How does your organization think about something like “great performance?” Do you have complicated “performance management” processes you have to follow? Do people enjoy them? Most importantly, do they actually help create more greatness??
In many of our organizations, we are completely misunderstanding the way great performance actually happens.
You see, performance is usually more about the dirt than the plant.
Let me explain…
The other day I was talking to a friend about the various trials and tribulations that often befall practitioners in our line of people-related organizational work. She told me a quick story, mentioning one of her friends from New Zealand who was completely flabbergasted by how much push-back we receive from buyers “over here” — that the questions we get about the “ROI” of people-work here in the U.S. would actually be considered nonsense in places like New Zealand, Australia, and parts of Europe.
The friend then said something to the effect of:
“Honestly… the premise that you wouldn’t water your plants…!!”
Honestly, indeed.
But this IS often our premise, isn’t it?
It’s far too easy for organizations to fall into a trap that expects our “human plants” to generate amazing results, somehow — magically, I guess? — without the right kinds of “dirt,” “water,” or “sunshine.” And I suppose it’s true that humans can, if pushed, toil heartily, well beyond healthy limits, into the danger zones of our bodies and minds and emotions and spirits.
But why is this the kind of thing we expect from each other?
And why on earth would we ever think this approach would create something like “GREAT performance?”
How can we honestly work the way we do and then look at each other and say, dumbfounded, with sincerity: “Why are these plants dying?!”
Alexander Den Heijer puts this very well: “When a flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.”
My favorite nuclear submarine captain David Marquet says something very similar:
Things work best when we work in flow with how the universe already functions.
Are you creating the kind of environment where people naturally create greatness? Next time you think about “performance” in your organization, think about the dirt instead of the plant.