Six Disciplines for Excellence

Building Small Businesses That Learn, Lead and Last

Author: Gary Harpst

Publisher: Six Disciplines Corporation
Date of Publication: 2004
ISBN: 0974858706
Number of Pages: 265 pages

About the Author

Gary Harpst
Gary Harpst, founder and CEO
of Six Disciplines Corporation,
is the author of Six Disciplines
for Excellence. Harpst, who
was the former co-founder
and CEO of Solomon Software,
grew Solomon to $60 million in
sales before it merged with a
company that was later
acquired by Microsoft in 2001.
Six Disciplines provides a
professional business-building
service, integrating the
methodology described in "Six
Disciplines for Excellence"
with practical Internet
technologies and a nationwide
network of local coaching
organizations, to help small
businesses achieve and
sustain excellence.

The Big Idea

If you are a small business owner, you should aspire for more than
momentary success. Your goal is to push your organization
towards achieving and sustaining excellence. Author Gary Harpst
uses his years of experience with thousands of small businesses to
bring you the six fundamental business disciplines that can help
you achieve enduring excellence.

For more information, visit:

http://www.sixdisciplines.co
m/six_ra/main.asp

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Six Disciplines of Excellence by Gary Harpst

Chapter 1: Excellence
An excellent small business should:
1. Be a learning organization.
2. Strive to be a leader in a chosen area.
3. Have the ability to sustain success.
To be better than the rest, you must:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Be able to rely on a strong leadership team.

Attract and retain good employees.
Have a disciplined approach towards business.
Utilize a strategic use of technology.
Be able to build strong relationships and use it effectively.

You must also be able to hurdle barriers that can prevent you from achieving lasting
excellence. These barriers include having a poorly understood strategy, weak
strategy execution, unchecked organizational entropy, and impractical
implementation methods.

Chapter 2: The Small Business Advantage

A small business owner may experience challenges that may seem daunting but are
nevertheless manageable. The top six issues are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Financial issues.
Customer issues.
Production issues.
People/employee issues.
Limited resources.
Growth management.

The Small Business Advantage

There are several advantages to small businesses. As a small business owner, you
must learn how to use them effectively and aggressively.
They are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Connecting people to purpose.

Effective communication.
Timely decision-making.
Customer intimacy.
Attracting team members.

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Six Disciplines of Excellence by Gary Harpst

Chapter 3: The Six Disciplines Methodology

The six disciplines methodology is a synchronized and systematic approach for
building your business to the point that you can sustain excellence. It is a step-bystep process that brings together key business principles such as strategic planning,
quality management, business process automation, etc.
The Six Disciplines of Excellence are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Decide What's Important.

Set Goals That Lead.
Align Systems.
Work the Plan.
Innovate Purposefully.
Step Back.

Chapter 4: Discipline 1 - Decide Whats Important

Your leadership team must meet and decide annually what the organization's longterm priorities are. You must then ensure that these VFOs (vital few objectives) are
met.
Here are steps you can follow:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Renew mission.
Renew values.
Renew strategic position.
Renew vision.
Define VFOs (financial, customer, production and people).
Agree what to stop.

Chapter 5: Discipline 2 - Set Goals That Lead

After you have decided what is important, it is now time for you to set goals and
initiatives. Remember that the goals you set must be specific and measurable.
Setting goals allow your staff to understand how to pursue your company's VFOs.
Furthermore, goals allow everyone in your organization to focus on the tasks that are
important to your company's success.
Here are steps you can follow when setting goals that lead:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Define measures.
Define targets.
Define initiatives.
Engage the team.

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Six Disciplines of Excellence by Gary Harpst

Chapter 6: Discipline 3 - Align Systems

Your work doesn't end after setting your company's goals. Now that you have the
goals ready, you must be able to take action. You might be surprised to find out that a
lot of companies fail at execution due to their own internal systems and processes.
Although it might be difficult at first, you must be able to master your organization's
systems. Make sure that they are lined up with the company's priorities. If they are
misaligned, set them straight.
Here are the steps you can follow to align your organization's systems:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Identify misalignments.
Align processes.
Align policies.
Align measures.
Align technologies.
Align people.

Chapter 7: Discipline 4 - Work the Plan

Every member of your organization should work towards meeting your
organization's long-term goal. You must, therefore, be able to determine areas of
responsibility for each employee. Your people should be able to develop plans and
take responsibility for executing them. They should also be able to work with others
and manage themselves.
Make sure that each member of your organization prepares an IP (Individual Plan)
quarterly. This way, they are able to monitor their progress. The IP will also serve as
a basis for a status report that should be submitted every week to a specific team
leader.
The key steps are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Define IPs quarterly.

Review IP status report weekly.
Rate IPs quarterly.
Prioritize daily tasks.
Monitor measures regularly.

Chapter 8: Discipline 5 - Innovate Purposefully

Achieving excellence that lasts requires organizations to continuously come up with
new services, new products and new delivery methods. Each day, competition
grows stronger and you must come up with better products and better service. If you
do not do so, your company will be left behind.

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Six Disciplines of Excellence by Gary Harpst

You must be able to channel the creativity of the people in your organization to
contribute to your company's mission and vision. In other words, you must make
sure that innovation is focused only on things that are important to the organization.
Here are the steps you can follow:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Brainstorm.
Conduct 100-Point exercises to help prioritize choices.
Quick ROI analysis.
5-step problem solving.
Champion your ideas.
Recognize contribution.

Chapter 9: Discipline 6 - Step Back

Make it a habit to step back every year to give yourself a broader view of the things
that are going on inside and outside your business. Taking a closer look at the
internal and external factors should make it easier for you to update and improve your
strategies.
The key steps are:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Review externals (competition, industry, technology).

Review internals (goals, measures, stakeholders, etc.)
Recap SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats)
Review individuals.

Chapter 10: Putting It All Together

Is your organization ready to try the Six Disciplines of Excellence methodology?
Here is a checklist you can use to find out:

There is passion for excellence in the organization (particularly among its

leaders).

Leaders know the difference between working in the business and working
on the business. They should be committed to work on it.

Business size is sufficient enough for people to see the difficulties and
challenges that arise through growth.

The leaders are trusted and respected.

respect each other.

The business is stable.

Employees also believe and

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Six Disciplines of Excellence by Gary Harpst

The organization makes effective use of available technology.

The company makes use of outside experts such as accountants, lawyers,

bankers, consultants, etc.

[6 ]
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