Welcome To The Resource For Managers, Trainers, Coaches And Consultants Who Want To Banish Forever Those Stubborn Performance Issues That Just Won’t Go Away!
What Are We On About?
Stubborn Performance Issues?
Just like a TV advert that talks about stubborn stains, stubborn problems are those that no matter what you try, they just don't seem to go away.
You've tried everything you can think of with the very short time and other pressures on you. A different approach is needed. Quick!
Performance Issues That Come Back?
Don't you just love it (not!) when last week's solved problem comes back, or pops up in some other part of the organisation, making things overall perhaps even worse?
Typically solutions cause problems elsewhere in the organisation that can be worse for the organisation as a whole, and that often catches people out - usually when it's too late!
What Kind Of Performance Issues?
People or process issues, they're both important, and often tied up with each other. To make sure stubborn or recurring performance problems are dealt with once and for all, we look at both people and process aspects.
How?
You can tackle things with our help in a variety of ways:
➢ Consulting - invite us in to
help you get underneath what is going on and why.
➢ Training - learn how we do
what we do so you can do it yourself.
➢ Manual - buy our DIY manual
so you can teach yourself.
➢ Tips
- regular tips and tools, case studies etc that give you
enough insights to help you fix some of your issues.
Why Invite Us?
Typically we're invited in when a problem is particularly stubborn or complex, or where time is critical. Our experience of many such situations means we can get to the heart of things more quickly.
And frankly we come bringing 'tough love' - our approach to breaking through perceptions that are blocking views to a solution can sometimes seem a little uncomfortable, but nothing like continuing to fall short on performance!
Helping Managers Get Their Performance Agenda Back On Track
What & Why
A human systems magician will help improve the performance of any system that involves people and processes, and do so in a way that ensures the performance stays improved. That’s nothing short of magic!
Look at the 4 statements below and think about the extent to which they reflect your current performance situation.
➢ Performance
(individuals, whole team or a particular process) is not
where it needs to be.
➢ It’s important that things improve
soon.
➢ Previous attempts to improve
things have not had the desired effect.
➢ It’s no longer clear how to move
forward.
If these statements are even just a mild reflection of your current situation, chances are you might appreciate a little extra help.
Here are your options:
- Do nothing…
- Find somebody in the wider organisation who can help – may be they have experienced a similar issue before, and were successful in tackling it.
- Get some external help from somebody who will take a fresh approach.
Assuming option '1' is not an option, and you've gone as far as you can with option '2', that just leaves option '3', some outside help - so why not choose us?!
I’m a human systems magician! I create for you a range of options that enable you to tackle your performance challenge (individual, team or process). These options make maximum use of currently available resources, in order to minimise cost and disruption. The side effect is greatly enhanced staff engagement. That’s magic!
I have a great track record, with recent interventions for clients putting over $2M on to client bottom lines for a considerably smaller investment, addressing major performance issues where doing nothing would have cost much more than $2M. This is perhaps not so unusual – you expect outside help to have some track record!
I take a whole-systems approach to find the root causes and drivers of the current performance situation. This is a bit more unusual and explains why when working with me things tend to stay fixed. The whole-systems approach means I look not just at processes but also policies, structures, relationships, personalities, politics, regulations, targets, strategies and plans, behaviours, communication channels and many other places where root causes and drivers can ‘hide’. And I go in to only as much depth as needed to achieve your desired outcomes, and no more, which keeps costs and lead times down.
How? The ‘whole-systems’ approach
Traditional approaches, including those you are likely to have tried in the past, fail because they haven’t tackled the true root causes. The result is that the problem simply moves to somewhere else in the system – if not for you or your team, then for some other team. Either way the end result is that the system as a whole – your organisation – can’t perform at its best, and ultimately that can impact on everybody.
The reason people continue to apply traditional approaches is because sometimes they seem to work – the problem goes away. It either genuinely goes away for the organisation as a whole, or moves to another part of the organisation (which may come back too you in another form in the end!). This gives the impression to the original team that their solution worked. At least for a while.
Some root causes may be closed to direct action and influence from you, but many won’t be. These are the basis of the options that enable you to retain control of what you do and how you move performance forward. By employing a Solutions Focused approach that makes use of what ever is currently available (skills, behaviours, experience, knowledge, ingenuity, help from other teams etc), performance rapidly improves along with staff engagement.
By tackling root causes and making sure any solutions become part of everyday business there is much less chance of the problem coming back. That’s more magic!
And to round things off under the ‘How?’ title, I can happily train you and your people to do all of this for yourself so you can tackle many more performance issues yourself, before you need to call for outside help again (for the really ‘wicked’ problems!)
What if…?
What if you don’t take a whole-systems approach? The chances are you won’t tackle the key root causes, or even be aware of all of them. This makes it much more likely that anything you do to improve performance will do nothing of the sort, not from the perspective of the whole system that is your organisation. What are the long term consequences for you and your colleagues if this keeps happening?
The chances are much greater that the problem will just move to somewhere else in the system and very likely make things worse overall.
