//How to make everyone a S.T.A.R.

How to make everyone a S.T.A.R.

2018-06-14T18:58:38+00:00

Think about the power of what can happen when everyone in your organization is Straightforward, Thoughtful, Accountable, and Resolved (STAR).

Quality & Me

Subir shares short stories about what people do to make a difference everywhere they go. We can make huge contributions to the way we function as a society by standing out as an example within our own community: at work, at our places of worship, among our colleagues, friends, and family. All it takes is the courage to step up and being straightforward, thoughtful, accountable, and resilient.

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Books by Subir

The Power of LEO
The Ice Cream Maker
The Power of Design for Six
The Power of Six Sigma
Organization 21c

Books read by Subir

Imagine the following scenario: Two companies are the same size in terms of organizational structure.

They have similar revenues, production facilities, and numbers of employees.

They are both in the same industry.

They have both implemented the same processes.

Yet, they each had vastly different results.

One company – let’s refer to them as Company A – had a return that equaled 5 times the cost of their investment in the program.

Not bad, right?

But the other company – we’ll refer to them as Company B – had a return that equaled 100 times the cost of their investment!

You heard me right—100 times!

It’s a true story. I know, because both companies were clients of my firm. Both companies got a return on their investment, but I still felt both frustrated and perplexed that Company B had done so much better.

The reason for the difference kept puzzling me—why would one company do so much better using the same processes?

I’ve helped some of the world’s best-known brands improve the way they do business, save billions of dollars, and increase their profits and revenues. I needed to know what was behind such a huge variation.

After studying the two organizations more, the answer finally became apparent to me: people.

The people at Company B had a workforce exhibited what I describe as STAR attributes: they empowered all their employees from the factory floor to the office of the CEO, to be straightforward about solving problems, thoughtful about how they treat each other, accountable to themselves and others, and resilient in solving problems and facing challenges.

Think about the power of what can happen when everyone in your organization is a STAR.

Don’t be afraid of the truth

Encourage everyone – and I mean everyone – to be straightforward, to tell the truth, and to not be afraid. Without being straightforward, you can never make a difference.

Impact of Quality of Learning

Is it culture, the weather, geography? Perhaps ignorance of what the right policies are? Simply, no. None of these factors is either definitive or destiny. Otherwise, how to explain why Botswana has become one of the fastest growing countries in the world, while other African nations, such as Zimbabwe, the Congo, and Sierra Leone, are mired in poverty and violence?

How will you embrace the truth?

A friend communicated a story to me about Alan Mulally, the former CEO of Ford. When Mulally first joined the organization, he gathered his senior management team together to identify what needed to change at Ford. In a nutshell, Mulally asked his team to color code their initiatives red, yellow, or green. Red meant things were in bad shape—for example, a launch date might be missed. Yellow meant an initiative wasn’t going well, and green meant the initiative was on track.

Frances Hesselbein Medal for Excellence in Leadership and Service

Is it culture, the weather, geography? Perhaps ignorance of what the right policies are? Simply, no. None of these factors is either definitive or destiny. Otherwise, how to explain why Botswana has become one of the fastest growing countries in the world, while other African nations, such as Zimbabwe, the Congo, and Sierra Leone, are mired in poverty and violence?