WHEN A TEAM ISN'T PERFORMING AT IT'S BEST, IT'S TEMPTING TO FOCUS ON THE PEOPLE
Do they need better skills? More accountability? Greater resilience? Better communication?
Sometimes, absolutely. But what if capable people are working within conditions that make good performance unnecessarily difficult. For example, relentless urgency, competing priorities, unclear ownership, organisational friction, cognitive overload...
When those things start to show up in how a team performs, it can be easy to diagnose the symptom rather than understand what’s really driving it.
A team struggling under relentless pressure might appear to need greater resilience. A communication problem might actually be rooted in unclear ownership or competing priorities. And when collaboration is difficult, another team-building intervention might create a valuable conversation – without changing the conditions people return to afterwards.
So perhaps there’s a different question worth asking - are we trying to fix the people, when we should also be looking at the conditions they are being asked to perform in?
LOOKING AT PERFORMANCE DIFFERENTLY
This is the idea at the heart of our Humanity Formula. It encourages us to look at performance through two connected perspectives:
Human capability
The mindset, skills and behaviours people bring to their work.
System conditions
The pressures, organisational friction and cognitive load that can enable or constrain that capability.
Neither exists in isolation.
Highly capable people can struggle in difficult conditions. Equally, improving the environment alone won’t necessarily address a genuine capability gap.
The interesting question is what happens between the two.
Because when we understand what is really affecting performance, we have a much better chance of choosing an intervention that addresses the cause rather than simply responding to the symptom.
BEFORE DECIDING WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE, GET CURIOUS
The next time performance isn’t quite where you want it to be, it may be worth resisting the urge to jump immediately to a solution. Instead, ask what is actually getting in the way of this team performing at its best?
Is there a capability that needs strengthening? Is something about the environment making good performance harder? Or is it the interaction between the two?
You may already have a sense of the answer. But making those patterns more visible, and understanding how they connect, can help focus attention where it is most likely to make a difference.
JOIN US AND PUT THE HUMANITY FORMULA TO WORK
We’ll be exploring this concept in our next virtual Sladen Snapshot on Tuesday 15 September at 13.00 BST.
In this 50-minute interactive session, we won’t simply talk you through a model. You’ll use the Humanity Formula to take a quick scan of your own team, explore what happens when the pressure is on and develop a first hypothesis about what may really be affecting performance.
You’ll leave with:
A clearer view of what may be enabling or constraining your team’s performance
A better sense of where your attention as a leader could have the greatest impact
One practical shift to take back to your team
And perhaps a different question to ask the next time performance isn’t quite where you want it to be
Want to explore what might be happening in your own team? Register here: Humanity Formula Snapshot Registration
WHAT TO EXPECT
Our Sladen Snapshots are deliberately small, practical and designed for participation.
There’ll be space for conversation and reflection, as well as the opportunity to apply the thinking directly to your own context.
The session will be facilitated by Sladen Client Partner,Sue Firth, who’ll bring the Humanity Formula to life and help you explore what it could reveal about your own team.
