Due to labour issues, in the last time I had to devote to the study of organizations. And one of the things that I have noticed is all the literature (and trade demand) for the pursuit of excellence and search -finally – behavior ‘star’ on the part of people who act in organizations.
But what the organization ‘excellent’ should not be, precisely the one that does not require people (or performance) ‘excellent? The good organization should be the one who produces results even with mediocre care, which does not depend on the personal excellence of its staff.
In fact, I think in the roman army. One of the features of the military organisation of the roman (*) is that, in fact, their tactics were sufficiently decent to achieve victories even with general rather limited. By the way that a good general could achieve great things, but the romans did not need to major general. The organization obtained good results with, well, almost anyone. And that is a sign, I think, an organization well-designed (**).
(*) Not if what I have said on other occasions, but also you can say now: The sociological study of military organizations is the subject-matter quite interesting.
(**) Thing that I also think of other designs, let’s say the constitution of the united States.