Excellence & Right First Time
Process over perfection. What does it look like to pursue Excellence and Right First Time?
Excellence
Excellence. On the surface, an easy word to define: 'the quality of being outstanding and extremely good', but often a challenging word to apply. Alternatively, take a look at the definition for just 'excellent', that is: 'outstanding or extremely good'. Can you spot the difference? Notice how excellent is an achievement or an outcome, whereas excellence is a 'quality'.
This is where the two definitions take a subtle, but crucial divergence. Excellence isn't just an outcome, or an achievement, it's a continual, relentless and sustainable process.
So what does this process look like? Well that depends where you look…
Eddie Jones, who achieved remarkable success as Head Coach of the Japan National Rugby Team, said that the key to their success was the process they took on the training ground every single day1 . Some aspects of this were symbolic, such as wearing their old club t shirts to remind them of the importance of wearing the Japanese national shirt, whilst some were direct, like team quizzes to ensure players understood exactly what was expected of them. All of this gearing towards a steady, consistent process of excellence.
In the workplace, it might mean generating more conversation around wellbeing and workplace flexibility that allows team members to feel excellent, because when they feel excellent, they can pursue excellent work2 . Or maybe, as leadership guru Simon Sinek puts it, leaders need to make more effort to set the tone and create the environment for people to perform at their best3.
Excellence isn't just an outcome, or an achievement, it's a continual, relentless and sustainable process.
Alternatively, and jumping back to the rugby theme for a moment, you might want to observe one of the highest performing sports teams of all time, the New Zealand All Blacks. In the aftermath of one of their many record-breaking games, head coach Steve Hansen 4 stated: 'We're never satisfied with what we've done', not dwelling on their achievement even for a moment, the pursuit of further victories rolled on.
The difficulty is that it's enjoyable to bask in a good achievement. Who doesn’t love to hear feedback such as: ‘well done, that was an excellent achievement’? But what if we switched that piece of feedback to: 'well done, that was an excellent process of achievement'?
If we zoom out from the achievements themselves and instead look at what it took to get there, we see that behind every excellent achievement, is a process of excellence.
Whatever your team or organisation looks like, do you focus on the process of excellence just as much as the outcome?
Right First Time
Let's turn to the second part of this Firstfruits value, Right First Time. Firstly, in striving to get things right first time, the reality is every now and again we will get it wrong, and that is absolutely okay. We're all human! Mistakes and getting things 'wrong first time' are inevitable outcomes, but in acknowledging this, we see how, much like excellence, the focus here is not solely on the outcome, but the motivation behind it.
If you were to focus purely on the outcome, you'd likely be dipping into perfectionism, which is a helpful contrast against right first time. Perfectionism is typically focussed on a target, where you either hit the target or the outcome is considered a failure until the standard has been met. In contrast, whilst a target may still be in place, right first time means that from the outset you are diligent, trying your hardest and taking full responsibility for the outcome whatever it may be.
First and foremost, right first time is about adding value as effectively as possible, but the advantage of this mentality is that when something ends up being unintentionally 'wrong' first time it becomes a lot easier to bounce back from, because (hopefully) there is still a motivation and desire to get it right.
Right first time means that from the outset you are diligent, trying your hardest and taking full responsibility for the outcome whatever it may be.
Values Don’t Stand Alone
Pursuing excellence and right first time are not values in isolation. At Firstfruits we have a number of interdependent values that determine how we work (if you’re not sure what they are then take a look at some of our other blog posts!).
Excellence and right first time requires a focus on process and motivation as well as the outcome. Once everyone is clear on this, it lays a foundation for consistent behaviours and sustainable change which, if done well, leads to continuous improvement over the long term.
If you bring in dynamic behaviours and make space for fun ideas this process becomes more enjoyable and less dauntingly unobtainable.
If you agree on what it means to be right first time, you can be honest and open about whether you achieved that target or not. Questions such as 'did you do your best work?' become constructive and challenging, as opposed to negative and de-motivating.
At Firstfruits, we believe that combining all of these values together is what leads to healthy and sustainable change across the long-term. If unpacking these values has sparked some ideas on how you might include them within your own teams and organisations, then we'd love to chat!
At Firstfruits we have a number of interdependent values that determine how we work.