Giving thanks for performance problems
In the United States we are in the season of giving thanks.
Today I want to suggest giving thanks for performance problems. Seriously? Did she just say that?
Yes, I did.
Olympian Gold Medal Performance Chains
"Citius! Altius! Fortius!" (Faster! Higher! Stronger!), the Olympic Motto chosen by the founder of the modern Games, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, defines not only great athletes, but also great performance chains.
An interview with photographer, Dianne Ekberg Arnold
The photographs, Cheetah Gaze at the start of ROAR Chapter 3: Speed, and Watering Hole Trio that leads into Chapter 4: Predictability, are the work of Dianne Ekberg Arnold.
Dianne is a nature and travel photographer. That said, she’ll happily point her camera at people or architecture. Dianne has long carried a camera to record life around her. The digital age inspired her to combine her love of technology and photography to seriously pursue a life-long interest. She lives in St Paul, MN, and San Diego, CA, and shoots world-wide. See some of her work or contact her at www.diannepix.com.
How did you get started in photography?
I’ve always had a point & shoot camera. Whenever we had family events, I was always sticking my camera in people’s faces – most often (and much to the annoyance of) my children. The shift from analog to digital started to emerge about the same time I got interested in genealogy. For genealogy research, photographs become really important.
What can a cheetah teach your organization about applying speed to an opportunity?
A cheetah is designed for speed from the tip of its head to the pads of each paw to the length of its tail. Everything about a cheetah is designed to support takeoff and acceleration. Is your operation designed for speed? If it was originally, have decisions over time made it more capable of increasing velocity or less? If speed – the ability to move processes, production and fulfillment along at increasing rates – is essential to your value proposition and competitive strength, then understanding whether you’re actually designed for speed is the place to start.
What can the animal world teach us about speed, predictability, flexibility and leverage?
In the animal world, the food chain is the most critical driving force. In the business world, it’s the performance chain – defined as all the tangible and intangible elements that have to move from the moment you trigger demand until you have cash in the bank; all the ins and outs that have to work together and align to your target customer experience to drive the outcomes you want.
