Pulling on grass will not make it grow faster.

Grass does not grow faster when you pull on it.

Yet that 'pulling' is exactly what we regularly do in organisations when performance falls short. Revenue under pressure, conversion too low, insufficient margin, disappointing NPS or productivity.

So the pressure increases. From shareholders to the board, from the board to senior management, to dealership management and ultimately to the team. That pressure eventually reaches individual managers and employees. Targets are tightened, KPIs monitored more closely, dashboards expanded and meetings become more frequent. Performance simply has to improve.

And when more pressure does not work? We add another training course. As though every performance problem must be a capability problem.

But what if people already know what to do? What if the issue lies not primarily in their knowledge or skills, but in personal leadership, commercial management, collaboration, processes, responsibilities or systems? Or, more likely, in the way those factors interact?

Then pushing even harder makes little sense. And another training course probably will not help either. You cannot pull an organisation towards better performance if you do not understand what is holding it back.

Yet we remarkably often start with the solution: training, coaching, a leadership programme, a reorganisation, a new system, a different structure or the next change programme. While the most important question remains unanswered: why is performance falling short of its potential?

That is where performance improvement begins for me. First understand where performance is lost and what really lies behind it. What potential consequently remains untapped. And, just as importantly, what economic value could be realised by unlocking that potential.

Only then comes the intervention. It may involve training or leadership development, but equally a different approach to commercial management, better processes, clearer responsibilities or a different organisational structure.

The intervention follows the diagnosis. Not the other way around.

Grass does not grow faster when you pull on it. Perhaps you first need to understand why pulling does not help.

Drive Performance. Create Value.