Why do some organizations succeed in their journey to institutional excellence while others stumble? There’s no dispute over the basic components of institutional excellence standards, indicators, and tools that are similar even if their sources differ. For example, the basic criteria for the King Abdulaziz Quality Award have counterparts in the European Excellence Award (EFQM). However, what differs are some other factors that determine success and failure. Here we review seven fundamental pillars that play an important role in the success and sustainability of projects to build an institutional excellence system:
The First Pillar: Shared Vision (One Team.. One Goal).
The leader is the mind and beating heart of the organization, and their role is confirmed in ensuring that their enthusiasm aligns with the enthusiasm and belief of all employees at all levels in the importance of building an excellence system. They carry the same passion and determination to achieve a clear goal, aware of their roles in achievement, convinced that everyone is a winner and beneficiary, and this is the role of leadership. Among the reinforcements of this are involving them in decision-making, as there is no doubt that differences in path and passion, divergence of stakeholders’ goals, or lack of interest from some can disperse efforts and threaten the entire project.
The Second Pillar: Clear Language (Address people according to their understanding).
The Irish philosopher “Edmund Burke” says (When you fear something, learn as much as you can about it, for knowledge conquers fear). Understanding is the key to knowledge, and humans are enemies of what they don’t know. The clearer and simpler the requirement is, in a language that the average understanding can comprehend, the more it leads to reassurance and responsiveness, even motivation. It’s necessary to clarify the big picture of the quality system, simplify its tools, and make them accessible to everyone to fulfill requirements in the easiest and clearest ways.
The Third Pillar: Credibility and Integrity of Purpose
Credibility and sustainable excellence are necessarily intertwined. The success of organizations depends on the credibility of their goal and their honest behavior to achieve it, not just pretending to do so. In early 2023, Harvard University announced the sudden withdrawal of its prestigious medical school from the famous international university ranking U.S. News, due to observations including doubts about credibility. Notably, the school had been at the top of that ranking for many years. This is the behavior of successful organizations that care about their reputation and respect their clients. Among the aspects of credibility are transparency and accountability, which grant trust and promote continuous improvement.
The Fourth Pillar: Institutional Work
It is necessary for the project of building an excellence system to be an institutional strategy and not an individual initiative whose continuation is linked to the presence of a person/persons and ends with their departure. It is also necessary to integrate the activities of the excellence system into the daily routine administrative processes of the organization, and not to be an extra protrusion in the fabric of its work, for chaos does not create success.
The Fifth Pillar: Investing in Technology
Technology is the language of the age and its present and future playground, not only to save time and effort and ensure the accuracy of information and enhance credibility and transparency; but also to invest in the amazing expansion of technology represented by artificial intelligence. One study indicates that the introduction of technology reduced the duration of process completion by up to 60% while reducing the error rate by 50%. The application of AI chatbots has also resulted in a 70% improvement in customer response time.
The Sixth Pillar: Change Management
Resistance to change is an inevitable fate, which requires wisdom in dealing optimally to absorb and address resistances, which is provided by change management methodologies that have proven their profound impact in improving quality and reducing waste by percentages that may reach fifty percent, in fact, one study indicated that good application of change management methodology doubles productivity up to sixty percent. There are multiple models of change management, all of which help organizations strengthen supports and analyze challenges (resistances) for the purpose of addressing them. The larger the size of the organization, the greater the need for change management.
The Seventh Pillar: Motivation and Inspiring Determination
Positive competition is a creative motivator that breathes life into the body of any organization. One of the proven practices for smart motivation is distributing shared tasks (such as measuring performance indicators) across more than one sector/department to encourage competition in achievement and then recognizing the distinguished ones. Another example of creative motivation is establishing an institutional excellence award that includes branches for individuals and administrative units, with winners honored periodically in the presence of the top management.
In conclusion, all the aforementioned motivators begin and end with the major guiding role of leadership in achieving success. The leader must be skilled and competent enough to convince everyone of the importance and feasibility of excellence, and how it can be achieved in a smooth and enjoyable way. The leader of the organization here is like a teacher with their students. Dr. Ghazi Al-Gosaibi says, “The subject cannot be useful unless it is interesting, and it cannot be interesting unless it is simplified, and it cannot be useful, interesting, and simplified unless the teacher exerts multiple times the effort that the student exerts”.