Derek Medhurst

D&D Excellence articles

D&D Excellence is, formally, no more. However Dave and Derek believe that most of their thinking on the subject of Excellence applies still. This is because they always saw the EFQM Excellence Model primarily as a thinking framework for any organisation, with the fundamental concepts applying consistently. (It is the underlying detail that can potentially change quickly.)

With the D&D website disappearing, Dave agreed that some of our more popular articles and publications from our 20 years working together should be available on Derek's personal site. So here they are.

  • "Thoughts on the definition of Organisational Excellence": a short note with some of our thoughts on the EFQM definition of Excellence. It also shows the alignment between porridge and the Excellence Model!
  • "Self-assessing for Excellence": a brief introduction to understanding your organisation with the EFQM Excellence Model. It was originally written for our good friend David Howard of Management-NewStyle.
  • "How many reasons for not using the EFQM Excellence Model are just excuses?" : a short article giving some typical reasons heard for not using the Model, and our comments about them. Model References are to the 2010 version but we think it all still applies, and have been told independently that our comments are still very valid.
  • ‘Thoughts on Society Results’: we were invited to give a short talk about Society Results in the Excellence Model to a BQF networking group. We just tried to cover some of the theory, and then how it should be driven to improve the organisation, not just satisfy assessors. The document is a mindmap of our thinking covered in the workshop.
  • Society 1898-style: linking with the Society Results point above, read about the Workhouse Piano to see how the Fundamental Concept about “Creating a Sustainable Future” stretches back to the 19th century at least!
  • Excellence Model and Balanced Scorecard alignment: this slide shows one simple alignment between the Model and the Scorecard. We think a key benefit of both tools is encouraging thinking about how results are achieved, and how the organisation's strategy is delivered. The arrows represent the 'Review' for improvement that is appropriate for both. We think the main difference is the timing of use: balanced scorecard is typically used for managing on an ongoing basis, whereas a comprehensive Excellence Model self-assessment is usually carried out annually.