Drawing on work from educational psychology as well as several other fields, Rueda identifies three primary reasons for the stubborn failure of most school reform efforts: 1) a fragmentation of approaches, 2) a misalignment of approaches and goals, and 3) a failure to match solutions to problems. He argues that most performance and achievement problems are rooted in knowledge gaps, motivation gaps, and institutional gaps, or a combination thereof. This book provides an overview of each of these three dimensions, and discusses ways that they can affect performance. It then discusses a problem-solving framework that helps pinpoint where gaps exist in school efforts to improve performance, and then targets development of solutions and successful outcome loops that are customized to the specific areas that are problematic. The book concludes with a discussion of cultural and contextual considerations that must be taken into account when addressing school-based problems.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
The Three Laws of Performance: Rewriting the Future of Your Organization and Your Life (J-B Warren Bennis Series)
Amazon-Exclusive Q&A with Steve Zaffron and Dave Logan
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The laws of performance are universal. That is, any time people are involved in a situation, the laws apply. They aren’t steps or tips, but general principles that are always at work. They are also phrased in a precise way, to give maximum insight and applicability. The laws are:
1.How people perform correlates to how situations occur to them.
2.How situations occur arises in language.
3.Future based language transforms how situations occur to people.
In your opinion, what do leaders struggle with the most and how can the laws help them?
The two biggest issues we hear from leaders are lack of buy-in and an absence in ownership. The first problem often becomes acute when the leaders, working with experts, determine what plan people should implement, and the work force doesn’t want to do it, or doesn’t engage with passion. Many leaders try to solve the resulting issues with incentives, which often make the problem worse, as Daniel Pink’s book Drive demonstrates.
The second problem--absence of ownership--is related to lack of buy-in, but runs deeper. The problem, as many leaders have expressed to us, is that people don’t treat the business as though it’s their business. In some cases, it literally is their business, for example when people have some equity in the company through stock options. Yet even in many of these situations, people don’t act as though they are owners. Many leaders have expressed that nothing they ever tried has fixed the ownership problem.
The Three Laws of Performance can help with both problems by encouraging leaders to see that people’s actions are correlated to how situations occur to them. The second and third laws, taken together, say that future-based language—such as declarations, promises, and commitments—transform how situations occur to people. By focusing on the way in which things are “ occurring to the people, their actions naturally shift. The point is clear when we remember that the Declaration of Independence transformed how the experience of being a colonist occurred for the colonists. The facts hadn’t changed—the British still asserted their control. But the actions of the colonists shifted in a dance with the Declaration. What had been skirmishes by the colonists now became full-scale war and eventually the birth of a nation.
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It seems that people can apply the lessons here in many ways – how they communicate, how they think, how they act. Since publishing the hardcover version is there a “way” that stands out to you?
Since we’re writing about laws, and not tips or techniques, there is not a single “way.” Rather, there is a general flow of conversations that taps into the power of the Three Laws. The flow goes something like this:
1.Ask people: what is the “default future?” That is, what do people see coming at them in the future, almost for certain and unless something completely unexpected happens? Getting and experiencing what people see as the default future gives everyone insights into how people are experiencing the organization and their opportunities in it.
2.Go deeper:, asking people: “if this default future existed throughout the organization, what actions would people find themselves taking, perhaps even without thinking?” Even though people may not want the default future, it acts as a mostly unspoken, often unconscious, self-fulfilling prophecy. People find themselves making it happen through their actions. Getting people to see their role in this process is critical. People created the default future, and are actively bringing it about. The same people can rewrite the future.
3.Ask people: “is this default future what you want?” If the answer is a resounding “no,” they have the ability to set the default future aside and create something new.
4.Invite people to consider this question: “what do you really want instead?” People should speculate until a new future—technically, called an “invented future,” takes shape. For an invented future to be effective, it must take people’s individual concerns into account, as well as the concerns of the organization and its stakeholders.
5.Develop projects that make realize an aspect of the invented future.
As people successfully implement the projects resulting from this flow, the invented future occurs as more attainable to people. Over time, people will find themselves acting in line with the invented future. There are no steps required, no need to remember to act in a certain way. Elevated performance is now natural and automatic.
In your new epilogue to the paperback edition you zero on the three critical implications for leadership SINCE the first version in hardcover came out. Which one really stands out and why ?
The fundamental aspect of leadership that most people miss is the importance of listening. Listening, as we describe it, is not simply gathering data and opinions from people, but rather exploring how situations occur to them, what they aspire to make happen, and what stands in their way. By listening in this way, leaders combine what they hear from lots of people into an invented future that represents the bulk of people’s concerns. When people hear the invented future, they say, “That speaks for me!” because it is, in part, their idea. Lack of buy-in and ownership are replaced with excitement, inspired action, and full engagement.
People seem to describe this as a “different” type of business book? Why is that?
In working with our editor, Warren Bennis, our goal was not to write another list of steps or platitudes. Frankly, such books accomplish little more than short-term motivation, or incremental improvement. Our goal was to focus on the fundamental laws that govern human performance. We didn’t set out to write a simple book, but rather, a book that would make an impact. People have told us that the Three Laws of Performance has allowed them to approach old problems in new ways, and often move to elevated performance in much shorter time, and with less effort, than they had thought possible.
This book taps into what appears to be a shift in organizations to more openness, transparency etc. Do you agree? How so ?
Yes, we agree. Organizations are going through a shift for a variety of reasons, perhaps most importantly the ability to connect with other people. Years ago, companies could hide activities, especially in the developing world. Today, these activities are captured by cell phones and shared on social media. There’s really no place to hide anymore. As a result, organizations need to transform adversarial relationships with governments, local populations, unions, and communities, into partnerships. Doing so requires really grasping why people do what they do. We believe the Three Laws of Performance gives leaders a unique insight into how to make this shift one in a way that inspires greater levels of satisfaction, results, and the experience of making a difference.
The Toyota Way to Continuous Improvement: Linking Strategy and Operational Excellence to Achieve Superior Performance
A lean blueprint for creating long-term sustainability the Toyota way!
During Toyota’s highly publicized recalls of 2009 and 2010, the legendary carmaker’s 60-year-old reputation for operational excellence was put under the microscope. Business pundits wondered out loud if Toyota’s quality levels had decreased dramatically, while the harshest critics predicted the end of the company as we know it. For the most part, the government’s findings absolved Toyota of serious defects and accidents, and Toyota recovered rapidly—but mistakes were made, which showed that Toyota is not perfect. In fact, there is always opportunity for improvement in every process.
In his bestselling business management classic The Toyota Way, Jeffrey Liker introduced the world to the foundational principles that have made Toyota the envy of companies around the world. Now, in The Toyota Way to Continuous Improvement, Liker teams up with former Toyota production engineer James Franz to explain the underlying thinking behind continuous improvement and why any company needs a disciplined approach to process improvement in every part of the organization.
Liker and Franz outline the common mistakes in thinking that limit results, and they reveal how Toyota achieves its dual objectives of improving business performance and developing its people through following Dr. W. Edwards Deming’s teachings of Plan-Do-Check-Adjust (PDCA). Through detailed case examples in many industries, you’ll learn how to:
- Determine why your processes aren’t achieving anticipated results
- Build a sustainable lean process with a well-defined purpose
- Create a system that reveals problems
- Teach every leader and team member at every level the art of PDCA for process improvement
With The Toyota Way to Continuous Improvement, you have the foundation you need to develop a vision of continuous improvement specific to your organization and plot a path to turn your vision into a measurable reality.
Praise for The Toyota Way to Continuous Improvement:
“I have found inspiration and lessons in these real stories from real people who try, sometimes fail, and yet find creative ways to succeed in adapting the principles of Deming and Toyota. Despite the diversity of applications revealed here, the commonality in vision, values, and desired outcomes unifies these leaders. You won’t be able to put this book down.”
RICHARD ZARBO, MD, DMD, Senior Vice President and Chairman of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Henry Ford Health System
“Lean is no longer an idea, a hypothesis, or a theory—it is a proven set of principles and practices that more and more people are using to achieve substantial, sustainable continuous improvement in a variety of enterprises. This book details the practices and case studies to help you bring Lean transformation to your enterprise!”
CHARLES BAKER, former Chief Engineer and former Vice President, Honda R&D Americas
The Transformative Power of Performance: A New Aesthetics
In this book, Erika Fischer-Lichte traces the emergence of performance as 'an art event' in its own right. In setting performance art on an equal footing with the traditional art object, she heralds a new aesthetics.
The peculiar mode of experience that a performance provokes – blurring distinctions between artist and audience, body and mind, art and life – is here framed as the breeding ground for a new way of understanding performing arts, and through them even wider social and cultural processes.
With an introduction by Marvin Carlson, this translation of the original ?sthetik des Performativen addresses key issues in performance art, experimental theatre and cultural performances to lay the ground for a new appreciation of the artistic event.
The Twentieth-Century Performance Reader
The Twentieth Century Performance Reader is the key introductory text to all types of performance. Extracts from fifty practitioners, critics and theorists from the fields of dance, drama, music, theatre and live art make up an essential sourcebook for students, researchers and practitioners.
A bestseller since its publication in 1996, this second edition has been fully updated and includes:
* New writings by practitioners and theorists
* Notes about each writer
* A completely new introduction.
Each extract is fully supplemented by a contextual summary, a biography of the writer, and suggestions for further reading. Organised alphabetically, this reader makes it possible to compare major writings on all types of performance in one volume. The ways in which different performance practitioners' ideas inter-relate are pointed out in a series of detailed cross-references for readers. In so doing it becomes clear that one of the key features of twenty first century performance is its boundlessness and its capacity to cross borders.
All who enjoy or work with live innovative performance will find this book invaluable.
A bestseller since its publication in 1996, this second edition has been fully updated and includes:
* New writings by practitioners and theorists
* Notes about each writer
* A completely new introduction.
Each extract is fully supplemented by a contextual summary, a biography of the writer, and suggestions for further reading. Organised alphabetically, this reader makes it possible to compare major writings on all types of performance in one volume. The ways in which different performance practitioners' ideas inter-relate are pointed out in a series of detailed cross-references for readers. In so doing it becomes clear that one of the key features of twenty first century performance is its boundlessness and its capacity to cross borders.
All who enjoy or work with live innovative performance will find this book invaluable.
Understanding Motor Development with PowerWeb: Health and Human Performance
Organized by age groups, this worldwide best-selling text sets the standard for understanding motor development from infancy through adulthood. The reader is presented with the most up-to-date research and theory using a conceptual framework that brings clarity to understanding infant, childhood, adolescent, and adult motor development. The Hourglass Model is used as a consistent conceptual framework throughout the text, and serves as a unique aid to learning. The text is divided into separate sections focusing on critical aspects of Infancy, Childhood, Adolescence and Adulthood, making it appropriate for comprehensive courses as well as to complement courses that focus on a particular chronological age.
Uncle Vanya: In a New Translation and Adaptation by Curt Columbus (Plays for Performance Series)
Chekhov’s tragicomedy, replete with the kinds of characters we have come to know as “Chekhovian,” incorporates unrequited loves and a murder plot while exploring the social roles of women and the notion of progress. Curt Columbus’s splendid new translation and adaptation underscores the contemporary relevance of this prophetic play.
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