Creating a Culture of Winning

As we mentioned last week, among the many mysteries of the universe that exist we find one inexplicable. And, no, this has nothing whatsoever to do with black holes, quantum mechanics, why mass increases to infinity as it approaches the speed of light, the curious attraction people have for Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann (shouldn't a President be intelligent?), the influence the religious right is having on the Republican party, why certain Goldman Sachs executives are not in jail, or why some believe that continued or even greater tax credits for the wealthy will help us dig out of our economic malaise.

Instead, we're perplexed about this mystery of the universe:

The vast majority of organizations -- even those in competitive sectors -- elect not to focus on winning, much less create a culture of winning.

This, despite the fact that:

• Performance at work improves markedly when people are given a chance to compete

• Competition tends to increase significantly one's engagement in and commitment to their job and to their company -- outcomes many companies claim to desire
  

• Most of us love to win

• Top performers and high potential employees typically seek employment in organizations where they can, indeed, win
  

• Nearly all of us want our company to be a winner, to be considered a market leader, to be among the very best, and, critically
  

• Most companies would benefit from a measurable boost in performance -- as would all of us. (Doubt us? Check your latest 401(k) statement and tell us which of the companies you've invested in is performing to your expectations. Are there any?)
  

Which, of course, makes us wonder why remarkably few companies take steps to inspire their people to outperform the competition. And why even fewer discuss winning.

Asked a different way, why don't more companies engage their people in a truly meaningful way to increase performance? Is leadership unaware of the connection between competition and performance improvement? Might leadership not know how to use our very human competitive nature to their best advantage? And/or, is leadership hesitant or even reluctant to allow their organizations to truly compete -- for fear of losing?

Regardless, most companies are missing an absolutely golden opportunity. For whatever reasons -- and we believe it's directly related to leadership's trepidation about allowing true competition to exist within their walls -- most organizations are consciously electing not to use the power of competition. And, as a result, they are putting enhanced employee engagement, increased efficiency, faster time-to-market, improved customer service, elevated quality, and, of course, improved profitability at risk.

Might it be that we've grown comfortable with mediocrity?

We can't afford business as usual. It's time for a change. Our economy demands it. (Again, name one company -- especially the one you work for -- that wouldn't benefit from a significant boost in performance.) It's time to put our competitive juices to work at work. Now is the time to create a culture of winning.

We can show you how to transform your organization into one capable of sustained growth and, potentially, market leadership. We can show you how you can mobilize your people to increase efficiency, reduce costs and elevate service quality. We can show you how to capture the hearts of your employees and inspire them to perform to entirely new levels. We can show you how to develop and deploy metrics to enable real-time, on-the-fly performance gains. We can show you how to win.

Give us an hour. Your people -- and your stockholders -- will be glad you did.