Sources & references

The seven elements framing draws on widely-used frameworks for executive team effectiveness

Direction-setting and accountability vocabulary common to Vroom-Yetton, Lencioni, and other team-effectiveness work

Business Excellence Elements and Logic — Noble Performance Solutions methodology

Built from twenty-five years of Dave Noble's consulting work with industrial and services businesses on whole-of-business operating-system design. The eight-element framework, the four-quadrant grouping, and the logic order are NPS-original synthesis.

Business Capability Model and Details ALL v4.0 (2002-09-02)

Dave's productised TOM (Target Operating Model) from his BHP Steel-era work — full Level-0 to Level-4 capability decomposition across all eight elements, with specific tools and measures per capability. Source for the per-element capabilities, tools, and measures the result page surfaces when an element is limiting. Extracted in nobleperformance-ip/drafts/_extracted/business-excellence/capability-model-v4.md (~3,500 rows).

Business Excellence — six common factors of successful companies (2000 research)

Dave's primary research on Honeywell, General Electric, and Alcoa. Six common factors observed in companies sustaining competitive advantage: the journey, intention is clear and consistent, committed visible management ownership, managers understand quality, simple/understandable/consistent processes, ways to make it happen.

Australian Business Excellence Framework

The Australian Quality Council's Business Excellence Framework. Reference for the broader concept of Business Excellence as a global discipline. The platform's eight-element view is NPS synthesis, distinct from the AQC's twelve principles.

Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award framework

The US precedent — Business Excellence as institutional discipline. Cited as background context, not as direct source for the eight elements.

Booz Allen Hamilton organisational study (presented at World Economic Forum, Davos)

· 2003 · research

6,000-firm study identifying alignment and adaptability as the differentiating capabilities of sustained high performers. The definitions used in this self-check are taken verbatim from the study.

Adaptability vs Alignment — Noble Performance Solutions adaptation

Captured in Dave Noble's master Business Excellence document and adapted into a 12-statement self-check format. The four-quadrant naming (Inflexible / Chaotic / Drifting / High Performing) is the productisation of the source's narrative.

The Process Enneagram™

Richard N. Knowles · 2006 · foundational

Published in the World Business Academy's 'Rekindling the Human Spirit in Business' series. The 10-point ordering, the inner-triangle framing (0–3–6 self-organisation), the work-flow sequence (1→4→2→8→5→7), and the command-and-control failure-mode are Knowles'. The Process Enneagram™ is a registered trademark of Richard N. Knowles & Associates. Used with permission.

Strategic Inquiry Enneagrams

Tim Dalmau & Steve Zuieback · 2014 · foundational

Synectics, LLC. The 'strategic inquiry' framing and the suite of enneagram-based instruments for organisational analysis. Used with permission for productisation on this platform.

Living-systems lineage

The 9-point enneagram structure has roots in the work of G.I. Gurdjieff and J.G. Bennett (mid-20th century); the living-systems framing draws on Margaret Wheatley, Ralph Stacey, and Charles Krone. The platform's adaptation lifts the 10-point sequence and the canonical core questions verbatim, with Dave's voice on the prompt expansions and the productisation translation from facilitated workshop to interactive solo work.

Leadership and Decision-Making

Vroom and Yetton · 1973 · foundational

Original decision-process theory; precedent for level-of-participation models.

Requisite Organization

Elliott Jaques · 1989 · foundational

Manager-subordinate authority concepts that ground the cascade logic.

Human Competence: Engineering Worthy Performance

Thomas F. Gilbert · 1978 · foundational

The original six-cell behavioural engineering model — Information / Resources / Incentives × Skills / Capacity / Motives. The fundamentals of the Seven Lenses come directly from Gilbert.

Seven Lenses on strategy and task delivery analysis — Dave Noble

Dave's adaptation: same diagnostic substance and order as Gilbert's six, with updated terminology (Direction → Clarity, Resources → Tools and Resources, Competence → Skills and Competency) and the addition of Lens 7 (Team and Organisational Dynamics). Source: 'Seven Lenses model.pptx', Resources/Performance Management.

Requisite Organization

Elliott Jaques · 1989 · foundational

The most accessible expression of the framework — time-span of discretion, manager-once-removed, felt-fair pay.

The Form of Time

Elliott Jaques · 1982 · foundational

The cognitive-complexity-meets-time framing.

Career Path Appreciation methodology

Stamp · 1981 · research

Operationalisation for individual coaching and assessment.

The 50/5 rule and customer/product profitability discipline

Originating in mid-2000s industrial-economics work; widely applied across services and manufacturing.

Team Start Up — Seven Elements (NPS-authored framework deck)

Noble Performance Solutions · 2005 · internal

Primary source for the seven elements (Charter, Direction Setting, Decision Making, Execution, Behaviours, Communication, Rewards), the underlying decision-making matrix, and the 'space between' framing.

Effective Executive Team — diagnostic worksheets (NPS corpus)

Noble Performance Solutions · — · internal

Supporting material from the Resources/Teams folder informing the productised statements.

Bridges' Transition Self-Checklists (NPS-adapted)

Noble Performance Solutions, after William Bridges · — · internal

Three checklists (Endings, Neutral Zone, New Beginnings) plus the personal self-care checklist, drawn from Dave's Resources/Transition folder. Items lifted verbatim from the source documents.

Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change

William Bridges · 1991+ · foundational

The original three-phase model. Bridges' work is widely cited in change-management practice. Dave's contribution is the productisation, the Australian-English voice, the integration with adjacent frameworks, and the inclusion of the leader's own self-care as a companion.

Customer Service Excellence — Noble Performance Solutions methodology

Adapted from Dave Noble's master Business Excellence document, where Customer Service Excellence is one of the eight elements: 'these processes are to ensure that we capture and maintain profitable sales relationships, and capture orders and deliver flawlessly on commitments made.' Cross-references with the 50/5 rule and the BHP Steel customer-profitability work.

Customer / Product Profitability — 50/5 Rule

The companion methodology for the Account Tiering dimension; see /frameworks/profitability-50-5.

Business Excellence master framework

Customer Service Excellence is element 3 of 8. The Business Excellence specialist tool sits upstream of this one when customer service is the limiting element.

Supply Chain Excellence — Noble Performance Solutions methodology

Adapted from Dave Noble's master Business Excellence document, where Supply Chain Excellence sits inside the broader Manufacturing Excellence section as 'Delivery Performance / Supply Chain Velocity'. Cross-references with the BHP Steel and Bluescope supply chain work over multi-decade engagements.

Business Excellence master framework

Supply Chain Excellence is element 4 of 8.

Knowledge & Information Management — Noble Performance Solutions methodology

Adapted from Dave Noble's master Business Excellence document, where Knowledge Management and Communication & Information Management are sub-elements under Leadership/People Engagement, with substantial behavioural content in the Routines and Behaviours section (Technical Training, Mentor/Coaching, Pursuit of Root Causes, Disciplined Thinking).

Kepner-Tregoe (KT) processes

Structured method for problem analysis, decision-making, and risk management; cited explicitly in the master BE document as the recommended approach for Disciplined Thinking. Useful in any root-cause discipline.

Business Excellence master framework

Knowledge & Information Management is element 7 of 8.

The five-stage turnaround framework draws on widely-used restructuring practice

Variations of this stage sequence appear in turnaround consulting practice from the 1990s onward.

Crisis Management Assessment Matrix V2 (NPS / Cement Australia)

Noble Performance Solutions · — · internal

Primary source. Five-dimension × five-tier matrix developed across multiple industrial-sector engagements. The tier descriptions used in this tool are lifted verbatim (lightly cleaned) from the V2 document.

Crisis thinking (NPS facilitation material)

Noble Performance Solutions · — · internal

Supporting source on crisis communication methodology, particularly internal vs external messaging and right-of-entry considerations.

Stress After Emergencies

Noble Performance Solutions · — · internal

Supporting material on personal and team wellbeing in the aftermath of incidents. Adjacent to the assessment but not a direct input to scoring.

Customer/Product Profitability — Noble Performance Solutions methodology

Built from twenty-five years of consulting work with industrial and services businesses on portfolio rationalisation, value-proposition segmentation, and structural-cost work.

The 80/20 Principle (Pareto observation)

Vilfredo Pareto, codified by Joseph Juran · foundational

The 50/5 rule is a sharper variant of the Pareto observation, calibrated to the specific finding that complexity-cost concentration is more extreme than revenue concentration in most portfolios.

Theory of Constraints

Eliyahu Goldratt · foundational

Operational discipline (manufacturing/service excellence at bottleneck units) sits downstream of portfolio discipline. The 50/5 work narrows the portfolio to the items the bottleneck should be optimised against.

Leadership as a Critical Control — Noble Performance Solutions methodology

Built from Dave Noble's Safety Leadership Program work, including practice with major industrial operators (Bluescope Steel, Holcim, and others) where front-line leadership behaviour was framed as a critical control alongside the technical safety system.

States of Mind framework

Larry Wilson · 2003 · research

The five states (fatigue / frustration / rushing / complacency / distraction) as observable precursors to incidents. Cited in Dave's Critical Control deck.

Safety-I and Safety-II

Erik Hollnagel · 2014 · foundational

Background framing for proactive (Safety-II) versus reactive (Safety-I) safety management. The leadership-as-critical-control approach is Safety-II in posture: trying to cause more things to go right rather than only fewer to go wrong.

Visible Felt Leadership

Industry-standard term for the practice of senior leaders being observably present and engaged on safety at the front line. Widely used across mining, oil and gas, construction.