Achieving Breakthrough Performance

Is it really possible to create our own future? Most people say, “yes.” Technically speaking, they are being honest. But when you really get inside their heart and head about personal change and transformation, they are not as sure. The only way to predict the future is, of course, to Co-Create It. In essence, that is what “The Secret” (www.thesecret.tv) or the Law of Attraction simply means to us.n For those who accept responsibility for their future and commit to it, they are certainly better off than those who blame everything or everyone else for their state of affairs, or offer excuses. A pessimist is one who complains at the noise when opportunity is knocking.nnParadigm Bustingn Whatever it was that got you to today is not sufficient to keep you there. Here are two questions which facilitate the busting, or at least the exposing, of paradigms. What would you attempt if you knew that you could not fail? What is impossible now that, if it were possible, would radically change your business? The answers are paradigm-busting breakthroughs. To seize the promise of the future, managers must learn how to overcome the burden of the past.n Unreasonable Peoplen Where are goals based - in the future or from the past? Goals are based in the context of the past. When you set a goal, we base the reasonableness or the attainability of the goal based on experience, what someone may have told us, or personal belief about the past as a reliable predictor of the future. n When John F. Kennedy boldly announced that this country would put a man on the moon by the turn of the decade, less than 20% of the technology existed at the time. One of his top aides warned the President that he (we) might be ridiculed by such a preposterous statement. George Bernard Shaw said, “The reasonable man adapts himself to surrounding circumstances. An unreasonable man adapts the circumstances to himself. Therefore, all progress is due to unreasonable men.”nnBreakthrough, not Break-Up & Sink n Change means real persistence has to occur. No change at all equals disappearance. In the 1980’s, over 230 of the Fortune 500 disappeared from the list -- that is 46% gone. No doubt, some of those were due to mergers and acquisitions (M&A). n Companies are rightsizing, downsizing, and unfortunately, often capsizing. One manager recently characterized it this way-- “Dumbsizing.” So named, he said, because being a veteran of reorganizations (usually with layoffs each time) for years now, a senior executive had admitted to him that the reorganizations had made no real difference to the bottom line. There are just a lot of wary, suspicious, overworked and marginally committed employees there. Dilbert would have a field day at this company, wouldn’t he?n In the Dilbert Principle, author Scott Adams makes one very serious point after much cynicism and great humor: If you are not completely focused on either one of two things - improving the quality of your service/product or building the effectiveness of your people - then you are focused on the wrong things. n Charles H. Duell, the Head of the U.S. Office of Patents in 1899 said, “Everything that can be invented, has been invented!” Astonishingly, many T&D managers treat new ideas is a similar manner. Is your patent office closed?