Facilitators Causing Incredible Performance
The focus of this issue: By-products of causing incredible performance
By applying the Causing Incredible Performance Framework, people produce astonishing results. Apart from such results, which are specifically intended, unintended benefits come. We can call these “by-products.” In this issue, we will look at some of these by-products.
The head of Operations in a non-banking financial services company applied the CIP Framework to improve her team’s performance. She had to develop a set of Service Level Agreements (SLAs) related to customer payment. The participant had to devise several SLAs in consultation with the ‘business’ teams and get them approved by the business heads. While this participant achieved her incredible goal for the CIP Project, the main and lasting benefit for the company were these SLAs.
The Floor Manager of a call center took an incredible goal related to the number of ‘effective calls’ to be made by her team of 30 callers. Even as she achieved her goal, there were some dramatic impacts on her team members’ behaviors: (a) being skeptical about reaching the incredible goal, and the team members were getting excited about this in a few weeks when they saw that they were achieving their weekly and daily targets; (b) when any team member was not likely to meet her/his daily target of effective calls, those who met their day’s target took on these short-falls to ensure that the team met its goal; (c) the team members who used to work much beyond the official timing to meet their daily targets, started to leave the office at the closing time and having achieved their daily targets; and (d) team members wanted to learn English language and MS-Excel by noticing their Floor Leader’s fluency in these.
A participant wanted to apply the CIP Framework to handle a health problem she had for 15+ years. During coaching, she came up with an incredible goal to increase her productivity which was impacted by her ill health. The by-product was a change in her personality. Here are some of these changes in her own words: Confidence has replaced hesitation; actions have taken the place of over-thinking;
developed the feeling of ownership for whatever I do; learned to make decisions by broadening perspectives. The main by-product (according to her) was her family members accepting that she is a capable businesswoman!
A scientist who was quite an introvert became so sociable that he became an internal CIP coach for the next two batches.
While an executive in the quality department fell short f his incredible goal by a whisker, he completed several certificate programs during the 3-month CIP Project.
A middle-level manager’s 3-month CIP Project was about reducing the inventory of finished goods. Even as she was getting coached to apply the CIP Framework in this project, she – on her own – applied the Framework to start an enterprise. She fast-tracked her 3-month goal, resigned from the company after achieving her incredible goal and started her enterprise.
We coached Sales Executives of a company with a ‘traditional-hierarchical’ culture. Having achieved their incredible goals, when their next year’s targets were set by the Head of Sales (who was many levels above in the hierarchy), these executives declined the targets set, saying that they were too low!. They went one step further and asked the Head of Sales. “Why are you afraid of taking on bigger targets when we are confident of bigger getting numbers?”
A participant who started an enterprise by applying the CIP Framework promoted her enterprise’s services and products by delivering talks and seminars in the city. When the press covered her lectures, she became a celebrity in the city!