The nine dimensions of being in the performance zone
Why understanding your learning obstacles unleashes creativity and innovation
Elite teamwork and leadership is the key to success in building a culture of performance. So, what are the factors underpin getting supercharged results?
Listen up; this is important:
Most people have no idea what it means to work in teams. Whatever ideas you have of working together come from the formatting you have from schools and universities. You may have dabbled in team sports, but the truth is that you are guessing as to what teamwork really means. Ask a group of business people what a team is, and they’ll be lost.
Seriously!
The first priority is to really understand that high performance is a mental game; that it is the result of learning. It is the result of taking ownership of inner growth and development. It is about taking ownership of your progress. It is not based on the quality of your teacher; you can learn from bad teachers. Some really great athletes, artists, artisans, dancers, martial artists, innovators, designers, creators can not teach. Their skills are beyond breaking down into processes, they don’t do detail. It’s not that the teacher creates great students. Nope. It’s that the student must become a great student.
Stop blaming the teacher for your results. Blame yourself for not paying attention to your learning process. Learning is a property of your capacity to learn; so, it is your responsibility to learn, not anyone else’s. You have to start thinking for yourself. Education has taught you that the teacher is the expert and that you must subjugate yourself to following this authority. In truth, the education system actually prevents you from learning to learn, from being creative and growing innovation.
In real learning, you are the subject and the product: you learn to bend your awareness to capture the skills and techniques necessary to master your craft. But the essential point is that your mind is the forge where this craft is perfected.
Performance = Potential - Interference.
That’s the standard coaching formula pioneered by the inner game coaches in the 1990s (see John Whitmore, Coaching for Performance). This means that the outcome of your activity, whether it be tennis, motor racing, presentations, making decisions, problem-solving, collaborating is subject to internal obstacles.
Come again?
Your real opponent is not the one you meet on the field, but the one in your head.
Let’s think about this. That’s the point: thinking.
Thinking actually blocks your ability to focus. Conceptual mental chatter is a barrier to deep awareness. Takuan Soho, a Zen Master during Sengoku and early Edo Periods of Japanese history. He was an advisor to many Maters of Kenjutsu and martial arts. His key principle is about action being free from thought. The title of his work The Unfettered mind kind of gives the game away.
What he elaborates on is that our awareness is limited by discursive chatter in our minds; we are unable to be in the present moment but preoccupied by the talk in our heads worrying about the past, present and future. As a swordsman, this chatter is likely to get you killed.
Fast-forward to performance coaching for sport or business. Same thing. Your awareness is handicapped by interference. Many years ago, I actually talked to Tim Galloway about how close the Inner Game of coaching practices were to martial arts and Zen. It’s hard for people to get that you can have a state of awareness that is not thought.
Let’s backtrack. A team; what is it?
A team is a group of people with a goal. High performance is immediately dependent on the ambition of the team. So, do you want to be the best? Is excellence your mantra? How much time and energy are you willing to put into win? What does it mean to you? Do you really want to win?
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