You’ve just heard your name announced—it’s the final call. You’re hot, flustered, and got minutes to spare. Everyone else has boarded. A failure to make this flight and you’ll be stranded.

Poor is what we don’t want to happen. A performance level that’s unacceptable—to you and to others.

When defining the EGSP Framework®, most people start with excellent. Because, surely the logic goes, that’s what we’re aiming for. But in reality, most people struggle with defining excellent from the off. They set low expectations, get confused and often run out of ideas.

Instead, we start the journey by defining poor.

  • A missed flight.

  • Catching the wrong flight.

  • Leaving something behind.

  • Losing your passport.

  • Paying twice.

  • Wrong date.

  • Lost baggage.

  • Too much luggage.

Everyone can agree what poor looks like. It could be your current level of performance, or a place you definitely don’t want to go—poor is unacceptable.

When you start with poor, it only takes a few minutes to rattle off a dozen examples.

ACTION 3

Start from here.

What does poor look like?

Revisit your train set and make a list of all the things you consider poor.

Write them down.