About
Performance & Change
We can take care of our own interests while also
making a difference to others.
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But we
must do so in the real world in which we live and in the roles
(consumer, investor, employee, networker, family member and
friend) we actually pursue.
Beyond friends
and family, the essential crucible for making a difference to
the world is the organization because that is where we belong to
a thick we shaped by shared purposes and shared fates.
Our individual
actions matter tremendously -- especially through being moral
consumers, moral voters, moral investors, moral friends and
moral family members.
We can -- and
we must -- attend to bettering ourselves as individuals. That
is a glory of political, social, religious, technological and
economic values born of humankind’s evolution. It is a best
part of our past and a best part of our future.
Our shared
actions in thick we’s matter just as much -- and, in critical
ways, more.
Change cannot
happen in the larger world -- that is, beyond ourselves as
individuals -- without passing through organizations and thick
we’s.
To make a
difference both to ourselves and the larger world,
we must ask:
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What are our shared
purposes in the organizations where we work, learn, play,
volunteer or pray?
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How do the things we do
in our organizations -- the products and services we make and
deliver, the value and values we learn from one another, the
connections we make among ourselves and to nature, gods and
spirit -- matter to the larger world?
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How do we hold ourselves
accountable as thick we’s for both value and values?
How do we
connect purpose to performance and performance to change?
What is
Performance?
Performance
reflects the results as well as aspirations for results that
translate purpose into impact.
Sustainable
performance for any organization must reflect specific results
that benefit all the constituencies who matter. This is
captured in what I call the “Sustainable Cycle of Performance”.
Ethical
performance for any organization must reflect specific results
that benefit all the constituencies who matter. This is
captured in what I call the “Ethical Scorecard”.
The Sustainable
Cycle of Performance is IDENTICAL to the Ethical Scorecard.
How does
performance relate to change?
In more than a
quarter century of working with for profit, nonprofit and
governmental organizations, I’ve observed this seeming paradox
repeatedly:
The surest path
to change is through focusing primarily on performance.
The surest path
to failing to change is to focus primarily on change.
Disciplines for
Performance-Driven Change
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Two disciplines for
organization-wide performance driven change
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Two disciplines for
organizing effort within organizations
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Two disciplines for
performance driven change in small groups