What can I see from my part of the organisation, and how can I contribute?
We
How do we use our different perspectives to understand, prioritise and develop together?
The organisation
Which structures, ways of working and cultural patterns support the development we need?
The system
How do relationships between different parts of the system shape which solutions work?
Working with the perspective
Here we show how this recurring practice of development can be carried in a team's everyday work.
Shared practice
Dragonfly
Dragonfly gives teams a shared workspace for direction, dialogue, prioritisation, action and learning over time. It helps a group make development work a recurring part of everyday life.
Dragonfly keeps indicators, ideas, action plans and follow-up apart, so that a group can keep its dialogue clear. The entry points below are equal and describe how different parts of the workspace support development work – they are not mandatory steps in a fixed order.
Ways in
Indicators and signals
What are we seeing?
Dialogue
What does it mean?
Ideas
What could we develop or test?
Prioritisation
What matters most now?
Action plan and commitment
What do we choose to do?
Follow-up
What happened and what are we learning?
The environment is described here and becomes available later on.
Individual practice
Instar
Improvement work is also carried by the attention and reflection of individual people. Instar is Katalystra's environment for that individual practice: noticing what happens, making choices and reflecting on what actually happened.
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