Harry Paul - Who Kidnapped Excellence?: What Stops Us from Giving and Being Our Best

Who Kidnapped Excellence?

What Stops Us From Giving and Being Our Best

HARRY PAUL
JOHN BRITT
ED JENT

Who Kidnapped Excellence?

Copyright 2014 by Harry Paul, John Britt, and Ed Jent
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First Edition
Hardcover print edition ISBN 978-1-62656-087-1
PDF e-book ISBN 978-1-62656-088-8
IDPF e-book ISBN 978-1-62656-089-5

2013-1

Interior design/art: Laura Lind Design. Editor: Elissa Rabellino. Cover design: Irene Morris Design. Proofreader: Henri Bensussen. Production service: Linda Jupiter Productions.

To Jack Paul

My father, he lived life with zest.

HARRY PAUL

To Freda C. Embry,

My second mother

JOHN BRITT

To Patricia Jent

My beautiful wife,

who is not only a great encourager

but a source of inspiration.

You are the best!

ED JENT

Im a Raving Fan of John Britt and Harry Paul. I was one of the coauthors with John of Who Killed Change? and wrote the foreword to FISH!, which Harry coauthored. They are two of the most creative people I know.

As you read Who Kidnapped Excellence?, you soon find out that John, Harry, and Ed Jent exemplify the concept that one plus one is a lot greater than two. Their creativity will immediately come alive for you in this parable in which Gorman-Scott Inc.s team of Passion, Competency, Flexibility, Communication, and Ownership must battle Averages team of N. Different, N. Ept, N. Flexibility, Miss Communiction, and Poser to win back their Excellence. You will see why the same battle must be fought not only at your workplace but also at home with your family.

Read Who Kidnapped Excellence? Share it with everybody at work and at home, enjoy the story, and be ready to practice what you learn about yourself and how you can continually bring excellence into your life and the organizations to which you belong.

Ed Jent, who has a background in ministry of education, joins John and Harry and adds a distinct flavor to this book. Thanks, John, Harry, and Ed. Youre the best.

Ken Blanchard

Coauthor, The One Minute Manager and
Fit at Last: Look and Feel Better Once and for All

Who Kidnapped Excellence? What Stops Us From Giving and Being Our Best is written for YOU! Whether you are a frontline employee, supervisor, manager, CEO, mother, father, or spouse, this book has a personal message for you. It is intended for people to use both in their organizational roles and in their personal lives.

In Who Kidnapped Excellence?, Excellence gets kidnapped at Gorman-Scott Inc. and is replaced by Average, who is a makeup artist. Interestingly, months go by before Leadership recognizes the change. A ransom note left on the conference room table is the impetus that sets Leadership in motion to get their Excellence back. Leadership enlists Excellences team (Passion, Competency, Flexibility, Communication, and Ownership) in the quest.

But Average is not easily thwarted. He assembles his own team (N. Different, N. Competency, N. Flexibility, Miss Communication, and Poser), who dig in their heels and use all their cunning powers of deception to keep Excellence from returning and to keep Performance falling.

CAST OF CHARACTERS

As this organizational good-versus-evil confrontation unfolds, Dave, the long-standing deliveryman for Gorman-Scott Inc., comes face-to-face with Average in his personal life. The stories of Dave and the organization intertwine in their common challenges: first, they need to fully recognize the presence of Average, and then they need to return Excellence to her rightful place.

In the Resources section, Dave offers practical advice to help others gain and maintain excellence in their personal lives and their work. The last section, People and Companies Who Get It, offers insight into people and companies who demonstrate excellence.

Most companies talk about excellence on a routine basis. Yet we do so without a common definition. How do we define excellence? When we began this book, we initially identified many qualities of excellence. However, over the course of two and a half years, we whittled the number down to five. This was no easy task. As we examined these qualities, we realized that many of the traits were actually a subset of one of the five core qualities.

Now we believe we have identified those core qualities/elements of excellence. Additionally, we believe that in this book we have created a common language that more accurately defines and explains the concept of excellence. We do not assert that these are the only aspects of excellence, but we do contend that if one can attend to these five core elements consistently, one has, in earnest, begun the journey toward excellence.

Storytelling can be an entertaining and powerful way of presenting new information or reinforcing what has been learned. Therefore, we chose to personify as characters the qualities of Excellence and Average, along with their respective teams, using narrative to tell the story about the elusive yet attainable quality of excellence. We believe that this creates a unique and interesting format to best explain how to restore excellence and remove the barriers that stop us from giving and getting our best. However, this style of narration presents a challenge for the reader in differentiating the personified traits that represent Excellence from the ways in which the words are used in normal, everyday conversation. To help with this, we have capitalized the