This time, dear reader, I will try to give you a conceptual and basic framework that\u2019s highly practical for improving performance in professionals, something always relevant, but even more so in the current state of health, economic and social uncertainty.<\/p>\n
Throughout my career I have gripped with the challenging task of trying to discover how to improve people\u2019s performance to achieve better results. After many years in the profession dealing with, and worrying about, the aspects that have an impact on improving employee performance, and of course, without believing that we have \u201cthe magic potion\u201d for it, if you were to ask me today to make an effort to abstract and summarise the factors on what people achievements depend in organizations, I would structure my answer around the concept that I called some time ago the\u00a0\u201cTheory of the 3 I\u2019s<\/strong>\u201c, as performance depends fundamentally on three elements beginning with \u201ci\u201d; namely: Instruments, Information and Incentives.<\/p>\n Instruments<\/strong>: In a large number of cases the expected results aren\u2019t achieved simply because individuals don\u2019t have the means needed to do so. Our companies may be made up of highly qualified and even motivated people, but this doesn\u2019t guarantee that we will achieve better results than our competitors. Let\u2019s use an example to show the point I am trying to make: you cannot compete in a race from Madrid to Moscow and be the first without an incredibly fast means of locomotion. So, try to arrive first, you will probably go by plane, with the best pilot, and take the best route.<\/p>\n Thomas F. Gilbert, arguably the father of human performance, bore out to us that people need certain support, tools, or instruments to function effectively.<\/p>\n The architecture and support instruments must be made available by the company to provide employees with user-friendly tools to allow them to perform their tasks as quickly and efficiently as possible.<\/p>\n Information<\/strong>: Moreover, these instruments, processes, tools and\/or supports ensure that people have the information they need, how they need it, and when they need it, i.e., at the moment of truth or value generation. This is so crucial since often results aren\u2019t achieved because people don\u2019t have even the most basic information for performing tasks properly. Experts like the distinguished members of the\u00a0International Society for Performance Improvement\u00a0<\/em>(ISPI), uphold this heuristically: an informed person with management tools at his disposal can achieve up to 50 percent more results than someone else with the same preparation and attitude but without information. In the age of technology, trying to compete by undervaluing technology and disregarding the wealth of information it provides is the surest passport to elimination.<\/p>\n Incentives<\/strong>. A friend of mine says that things are done for two fundamental reasons: for love or for money. Well, the last \u201ci\u201d of our theory addresses precisely such mobilizers of attitude, incentives. To manage them properly, you should bear in mind that there are three types of incentives that mobilize \u201cwhat is done\u201d and \u201chow it is done\u201d: these are economic, moral, and social incentives.<\/p>\n What can I tell you about the economic incentive that you don\u2019t already know? Being generous, we should say that it\u2019s the least misused of the three; in one way or another throughout history it has always shown up in the employment contract. However, there are still too many companies that at the time of the monthly payroll breakfast serve up a demotivating \u201ccoffee for all\u201d in which the best, the ones who really make an effort and achieve the best results, rather than being motivated leave the table disappointed.<\/p>\n In any case, you know as well as I do that the importance of money is relative; depending on the employee type and working conditions, it becomes more or less relevant. I am convinced that money is more important for workers when everything else around their work falls short. If the economic incentive is poorly managed, moral, and social incentives fail horribly; the underlying aetiology of this serious problem lies in the managers or bosses themselves who haven\u2019t been taught to manage people but things, and they do so through control. This was the management paradigm of an industrial era that has little to do with the current digital era in which social interaction technologies are decisive in results achievement.<\/p>\n Perhaps after reading this article you\u2019ll think that you already knew this\u2014of course, it couldn\u2019t be otherwise\u2014and add that it is only a theory. Here I wouldn\u2019t agree so much, even though you may be partly right. Just don\u2019t look for any more excuses and give it go, trying not to forget what Kurt Lewin warned us, \u201cThere is nothing so practical as a good theory\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This time, dear reader, I will try to give you a conceptual and basic framework that\u2019s highly practical for improving performance in professionals, something always relevant, but even more so in the current state of health, economic and social uncertainty. Throughout my career I have gripped with the challenging task of trying to discover how […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":2601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[344],"tags":[293],"class_list":["post-5694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-talent-management","tag-employe-engagement"],"yoast_head":"\n