This methodology was documented in Harrington Institute Technical Report TR 03.003 and published by Quality Digest magazine in a series of five articles in 2003.

After years of working with all types of organizations and using many different approaches to Performance Improvement, Dr. Harrington came to realize that five key elements must be managed for an organization to excel. He called them the Five Pillars of Organizational Excellence. All five must be managed creatively and simultaneously.

Top management’s job is to keep all these elements moving ahead simultaneously. To concentrate on one or two alone is a sure formula for failure. Priorities might shift causing an individual pillar to move from "very important" to simply "important", but it should never shift lower than that.

In 2005 Dr. Harrington published through Paton Press a series of five books under the following titles:
• Process Management Excellence – The Art of Excelling in Process Management
• Project Management Excellence – The Art of Excelling in Project Management
• Change Management Excellence – The Art of Excelling in Change Management
• Knowledge Management Excellence – The Art of Excelling in Knowledge Management
• Resource Management Excellence – The Art of Excelling in Resource Management

The process discussed in this series was designed to permanently change an organization by skillfully managing the five pillars. Each of these management pillars is not new by itself, but by combining and managing them together a holistic approach to improving an organization’s performance is possible.

By effectively managing these five pillars and leveraging their interdependencies and reactions, an organization can bring about a marvelous self-transformation. The organization will emerge from its restrictive cocoon and float on the wings of success and self-fulfillment.

For a complete description of this methodology see The Five Pillars of Organizational Excellence on the Books page