the three laws of performance

Transformation in education will require some new ways of doing things. We will need to be open to looking at old problems in new ways.

An old Sufi parable (told by Zaffron and Logan in their book 'the three laws of performance') describes a man searching for his keys one night. A friend of his arrives to find him on his knees under a streetlamp. The friend joins him and starts searching. After a while the friend turns to the man and asks him where exactly he dropped the keys. The man points into the darkness and responds "over there". To which the friend asks why he is searching here. "Because this is where the light is."

This certainly rang a few bells for me. How much time do we spend searching for new solutions in the same old places? Hoping that we will get to a new place while walking the well trod path?

The three laws of performance sheds some light on how we can address some of the old leadership challenges in new ways. In particular it suggests that we (as individuals and organisations) get tied up in 'language knots' that need to resolved and replaced with future based or generative language. The three laws are:

1. How people perform correlates to how situations occur to them

2. How a situation occurs arises in language

3. Future-based language transforms how situations occur to people

According to Zaffron and Logan the challenge for leaders is to listen for what is not being said. To be willing to explore the 'unsaid'. In this way you shed light on areas often left in the dark. Organisational blind-spots.

It also provides leaders with a framework for thinking about their own or their teams performance. Taking the time to consider how the team is perceiving situations becomes time well spent, as does listening to the type of language that is being used. Is the team stuck in descriptive language of how things 'have always been around here', or is future based language transforming perceptions and releasing hope and motivation?

Why is this important? 

Because as leaders we are only as good as our teams. And our teams deserve work-places that draw out the best from them in order to give the best to our young people.

So.... how are you using words to shape your organisation's future?

The Power of Feedback

Last fathers day my kids gave me a heart rate monitor. As per usual I thanked them for their thoughtfulness. The fascinating thing (since I started wearing it!) has been the impact it has had on my exercise regime. Once I was aware of my heart rate I was able to adjust the intensity of my exercise to keep it within my target zone (go here for a cool little target heart rate calculator). As a result my exercise has been more focussed and I have got fitter faster.

Feedback is critical to anyone (or any group) who seeks to improve or change.

Hattie and Timperley in their paper The Power of Feedback provide a model of feedback for student learning. Their model suggests that there are 3 questions central to effective feedback:

• Where am I going? (a goal focus)
• How am I going? (progress)
• Where to next? (feedforward or next steps)

These questions work at four levels:

• task level (how well are the tasks performed or understood)
• process level (the processes required to achieve the tasks)
• self-regulation level (my growth as an independent learner)
• self level (personal evaluations of my worth in relation to the above)

The level at which feedback is applied is critical to its effectiveness. In general the best feedback moves from task to process to self-regulation level, and praise at a self level is often of little effect and sometimes has a negative effect on improvement. Other factors for effective feedback include timing, clarity, amount, compatibility with students prior knowledge, and level of threat (best when low) to the students sense of self.

I am sure that this model does not only apply to students. It is a useful model for all of us regarding the feedback we give and receive. The big idea is that are energised when we are able to identify the discrepancy between our performance and our target and know how to close the gap (or at least a part of it). We get hooked on improvement. Feedback is that critical piece that enables us to 'grasp' the discrepancy and put pressure on it.

Doing the basics well is a critical part of sound leadership. Providing and receiving effective feedback to and from members of our team is one of those basics.

So....when did you last give or receive some effective feedback?