Performance...

We often ask our clients what performance means, before we tell them how we define it. Typically performance gets confused with results and targets and measurement of end points. We often get people to think about performance from the point of view of a performance at the theatre, which people quickly see is a whole series of scenes, acts, people playing their part and the delivery of a performance one step at a time. Importantly, at the theatre, there is a script that underpins the whole performance. This script is a guideline upon which the actors have to bring their own interpretations and emphases. Personalising the script and interpreting it in the right way is a crucial thing for any performance. Even though you know what the end of your performance needs to look like, do you spend the same quality of time becoming equally intimate with your personal script that you need to bring to life to maximise the chances of delivering the result?

Performance is a combination of processes and outcomes and you need to become equally obsessed with both of those elements if you're going to constantly grow and develop in any role you have... want to know more, then just send us an email at hello@planetk2.com.

Strong start for 2009

While everyone indulges in the annual madness of new year's resolutions and seeing who can break them most quickly, why not go down a different path? Rather than trying to think of a grandiose plan for the whole of 2009, why not focus on what your optimum start for 2009 looks like?

We'd certainly not discourage you from keeping the new year resolution approach if it works for you... but for the majority of folks, a 12 month behavioural change plan is usually too much, because it stays at a 12 month view, without actually breaking it down into discrete steps that need to be taken in order to ultimately make the change that you'd like to achieve by the end of the year.

So, whatever your view and aim, we'd heartily recommend making sure that your sights are well and truly focused on a distance into the future that works for you. What's your optimum goal span into 2009? Is an interim goal of about 6 weeks right for you to keep you energised and focused, or do you need a series of smaller goals? Does the natural 3 month plan work for you?

Thriving in 2009 is the aim... but make sure you know exactly how frequently you need to set, review and re-set your targets to keep the motivation, excitement and confidence fuelled and working for you. Take aim... Fire.

Short feedback loops

I've re-learned something really important this week - that giving and receiving quality performance focused feedback and then taking responsibility for doing something about it is vital for my performance. And to enable that to happen a few things are required: I have to be open to feedback - to want to know anything that might make me better. Sure, having received it, I'm going to think about where it came from and does it add to evidence already received? I'm also going to ask myself if it makes me feel uncomfortable? To be able to answer any of those questions, I have to be open.

Secondly, short feedback loops are the best. Like a boat setting out for a destination, if I only get information that might enable me to correct my settings when I'm off course once every six months, the corrections are going to feel violent and they might be too late to prevent me from hitting the rocks. Getting rapid feedback enables me to correct my course a few times each day - so that it feels to me as though I'm pretty much always on course and gives confidence to those around me that I know where I'm going. Without those short feedback loops and without being open, I could go off course and I'd be creating unhelpful noise in the heads of those around me.

We're currently getting lots of short feedback loops about the state of the economy, so without matching short feedback loops focused on our performance, then ever shifting desination and current course might be ever more out of sync.

Why bother?

Viktor Frankl (author of the great book, Man's Search for Meaning) observed that "where there is a why, you can endure almost any how"... deep words... but very true.

So, have a look around you. We're in pretty tough times, and the people who have a "why", either a personal why, team why or organisational why, that actually means something, are more likely to be able to endure any current challenges. When times are good, the "whys" really make a difference too in terms of fulfilling potential. However, the "whys" right now really need to be present. Do you see the right kind of people?

Who's seeing beyond the current doom and gloom? Who's seeing only the doom and gloom?

Who's going to be making sure that you manage the current climate more effectively than everybody else in your sector by doing 'almost any how'? And who's giving in and just waiting for the inevitable failure, because they have no clear why that actually means anything to them?

Character and attitude are going to be crucial for the next few months. As has been oft observed, attitudes are contagious. Make sure that the negative attitudes, let loose with no "why" to guide them don't become the contagious ones in your world. Be brave on leading with attitude and strong character traits and see who else is going to help deliver an important "why".

Some more on goals...

We like copying the great coaches from sport who we've worked with and we've noticed they talk a lot about the same things, because they're the fundamentals, until people get it! So, even though we put some stuff up about this last week, it's still important and it's probably useful to keep focusing on goals for a while yet!

We know from working at the Olympics that if you're totally obsessed with the gold medal then when it comes to actually delivering a performance, you'll be thinking about the wrong thing completely. We also know that you have to be totally obsessed with winning the gold medal in order to have a chance of winning! As with comedy, the timing is everything. Focus on the wrong kind of goal at the wrong time and you'll underperform - maybe not by much, but enough to make a critical difference when it matters most.

That's why sports people understand and exploit the complementary difference between process goals and outcome goals in a consistently effective way. If the Outcome goal is the gold medal, little point constantly saying to yourself throughout a race "I've got to get the gold" - that's not going to help. Such outcome focused thinking just gets in the way of the thing that matters most, right now.

Athletes make sure that they have identified, 100% clearly, the gold medal Process targets, the inputs, that they'll need to deliver one moment at a time through a performance. Complete commitment to delivering each one of the inputs, as effectively as possible, creates a much more effective focus for delivering great performances. So, when the pressure's on, they can focus every ounce of desire to achieve the outcome into the controllable, step by step process.

Your goals are probably pretty clear right now, from an outcome point of view. Is there the same clarity and level of discussion about your process goals? Is there the same obsessive drive to deliver on the inputs? If obsession on outputs is not matched by tenacity of focus on the trusted inputs, then you're not setting yourself up to deliver in these challenging times. Worth going back and reading the other stuff we posted on goals!

Paralysed by goals...

Under pressure, we know that people's focus tends to narrow down onto just a few things and very often, this actually means missing out on some really important information that's in the world around you. We think we've noticed quite a lot of attentional narrowing onto those wonderful things called "goals" and it hasn't all been positive! Missing key details can happen when there's no pressure around, thanks to the phenomenon known as inattentional blindness, but under pressure, attentional problems are further exaggerated.

As the economic pressure cranks up, so too does the obsession with delivering numbers and the reliance on those numbers to show no signs impending doom. In our elite sport work, we've seen much more pragmatic approaches to exploiting goals, which we'd like to pass on. We also remember from our days back at university that the science of goals can give a much more balanced view of how to use goals for a positive impact, so we thought we'd right some stuff about that, which we've hopefully made available for you here (go on, click it, it's quite good!).

So, let's broaden the view of goals and what they should be doing for you and have a conversation about making sure goals are adding value in these pressure times, rather than simply helping to reinforce the rampant perception that "we're all doomed, doomed I tell you!".

Read away and share your comments. We can't wait to chat about this!