4 steps to creating a performance

7/28/2019 4 Steps to Creating a Performance

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4 Steps to Creating a Performance-Based Culture

As a consultant and coach to organizations trying to improve organizational results through

strategy executionand performance management, questions about how to improve organizationalculture crop up from clients ALL the time. This makes perfect sense, of course, because if your

people aren't bought in and supporting these kinds of efforts, you might as well not bother.

But, as anyone who has ever tried to truly change a culture knows, it can be incredibly difficult.

Organizational inertia is a powerful force. Overcoming it requires energy, endurance, and strong

leadership from a committed, charismatic senior team.

Thankfully, just as there are training plans that have helped transform complete couch potatoes

into marathon runners, there is a set of proven steps that can help senior leaders drive and sustaintrue and dramatic change. Here -- at a high-level -- they are:

Step 1: Define the new behaviors you want to see in place.

If the leadership team has determined that the culture should become more performance-based,they need to define exactly what behaviors they want to see exhibited. These should be

consistent with the current values of the organization, since the values typically dont change.

Here are some example behaviors they might want to cultivate:

Laser-like focus on achieving shared goals Leaders actively managing key outcome measures Owners of measures, goals, and initiatives taking real responsibility for performance

Step 2: Establish best practice processes and structures to drive these behaviors.

Sounds good, but how do you actually identify "best practices?" One way is to find an

organization that already is highly performance driven and see what processes and structuresthey have in place. A great way to find organizations like that is through theBaldrigePerformance Excellence Programor the state-level equivalent in your area. Previous recipients

of these awards are very willing to share how they became successful, either at the program's

annual conference or often on a more ad-hoc basis with organizations learning about theprogram.

Some examples that you'll find when you do this benchmarking:

Strategic planning approaches that result in more narrowly focused, achievable objectives

Data-drivenbusiness performance reviewsthat reinforce accountability Technology that supports the processes and structures

Talking to people at these kinds of high-performing organizations (or consultants who have ledorganizations through these transformations) will provide you with the nuts and bolts that

translate these broad ideas into best practices.
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Step 3: Communicate With, Train, and Coach Employees.

This is where the energy, endurance, and charsima noted above come in especially handy.Employees at all levels must become so good at exhibiting the new behaviors and utilizing the

new processes and structures that they become second nature, which requires a considerable

amount of good leadership, coaching, and ongoing communication.

Since change is inherently difficult, it must be made clear why and how this is a "win-win" for

those involved. Fear and lack of information will sabotage even the best ideas, so you have tocommunicate, communicate, communicate, train, and coach.

The best coaches are those who have been on this journey before and also possess great coaching

skills, which often means that the first coaches are consultants like me, but ultimately

management must learn the processes and coaching skills to truly change (and sustain) the

culture from within.

Step 4: Align Organizational Rewards & Recognition.

To reinforce the changes you've just made, it's critical that organizational rewards, such as bonus

and incentive compensation plans, as well as internal awards and recognition programs, also

change so that they reward the leaders and employees who:

Exhibit the new behaviors Incorporate new processes and structures into their daily roles Demonstrate results in the strategically-aligned areas that they own

Changing culture isn't easy, but it's not impossible either.

The impact of performance management culture on prison-based

Therapeutic Communities

1. Guy Shefer1. University of Bedfordshire, UK1. Guy Shefer, Tilda Goldberg Centre for Social Work and Social Care, University of Bedfordshire,

Luton, Bedfordshire, LU1 3JU, UK. Email:[email protected]

Abstract

Based on a focused ethnographic study, this paper demonstrates how performance measurement

culture affects the programme integrity of two English prison-based Therapeutic Communities.

The study reveals how completion targets limited staff discretion in both programmes, althoughthe two handled these pressures through different strategies. The paper analyses the factors that

shaped these strategies and their consequences. It is argued that, whatever the reasons behind the
http://euc.sagepub.com/search?author1=Guy+Shefer&sortspec=date&submit=Submithttp://euc.sagepub.com/search?author1=Guy+Shefer&sortspec=date&submit=Submitmailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://euc.sagepub.com/search?author1=Guy+Shefer&sortspec=date&submit=Submit


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recent flourishing of rehabilitation programmes in prison, their day-to-day monitoring reflects a

highly managerialistic approach. Although the promotion ofan entirely target-less

rehabilitation environment may not be realistic, the paper suggests that over-reliance oncompletion targets can be highly damaging to the fidelity of the implementation of such

programmes.

4 steps to creating a performance

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