{"id":791,"date":"2013-08-27T15:31:10","date_gmt":"2013-08-27T10:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mdi.com.pk\/management\/?p=791"},"modified":"2016-02-22T21:06:55","modified_gmt":"2016-02-22T16:06:55","slug":"performance-3-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mdi.com.pk\/management\/2013\/08\/performance-3-laws\/","title":{"rendered":"Performance – 3 Laws"},"content":{"rendered":"

Based on the brilliant book “The Three Laws of Performance” by Steve Zaffron and Dave Logan<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Performance\"First of all, this short article is just an introduction to the basic ideas described in great detail in the “Three Laws of Performance” This is one of those must-read books for all executives and managers. Nonetheless, it is hoped this article can create interest for you to go read the book and discover how this set of ideas is changing world-class organizations and top managers in many countries…<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n

When something isn’t working well in our work lives, we struggle with which part of the problem to tackle first. Do we start\u00a0with cost reduction? What about growth? Or should we begin with better processes?<\/p>\n

In our personal lives, it’s the same dilemma – which problem do we work on first? Should we resolve to do better with our health, finances, family or career?<\/p>\n

We cut costs and employees get frustrated or leave. We stop smoking but gain weight. We leave the office early to spend more time with the family but the boss doesn’t like it. This is all a lot of stress – so before we know it the cigarettes are back.<\/p>\n

People spend their lives perfecting the art of improvement – more, better, different, faster. Using this approach, many\u00a0problems seem intractable. As the French proverb says, the more things change, the more they stay the same.<\/p>\n

The “Default Future”<\/strong><\/p>\n

The reason that fixing problems often doesn’t deliver expected results is that the result is only superficial. The underlying\u00a0dynamics that perpetuate the problem are left untouched.<\/p>\n

For every “problem,” there’s a future that has already been written about it. This future includes people’s assumptions,\u00a0hopes, fears, resignation, cynicism and “lessons learned” \u00a0through past experience. Although this future is almost never\u00a0talked about, it’s the context in which people try to create change.<\/p>\n

If you were a change manager and went into an organization with various problems, employees would almost always say\u00a0“It will never work out. We’ve got too much politics<\/em>” or “Our leaders cannot lead – they just don’t have the capacit<\/em>y”\u00a0etc.<\/p>\n

Although most people have never articulated or had a chance to articulate what they really think will happen to them personally or organizationally,
\nthey live every moment as if it’s destined to come about. They are already heading towards the\u00a0default futu<\/em>re.<\/p>\n

If you interviewed the leaders in this same organization, you would hear\u00a0\u00a0“People here don’t care and they never will. We invite their ideas but they never come<\/em>“.<\/p>\n

Rewriting the Future<\/strong><\/p>\n

Two points are crucial here. First, everyone experiences a future in front of them, even though few could articulate it.\u00a0We know it’s what will happen, whether we can give words to it or not. This is the default future, and every person has one.<\/p>\n

So does every organization.<\/p>\n

Second, people’s relationship with the default future is complex. If someone described your default future to you, you\u00a0might disagree, perhaps even get angry at how different that future is from what you think will happen. Yet you – along\u00a0with the rest of us – live as if that future is preordained<\/strong>. You live into your default future, unaware that by doing so\u00a0you’re making it come about.<\/p>\n

Statistical evidence shows that most significant change efforts fail. The reason is that regardless of the management\u00a0interventions that are tried, the default futures of employees and leaders are still in place. The more things change, the
\nmore they stay the same.<\/p>\n

For things to change, the future must be rewritten. The result is the transformation of a situation, leading to a dramatic\u00a0elevation in performance.
\nImagine if in that struggling organization, people rewrote their future. What if it was this: “We’ve turned around the\u00a0company. We’re people who work together in teams, innovate and\u00a0succeed.<\/em>”<\/p>\n

It’s not a matter of motivational speeches or slogans that people repeat. It’s rewriting what people know will happen.\u00a0Rewrite the future, and people’s actions naturally shift: from disengaged to proactive, from resigned to inspired, from\u00a0frustrated to innovative.<\/p>\n

By the way, this happens without targeting the problems themselves. Rewrite the future and old problems disappear<\/p>\n

The First Law\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The First Law of Performance is:<\/p>\n

How people perform correlates to how situations occur to them.<\/em><\/p>\n

The first law answers the question, “Why do people do what they do?” Consider that when we do something, it always\u00a0makes complete sense to us. On the other hand, when others do something, we often wonder, “Why are they doing
\nthat? It doesn’t make any sense!”\u00a0But if we got into the world of that person and looked at how the situation occurred to him, we would consider those
\nsame actions we were questioning to be completely and absolutely the perfect and correct thing for him to do, given how\u00a0the situation is occurring to that person.<\/p>\n

We all assume that the way things occur for us is how they’re occurring for others. But situations occur differently for each\u00a0person. Not realizing this can make another person’s actions seem inappropriate.<\/p>\n

To see the reality illusion at work, think of a person you aren’t happy with at the moment – perhaps someone you’ve\u00a0been resenting for years.
\nThink of words that describe that person. You might say “self-centered,” “doesn’t listen,” “opinionated” or “irrational.” Notice that you’ve described how
\nthe person occurs<\/span> to you. The fact that something occurs to you in a certain way does not make it absolute reality.<\/p>\n

The Second Law<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Second Law of Performance is:<\/p>\n

How a situation occurs arises in language.<\/em><\/p>\n

Language is the means through which your future is already written. It’s also the means through which it can be rewritten.\u00a0Language should be understood here in the broadest sense. It includes not only spoken and written communication, but\u00a0also body language, facial expressions, tone of voice, pictures and drawings, music, how people dress, and any other
\nactions that have symbolic intent.<\/p>\n

Untying the knots of language begins with seeing that whenever you say something, other communication is carried\u00a0along with it. That phenomenon can be called the unsaid<\/span> but communicated. Sometimes the sender is aware of the\u00a0unsaid; often he or she is not. The unsaid is the most important part of language when it comes to elevating\u00a0performance.<\/p>\n

The unsaid but communicated includes assumptions, expectations, disappointments, resentments, regrets, interpretations, etc.\u00a0When you walk into a company for a meeting, you can see instantly how the
\ncompany occurs to employees, and how people occur to each other. Like little cartoon bubbles floating over people’s\u00a0heads, you can read what people aren’t saying but are communicating. The messages cover the spectrum, from “I’m so bored<\/em>” to “I wonder what’s for lunc<\/em>h” to “My work is more important than yours.<\/em>”<\/p>\n

The process of real change starts with becoming aware of what people
\naren’t saying but are communicating. It starts with people saying what they’ve been thinking – saying the unsaid. Most organizational issues or issues between people arise because of clusters of “the unsaid”. \u00a0As the process continues,
\npeople discover what’s lurking behind their thoughts and opinions.<\/p>\n

The Third Law<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Third Law of Performance is:<\/p>\n

Future-based language transforms how situations occur to people.<\/em><\/p>\n

There are two different ways to use language. The first is descriptive –
\nusing language to depict or represent things as they are or have been. The test of good descriptive language is whether it\u00a0accurately articulates the world as it is, whether people see the world rightly. Descriptive language is often used to look\u00a0back, spot trends and predict what will happen.<\/p>\n

Descriptive language has its limits – you can’t create something new by merely describing what was and is. Using\u00a0descriptive language to talk about the future is limited to prediction based on past cycles and current reality.<\/p>\n

Future-based language, also called generative language, has the power to create new futures, to craft vision.\u00a0It doesn’t describe how a situation occurs it
\ntransforms how it occurs. It does this by rewriting the future.<\/p>\n

At the Polus Group, a large conglomerate built by a man of vision, Toshima Nakauchi, the default future that emerged\u00a0after his incapacitating stroke – what people expected – was “the company would have no leadership because the<\/em>
\nfounder is not coming back<\/em>.” \u00a0That was changed through a six-month process. The goal of that process was to develop a\u00a0future in which every member of the 60-person team leading the effort had an authentic voice in creating a new vision.<\/p>\n

By replacing the default future with their own creation, people collectively lived into an optimistic, exciting future. The old\u00a0problems simply dropped away, and everyone’s performance altered.<\/p>\n

Summary<\/p>\n

The Three Laws of Performance help you to reflect on your situation, how it shackles you and how you can create a new\u00a0future by rewriting the unsaid language around you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Performance – The 3 Laws – this article is just an introduction to the basic ideas described in great detail in the book “Three Laws of Performance” .This is one of those must-read books for all executives and managers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,2,4,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-change-management","category-hr-management","category-management-and-leadership","category-organizational-development","post-preview"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdi.com.pk\/management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdi.com.pk\/management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdi.com.pk\/management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdi.com.pk\/management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdi.com.pk\/management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=791"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/mdi.com.pk\/management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":797,"href":"https:\/\/mdi.com.pk\/management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791\/revisions\/797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdi.com.pk\/management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdi.com.pk\/management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdi.com.pk\/management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}