Operational Excellence

Leaders have a habitual drive to quickly correct errors at the root. Leaders ensure that defects do not get sent down the line and that problems are fixed so they stay fixed. They have incredible attention to detail. They replace good intentions with mechanisms and never rely on "we'll do better next time." They demand that processes exist to serve them; they don't exist to serve processes.

Back to the universal principles

Calibration

Under, just right, over.

Situation	Under	Just Right	Over
A weekly status that is all green	Treats the green boxes as the update. Does not open a single item to see the work behind it.	Samples the two or three items that would hurt next week if they were false, traces those to the actual work, and leaves the rest once the sample holds.	Questions every line until the owner spends the next day rebuilding the status report instead of doing the work.
A teammate says they already checked	Accepts the assurance and never looks at the source they used.	Asks to see the source once, confirms the check was real, and then lets them own the next ones.	Rechecks their work in the room every time. They stop checking themselves because it will be redone anyway.
Approving a purchase	Signs because the amount looks familiar or the requester is trusted. Does not open the quote.	Reads the quote and the alternatives, asks the one or two questions that could change the decision, and then signs or sends it back.	Rebuilds the vendor comparison from scratch and holds the order. The team misses the window they needed the thing for.
A handoff between teams	Accepts the summary email and never opens the docs or code being handed over.	Reads the docs and code their team will need this week, names the gaps that would stall them, and then lets the handoff go.	Rewrites the other team's docs and code before accepting the handoff. Both teams wait on a cleanup that was not in the plan.
A launch checklist	Marks lines done from memory. Does not look at the test results or dashboards behind each item.	Verifies the few items that would hurt customers if they were false, then ships on the rest of the list.	Makes the team rerun every test and walk through every item on the list live, including ones already checked. The launch window closes while the team redoes work that was already finished.
A vendor claim	Repeats the vendor's number in the internal update. Does not compare it to our own records.	Checks the claim against a week of our own records, names any gap, and then decides whether to keep the vendor, push back, or drop them.	Starts an audit of the vendor's whole history before the next call. The renewal or the switch to a new vendor sits while the audit keeps growing.
A message asking for a quick approval	Replies yes without opening the attachment.	Opens the attachment, checks the part that cannot be undone, and answers the same day.	Holds the message overnight to reread the whole thread. The person who needed the approval misses their deadline.
A deadline that slipped	Takes the new date and does not look at what actually stalled.	Traces the slip to the real blocker, names it, and resets only what that blocker requires.	Audits the whole plan from the first task. The team spends the week explaining history instead of clearing the blocker.
The same defect twice	Patches it again and does not ask why the first patch failed.	Fixes the customer impact, then adds the one check that would have caught this cause.	Opens a program to prevent every class of defect and the current one stays open.
A fix with no check	Ships the fix and relies on someone remembering next time.	Adds a small check, a test, or a step in the process that runs without heroics.	Adds a review board for a problem a single automated check would catch.
A process nobody can run twice	Depends on one person who knows the trick.	Writes the process so a second person can run it, and watches them do it once.	Documents every branch until nobody will read it, and the hero remains the process.
Feedback that arrives late	Learns about the defect from a customer weeks after the next batch has shipped.	Puts a signal where the work happens, so the next run can change.	Builds a dashboard nobody checks and calls the mechanism done.
Prevention versus the fix	Only prevents, and the people already hit by the defect are still stuck.	Fixes the people who are stuck now, then spends the next slice on the cause.	Only fixes, and schedules the same incident for next month.
A mechanism that becomes the job	Has no mechanism, only a promise to be more careful.	Adds the smallest mechanism that changes the next occurrence, and leaves it alone if it works.	Keeps adding steps after the defect has stopped, and the process is now the delay.

Sources and essays on this principle.

Blue Origin Work Culture
The published wording of this principle.
blueorigin.com
About Blue Origin
The mission this principle is meant to serve.
blueorigin.com