The Outstanding Organization: Generate Business Results by Eliminating Chaos and Building the Foundation for Everyday Excellence

2Clarity

More important than the quest for certaintyis the quest for clarity.

—FRANÇOIS GAUTIER

An outpatient imaging center has to clarify physician orders 20 percent of the time and turns away 10 percent of the patients scheduled for CT scans because the patients are unclear about examination preparation. A service organization dispatches technicians with the wrong skill set 40 percent of the time because they are unclear about the customer’s true requirements—and the skill sets of available technicians. A group of five directors at a major pharmaceutical company had no idea that their company had divested itself of its interest in one of its major drugs. A regional director said that he has no idea where his company was heading—and why.