Institutional Transformation

• Overview
  Excellence, Inc.’s (EXI) approach aims to assist dynamic government and quasi-government entities in embracing the three pillars of international best practice in governance. These pillars dictate that modern government should be: (1) citizen-centered, (2) results-focused, and (3) transparent. The roots of these pillars, and of international government best practice, stem from the global trend in which governments are adopting appropriate private sector practices for powerfully effective governance. The EXI Program guides institutions on how to embrace these pillars, adopt a culture of excellence, and achieve certified Center of Excellence status.

  EXI’s Program facilitates transformation that is led from within each partner institution. The approach contains common elements that apply to all organizations, regardless of their individual missions and responsibilities or existing structures. The focus is on finding ways to best utilize an organization’s existing resources. However, by working with multiple institutions and facilitating collaboration and cross-fertilization of ideas and initiatives, the COE approach is an extremely valuable tool for leveraging myriad government and/or donor initiatives.

  A Center of Excellence is an institution recognized for its superior and ongoing operating effectiveness in the business of government. A Center of Excellence understands its role in the greater government structure, and has institutionalized a culture of excellence that is citizen-centered, results-focused, and transparent. Five criteria — the five stars of Excellence certification — represent the functional areas in which an institution is assessed as to its level of accomplishment in the three pillars and, ultimately, in creating an institutional culture of excellence. A five-star Center of Excellence has achieved or surpassed the international standards for best practice in its governing functions.

  

  
  

• Change Guidance
  Excellence, Inc. assists organizations through a process of designing, implementing, and monitoring improvements in the management disciplines of Leadership, People, Processes, Knowledge, and Finances. Fundamental to success is the creation of an Excellence Team at the client institution, consisting of employees who are guided by Excellence, Inc. specialists. The Excellence Team will identify priorities for change and Excellence, Inc. experts will help manage institutional transformation to achieve the desired results.
   

• Benchmarking Assessments
  Excellence, Inc. carries out a benchmarking assessment in each of the five management criteria. These assessments are conducted by EXI's technical specialists together with a counterpart Excellence Team member from the client organization.
  
  The assessment serves multiple purposes, including:

  • gauging the organization against international best practice,
  • identifying the organization’s strengths and weaknesses in a given criteria,
  • training the excellence team members on what the assessor is looking for and why
  • transferring a heightened understanding of the three pillars of international best practice in government
  Excellence, Inc. regards benchmarking assessments as a valuable gap analysis for the organization seeking to achieve excellence.
  
  Excellence, Inc. will present a confidential gap analysis report to the Excellence Team and the leadership of the organization. This report uses the analysis to identify strengths and weakness of the organization and areas of development, thus addressing areas in need of improvement.
   

• Common Interest Forums
  Excellence, Inc.’s common interest forums bring together Excellence Teams from multiple government institutions on a regular basis to discuss performance improvement ideas.
  
  Common interest forums serve multiple purposes, which include:

  1. providing an arena for the cross-fertilization of ideas across organizations
  2. identifying shared opportunities and constraints
  3. prioritizing common institutional strengthening needs
  4. providing support for reform implementation
  5. serving as a learning environment for government best practices
  6. providing a feedback mechanism for decision makers on key areas of macro-level reform (i.e. civil service regulations).
   

• Shared Technical Assistance
  One purpose served by common interest forums in each of the criteria is the identification of shared opportunities and challenges amongst participating institutions. Excellence, Inc. will contract and fund technical assistance that is identified as a priority need of multiple client institutions in one or more criteria. This common approach serves as a valuable means to leverage technical assistance and funding for institutional development.
   

• The Knowledge Base
  Excellence, Inc. maintains an online knowledge base of strategies, best practices, case studies, training materials, templates, and other tools to support Excellence Team members in driving internal reforms. The knowledge base will be accessible by clients to facilitate the transformation process.
   

• Excellence Certification
  The excellence certification process gives an indication of the client’s standing in terms of international best practice standards and the King Abdullah Award Criteria. Once the client organization believes it has met the necessary criteria, it can apply for Excellence Certification in one or more criteria. An assessment will be conducted by Excellence, Inc. assessors to determine the organization’s status.
  
  The assessment will result in either:

  • identification of areas needing further work, and/or
  • authentication as a certified Center of Excellence in one or more of the five criteria and issuance of a certificate.
  The validity of the certificate is for ONE YEAR from date of issuance