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Focus on Performance

Posted by Joseph Riggio on Saturday, February 03, 2007

Performance refers to the relationship between behavior and outcome - the more elegantly (i.e.: efficiently and effectively) the behavior produces the intended outcome the higher the performance can be said to be.

Howdy ...

I've been addressing in my most recent postings what I am most fascinated by and know best as a function of my professional practice. I'm most interested in performance enhancement - how people go about creating intended outcomes. More and more I find myself interested in simplifying and streamlining my area of attention - and what it comes right down to might best be referred to as the domain of (human) performance, both in terms of individuals and in human systems.

The quote above comes from my most recent blog posting about Private/Executive Coaching. Performance has been a focus on my attention for many years now. For me performance refers to the ability to produce the outcomes you intend and the quality with which that happens. Someone who would be called a High Performer has the ability to connect their behaviors to the outcomes they intend. In fact I'd say that this most defines performance as I've come to understand it.

Let's begin again ... I'm stating that, performance can only be considered as a function of behavior.

This doesn't mean that there are no other aspects that influence or impact performance. Of course I recognize that performance involves the entire spectrum I refer to as decision-making:

  • gathering, organizing, analyzing and synthesizing data
  • applying the data to the outcome intended
  • choosing the action to be taken (or not)
  • taking the action and producing a result(s)
  • comparing the result(s) produced to the outcome intended
  • making adjustments to produce the outcome intended

    • So you can see at least two things from my list as I think of it: 1) making a decision includes the action required to producing results, i.e.: until action gets taken a decision hasn't happened, and 2) there are more things to be considered in terms of performance than just the behavioral expression associated with producing the outcome. (BTW - I accept this may be an unusual way of thinking about decisions and performance.)

    However, behavior remains the most direct and significant thing to put our attention on in terms of producing outcomes. This neither dismisses nor diminishes the significance of those things that relate to the expression of behavior. Yet what ultimately determines the results we produce are the behaviors we express - regardless of how we get to the point of expressing them.

    Now you have the basis for my claim ... performance can only be considered as a function of behavior - and the corollary statement that ... the more elegantly the behavior produces the intended outcome the higher the performance can be said to be. These two statements can be said to form an inextricable pair in terms of my approach to performance enhancement.

    When you more efficiently and effectively begin connecting your behaviors to the outcomes you intend to produce you will have enhanced your performance. This requires that you do a few other things that are directly related to performance enhancement as well:

  • beginning from the Ready State when setting outcomes - i.e.: operating from a positive, excitatory bias
  • setting the intended outcome with precision - knowing exactly what you want as the outcome
  • knowing how you'll know you've gotten what you want - i.e.: establishing well defined metrics
  • noticing for information/data in the environment in regard to producing your outcomes
  • deciding on the best course of action to produce your outcomes - i.e.: choosing behaviors
  • taking the action decided upon to produce your outcomes - i.e.: expressing behaviors
  • checking the result you produce by your actions - i.e.: tracking feedback in the system
  • making adjustments to your actions based on the results you produce - i.e.: changing behaviors
  • continue adjusting your actions until you produce or modify your intended outcome

    • Once you've either produced or modified your outcome you can end the enacting of the behaviors intended to produce your outcome. In other words, as soon as you produce your outcome as a function of the expression of the behaviors you enact to produce it you have completed your enacting of your performance (as related to producing your intended outcome). This can be another way of thinking about performance - reaching the outcome in the most efficient and effective manner possible.

    When you are producing your outcomes efficiently and effectively you can say that you're acting elegantly, or that your performance has become elegant. In my work with clients I strive to assist them in creating elegant performances. While, the performance always depends on what the client specifies in terms of their desired outcome(s), my intention remains to assist them to make their performance as elegant as possible.

    So there you go ... a relatively simple and elegant (`;~>) description of performance and performance enhancement. My work you could say revolves around performance and performance enhancement, making me a performance consultant. This in turn revolves around the redesign of behaviors as they are expressed in regard to intended outcomes.

    Of course there are many, many areas where such consulting can and does apply:

  • personal development and relationships
  • professional development - including career consulting
  • management and leadership development
  • sales and negotiations
  • organizational development - including team building

    • These are just some of the areas I've worked in from the perspective of performance enhancement as a function of behavioral redesign. Again, realizing that when I refer to performance and behavior I include the entire structure that precedes acting (expressing behaviors) as well as the feedback loop involved in producing the intended outcome(s) (adjusting behaviors).

    Best regards,

    Joseph Riggio, Ph.D.
    Princeton, NJ

    P.S. - I often speak of this structure in terms of decision-making and I'll take this up in another posting soon ...

    (3) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

    Interesting blog - thanks. I’ve absolutely no doubt at all that you perform very elegantly as a performance consultant grin Do you find behavioral redesign more challenging the larger the client system is - like a group, team (project team), or an entire organization and/or corporation? Even something like defining the outcome as a group seems like it would be more challenging than an individual defining an outcome for herself. This begs the question on how to elegantly elicit the Ready State for an entire organization vs. an individual...for starters, anyway. I work mainly with groups and organizations - usually collaborative groups, so setting a precise outcome with everyone on board is quite a task, but then again, I am by no means a performance consultant...yet.

    Allison

    btw, I wish more folks commented on your blogs. A lot of times I think your blog complements the mytholist quite nicely and sometimes offers even more. Why don’t people comment??

    abriggs on Wednesday, February 07, 2007

    The Blog´s are often if not always, filled with information, views and statements that come across for me as being obvious when reading it, and yet I recognize that it wasn’t consciously before I read it. So to give comments to the content and form is, for me at least, a challenge, and I agree that it would be great with more dynamics on the blog.

    When I see people in situations where they do not get the result they want, some follow the NLP thinking of doing something differently and yet they do not succeed, as their behavior and way of being in the world is unchanged. 
    Joseph makes it elegantly obvious, that the essences of his work is the most valuable skill that one can acquire to reach “top” performance, be it in sports, business with friends and family.

    Per Rehné on Thursday, February 08, 2007

    Allison/ Per -

    I will only comment on what I can - therefore I won’t comment on why more people don’t comment. What I’ll recommend is that it if you are reading something here that you find especially interesting you pass it along to family, friends and colleagues and ask them to comment. This is the nature of a viral communication medium like a blog.

    [NOTE: In your case Allison forwarding the blog, or the URL to the blog, may even be an elegant way to get a communication out to those you want to make a point to that would be easier for them to get coming from third party.]

    In regard to you question about teams, groups and organizations I think I’ll write some more about that now ...

    Joseph

    Joseph Riggio on Thursday, February 08, 2007

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