164 NLP AT WORK
THE ELEMENTS OF
EXCELLENCE
❏ A major car manufacturing company encouraged its
employees to invest time in their personal development. It
funded everyone to learn something new on one condition,
that it was not to do with their work. Some people learnt a
new language. Some learnt how to play a musical
instrument. Some took up a new sport or hobby. Whatever
they did, they did because they wanted to. This was a smart
move on the part of the company. What it was doing was
strengthening its employees’ strategies for doing for what
they really wanted (outcome thinking) and for learning. One
of the goals of the organization at this time was to be a
learning organization, in which learning was a fundamental
part of the culture, and the strategy it adopted was a
powerful way of achieving this.
❏ A marketing company decided it would model the way that
the founders of the company brought in new business. Until
this time no one else in the company had the same
consistent level of success in the way they did this.
❏ An IT manufacturing business modeled the way that one of
its leaders successfully negotiated between the different
cultures in the business after a merger.
❏ A building society modeled the way that one of its directors
inspired those who joined the business.The point is that modeling is a very different way of thinking
and working to the past. Giving people in a company the skills
to model is giving them the means of generating ways of
finding solutions to any situation they encounter.The result of much of the modeling that has taken place has
been the discovery of certain patterns of excellence. I offer
this benchmark for excellence with caution. It is not fixed, it
continues to develop. I offer it as a shortcut to excellence
today, but tomorrow who knows?I use the term excellence to mean individuals and
organizations who consistently achieve the goals they set