Removing interferences in 2007.

How did you feel the last time that your boss, your sports coach or the Chief Exec asked for 110% effort?

We hear hyperbole around performance a lot and it makes us wonder what happened to just giving 100%. After all, there was a time when 100% was enough.

Unless you’re an elite athlete and your organization treats you like one in order for you to give it peak performance, in return it gives you peak training time, and facilitates you having peak rest. Our observation is we’re rarely able to give 100%, and if we are, how long can we sustain it without proper maintenance. So what stops you giving 100%?

An example of real life 100% performance (minus a percent or two)!

• Your journey to work took an hour longer and you were stressed by the time you walked into your 8am meeting       (-1%) i.e. you function @ 99%
• You haven’t kissed your kids goodnight for three weeks because you’re working late (-15%)
• You are trying to engender team spirit amongst your colleagues and they just don’t get it (-10%)
• Your clients demand the impossible, gift wrapped, yesterday (that’s why you’re here (-5%)
• People on the way up want your job, people on their way out say they could do it better (-5%) etc.

All these can detract from performance (and we know that you have your own examples).

100% is your absolute potential reached. It is the point at which all of your skills converge. It is the point where you cannot give anymore.

Our observation is that 100% utilization of potential is almost impossible let alone 110%. It comes at the question of performance from the wrong angle. It assumes that everything is in place for you to achieve 100%, when it clearly is not.

What would happen if you started with the end in mind; peak performance, and if it were possible, looked in percentage terms at the things that stop you achieving or sustaining peak performance, the interference’s if you like. In your work environment your organisation may say ‘We have given you state of the art I.T, you have your own office, four hundred people report to you, your company car is top of the range. Yet you appear to be under performing’

It may not be possible for you to say that that your journey to work took an hour longer (-1%). That you haven’t kissed your kids goodnight for three weeks (-15%) That you are trying to engender a feeling of team-work amongst your direct reports and they just don’t get it (-10%). That your clients are demanding the impossible and they want it gift-wrapped yesterday (-5%). That the young people on the way up want your job (-5%) etc, etc and therefore you are only working at 64% of your optimum.

Of course we make choices, assign priorities, balance and juggle. We do all of these on a daily basis and yet we expect and are expected to achieve 100% of our potential, 100% of the time.

So take some time, i.e. slow down to go faster. Work out what the interferences are and go to work at removing them. It is important to recognise these interference’s and then go to work on removing them.
Your potential (P) minus your interference’s (I) equals your improved performance (P) or P-I=P. Removing the interference’s that constrain you/your organisation, will lead to increased sustainable performance!

Road Signs We Have Known  - Problem or opportunity? Diversion or distraction?

Lots of you took a ‘time-out’ to send us your thoughts, many thanks. The winner and recipient of a bottle of Moet is Craig Harrison, Learning and Development Manager at Carl Bro. Congratulations.
‘It’s only a problem when a lack of time dulls your appreciation to the opportunities. This, a welcome distraction; the Moet, an aid to reflection.’

New Year, New Resolutions?

What does 2007 hold in store for BigBlueStuff and what are we committed to, that will ensure we continue to ‘be’ and ‘do’ what we envisaged when we started on this journey? When we formed BigBlueStuff in 2004 it was built around a ‘Creed,’ a statement of belief that resonates for us and helps guide our direction. We continually turn to our creed to sense check its relevance. We review and refine it in line with what we have learnt having worked with so many of you. So our resolve is to commit wholeheartedly to the following:

Our Creed (A Statement of Belief)

We believe that:                       

• Every individual, team and organisation has innate potential
• Enjoyment, learning and performance are inextricably linked and when accessed in totality, more happens faster
• Ask better questions, get better answers, make better choices with stronger resolve
• Potential minus interference equals performance (P-I=P)
• The barriers to breakthrough are often embedded in the environment where people need to perform the most.
• There is synchronicity. All things are interconnected  - input A does not produce output B in isolation.
• People centred, business focused, results orientated coaching delivers extra-ordinary results.
• An environment should be better for us having been there.

We would be interested to hear what you resolve to do the same, do better, do differently for you and your business in 2007. Email us at coaching@bigbluestuff.com

A thought – this appeared in our first newsletter back in 2004, it still feels as important to use today, if not more so however, gaining clarity about what one should commit to is a different matter

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back,
Always ineffectiveness.
Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation)
There is one elementary truth,
The ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans:
That the moment one definitely commits oneself
Then providence moves too.
All sorts of things occur to help one
That would not otherwise have occurred.
A whole stream of events issues from the direction
Raising in one's favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings
And material assistance
Which no one could ever have dreamt would come their way.
Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
Begin it now!   
                                     
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1832)

Lastly, we want to take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy Christmas and a very prosperous New Year. We at BigBlueStuff hope 2007 brings all that you wish for.

In keeping with our values and beliefs we do not send Christmas cards but instead make a donation to
‘Tommy’s’ the children’s charity.