The Departmental toolbox.
Alcoholics Anonymous is well-known for its 12 step program to help members overcome addictive habits. Here are 10 steps or tools to aid the department struggling with an addiction to mediocrity:

1. Reinstate accountability with product reviews by the producing employee. The very act of presenting one’s work to fellow coworkers changes output. Most of us do not enjoy looking foolish.
2. Continuously improve your processes as much as you like but make sure that you measure the product.
3. Clarify objectives and attach incentives to clearly defined measures. Be very careful though with tasks that are difficult to quantify (quality teaching....)
4. Beware the latest methodology. The IT quick fix oft takes the form of the latest methodology or tool promising productivity gains. Tools that add structure and rigor may also be covering up inadequate analysis, poor project management skills, and incompetence.
5. Corollary to the above: beware of becoming a rule bound company. Rules may be a substitute for good judgment and sound practice. Organizations driven by rules tend to exhibit reduced flexibility and creativity. Federal regulation has also shown that rules are often captured by the regulated ( the trucking industry....)
6. Quality inputs are important - Diamonds are formed from coal but I still can’t make gold out of lead. Hire lead, and you will have lead.
7. A little ambiguity is acceptable. An eye opener for me was that I once developed a system to provide students immediate feedback on grades and course standing. The expectation was that all grades would improve.
   What we found was that the d+ often improved to a C but a B+ often dropped to a B -. Why? The students were satisficing not optimizing. Their goals was to obtain a B or C in the course, not an A ... that was my goal for them, not theirs. Employees are the same, and can benefit from a little uncertainty.
8. Stop allowing others to leave their problems on your doorstep. Learn to recognize when someone is transferring his or her decision to you. Both young and seasoned individuals can fall into this trap to shift the responsibility to others to avoid accountability.
9. Exercise Management discipline. Many IT systems fail to deliver promised benefits not because the system was mediocre but because management discipline was not exercised. When a promised benefit is to reduce clerical costs… then clerks must be reassigned or terminated.
10. Technical individuals often have a high growth need (the love of new technology) vs. high social need. Sometimes their communications skills are not as developed as in other corporate areas.

    Foster the concept that yes we can do that, and here is the real cost. Do not foster environments where individuals are afraid to state the truth. The latter leads to underestimating costs and overestimating benefits.

    The Law of Three (Page 4)