Breaking Good

  Innovation   ProjectsAtWork  

There are times when meeting existing performance standards just won’t be enough — when circumstances call for extraordinary results in order to avoid failure. Breakthrough performance requires teams to get creative, to step out of their comfort zone and let go of past methods and tools. Once again, trust plays a major role.

Great organizations make a habit of doing what they say they will do. They also have the capability to do extraordinary things when it is necessary. In Part I of this two-part series — “Trust Acts” — we described what is required to consistently meet your commitments, and the reasons that so many teams and organizations don’t do this consistently. It has to do with the need to replace top-down control with distributed control when you are operating in a complex and rapidly changing environment.

There is an inherent trade-off between control and innovation (or creativity). In other words, when we act systematically to ensure the accomplishment of specific outcomes, we reduce the chances of people innovating to exceed those outcomes. Most of the time, consistency is enough to compete and be successful. But there are times when consistently meeting the current standards of performance is not enough to be competitive. Stretch goals, even if you could attain them, would also leave you short of the mark. What’s needed is…

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