A weak submission is rarely the sign of a weak entity. More often it is good work written in a way an assessor cannot score. Seven mistakes we see again and again — each with a clear remedy.
Key takeaways
- An assessor scores what can be verified, not what an entity says about itself.
- A result without a target, a trend and a comparison is half a result.
- The file is written after the evidence is complete — and defended in the visit by those who lived the work.
In this article+
When we review a submission before it goes in, we read it as the assessor will: someone who does not know the entity, has limited time and must justify every mark awarded. From that angle, mistakes appear that the authors cannot see, because they know what lies behind the lines. The assessor does not — and will not assume.
1. Describing activity instead of results
“We ran 40 training workshops” is an activity, not a result. The result is what changed because of them: an indicator that improved, an error that fell, a turnaround time that shortened. A submission full of activity leaves the assessor asking: and then what? The remedy is to close every activity with its measured effect — and where none exists, to drop the activity from the file and start measuring it.
2. Results with no target, trend or comparison
A single figure for a single year says nothing. Is 87% good? That depends: what was the target? What was it three years ago? What do comparable entities achieve? A complete result stands on four legs: the value, the target, the trend across years and the comparison with others. Remove one and the score weakens, however good the number itself.
3. Approaches described, not demonstrated
Every entity says it has an approach to risk or to innovation. What the assessor looks for is evidence of four things: that the approach was designed for a clear reason, is actually deployed across every relevant unit, has its effectiveness measured, and has been improved on the strength of that measurement. An approach unchanged since its approval five years ago tells the assessor nobody has reviewed it.
4. Plenty of evidence, none of it coded
A folder of 900 files is not evidence; it is a burden. Useful evidence is what an assessor can reach in seconds from the sentence it supports. That is why we build an evidence matrix: every claim in the file carries a code, and every code points to one specific document, down to the page. Whatever supports no particular claim leaves the folder.
5. Marketing language
“Leading”, “outstanding” and “first of its kind” earn no marks; they raise suspicion. A trained assessor reads the adjective and looks at once for the number behind it. Write the number and leave the adjective to the assessor.
6. A file written by one person
When the excellence coordinator writes the file alone, the text is consistent but fragile: at the site visit a department head is asked about their criterion and does not know what was written in their name. Every criterion needs an owner from the business who writes the material or reviews it line by line — and only then does an editor unify the style.
7. Starting with the writing
The biggest mistake, and the earliest. Writing is the final stage: before it come a self-assessment that identifies the gaps, closing those that can be closed, and collecting and coding the evidence. Whoever starts by writing discovers the gaps mid-sentence, when no time is left to fix them.
A quick test: hand a paragraph of your file to a colleague from another department and ask, “What is the evidence for this?” If they cannot find the answer in the paragraph itself, neither will the assessor.
The next step
If you are at the start of your preparation, begin by measuring readiness before writing anything. If the file is already written, an independent review through an assessor's eyes before submission surfaces most of the above within days.
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The consulting team — Innovation Excellence
These articles are written by the firm's consultants, drawing on the excellence, quality and customer experience engagements they deliver for government and private entities in the UAE.
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