The Journey to Excellence Programme, developed and introduced in 2006, grew out of the lessons learned over the SAFRI HRD Project's years of working with southern African businesses. It introduces entrepreneurs, executives and managers to the use of the EFQM Excellence Model, a cutting-edge management tool, in a user-friendly, goal-oriented manner.

Journey to Excellence workshops - part 1 of the Programme - should be attended by entire management teams. This has proven the most effective way to initiate and anchor the changes necessary to attain significant performance improvements.

During the workshop, participants individually assess the performance excellence of their organisation and identify gaps. In the process they draw the baseline for future comparison, and are able to benchmark their business against others from around the world that use the same or similar excellence models.

In Part 2, generally held in their offices, management teams consolidate their individual assessments into a consensus view of their business/ organisation, identify and prioritise improvement opportunities, and develop improvement activity charters and detailed action plans to address them.

Part 3 of the Journey is the implementation of improvement activities. Though this can be done without external support, experience has highlighted the advantages of implementing action plans within the framework of a mentoring relationship.

The cycle should be repeated on a regular basis - ideally beginning in conjunction with the organization's strategic planning and review process.