"Productive insight; clear (often sudden) understanding of a complex situation." Free Dictionary
Pop the bubble of conditioned thinking and emerge into the creative realm of "no absolutes," continuous change, uncertainty and unlimited possibilities.
Then, there can be innovation, adaptation and optimal performance.
Performance & Open-minded Mindfulness:
Open-minded: questioning everything, accepting diversity and uncertainty.
Mindful: consciously aware; concentrated.
Foundation for blending process, project, engagement and knowledge management into a cohesive approach to optimize performance.
This Newsletter
Our aim is to stimulate the kind of thinking, dialogue and understanding that leads to optimal performance.
The Individual is at the Heart of Team and Organizational Performance By George Pitagorsky
At the heart of any organization is the individual. Individuals assemble into teams and departments which take on a "personality" of their own and assemble into larger and larger organizational units. Individuals influence and are influenced by their teams and organizations.
Individual behavior drives all performance. Therefore, we must address it in any attempt to improve performance. Process is the key to performance. Intrapersonal process is what goes on in the body and mind of the individual. Ultimately only the individual can work with his or her intrapersonal process. Yet, when that process is not healthy it affects the individual's behavior and that affects the team and wider groups. Therefore teams and organizations should motivate and support their members to optimize their personal performance.
How can we address individuals' intrapersonal process without crossing the line between personal psychology and appropriate performance optimization? We focus on behavior. The process itself is the person's own business. His or her behavior is the business of anyone who may be affected by it.
When we address personal behavior, we want to avoid being overly intrusive. As managers and peers we make sure that everyone is aware of behavioral expectations and of their own responsibilities to fulfill them. While some may think this is intrusive, we must insist that to be a member of a group, one must be responsible for his/her behavior and responsive to the needs of the group as a whole and its other members.
At the same time we must be careful not to restrict individual behavior that does not impact the group's performance. One can argue that imposing restrictions on team members' behavior outside of work, such as the way they dress, their use of alcohol or their involvement in political or social movements, is overly intrusive. Though, in some situations any behavior that is socially questionable can have a negative effect on the group. The group gets to set the behavioral protocols, within reason and the boundaries set by law; individuals decide whether to join.
We acknowledge the need for setting behavioral norms. In effect these norms define what the group means by optimal personal performance. Then it is up to the individual to behave in accordance with them.
Optimal personal performance boils down to competencies required to get the job done in a way that satisfies the group members and those who are the group's sponsors, clients and others who are impacted by the group's behavior. Those competencies include concrete "technical skills", business knowledge and interpersonal skills. The interpersonal skills are the most difficult to define and manage.
The fundamental driver of personal performance are the ability to step back and see oneself objectively and to accept things as they are - uncertain, impermanent and without a substantial permanent substance. Combining these, the individual can become free of the reactive behavior that comes from clinging to things that cannot be and running from things that cannot be avoided.
To be an effective team member, the individual must accept that when working in groups, healthy relationships must be cultivated and maintained. This means that reactive behavior must be controlled. Why? Because it impacts others. It is fine for a person to be angry, but expressing that anger by lashing out at others is unacceptable behavior. In other words, emotional intelligence or the ability to work with and manage emotions is an essential ingredient of personal performance and a foundation for team performance.
What enables an individual to see him or herself objectively and accept things as they are? It is mindfulness cultivated through insight meditation practice. This practice trains the mind to enable emotional intelligence. It enables clarity and is both supported by and supports the open minded thinking that is the foundation of the ability to communicate, manage conflict and change, and to apply all the technical skills needed to achieve well understood objectives.
This practice is part of the individual's intrapersonal process. Therefore it is inappropriate for an organization or group to require that any individual do it. It is appropriate, however, for an organization to discuss the benefits of the practice and make training available to its members. In the end, it is the individual's choice to take part in it. The motivation for doing so is the desire for the benefits - increased energy, better health, lower blood pressure, less anxiety, enhanced concentration, greater resilience and ability to manage change, increased patience, experiential knowledge of the nature of one's own mind and the nature of things in general, increased tendency to be kind, compassionate, and less jealous of others.
Are you Performing Optimally?
Only you can answer this question for yourself. You must define your criteria and then assess your performance against it. Do you take the time to step back and see how you are doing? Are your criteria realistic? Do you accept critical (positive and negative) input from others and use it to inform your behavior? If not, you may be missing opportunities to improve?
Is Optimal Performance Achievable?
Of course it is. Once we understand that optimal performance does not mean completely flawless performance we see that optimal performance is achievable if we are willing to apply our energy to achieve it. "Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack, a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in." Leonard Cohen
Is it Worth the Effort?
To answer this question perform a cost benefits analysis. Consider the cost of quality. How much do errors, omissions and defects like late projects, turn-over of the most valuable players, excessive cost of ownership of project results cost financially and in terms of customer satisfaction? What is the vision? What can be done to get better? What does getting better mean in terms of measurable results? Is it feasible to achieve? How will you do it? How much will it cost and how long will it take? Who will do it? What are the risks of attempting and not attempting to achieve and sustain optimal performance?
What does it Mean to Perform Optimally?
Optimal performance is the ability to succeed in the face of changing and often conflicting criteria. It is being completely immersed in performance while being aware of what one is doing; being focused, in control, able to adapt to changing conditions. It is balance between thoroughness and efficiency and between resources and what is expected from them. Optimal performance is sustainable.
Situational Management: Not 'Either-or Thinking'
By George Pitagorsky
"A hybrid, combined approach is really the only approach that makes any sense. In religion many people worship only one god, but in process management we should all be pantheists." Tom Davenport
'Either-or thinking' is a sure way to get to poor decisions and discord. Tom Davenport's quote refers to the use of Six Sigma but applies to many context including project management, design engineering, strategic planning, marketing and management in general. When we try to squeeze a complex problem into a pre-set methodology or style we invariably run into trouble.
In the project management field there is a raging debate over whether to apply Agile methods or more traditional methods. In health care there is the debate over whether holistic or pharmacological and surgical based solutions are best. In marketing it is about the product mix that's right and the best way to get to the prospective buyers. In religion it is ... well let's not get into that one.
One size does not fit all. Stop arguing about philosophy and do the practical work of finding the best way to address the situation at hand (with an eye on the future). There is no magic bullet, no one way. That is where Situational Management comes in.
Situational Management is related to Situational Leadership, a model in which the leader (or manager) adopts different leadership styles depending on the situation. Ken Blanchard and Paul Hersey defined the Situational Leadership model as blending supportive and directive behaviors based on the needs of the situation, particularly the developmental level of the follower; the lower the level of competence and commitment of the follower, the greater the need for directive behavior.
Situational management expands on this concept and applies it to management of the process as well as the individuals. The concept is that there is no single way to manage since situations and managers are different. The manager applies appropriate principles and style.
In project management, when you come across the prescription for a Singular Methodology take it to mean a broad framework within which there are multiple methodologies operating in different parts of the organization on different types of projects. For example, Six Sigma, Agile software development, Waterfall product development, etc. all being utilized in the context of an overriding set of policies, values and principles. The framework is held together by high level values and policies, common procedures and tools and the recognition that the enterprise is one system in which all actions may have global impact.
In the end, situational management is doing what works best and is very practical. It seeks to apply what works best given current and expected conditions. Managers are responsible for executing directions as efficiently and effectively as possible, usually within constraints. The more these constraints are established as broad policies, values, principles and best practices the more the manager can be flexible and adapt to the needs of the moment.
While there are debates about the constraints, more often than not, we find that agreement regarding them is far easier to come by than agreement on tactics.
Of course there is a downside to situational management. It requires managers who are resilient, adaptive and capable of working without firm boundaries. They need to take the risks associated with finding the best way to proceed rather than applying the one way. That brings us back around to situational leadership - the greater the level of competency and commitment of the manager the more situational leadership can be applied to enable situational management.
How do we cultivate situational managers? Well that is a subject for another article. The short answer is the recognition of the need, coaching and training.
Contact us at info@PitagorskyConsulting.com to explore how we can cultivate the qualities required to manage in these uncertain times when working with the old roadmap gets you lost.
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