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OGL 357- Milestone 2

Erica Kovarik

For this project, I am choosing to present my project by creating a cartoon using

Powtoon. I feel that this is the best way to explain to my employers exactly what organizational

assessment is and how we use it within our organization. I personally am the type of person that

learns from watching something, instead of just reading something. I feel that doing a manual

would just not be the best for explaining to my employees what organizational assessment is. In

my presentation, I am going to present them with what organization assessment is and why it is

important. Two different types of models of assessment that can be used. Lastly, I am going to

explain the importance of this within our own organization and how we use it. For this

milestone, I have chosen below the two different models of assessment that I will include in my

Powtoon project. The two I am going to include in my presentation are Shingo and Good-To-

Great models.

The first assessment model I want to introduce to you is Shingo. The Shingo model is

also known as the Shingo Prize. An organization is awarded this when they demonstrate a culture

where principles of operational excellence are deeply embedded into the thinking and behavior

of all leaders, managers and associates. The main focus with the Shingo Model is that it asserts

successful organizational transformation occurs when leaders understand and take personal

responsibility for architecting a deep and abiding culture of continuous improvement. When it

comes to the Shingo model, performance is measured both in terms of business results and the

degree to which business, management, improvement and work systems are driving appropriate

and ideal behavior at all levels (Shingo, p. 1). Leadership is strongly focused on ensuring that

principles of operational excellence are deeply embedded into the culture and regularly assessed
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Erica Kovarik
for improvement. Managers are focused on continuously improving systems to drive behavior

that is closely aligned with the principles of operational excellence. Associates are taking

responsibility for improving not only their work systems but also other systems within their

value stream (Shingo, p. 1). When it comes to scoring the Shingo prize, there are clearly defined

performance measures of behavior. Some of the key measures that are included are stable,

predictable, and mature with positive trends and a few anomalies. An important thing you need

to remember with the Shingo assessment model is the guiding principles. These include cultural

enablers, continuous improvement, enterprise alignment, and results. Each of these principles

play a critical role in enabling an organization’s culture, designing systems for continuous

improvement, aligning principles, behaviors and results across the organization, and achieving a

sustainable culture of excellence.

Within our organization, we find that the Shingo model is something that you need to get

very familiar with because it is something that impacts a company in a positive way. These

principles are something that we strive to use within the organization to stay successful. It is

something that if you use one principle, it will benefit you in one way or another. It will allow

you to be successful and stay successful in an organization.

The second assessment model I want to introduce to you is the Good-to-Great model.

When someone or something reaches the pinnacle of greatness, if you take a look back, they’ve

always been a shining star. However, with those entities that are simply good, they have a more

difficult time of jumping forward into the stratosphere of greatness (Collins, 2001, p. 3). That is

where this model comes to play. Some businesses can be doing very well, but they are at a

standstill. They are not improving, yet they are not declining at well. They are in a good state

within their business plan. But they want to be able to go from that good to great. They want to
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be able to make their company even more successful for the future. That is where you can use

this model to move your company up into a greater position. When you are following this type of

organization assessment model, you have a business structure that you follow in order to be able

to turn the tides for the better in your business. Not every good company which is expected to

flourish into a great company will flourish (Collins, 2001, p. 4). You really have to follow the

model and make sure that you want to make changes. You need to be able to make changes so

you can go from good to great. The successful good to great companies that have used this model

did not focus on how to become that great company; rather, they focused on what to avoid in

order to become great (Collins, 2001, p. 6). One of the biggest factors of this model starts with

leadership within an organization. This is something that really sets up the whole foundation for

being able to transition into that great position. Without the right type of leadership in place, you

could not be able to transition into a great organization.

When it comes to our company, we are always wanting to go from good to great. This

organization assessment model is something that we use to try to make improvements within our

company. One way that we do this is by not having star players as our CEO’s. The majority of

our high management are normal people with a very strong work ethic who have a drive to

succeed at all costs (Collins, 2001, p. 8). This is something that really is important because when

it comes to higher management, they need to be fearless in their dogged determination to succeed

at all cost. When you don’t bring in the star players, you get a better advantage point to going

from good to great. Bringing in normal people to do higher management jobs allows them to

make changes that they have already experienced within the organization. They have the drive to

make changes that need to be changed. This is very important because it allows the company to

take chances and make changes. With this type of leadership, we are able to go from good to
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Erica Kovarik
great. We have really benefited from this type of organization assessment model in many ways,

but this is one of the biggest ones.