Optimizing Performance: Environment Over Individuals?

Fix the Environment

Once I brought my favourite plant, Bougainvillea, to our new office. I eagerly anticipated its bloom, but for months, not a single flower appeared. Growing impatient, I began lamenting the plant's lack of flowers.

When my wife overheard my complaints, she simply asked, "Is it getting the right amount of sunlight and water?" Taking the nudge, we ensured it received adequate water and sunlight, hoping for the bloom. In due time, the plant started blooming with many flowers of various colours!

I thought to myself, “Doesn't that hold true for people as well?”

We recently met a Design Head from a large corporation who wanted to do a team integration workshop for his team. His trail of problems ran so long that after a reasonable point in our need analysis, we stopped taking notes and just listened to him complain about his team for about 30 minutes.

When we met his team, they acknowledged many of these behaviours but also highlighted the team environment that fostered these issues. Drawing from that, we focused on improving the team environment rather than the individuals themselves in that project.

Similarly, in another case, a few key employees performed excellently in an assessment centre. However, their leader dismissed the reports, insisting their work behaviour indicated dissonance with the reports.

Initially, we suspected an error by the assessor. However, after interacting with the employees, we discovered that they had the potential to demonstrate healthy behaviours, but their work environment made them prioritise different aspects.

So, the next time you encounter someone struggling to perform well, consider addressing the environment rather than the individual.

PS: Below is the picture of a full bloomed bougainvillaea :)