1.

STARS
How to create, attract and retain good leaders, managers and sustain a motivated and dedicated workforce? In many enterprises, this is a challenge. Great people are in high demand. Customers demand quality solutions and quick response. The world's best enterprises have a culture in which people enjoy their work and constantly seek ways to make it even better. They love to excel in their jobs and in their life. Understanding and creating the right culture isn't simple. It is a combination of enterprise vision and mission, leadership, how people are treated and treat others (not just human resources but human involvement), and how teams and organization of an enterprise operate. It is expressed through the values, norms and expected behaviors of its people. It can vary widely in similar businesses, mirror aspects of national cultures, and is rarely well understood or managed. STARS is a methodology that focuses on a humanistic approach to leadership and management in enterprises. It bridges the gap between hard management science and soft people skills. STARS creates a culture of motivated people using right-sized processes and supportive products. The STARS concepts and methods cover:

Personal approach to quality and performance. Teamwork and high performance teams. Company culture and enterprise excellence. Improvement. Creativity and innovation. Systems and systems thinking. Customer orientation. Environment. Doing the job right. Doing the right job!

The STARS methodology uses an open approach. You will find public contributions throughout this web site, including the STARS Knowledge Caf pages, where you are welcome to download the results of the Cafs and use them to help you in your quest to improve your leadership and management skills. STARS combines enterprise and personal views into one coherent synergy. STARS has strong practical application based on the People-Process-Product model. It has been refined with the input of hundreds of people who have attended the STARS workshops and Cafs. STARS is not just a concept but a real, practical way to improve leadership and management and personal performance.

2. Information License

This page and other STARS, People-Process-Product and PDCA related pages are published under GNU Free Document license provisions. You are free to copy and distribute the information on these pages so long that authorship/copyright is acknowledged and the material is not altered or misrepresented.

STARS and the Caf for knowledge sharing and enhancement

A STARS Knowledge Caf event combines networking with sociable knowledge sharing and discussion in a caf atmosphere. Participants are seated in a caf style arrangement of 4 to 6 people per table. The caf conversation focuses on the selected topic. The caf approach and the event topic are introduced by the event moderator Han van Loon. The moderator provides several discussion start points (Trigger words). Each participant discusses aspects of the topic that are important to him/her. Participants are able to write, draw or sketch pictures and other information on paper sheets covering each table. There are several rounds of conversation, each takes 15 minutes. A table host notes the most important aspects discovered and discussed at each table. Participants can choose to be "travelers" and change tables each round. At the end of the rounds, the people at each table provide a summary to all participants of the most interesting and relevant points covered. The event results in not just one viewpoint (that of the moderator) but a range of viewpoints based on the input of all participants.

3. Advanced Process Engineering

Advanced process engineering is the discipline of creating and improving processes to produce desired outcomes in conjunction with people and products (see the People-ProcessProduct model for more on holistic improvement). The desired outcomes are defined in terms of VALUE, in Lean this is termed a value proposition which meets the customer/stakeholder needs and expectations. Advanced process engineering needs to not only consider VALUE but also consider RISK. Most existing methods recognize that risks need to be identified and managed but until now there has been no rigorous method to associate risk with process capability. Practical Process Profiles provide a methodology to make this association, so that a process is engineered to reduce risk and increase the probability to achieve the value proposition.

4. Practical Process Profiles and Risk Reduction

ISO/IEC 15504 has two purposes: process improvement and capability determination. In part 4 of the standard, the use for capability determination specifies the use of Capability Target Profiles. These consist of a set of processes with each process have a specified capability level (CL). The best way to set these capability levels is to investigate which processes have the biggest effect on achieving a desired target. This is achievable by two means - positive achievement of desired outcomes (value creation) and problem avoidance (risk reduction). The combination of the two approaches is called Practical Process Profiles. It is practical because it focuses attention on the specific processes that have the greatest impact of achieving the desired aims (e.g. safety, time to market, etc..) for a domain (e.g. automotive, aerospace, etc..). It can set targets for each process based upon both risk reduction and value creation. Producing products, systems and software entails certain risks. Risks that occur become problems that require extra effort, reduce productivity, value creation and profitability, and can even cause business failures. Leistungs Consult has created a methodology for teams, enterprises and industries that reduces risk through Practical Process Profiles and process optimisation. Reducing the risk means that less time is spent fixing problems and more time is spent profitably producing products (e.g. software) for value creation (value streams).

For projects, this is called TBBDI Risk - Team Based Business Design Improvement Risk. For companies, this is called EBBDI - Enterprise Based Business Design Improvement. For an industry or association, this is called IBBDI - Industry Based Business Design Improvement, for example, Automotive (& Automotive SPICE), Medical, Aerospace, and Financial industries.

Benefits The TBBDI Risk, EBBDI and IBBDI methodologies have the following benefits:

Practical Process Profiles that increase process (and hence business) efficiency.

Reduce process related risks. Handle safety, security and other industry specific risks. Superior to existing target profile approaches in process and assessment standards while still compatible with CMMI and ISO15504 (SPICE). Reduce number of processes required to achieve business aims (value creation and Lean compatible). Process improvement and optimisation activity can be based on industry, enterprise and project specific risk reduction. Each level brings particular benefits such as standardisation, competitive advantage, project efficiency. Profiles can jointly highlight and prioritize value creation and risk reduction.

We provide training and consulting to allow you to benefit in optimising your business. A certification scheme is currently being planned. To read more, download the white paper. Courses with iSQI. There is an article on Practical Process Profiles in IEEE ITPro - November/December 2007. I am technical editor for work on a new part 9 to the ISO/IEC 15504 standard which covers the requirements for Target Process Profiles. As a result of sponsoring the work on the standard, the Practical Process Profile methodology will be fully compatible with the new standard.

5. Agile project management and software development

Introduction to agile project management and agile software development. This one day course introduces the most common agile methods and compares their advantages and disadvantages with 'traditional' methods.

Comparing Software Development Projects Characteristics of traditional methods Characteristics of agile methods Selection of the most appropriate agile method: Crystal, FDD, DSDM, XP Extreme Programming (XP) practices and examples Use of Stories Agile Project Management: SCRUM and other Agile project methods SCRUM Sprints and Stories

Participants perform several exercises in teams using the agile repetitive practice approach. The course can be tailored to suit individual corporate client needs. There is also a two day course where more extensive practical exercises are performed. Coaching in agile methods is also available. Coaching is a critical success factor in forming and improving agile development teams.

6. Coaching for Results

Coaching is a good method for hands on learning and improving existing practices. Coaching helps projects succeed.

Better results, fewer problems, shorter time Better learning of new methods and practices Better and more effective work practices - do the right thing at the right time Get rid of wasteful practices and processes Better estimation and short term planning when using agile methods Better teamwork Better individual work and better motivation Easy initial improvements lead to early benefit and the ability to make further improvements Your current and next projects will be better and at the same time cheaper if agile

Coaching provides just-in-time training. It can be used by itself to learn better methods and practices in a way that matches your needs. It can also show how to implement the concepts described in workshops. It can tailor general methods to specific uses. No two people work exactly the same, no two projects are exactly the same. A good coach will give you what you need when you need it (a lean thinking approach). You will learn and use new methods, and coaching will make sure you do it right the first time. Coaching will answer your questions when you ask them. We perform coaching for individuals and small teams. We have coached in software development using a variety of methods including agile methods, in service delivery, Information Technology management, project management, quality and process management. We guarantee satisfaction. We charge a flat rate per day, all expenses included.

7. Lean and the Toyota Production System

In the mid 1990s I had the opportunity to visit the Toyota Motor Corporation in the town of Toyota between T to see my car being built and to talk to various personnel about their engineering and production methods.

Having previously worked part time as a engineering student at an automotive plant in Australia, there were m between Toyota and the Australian car maker. Today many of the methods and techniques used by Toyota in Production System have been copied, but at that time the differences were eye opening! What impressed me m techniques such as JIT-Kanban, Poka Yokes, 5S and statistical process control charts (impressive as they are! the corporate culture allowed the teams to act to solve problems and the use of Keiretsu. Each workstation (ca Lean) in the assembly halls had a large red light and 'stop' button to activate it. When the workstation team en problem, they could halt the assembly line, form a quality circle to solve the problem and provide rapid feedback/improvements. I was lucky enough to see such an event occur. This people aspect of the Toyota Pro (see the People-Process-Product model for more on holistic approaches to quality and improvement) has been differentiator to how many companies implement Lean Manufacturing. This ability of the workers at Toyota to solve problems was in stark contrast to my earlier visit at a large commercial aircraft manufacturer, where regularly passed from workstation to workstation and eventually had to be solved by the airline inspection tea

delivery tarmac. Toyota involved suppliers in their production approach, forming true partnerships in a Keire using pure cost driven purchasing and contracting. The aim is reduce waste and share improvement and profi

The empowerment of the people doing the work is emphasized in Lean, but the reality is that production sche organization hierarchies still have a tendency to work against this critical principle. This situation has improv automotive manufacturers in Germany that I have seen in the past decade. Sometimes this lean culture has flo tier suppliers and their suppliers, but it is not always apparent due to myopic purchasing people who do not u benefits of lean methods and stick to cost based purchasing. There is still room for much improvement.

8 Lean

Lean is one form of quality management (for more on quality management, readers should visit the Quality M created or my similar work on the topic in Wikipedia). It is a growing set of disciplines and has grown to embrace several components: 1. Lean Manufacturing 2. Lean Thinking 3. Lean Engineering

Lean Manufacturing is the original translation of the Toyota Production System. It embodies most of the majo with an emphasis on optimizing process flow, pull orientation and reducing waste. The original seven types o

Defects Inventory, whether work-in-progress, waiting components and finished product not being processed Moving products when not required to perform the processing Movement of people or equipment more than required Waiting for the next production step (a large waste item) Overproduction leading to inventory Over or extra processing due to poor design or tools

There are many techniques in Lean, including:

Just In Time (JIT): is an inventory strategy implemented to reduce in-process inventory by means of a (Kanban or similar). Kaizen is a Japanese philosophy that focuses on continuous improvement. 5S - Seiri (Sorting): Sort all tools, materials, etc., to keep only essential items. Sotre or discard the res appropraite. Seiton (Set in Order): Arrange the tools, equipment and parts to optimize work flow. Seis keep the workplace clean and neat so that other waste is obvious. Seiketsu (Standardizing): Standardiz practices. Shitsuke (Sustaining): Maintain and review standards to maintain the focus on this new wa Poka-yoke is a Japanese term that means mistake-proofing to avoid inadvertent errors. This can be a p floppy disc) or behaviour shaping constraint so that an operation can only be performed correctly. Autonomation describes a feature of machine design to implement automation with a human touch. T automation implements some supervisory functions rather than production functions. Single Minute Exchange of Die (SMED) focuses on providing a rapid and efficient way to convert a m process from the current product to the next product. Fixed Repeating Schedule is a production schedule which is repeated perhaps daily or over a longer p fortnight.

Genchi Genbutsu means to go and see for yourself. The aim is to see a process in action so that proble context and improvements are simpler and more appropraite. The "5 Whys?" a question-asking method to determine the cause/effect relationships underlying a par asking why to create deeper levels of understanding. Gemba - visiting the actual place of work (or scene of the crime :-)

Lean Thinking is in essence a distillation of how Lean Manufacturing was created. Readers may wish to look stage in STARS for more on thinking and the process optimisation page. One of the techniques used is Value (based upon earlier work with Value Chains). This looks not just at the processes but also aspects such as wai waste in a value stream with the aim to eliminate it. One of the more recent extensions to this is Value Netwo is not yet a mainstream Lean technique (and encompasses more than just value streams, building upon aspect knowledge frameworks and social networking analysis). For software engineering and systems engineering, P Profiles methodology provides a Lean Thinking application to process optimization.

Lean Engineering is the application of Lean thinking into the engineering and design disciplines. Much work engineering has occurred in the lean aerospace initiative (and the Lean Advancement Initiative). There is also initiative in systems engineering being promoted through INCOSE in the Lean Enablers working group.

9. Process Optimisation
An important aspect of business excellence is process optimisation. We have decades of experience in process engineering with the aim to optimise business processes. This includes coverage of businesses in financial, transport, aerospace, defence, insurance, IT and software development sectors. We have decades of experience with ISO 9001 conformant quality systems. ISO 9001 provides a solid basis for quality. However, we recommend optimising business processes at a higher level of process capability than ISO 9001. In general, as processes are optimised at higher levels, the number of problems are reduced. So instead of spending costly time and effort fixing problems, we recommend creating processes that reduce errors (using lean thinking). That way, you spend more time adding value and increasing profitability, instead of fixing problems and creating dissatisfied customers. In general we prefer to optimise process capability. We use the world-wide standards. We prefer to use a Design first approach called Team Based Business Design Improvement TBBDI. It uses an optimisation tailoring approach called Business Process Mapping BPM. TBBDI handles aspects such as Lean and Statistical Process Control. The biggest advantage of TBBDI is that it helps motivate people to achieve the desired level of improved process capability, without subjecting them to assessment until they have used the improved process for some time. If needed due to customer demand, we can use the Assess first approach. We perform a standards conformant assessment followed by an improvement planning workshop. This is useful when the organization does not have a good idea of its process capability or its desired performance level. We coach process practitioners and can perform process engineering and improvement as part of a client team. We have experience with working at the highest levels of process capability, so we can provide our clients with real practical advice to achieve the highest levels of process optimisation (Capability Level 5 in the ISO15504 scale). We believe working at these levels can help reduce problems and eliminate processes created to correct

problems (waste processes). See Practical Process Profiles for the most advanced way to set process optimisation targets. Our results can also be assessed using ISO 15504 (and variants such as Automotive SPICE), SEI CMM and CMMITM assessment methods.

10.Team Based Business Design Improvement

Team Based Business Design Improvement [TBBDI] is a team empowering approach to improving the team's activities. TBBDI is agile and fast. It uses a 'Design First' approach to quality improvement, while including assessment models as potential input. Team Based Business Design Improvement:

helps teams to foster enhanced teamwork harnesses the power of teams to get things done is more motivating because it helps people achieve their goals, rather than assess their shortcomings uses expert facilitation to support change champions and motivate change designs and implements improvements, both small and large changes are possible can make several improvements simultaneously or incrementally uses coaching to get things right the first time = immediate benefit enhances learning and knowledge through use of expert coaches uses assessment models as one form of input delays assessment until the team has improved and is competent is compatible with process assessment methods such as CMMI or ISO 15504 and variants

Because Team Based Business Design Improvement facilitates improvement first and assessment later, it supports change champions who want to innovate or make significant improvements as soon as practical. By focusing on implementing improvement first, it achieves results sooner than 'assess first' methods. By using a team improvement approach it builds a positive culture towards improvement. Team Based Business Design Improvement particularly suits motivated people and teams who want to improve faster and achieve results and benefits sooner. It is used together with the TIMEWhirlpool technique from STARS.

11.High Performance Teams

STARS uses several techniques and methods to create and motivate high performance teams. These include socio-cultural survey and management, coaching, knowledge management and sharing methods, and the TIMEWhirlpool technique. Creating a team requires balancing complementary and competing goals and needs. The TIMEWhirlpool is a technique that can be used for setting goals, determining team needs and creating mini-teams within a larger group such as a project team. The TIMEW in TIMEWhirlpool stand for Team, Individual, Management, Enterprise and Work categories. The customer input is included within the various categories.

Ideally, team leadership aims to achieve the sweet spot where all five sets of goals and needs are satisfied, as represented by in a Team Balance diagram.

Team Goals and Needs Individual Goals and Needs Management Goals and Needs Enterprise Goals and Needs Work Goals and Needs

Team members provide input which is open to facilitation and collaboration to achieve superior goals and sets of needs that mini-teams take responsibility to achieve. Because the input comes from the team members themselves, the mini-teams own the goals and are motivated to achieve them. We provide training in using the TIMEWhirlpool. The book Reach for the STARS provides a complete description of the TIMEWhirlpool and how to use it. Members of the American Society for Quality may wish to browse their 2007 Quality progress magazine for an article on STARS and the TIMEWhirlpool technique. In addition to team level training, we show how to combine teams into an enterprise wide culture of excellence and how to extend team synergy into Symphonic Collaboration. The techniques can be used with Team Based Business Design Improvement. To expand these techniques into virtual organizations that are geographically and operationally dispersed requires further adaptation. This is where networks come into focus.

12.STARS Socio-cultural management

STARS has a culture theme, focused on socio-cultural management within enterprises. Culture can vary widely between people, professions, organizations, regions and nations. Each impacts to some extent on the other. For organizations, it is important to understand their own culture in order to optimize the contribution that people make to the organization's vision and mission. The culture affects the way that traditional management disciplines (e.g. quality management, information management, process management) are best implemented. The organizational culture has an even greater effect upon how to implement knowledge management. This is because knowledge management is also intensely people oriented. In STARS, the cultural theme proposes socio-cultural survey, using a variety of means to form a clearer understanding of the existing culture. This highlights norms and values, both across the organization and for various departments, sections, business units and teams (i.e. sub-cultures).

It covers how training helps create shared experiences which in turn help to shape the culture of the organization and the people who comprise it. It looks at how to motivate people to achieve better outcomes and how organization wide synergies lead to symphonic collaboration. For organizations that seek to improve their overall performance, STARS helps focus change leadership on the key success factors required. The combination of the STARS cultural theme and the Sustainable Improvement theme provide effective change management. The combination of the STARS cultural theme and the STARS Knowledge cycle provide 'culturally sensitive knowledge management'. STARS cultural modeling combines the work of existing cultural experts with unique elements to help leaders and managers understand the benefits of socio-cultural survey in planning and leading change management in organizations. In particular, it can benefit change in organizationally and geographically dispersed networks. You are welcome to download the linked diagram: STARS Cultural Model on the basis that you respect the copyright of the author. You may distribute or link to this diagram, so long as it is not altered or excerpted in any way.

13.STARS Cultural Model

14.Knowledge Management
The STARS Methodology uses an underlying knowledge paradigm that depicts how data, information and knowledge are created and used by people. Knowledge sharing is driven by people and supported by processes and products (tools). It is important to realize that no tool or process on its own will promote knowledge sharing. It is people as individuals and in teams that decide how and when to share information and to what extent. The STARS Knowledge cycle covers personal, team and organizational aspects. The following diagram provides a simplified depiction of the main elements from the personal viewpoint. The states are shown as nouns (in capitals) and the verbs (in blue) are the main associated actions. The colour shading depicts that a continuum exists between learning and using knowledge. This knowledge continuum is affected by and affects the culture of an organization. Hence socio-cultural management and knowledge management interact in ways that shape adoption of knowledge management in an organization. This is termed: Culturally sensitive knowledge management. When shared information leads to shared insight and understanding, then knowledge sharing can be recognized to occur. Knowledge management can facilitate this knowledge creation, sharing, and products can help capture and organize this for future use. The main book: Reach for the STARS, describes the STARS Knowledge cycle in greater detail. In addition the author has a detailed knowledge management method and model for application in an organisation. Feel welcome to contact us if you wish to improve your knowledge management. Copyright notice: You may copy and share the STARS knowledge life cycle and knowledge layer diagrams as shown without alteration under the GNU Free document license provisions. Any other usage (including removal of the copyright notice) is not permitted.

15.Business Excellence
Business excellence is about satisfying customers and exceeding their expectations. The three critical success factors for business excellence are:

Motivated people Optimized processes Supportive products

We use the STARS methodology to address all three success factors in a holistic manner (together). STARS starts from a personal perspective (what can I do?), expands into a team perspective (how to create and foster high performance teams), expands further to address

organizational culture (symphonic collaboration) and culminates in a sustainable improvement and innovation theme (striving for excellence). STARS describes customer and product themes that address satisfying customers and exceeding their expectations with products and services. It includes strategic and operational principles. STARS has a systems theme that incorporates systems thinking and an environmental theme that addresses environmental and sustainability concerns. STARS is not just a nice theory, it has been used in real business enterprises to achieve a culture of high quality business excellence. STARS has been taught in corporate and public courses by Han van Loon for nearly a decade. In some ways, STARS is also a result of the hundreds of people who have attended the STARS workshops. For more about STARS, see the Reach for the STARS publication page and the STARS Workshop pages for training courses. STARS is a methodology that achieves business excellence with a human touch!

16 Modes of Thinking
The way we think influences what we can achieve. Here I don't wish to explore pop psychology themes such as 'positive thinking' but focus on our cognitive processes. There are at least twelve personal modes of thinking, not to mention team based thinking methods. Unfortunately, most people only use a few! Here are some personal modes of thinking and their use.

Reactive Thinking (reaction) Reflective thinking (reviewing) Strategic thinking (setting direction) Lateral thinking (opportunity spotting) Imagination or creative thinking (innovation and ideas) Critical thinking (problem solving) Judgmental thinking (quality appraisal) Holistic thinking (environment scanning) Systems thinking (design and relationships) Chaos thinking (handling ambiguity) Decision thinking (action) And finally, Metacognition (thinking about thinking).

It is important to realise when your thinking mode is inappropriate and change modes. In STARS each of the modes is explored and training helps foster the ability to change as needed.

17.The Thinker
First there was Rodin's famous statue of the thinker.... But do you ever see anyone really posed like that when thinking? Very unlikely! On the other hand, there are thinkers that I admire including de Bono, Senn, Drucker and Deming. Some are thinkers about things (like quality management) and some are thinkers about thinking (metacognitionists). People like de Bono have been reshaping the way to think and are likely to have longer horizons for shaping events.

18.Leadership and Management

One of the biggest challenges for managers is to become good leaders. Not many make it! Why is this? There are many reasons, but some of the most common are:

Leaders need to be 'people persons'. Leaders need to inspire people. Leaders need a vision and an ability to communicate this vision. Leadership is not just a work skill but a life skill. Managers often focus on the work and forget the people.

Isn't it enough to be a good manager? No, not if you want your team and enterprise to achieve great success. Leadership is a skill that can be learnt. The STARS Methodology has many focus points for helping develop these skills. While good management can lead to good performance, good leadership leads to great performance. It is important to not only learn work skills, but also people skills to become a Star leader. The STARS methodology recognizes the need for good leadership, and provides guidance to help managers become leaders. The book: Reach for the STARS highlights various people related leadership skills in order to help managers become good leaders. Learning and applying these skills will help you to become a good leader, and the more you learn and practice, the greater your leadership skills become. The STARS workshop courses help managers become leaders. Becoming a good leader not only helps yourself, it helps the people who work with you, and society in general.

19.Star People

Every enterprise has people who achieve more than their colleagues. Every leader wants these people in their enterprise. Why do some people achieve more? The reasons are varied, they include the skills and experience of the person, the desire to achieve, and the match between the person, teams and the enterprise.The people who achieve more are the Stars. When you look at a Star person, she or he is:

Highly motivated to succeed. Knows how to set goals, think and act. Knows how to make the most of his or her skills, competence and experience. Knows how to collaborate and cooperate well with others. Reviews his or her own performance honestly and uses it to improve. Has a superior way to learn and use knowledge. Shares common values and norms within teams and across the enterprise's organization. Enjoys what she or he does.

Becoming a Star person is not a given. It requires knowledge and effort. STARS describes the 5 Ps, I and E of Stars. These are personal characteristics of Stars, that you can learn and apply. Reach for the STARS - the books and the workshops. The STARS workshops provides training for people who wish to be Star people.

20.The Star Manager

What makes a Star manager?

A Star manager is prepared to take on challenges that often encompass risk. A Star manager knows how to satisfy customers. A Star manager knows how to develop products. A Star manager is not easily sidetracked by irrelevant issues, but focuses on the main game. A Star manager knows how to build a team and foster teamwork. A Star manager knows how to create processes that aid people using them to achieve the extraordinary, and remove processes that prevent people achieving the ordinary. A Star manager knows that People-Process-Product need to work together to achieve optimal results.

The STARS Methodology provides an innovative and effective approach to management. Unlike existing methods that prescribe a specific approach, such as command and control management, STARS provides the manager with choice, so the manager can adapt to every situation. The book: Reach for the STARS describes methods, techniques and improvement activities to create Star managers. STARS workshops provide training to help you become a Star

manager. In addition we commend you to look at the results of the XING STARS Knowledge Caf on Leadership. You are welcome to download the summary results. We welcome feedback and encourage you to explore the use of Knowledge cafs for improving management and leadership in your enterprise.

21.Star Leaders
What is needed to become a Star Leader? First, if the role involves people, you need to be a people person. You have to genuinely like working with people and treat them as you want to be treated (not just how you are treated). Be PEOPLE-CENTRIC. Second you have to have a vision that appeals to others, so they want to join you in achieving this vision. Be VISIONARY. Third, you have to clearly guide people to achieve both their own goals and your goals. This requires a method to set joint goals. SET GOALS. Fourth you need to be able to build teams that work well together, in other words create high performance teams. TEAMWORK. Fifth, you have to inspire and motivate people. This means giving them the power and means to achieve shared and individual goals. MOTIVATION. STARS provides a method that achieves all these. It describes how to cover VISION, GOALS, TEAMWORK and MOTIVATION in a PEOPLE-CENTRIC approach to Leadership and Management. And STARS does more because it shows how to enable a culture of STRIVING FOR EXCELLENCE! The book: Reach for the STARS describes the qualities and actions needs to be a Stars Leader. The STARS workshops help turn managers into leaders. Great leaders improve themselves, help others and society. In addition we commend you to look at the results of the XING STARS Knowledge Caf on Leadership. You are welcome to download the summary results. We welcome feedback and encourage you to explore the use of Knowledge cafs for improving management and leadership in your enterprise.