Chapter 4: Continuous improvement - process & tools

We look briefly at the quality movement in the hospitality industry and examine fundamental features of a continuous-improvement process, and the most commonly used tools that groups or teams can use.

1. In evaluating success, teams may gather feedback from guests, managers and staff members. Do you think this statement is true?   Which statement in the text leads you to this opinion? (2)
2. Explain which two tools would be appropriate for gathering this evaluation feedback data? (4)
3. Evaluation feedback often reveals numerous problem areas.  How would you choose an area to start your improvement efforts? (4)

Task 1 - Feedback and improvement

Read the article “The Challenge of Greatness” 

The Challenge of Greatness 
“Good” may be good enough for some. But most of us want more than that. Something inside us makes us 
want to be better than good. We want to be part of an enterprise, a team whose members will be 
remembered for what they accomplished. We want to go for greatness!  
 
Our passion and mission should be to enable greatness in people and organisations. We need to look into the 
operation of the organisation, examine the data from survey respondents and work teams. We must 
understand what great performance is, what gets in the way of it, what conditions are necessary for it, what a 
leader’s role is in achieving it, and what does and doesn’t matter in getting there.  
 
For example: Environmental factors for conducting business for great performers are no different from that of 
good performers. Great performers simply do more with what they have. There are examples of great 
performance in every organisation, and the performers don’t necessarily have more know-how than good 
performers. They are simply more successful at using what they know. They are better at implementing, better 
at reducing inconsistencies and getting the core performers, the middle 60 percent, to operate at levels closer 
to that of their top performers.  
  
What is Greatness? 
 
While financial or operating performance is often the only “measure of greatness” people look at, research 
shows that great organisations always produce four key “outcomes": 
Ongoing superior performance where success is short and long term, relative to their market potential.  
Loyal customers who make up their return data base. 
Effective and productive teams who are more than satisfied - they are energized and passionate about what 
they do.  
Recognisable contributions from staff that do more than “business as usual” - they fulfil a unique mission that 
sets them apart from the crowd.  
These four outcomes are measurable, unmistakable, and attainable. 
 
Great organisations: 
 Are more profitable than their peers 
 Grow faster than their peers 
 Win the loyalty of all their stakeholders 
In addition to these rewards there is something deeper and more meaningful: the reward that comes only to 
those who have contributed to the success. 
 
Achieving greatness 
 
You need great leaders and effective people to execute the organisation’s mission with excellence. They are 
essential and must inspire trust and create the vision of where to go along with the strategies and systems for 
getting there. However, great leaders are not enough. Great individuals are essential too or the organisation is 
destined for mediocrity or worse. However, effective individuals are not enough. They need to be inspired, and 
have a shared process for focusing on and executing the organisation’s mission. To unlock the potential of your 
organisation you need to focus on institutionalizing best practices throughout the entire workforce - build 
something important and lasting. 
 
Top performers are usually the 20% that make enormous contributions. It’s the habits and traits of the 60% 
that need to change. If the bulk of your staff performs at an average level, they will bring down the entire 
organisation, despite the efforts of the top performers. 
 
Eliminate the variance between the two groups by creating consistencies from the top performers to the 
middle by beginning at the lowest unit of productivity—an individual's personal contribution.  

 
The results you get come from what you do. What you do is based on how you see the world around you –this 
is your “paradigm”. When your paradigms are in line with correct principles, you behave differently and get 
better results. 
 Unleash talent, ability, and creativity to achieve sustained superior performance in your  organisation 
and in your life.  
 Execute with excellence as success rests on the capabilities of those individuals tasked with 
 doing the work. Great leaders and effective people achieve results by using a unique and 
 principle-centred approach.  
 Translate vision into reality and create ongoing superior performance.  
 Identify and execute your top priorities while engaging the hearts and minds of your most 
 valued resource - your people. 
 
A leader outlines the course and engages resources in the right direction. Key individuals must share the same 
focus, drive and direction. Productivity skills must be integrated with a planning system that helps all 
employees clarify, focus on, and execute the highest priorities - personally and professionally. 
 
Leaders need insight and tools for the challenges they face, and must learn to engage hidden resources, define 
their contribution, hold team members accountable, give constructive feedback, and unleash the potential of 
the team to achieve crucial goals. 
 
They will need to learn basic personal and interpersonal skills because in an environment of low trust, people’s 
unseen agendas or motivations generate suspicion and ultimately prevent getting things done. Guarded 
communication, speculation, and disengagement slow productivity and cause frustration. When individuals 
trust each other, and are trusted by others, communication and productivity improve because the focus is 
directed towards team objectives. When the intentions of decision makers are unclear to the company’s 
contributors this develops a lack of trust and diminished employee performance.  
 
Great leaders and great teams lead to great results 
 
Great organizations are created by great leaders.  It takes a special "mind-set, skill-set and tool-set" to develop 
leaders who can expose the talent and capability of their teams.  
 
Creating a culture of excellent performance provides teams with a process where they can align their efforts 
with the objectives of the organisation. By changing the way individuals engage with each other can improve 
the impact of their team's performance. 
 
Coaching is one way of providing a framework to incorporate new habits, gain clarity and purpose, as well as 
enhance leadership skills and produce positive behaviour so that people always operate at a higher level and 
have life skills relevant for today’s 21st century challenges. 
 
Leaders must learn to start a process that will enable their teams to achieve. By changing the way they engage 
their teams they can make dramatic improvements in the impact their teams will have on organisational 
performance and get everyone focused on important issues. They need to use measures and provide direction 
in terms of how to better manage and direct focus to the right issues.  
 
Good writing skills assist in creating efficient and effective business communications and will provide essential 
resource materials. Meeting must be well conducted and used as tools to provide access to information. They 
need to be changed from unproductive sessions into mission-critical advantages. Planning, conducting and 
following up on meetings is essential. 
 
Staff should learn how to apply principles of successful behaviour to the tough issues and decisions they face 
and be better prepared to stand up for themselves, resist peer pressure, become more goal orientated and 
enjoy work as a positive and meaningful experience.  
 
Success rests solidly on the capabilities of those doing the work. There are distractions from co-workers, 
customers, endless voicemails and e-mails, and even worse when staff who are unsure what they should be 

focused on, or how their work contributes to the mission of the company. Each person needs to focus on daily 
priorities, build productive interpersonal relationships, communicate effectively and achieve professional and 
personal results to enable increased productivity coupled with a greater sense of responsibility.  
 
Planning and defining strategies takes time because they need to be more than mediocre. And, the strategies 
need to be acted out. Everyone needs to understand the direction of their company so that opportunities are 
not lost through ineffective use of time. 
 
Components?  To begin with, there is a need for goal clarity with well defined objectives, linked to clear 
success indicators and measurements, as well as ongoing high levels of accountability. Execution capabilities 
must be measured, all staff must be sure of their roles, and each tiny improvement must be guided at 
individual, team and organisational level. They must know if they are winning or not. Highly visible interactive 
supportive channels are imperative. Imagine the power of an organisation where everyone knows the goals 
and how to achieve them with excellence! 
 
“Leadership is communicating to people their worth and potential so clearly that they come to see it in 
themselves.”