In haar boek The Outstanding organizations stelt Karen Martin dat er 3 vaardigheden van die kenmerkend zijn voor 'buitengewone' organisaties:
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Excellente probleemoplossers
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Continu verbeterend
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Vasthoudend
Over 'continu verbeteren' schrijft Martin het volgende:
Continuous improvement
Continuous improvement builts on the core capability of problem solving, but the motivation for and the 'spirit' around building this capability digs further into the culture of the organization. Solving problems is primarily about maintaining performance, and there's no way you can achieve consistency without it. But even with the best problem solving you can still be consistently mediocre. Continuous improvement is about raising the bar of performance another step towards excellence.
True continuous improvement isn't haphazard. It's not about a project here or there to improve some aspect of operations. Continuous improvement is a mindset and a culture that is always - every employee, every day - looking for opportunities to do the job better, even when the organization is performing at the highest level it ever has. Outstanding organizations don't work on improvement when it is convenient and stop when things get 'too busy'.
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Outstanding organizations do the same; they dedicate significant chuncks of time to working on the business, not just in the business.
