“Planning is the substitution of error for Chaos.”
Anonymous
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Leveraging Self Improvement |
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Tuesday, June 17 2008
 Topic: Personal Improvement
Reference: Jones, Graham. “How the Best of the Best Get Better and Better”. Harvard Business Review, June 2008. pp. 123-127.
Self improvement is something that I am passionate about. It manifests itself in an aggressive acquisition of knowledge, new experiences and achievement. When you have an organization that has a critical mass of constantly improving employees a dynamic organization can result. It is imperative that organizations recognize this dynamic and support the development of this internal force. Competition for market growth, customer relations, and sustainability requires constant improvement and adaptability. The better suited the employees are to address these forces the better the organization will perform. This makes recruiting and supporting dynamic employee development an internal out process and not an external in process. Simply stated it is easier to acquire the right kind of talent than it is to convert it. In the referenced article the commentator takes a fresh look at what drives personal growth and fuels winning organizations. In the article the commentator relates competitiveness in sports to business. “[T]the real key o excellence in both sports and business is not the ability to swim fast or to do quantitative analyses quickly in your head; rather, it is mental toughness.” The commentator also demonstrates that improvement comes from specific character traits. For example the elite thrive on competition, constantly reinvent themselves, and are passionate about improving. They spend little time self-flagellating and when things break down they show the ability to move on. The writer also mentions things like long term planning, using small diversions to stay sharp, and acting on positive critiques as part of their achievement tool bag. “Smart companies consciously create situations in which their elite performers push one another to levels they would never reach if they were working with less-accomplished colleagues.” This is a great observation as it indicates that organizations have to play an active role in leveraging the potential benefits from elite performers. By implication it also means that organizations could be working against their own interest by not creating the right environment to maximize the value of elite performers. Are you giving the right kind of feedback? Are you structuring teams properly to create the best leverage possible? Are your supervisors encouraging personal improvement? If not, then your best may not be getting better. As indicated this has strong implications for your organization. I am interested in how others are monitoring, measuring, and promoting self improvement in their organizations from the inside out. Please let me know your thoughts.
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