2024

July Edition

Welcome to the July edition of A Few Good Things.

With a Charter in place, the accountability for fulfilling it rests solely upon the leadership of the organization.

The next question organizational leaders should be asking as they steward organizations is, “How do we know if we’re fulfilling our Charter?”

To answer that, let’s talk about the dashboard of a car.

Everything on a car’s dashboard is there for a specific reason: the odometer, the gas gauge, the lane departure warning, the engine temperature, the tire pressure sensor, the speedometer, the dreaded check engine light, and so on. Each of those elements regularly measures activity, provides feedback on performance, or indicates the condition of the vehicle.

We go about our daily commutes without thinking about it much, but the dashboard is one of the most important aspects of your vehicle. The dashboard tells you how things are going.

You may know where you’re headed when you get behind the wheel, but without the dashboard, you could be in for a wild ride.

The same is true for an organization.

For a Good Place organization, the way in which leadership knows if they are fulfilling the Charter is through the Key Outcomes and Results (KOR) Dashboard.

The KORs are the operative words from the Charter (Key Outcomes) and their associated units of measure or description (Results). Together, these KORs indicate the fulfillment of the Charter and align the conversation around the areas of the Good Place Organization Operating System. The KORs are put into a dashboard format to tell leaders how things are going. It looks like this:

Elements on the KOR Dashboard include:

• Time (timeframe in which results are recorded, monitored, or achieved)

• Historical Results (what the organization has historically produced)

• Planned Results (utilizing the Stewardship Planning approach)

• Current Results (what is the actual measurement, performance, or condition)

• Status (on track, off track, or cautionary)

• Learn (the root cause(s) of why the system is producing the current results)

• Improve (how to enhance performance or apply corrective action)

The Charter defines the purpose and “charts” the course for the organization. It is essential. But, without a way to actively measure results, gain feedback on performance, or view indicators of conditions that are explicitly linked to its purpose, an organization can lose its way.

The KOR Dashboard is how we stay on course, monitor the organization’s performance, and tell the story of how the organization is fulfilling its Charter.

Managing the KOR Dashboard requires continuous stewardship, improvement, and ongoing planning. This introduces us to the Stewardship Cycle conversation, which we will discuss next month.

In the meantime, if your check engine light is on, don’t ignore it. Get it fixed!

On July 25th, we hosted a webinar to present business leaders with our vision for leading, building, and stewarding a Good Place organization. We were excited by the turnout. Thank you if you were one of the attendees.

If you missed it or want to watch the recording, click here to watch The Why, What, and How of a Good Place Organization.

Earlier this month, I traveled to Cincinnati to attend the 2024 XL Summit and participate in a panel discussion. What a great time celebrating God’s impact in the workplace and the lives of organizational leaders!

Thanks to At Work on Purpose and all those who helped put on the event. We celebrate alongside you in all the Lord is doing to build up Good Places through the marketplace, our organizations, our cities, and beyond!

Chris Young (Good Place Institute), Ryan Shutt (CEO), and Scott Barr (Steward)

Name: Scott Barr

Organization: Southwest Exteriors

Location: San Antonio, TX

What insight can you share about GPI that would benefit other organizational leaders?

Over the years, we’ve experimented with other coaching organizations, operating systems, and models. There is EOS, a great operating system, but it’s not built on a biblical framework. Once I understood the Good Place Organization Operating System (I call it a Kingdom-Operating System), having it be as powerful as it is, and knowing it’s built on a biblical framework, you had me at hello.

How do you see the Good Place Organization Operating System making a difference at Southwest Exteriors?

This powerful tool allows us to live out our unique role in the Kingdom. I believe God has a perfect design for business, just like He does for creation or family. It’s a matter of how we live inside that perfect design. And when we do, we experience joy and pleasure working together to advance His Kingdom. We’re not just flying by the seat of our pants. We have a vision and a plan and the right tools to execute that vision and plan with the Good Place Organization Operating System.

“Eighty-five percent of the reasons for failure are deficiencies in the systems and process rather than the employee. The role of management is to change the process rather than badgering individuals to do better.”           - W. Edwards Demming

Thank you for checking out our newsletter. Our purpose at The Good Place Institute is to help leaders multiply Good Place organizations! If you know anyone who would benefit from this newsletter or The Good Place Institute, I would love for you to share this email! Thank you!

Shalom, my friend!

— Chris Young