(From: Alive and Well, by David Wayne, Improvement Science Advisor and Senior Partner, Corpus Optima)

LIKE A FINELY TUNED ATHLETE, optimum fitness (superperformance) comes from measurably understanding the current state of fitness of an organization, monitoring its vital signs, and implementing various improvement strategies to bring about a change in the system’s overall health (its fitness; Guerra, 2005). This requires a way of distinguishing between first- and second order changes to the system, an operational definition for what constitutes an improvement, and the use of a reliable performance improvement method.