What does performance mean for you? There are many different ways to look at personal performance. In your sector, possibly you see yourself as a consummate professional, where your experience and expertise are your measures of success? Perhaps you are primarily an entertainer whose role is to keep people engaged, or maybe you are a facilitator, creating opportunities for others to discover, reflect, and excel? Many of our general ideas about performance are based around the stage or the sports-field. We think of roles, unfolding actions, and sequences of events. For management guru Peter Drucker, performance is highly goal-orientated and measured by the results which are achieved. What did we plan to do, and did we do it? Did we execute the plan successfully? Depending on your perspective, business performance might refer to organisational performance (the overall effectiveness of the business in meeting its goals), managerial performance (successful management of the different constituent parts of the organisation), or employee performance (specifically, managing your staff in order to achieve the best outcomes). In a very broad sense, our ability to perform to a consistently high level is a measure of how well we transform current resources (such as people, equipment, plans, and other inputs) into future outcomes (specifically, as they relate to our overall goals and objectives). In other words, business performance is a key measure of business success. So, if business performance is an important indicator of our ability to achieve successful outcomes, then we should really understand what performance actually is, and how we can use it to the best effect. A high-performing business equates to an effective organisation delivering quality results. Another great name in management theory, Henry Mintzberg, also equates performance with effectiveness and excellence. Mintzberg makes some interesting observations about how two other influential management thinkers, Michael Porter and Tom Peters, differ in their perspectives on the same topic. Mintzberg notes that Porter’s view is that effective organisations actively position themselves in a market niche in order to gain the best possible advantage, while Peters’ advocates that effective organisations perform with excellence irrespective of where they sit in the marketplace. To put this more bluntly, this is the difference between an early childhood centre seeking a competitive advantage by excelling in a clearly identified speciality area, or by seeking to perform with excellence, irrespective of any niche speciality. However, there is more to performance than just achieving results. One particularly interesting distinction is the difference between tactical performance and adaptive performance, within organisations. Tactical performance is when we do things ‘by the book’, repeating tasks time-after-time, in the same way. Think of McDonalds, and the way that the same product can be delivered to the same standard, at any store location. The product is a consistent part of the overall strategy, and the strategy is sustained by regular, predictable, and replicatable performance. In contrast to tactical performance, adaptive performance is required in uncertain, volatile, or unpredictable situations. As an example, a new set of industry regulations might require a change in tactical performance, forcing a different approach to the way that things are done. Similarly, adaptive performance might be a different greeting for each client, rather than a cookie-cutter welcome. Innovation, creativity, and novelty are all examples of adaptive performance, where unique responses are required to deal with changing conditions. So, if tactical performance relates to how closely we stick to the plan, then adaptive performance is how effectively we diverge from it, as needs change and new strategies are needed. (For those readers who are interested, there are some interesting parallels here with Clayton Christensen’s ideas around sustaining innovation and disrupting innovation. Maybe more about that in another article …) Performance-based management: Gettingthe best out of your team By Phil Sales December 2023 { 26 }
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