The What Goes Around Blog

Serious About Performance

Gareth and I have recently started working with an interesting company called Careergro. They are in the field of employee owned career development and as part of our initial working together, we’ve been discussing the similarities and differences between career development and performance appraisals.

So I’m grateful to Felix Wetzel for sharing a great talk from TEDxPortsmouth over on Google Plus. It’s called Serious About Performance, by the sports and business coach Dr Chris Shambrook. I’ve embedded the talk down below so you can take a look if the following observations from it interest you. And even if they don’t, it’s worth a watch for a fantastic sporting analogy (around five minutes into the film).

Defining Performance

Dr Chris says that in most companies, people wrongly think that performance = results. Wrong! Results are output, they are goals (usually set for you) and how you are doing against those goals. Performance is about doing the things you need to do to get out what you want. Performance is input and output. It is about understanding your potential and developing it so that you achieve the best results you can.

Balance

In the workplace, performance improvement is almost universally seen as a bad thing, as a problem. Dr Chris thinks everyone should have a performance improvement plan – that we should seek it out, demand it and use it as a way of helping us fulfil our potential. I think that’s a much healthier attitude and when practiced, quickly integrates performance and career development.

Static versus Flow

Usually, performance is appraised annually. I feel sick just writing that last sentence, performance needs evaluating all the time. The annual appraisal sucks – I know no one who looks forward to giving or receiving one. Feedback needs to be regular – and seek it out. Otherwise, Dr Chris says it’s just a euphemism for criticism.

Weakness versus Strength

Most people leave their performance reviews with a clear understanding of their inadequacies. To achieve high performance you must focus on strengths. How can I deliberately and consistently make strong into stronger. Then, and only then, should I address my weaknesses.

Money as a Motivator

Dr Chris says ‘we start incentivising people to do behaviours and start manipulating them by introducing money’. When money is used as a motivator for results in sport, it’s when corruption is present. He uses cricket and match fixing to illustrate this, and I’m reminded of Robin Schooling’s excellent blog post about the New Orleans Saints on the same subject.

Choose Your Attitude

Choosing your attitude towards high performance is critical. Choose to be the best you can be and show that attitude as a role model to others. Readers who have been with me for the long haul may recall a post I wrote back in September 2009 after meeting with Chris Boardman. He saw this as vital too.

Does your company confuse performance with results? And who is responsible for your performance?

I’d love to hear your views.

photo c/o Bertron8

TEDxGranta

I went to my first TED event last week, TEDxGranta in Cambridge. A TEDx is an independently organised version of the well known TED events, and TEDxGranta was a mix of live talks and recorded ones, themed around ‘Alive and Kicking’. I’d like to pick up on a few things that have stayed with me since the event and if you want to know more about the speakers, you can get an in depth read here.

The event was very welcoming, the pre-show coffee and pastries were top drawer (always a good sign). So let’s get on with the show…

Mindful Movement

First up was Ross Sargent. Ross is the Co-Founder, MD, and Chief Instructor of Cambridge Kung Fu Ltd, a not-for-profit social enterprise which was established in 2007 (although Ross has been teaching Kung Fu in Cambridge since 2002). The vision of Cambridge Kung Fu is to teach the fundamental benefits that can be achieved through intelligent martial arts and movement practice. He and a colleague gave a great demo on mindful movement, a great example of fluid movement and great strength. At one point Ross stood on one leg, blindfolded, and it took two guys at full pushing force to upset his balance. Ross told us “Softness is the opposite of weakness”, and that it is based on confidence and strength.

One thing in particular that Ross said really struck a chord with me, it went something like:

People say ‘I am…’ and that implies they are stuck – that implies there is no movement in what they are. We can choose to say ‘Currently I am…’ and there’s movement, and fluidity in that. I’m not doing Ross’ point justice but as someone who is fortunate to be engaged in a rich variety of work and projects, I often struggle to tell people what ‘I am’. Sticking the word currently in front means I can more easily be what I’m doing at that moment and then move on. And so I will – move on.

Love for Language

Tim Morley enthused about Esperanto as a gateway to learning languages. It’s being taught in some schools and its simple structure makes it easy to learn and much of it is transferable to other European languages. Foreign language skills in this country are lamentable and as someone who enjoys trying to speak the lingo wherever I go abroad, I found this exposure to a new language very useful. We were given a mini learn to speak Esperanto booklet and I’m enjoying playing with it very much.

The Big Boys

We heard from Eben Upton a co-founder of Raspberry Pi – a neat and inexpensive idea designed to get kids back into the world of programming again. Remember the BBC Micro and the Sinclair Spectrum? Well this is the 2012 adaptation. Full details of the project can be found here. And we heard from Merlin Crossingham the creative director at Aardman. Merlin started work with Morph and has gone on to work with super stars Wallace and Gromit.

Lunch was fab. Paella – much better than the usual conference style fare.

Humbly Powerful

Kirsten Lavers and a few of her team talked passionately about FLACK – a local magazine showcasing the talents of its homeless contributors. We learned about how homelessness can be all consuming and leads quickly to a loss of social currency. I was moved by the frankness and honesty of Kirsten and her team and how they seem able to encourage people to get involved.

Stick to Your Buns

Tim Hayward told the story of how local cake shop Fitzbillies was resurrected after the uber twitterer Stephen Fry heard of its closure. Tim talked about a swathe of people coming into the food entrepreneur market with lots of money in their pockets having been made redundant from previous jobs. He spoke of marketing and entrepreneurship and media and many other things besides. I felt his talk was full of show, overloaded with bullet points, and shot through with arrogance, and it jarred with the humility in the previous talk from Flack. As someone who organises events I appreciate the importance and courtesy of timekeeping. Tim overran by six minutes plus (that’s an age in TED time) which smacked of a lack of preparation. And because I’d decided to stay for the whole day I missed my train home by, you guessed it, six minutes! Mind you the Chelsea bun in our goody bag was simply first class, perhaps Tim should let his fabulous product do the talking in future?

Offbeat

There were two talks in the day which focussed on music. The first by Gil Karpas though very enjoyable to me, felt out of place. And I confess a talk and demonstration by Shelley Katz about the Symphonova Project just went clean over my head. As a music lover I find it odd that these sessions didn’t register more positively with me and I applaud the organisers for their boldness in staging them.

Ten Little Big Words

Tim Minshall gave an engaging and energising talk about the importance of engineering. He shared some great research gathered from children who thought engineers are: ‘Men with hammers and spanners, they wear big boots and fix stuff’. Furthermore the kids thought engineering was ‘dirty’, boring’, and ‘not important’. Kids don’t pull their punches and neither did Tim who used this research as a building block for a super talk. The other blocks in the talk were ten words. Invent, Do, Improve, Share, Shape, Build, Why?, Yes!, Oops! – this one was particularly memorable as Tim shared with us the story of the Genesis probe and the Apple Newton. Two great mistakes. And the tenth word? ‘Wow!’ Tim’s doing great work and I wish him well in his mission to switch on more young brains to engineering.

Inspiring

David Constantine MBE is a co-founder of Motivation, a charity working to improve the quality of life of people with mobility impairment. David told us his own story of how he became wheelchair dependent. Throughout his talk about the life changing work his charity does in providing access to wheelchairs in far off places, he kept referring to himself as lucky. Lucky that he was accepted and embraced. He also told us how proud he is to be a tax payer, and he sowed both these powerful seeds throughout his talk. I found David very moving and inspiring and judging by the applause he received I think most people at TEDxGranta felt similarly.

Reflections

The live talks were of a very high standard and the hygiene factor stuff, good food, clean loos, comfy seating etc all helped. Oddly I’m sitting here a few days later struggling to recall any of the prerecorded talks (though I enjoyed them at the time), apart from a short funny and rather glib one by some Youtube dude all about how to go viral on their channel. I believe that the TEDx licence mandates thou shalt show prerecorded TED talks, for me they seem to have rather quickly faded.

I had a super day of learning and conversation. Well done to the organisers: Hilary Goldsmith, Vandy Massey, Sue Keogh, Chris Massey, Jo Riches and Zoe Rose, and thanks to Wallace and Gromit for posing for photos. Will I go back next year? Absolutely – TEDxGranta is a very illuminating and enjoyable day.

Quitter

Try Googling ‘quotes about quitting’ and you get a torrent of crap telling you stuff like:

Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit. – Vince Lombardi

It’s always too early to quit. – Norman Vincent Peale

and there’s a bunch more here. Go on – gorge yourself, you’re a winner right?

I used to believe all this winners never quit, quitters never win rubbish too. Then one morning in May 2009 I found myself sat on the highway at about 6am somewhere near Horsham in bits (mentally) with my time trial bike beside me. And I finally had the good sense to quit. How did I come to be there…?

I started time trialling in 2006, and boy did I suck at it. Imagine turning up for a competitive sporting event and knowing you weren’t gonna be last cos Mr Hopeless is in the house. Yeah – that was me. And I kept going. And I found a coach. And I got better. In 2008 I set personal bests at all regular distances up to and including 100 miles. I won the Southern Counties 10 mile handicap and came fifth in the Southern Counties 100 mile handicap, and achieved a placing in the Southern Counties Best All Rounder. I was a winner, yay me!

Then in 2009 on an early season ride I lost control of my bike on a steep descent. I wobbled into the path of oncoming traffic at about 40mph and somehow, managed to avoid a disaster. I arrived at the bottom of the hill dazed and confused. I continued and finished the ride, taking all the downhills veeeery gently. I didn’t realise at the time, but something broke inside me that day. I’d lost my bottle – [noun] British informal the courage or confidence needed to do something difficult or dangerous.

I started to DNF (did not finish) in races. I’d never DNF’d previously, winners don’t DNF (apart from when their bike falls apart), right? I found myself no longer able to ride at speed. As I accelerated the road in front of me, which I knew to be a level strip of tarmac, would appear to change so that I saw myself riding along a razor sharp ridge with a huge drop either side. The faster I went, the steeper and crazier I saw the angle. I kept entering for races, and with one exception, I kept DNF ing.

The final race I finished. Riding with black arm band with respect to old club mate Keith Wawman who passed away a few days earlier.

What followed next was a stupid crash. A school boy error. One evening as I rode my bike through a local tram station at around 20mph, my front wheel snagged in the tram tracks. I was catapulted over the bike and used my arse as a brake. Ouch! This crash compounded the problem. I had hypnotherapy to try and help. Winners never quit right?

I decided to take a short break and targeted the 2009 Southern Counties 10 mile time trial as my come back event. I know, the course, no big hills, I’d won the handicap the year before. What could possibly go wrong? I could go wrong. About a half mile into the race I broke down and that’s how I came to be sitting on the highway near Horsham.

I quit.

The next time you need inspiration and you Google stuff about winners never quit, go waaaay down to the bottom of the pile. Down there you will find a handful of stuff like:

Of all the stratagems, to know when to quit is the best. – Chinese Proverb

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no point in being a damn fool about it. – W.C. Fields

Yes it’s a fine line. Yes most people quit too soon. And yes, WC Fields was right.

Epilogue:

Nowadays I prefer to ride offroad where in all honesty I probably take much bigger risks bombing down muddy trails than I ever took while racing. But hey – I’m riding my bike and I’m enjoying it. And in case you are interested, I always used to stick my tongue out when I raced.