Not using RADAR? Missed opportunity!

‘To measure is to know’, the saying goes. True words, because what is the point of setting up management systems if you do not know how effective they are? Which manager does not want to know how the organization is doing and where improvements are needed? Fortunately the EFQM Excellence Model provides us with this practical tool that every organization can use every day: RADAR!

Question your performance
RADAR stands for Results, Approach, Deployment, Assessment and Refinement. As part of the EFQM Excellence Model, RADAR is used by assessors as the scoring mechanism for the EFQM Excellence Award and other recognition or assessment schemes. However RADAR is a tool that can be used by everyone. The RADAR logic provides any organisation, not just the ones in pursuit of sustainable excellence, with a structured approach to question their performance and enable them to make a robust assessment of their ‘degree of excellence’. In other words: it helps organisations to identify possible improvement opportunities.

Illustratie: Ivo van Leeuwen.

Backbone
On high level RADAR states that an organisation needs to determine the results it is aiming to achieve as part of its strategy. It needs to plan and develop an integrated set of sound approaches to deliver the required results both now and in the future and deploy the approaches in a systematic way to ensure their implementation. And last but not least, based on the analyses of the results achieved and on-going learning activities organisations can assess and refine their approaches and deployment.

Opportunity
Any type of organization can integrate these components into their business management system in order to develop a culture of excellence, to create consistency in their management style, to identify good practices, to boost innovation and to improve business results. The advantages are obvious. Not to use RADAR = a missed opportunity!