Lifting productivity is the art of delivering more output or a higher quality output, for a given level of input cost. Under the Bevington approach productivity improvement is part of a continuous improvement journey with strong and quantified milestones. To lift organisational productivity we deploy approaches which address:

• Strategic clarity;
• Targets;
• Organisational culture;
• Process effectiveness;
• Organisational design - structure and the distribution of tasks and activities;
• Supporting infrastructure - physical, technological, and human infrastructure;
• Continuous improvement methods deployed (or absent);
• Measures of productivity, quality, organisational health, and progress on a change journey;
• Capability development - recruit, train, inspire, retain.

Operational Excellence is closely associated with productivity improvement. It is a way of thinking, measuring and managing used to deliver rapid performance improvement. Operational Excellence is often critical in process reengineering assignments but can deliver very significant performance improvements on a stand-alone basis.

In order to understand the extent to which an organisation has an Operational Excellence paradigm we ask a range of questions, including:

• Do your managers and staff understand exactly what they have to do to contribute to organisational performance?
• Do your teams use measures as a key means to drive performance?
• Are the critical measures visible and easily understood?
• Are there a clear set of targets?
• Do your teams understand why the targets are important?
• Are your teams committed to achieving those targets?
• Is performance improvement approached in a structured and rigorous manner?
• Are there frequent and well structured meetings to review performance?
• Do your teams refuse to accept mediocre performance?
• Are your managers equipped with the psychological tools to lead the team to outstanding performance?