What price excellence?

Achieving excellence in the private sector can and often does bring rewards; the opportunity to charge a premium for your product, to sell more or build a market advantage. For the individuals involved it can mean a monetary reward in addition to the recognition of a job well done. But it is not so everywhere...

For some in the public sector, achieving excellence is to attract attention that is not wholly welcome (some particularly close scrutiny for example) and presents greater difficulty in the future to demonstrate the incremental improvements that are the staple sign of good performance. For the individuals involved it probably does not bring greater remuneration but, almost undoubtedly, triggers additional work as people flood in to see how it was achieved.

People working in the public sector are generally more motivated by the benefits they produce for others than the financial return for themselves. Therefore to motivate these people to produce excellence we must, as a minimum, value the impact of their work on others and reduce the cost they pay for having produced this benefit.