The quality of decision-making is what sets performance leaders apart.

They make the most important decisions well, and then they make them happen, quickly and consistently. The quality of decision-making is dictated by the quality of information and the options that people and teams have available to them.

This requires a comprehensive approach to business intelligence that enables value to be created from data by providing timely, reliable and relevant information for making strategic, managerial and operational decisions at all levels.

Appropriate knowledge is developed by a combination of …

1. Knowing the relevant benchmarks in terms of competition and best practices, both internal and external - Benchmarking
2. Knowing where you are against benchmarks - Self Assessment
3. Changing the rules by exploiting ideas that radically reset conditions to your advantage - Innovation

The rigour of these activities and available expertise in organisations is rarely sufficient to drive performance leadership. It is for this reason that our approach incorporates a focus on knowledge development.

Please read on to understand how knowledge development is addressed in order to deliver performance leadership.

Our approach …

• Benchmarking
• Self Assessments
• Innovation

Benchmarking

Throughout our personal development we firstly study the known facts and then set about improving on what we have learnt, whether it is through formal study or simply the informal lessons of life. This is called progress.

The same principles apply to improving organisational performance although the techniques are surprisingly less commonly used. Why re-learn the lessons that others have already paid the price to learn?

Benchmarking is a structured activity in which organisations evaluate various aspects of their capabilities in relation to best practice. This then allows them to develop plans to adopt such best practice with the aim of increasing performance.

The approach is a highly rigorous, fact based exercise in which the key characteristics of your capability are analysed against the benchmark organisation. Benchmarking is best started internally on a modest scale to develop skills and demonstrate early improvements.

External benchmarking only becomes necessary when you have already achieved a high level of performance and are seeking to move to class-leading or world-class standards of performance.

Ultimately all aspects of an organisation's capability need to be benchmarked, including processes, culture, technology and so on.

TRIMENTIS introduces a structured process for both internal and external benchmarking involving planning, data collection, analysis and decision-making followed by implementation of improvements.

Self Assessments

Self Assessments are complementary to performance analysis carried out routinely by organisations. Performed periodically, they allow management teams to stand back from day to day operations and critically compare their capability against best practice.

The assessment produces insights into issues and opportunities for improvement as well providing an overall index or 'score'. They are used to stimulate a renewed energy in improvement efforts, raising the bar.

TRIMENTIS has extensive experience in the world-class standard of organisational capability described in the EFQM Excellence Model. Our trained Assessors and Senior Assessors have worked throughout Europe for the EFQM and BQF as part of their awards programmes and directly for our own clients. We have experience in helping organisations prepare and apply for awards having lead finalists and winners in a number of National and European level quality awards.

A practical starting point for organisations is our QUALIFIER Assessment run as a facilitated one-day event. Evidence against the EFQM Excellence Model is captured interactively from participants and results in a report setting out opportunities, areas for development and an overall 'maturity' score as an aid to benchmarking.

We ideally assess the capability of clients at the start of assignments using our range of PITSTOP Maturity Assessment tools. These have been designed to provide evidence-based assessments on strategic context, performance management and change management, and teams are re-assessed periodically to benchmark their progress.

Try one of our on-line self-assessment tools as your starting point to the implementation of performance leadership.

Innovation

Innovation is the successful exploitation of new ideas. Ideas that improve the way we do things to enable our organisations to remain competitive.

Some ideas are small and iterative; others can create radical change to the market and ourselves. Evidence shows that those who have the awareness to continually create, evaluate and successfully exploit their new ideas are more likely to survive and prosper.

Working innovatively is a work routine focused on doing better today than we did yesterday, driven by knowledge of how well the organisation is achieving its goals in comparison to its benchmarks. Performance leaders recognise that generating and exploiting ideas is as much to do with attitude and culture as it is with systems, skills and knowledge.

TRIMENTIS builds both the expectation and the need for innovation into key activities within the core Performance Management Processes. By way of an example, setting performance targets follows the discipline of establishing past performance, knowing the relevant benchmarks and establishing stakeholder expectations. The performance gap is then addressed through the generation of new ideas that are driven into operation - this is one form of innovation.

TRIMENTIS also supports the development of attitudes and behaviours required to value and foster innovation through personal development. The attributes of impatience and innovation are critical success factors of high performing people and teams as illustrated in our High Performance People Model.

Coaching enables participants to significantly increase their personal effectiveness in leading, managing and performing in the workplace as a continuing capability, linking self-awareness with business results to create both individual and organisational transformations.

The High Performance People Programme is our flagship programme for personal development, run most powerfully in tandem with organisational development.

The programme is based on the Core Competencies and underlying Attributes within the High Performance People Model and is initiated by a 360 Survey. The survey is completed by participants and their managers, peers, team members and customers and is conducted through our automated browser based tool.

This intensive programme has been designed to address the development needs of key managers and leaders, solving the logistical problem of receiving intensive one-on-one coaching alongside a demanding day job.

Delivered as a series of one-day tutorials interspersed with periods of practical application to develop the day job, the programme exploits action learning to build positive new skills, habits and behaviours.

It is best timed to support those who are at the start of major new organisational challenges such as initiating projects, exploiting business opportunities and developing new teams.