Performance Management: First Time Right (The Aim toward Operational Excellence)

 

Rooted in Six Sigma methodology as a step toward operational excellence, First Time Right (FTR) implies that any procedure is performed in the right manner the first time and every time. It equates to minimizing the waste in its various forms (inventory, motion, overprocessing, overproduction, waiting, transportation, defects). Like many quality concepts from the manufacturing industry, the concept was transported in the software development process as principle, process, goal and/or metric. Thus, it became part of Software Engineering, Project Management, Data Science, and any other similar endeavors whose outcome results in software products. 

Besides the quality aspect, FTR is rooted also in the economic imperative – the need to achieve something in the minimum amount of time with the minimum of effort. It’s about being efficient in delivering a product or achieving a given target. It can be associated with continuous improvement, learning and mastery, the aim being to encompass FTR as part of organization’s culture. 

Even if not explicitly declared, FTR lurks in each task planned. It seems that it became common practice to plan with the FTR in mind, however between this theoretical aim and practice there’s as usual an important gap. Unfortunately, planners, managers and even tasks' performers often forget that mistakes are made, that several iterations are needed to get the job done. It starts with the communication between people in clarifying the requirements and ends with the formal sign off. All the deviations from the FTR add up in the deviations between expected and actual effort, though probably more important are the deviations from the plan and all the consequences deriving from it. Especially in complex projects this adds up into a spiral of issues that can easily reinforce themselves. 

Many of the jobs that imply creativity, innovation, research or exploration require at least several iterations to get the job done and this is independent of participants’ professionalism and experience. Moreover, the more quality one needs, the higher the effort, the 80/20 being sometimes a good approximation of the effort needed. In extremis, aiming for perfection instead of excellence can make certain tasks a never-ending story. 

Achieving FTR requires practice - the more novelty, the higher the complexity, the communication or the synchronization needs, the more practice is needed. It starts with the individual to master the individual tasks and ends with the team, where communication, synchronization and other aspects need to be considered. The practice is usually achieved on hands-on work as part of the daily duties, project work, and so on. Unfortunately, it’s based primarily on individual experience, and seldom groomed in advance, as preparation for future tasks. That’s why sometimes when efficiency is needed in performing critical complex tasks, one also needs to consider the learning curve in achieving the required quality. 

Of course, many organizations demand from job applicants experience and, when possible, they hire people with experience, however the diversity, complexity and changing nature of tasks require further practice. This aspect is somehow recognized in the implementation in organizations of the various forms of DevOps, though how many organizations adopt it and enforce it on a regular basis? Moreover, a major requirement of nowadays businesses is to be agile, and besides the mere application of methodologies, being agile means to have also a FTR mindset. 

FTR starts with the wish for mastery at individual and team level and, with the right management attention, by allocating time for learning, self-development in the important areas, providing relevant feedback and building an infrastructure for knowledge sharing and harnessing, FTR can become part of organization’s culture. It’s up to each of us to do it!

Performance Management: The Need for Perfection vs. Excellence

A recurring theme occurring in various contexts over the years seemed to be corroborated with the need for perfection, need going sometimes in extremis beyond common sense. The simplest theory attempting to explain at least some of these situations is that people tend to confuse excellence with perfection, from this confusion deriving false beliefs, false expectations and unhealthy behavior. 

Beyond the fact that each individual has an illusory image of what perfection is about, perfection is in certain situations a limiting force rooted in the idealistic way of looking at life. Primarily, perfection denotes that we will never be good enough to reach it as we are striving to something that doesn’t exist. From this appears the external and internal criticism, criticism that instead of helping us to build something it drains out our energy to the extent that it destroys all we have built over the years with a considerable effort. Secondarily, on the long run, perfection has the tendency to steal our inner peace and balance, letting fear take over – the fear of not making mistakes, of losing the acceptance and trust of the others. It focuses on our faults, errors and failures instead of driving us to our goals. In extremis it relieves the worst in people, actors and spectators altogether. 

In its proximate semantics though at diametral side through its implications, excellence focuses on our goals, on the aspiration of aiming higher without implying a limit to it. It’s a shift of attention from failure to possibilities, on what matters, on reaching our potential, on acknowledging the long way covered. It allows us building upon former successes and failures. Excellence is what we need to aim at in personal and professional life. Will Durant explaining Aristotle said that: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” 

People who attempt giving 100% of their best to achieve a (positive) goal are to admire, however the proximity of 100% is only occasionally achievable, hopefully when needed the most. 100% is another illusory limit we force upon ourselves as it’s correlated to the degree of achievement, completeness or quality an artefact or result can ideally have. We rightly define quality as the degree to which something is fit for purpose. Again, a moving target that needs to be made explicit before we attempt to reach it otherwise quality envisions perfection rather than excellence and effort is wasted. 

Considering the volume of effort needed to achieve a goal, Pareto’s principles (aka the 80/20 rule) seems to explain the best its underlying forces. The rule states that roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. A corollary is that we can achieve 80% of a goal with 20% of the effort needed altogether to achieve it fully. This means that to achieve the remaining 20% toward the goal we need to put four times more of the effort already spent. This rule seems to govern the elaboration of concepts, designs and other types of documents, and I suppose it can be easily extended to other activities like writing code, cleaning data, improving performance, etc. 

Given the complexity, urgency and dependencies of the tasks or goals before us probably it's beneficial sometimes to focus first on the 80% of their extent, so we can make progress, and focus on the remaining 20% if needed, when needed. This concurrent approach can allow us making progress faster in incremental steps. Also, in time, through excellence, we can bridge the gap between the two numbers as is needed less time and effort in the process.

Performance Management: Mastery (Just the Quotes)

"Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit." (Aristotle)

"With regard to excellence, it is not enough to know, but we must try to have and use it." (Aristotel, "Nochomachean Ethics", cca. 340 BC)

"It takes a long time to bring excellence to maturity." (Publilius Syrus, "Moral Sayings", cca. 1st century BC)

"One has attained to mastery when one neither goes wrong nor hesitates in the performance." (Friedrich Nietzsche, "Thoughts on the Prejudices of Morality", 1881)

"Order and simplification are the first steps toward the mastery of a subject - the actual enemy is the unknown." (Thomas Mann, "The Magic Mountain", 1924)

"To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often." (Winston Churchill, [Speech, House of Commons] 1925)

"Creating a new theory is not like destroying an old barn and erecting a skyscraper in its place. It is rather like climbing a mountain, gaining new and wider views, discovering unexpected connections between our starting point and its rich environment. But the point from which we started out still exists and can be seen, although it appears smaller and forms a tiny part of our broad view gained by the mastery of the obstacles on our adventurous way up." (Albert Einstein & Leopold Infeld, "The Evolution of Physics", 1938)

"Civilization is that mode of conduct which points out to man the path of duty. Performance of duty and observance of morality are convertible terms. To observe morality is to attain mastery over our mind and our passions. So doing, we know ourselves." (Mahatma Gandhi, "Hindu Dharma", 1950)

"Leaders value learning and mastery, and so do people who work for leaders. Leaders make it clear that there is no failure, only mistakes that give us feedback and tell us what to do next." (Warren G Bennis, Training and Development Journal, 1984)

"No talent in management is worth more than the ability to master facts - not just any facts, but the ones that provide the best answers. Mastery thus involves knowing what facts you want; where to dig for them; how to dig; how to process the mined ore; and how to use the precious nuggets of information that are finally in your hand. The process can be laborious - which is why it is so often botched." (Robert Heller, "The Supermanagers", 1984)

"The source of good management is found in the imagination of leaders, persons who form new visions and manifest them with a high degree of craft. The blending of vision and craft communicates the purpose. In the arts, people who do that well are masters. In business, they are leaders." (Henry M. Boettinger, Harvard Business Review on Human Relations, 1986)

"People with a high level of personal mastery are able to consistently realize the results that matter most deeply to them-in effect, they approach their life as an artist would approach a work of art. The do that by becoming committed to their own lifelong learning." (Peter M Senge, "The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization", 1990)

"Personal mastery is the discipline of continually clarifying and deepening our personal vision, of focusing our energies, of developing patience, and of seeing reality objectively." (Peter M Senge, "The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization", 1990)

"The discipline of personal mastery [...] starts with clarifying the things that really matter to us (and) living our lives in the service of our highest aspirations." (Peter M Senge, "The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization", 1990)

"Mastery means responsibility, ability to respond in real time to the need of the moment." (Stephen Nachmanovitch, "Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art", 1991

"At the heart of it, mastery is practice. Mastery is staying on the path." (George Leonard, "Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment", 1992)

"Find the heart of it. Make the complex simple, and you can achieve mastery." (Dan Millman, "Living on Purpose: Straight Answers to Life's Tough Questions", 2000)

"Change always implies abandonment. What you're abandoning is an old way of doing things. You're abandoning it because it's old, because time has made it no longer the best way. But it is also (again because it's old) a familiar way. And more important, it is an approach that people have mastered. So the change you are urging upon your people requires them to abandon their mastery of the familiar, and to become novices once again, to become rank beginners at something with self-definitional importance." (Tom DeMarco, "Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency", 2001)

"Mastery is an elusive concept. You never know when you achieve it absolutely and it may not help you to feel you've attained it. We can recognize it more readily in others than we can in ourselves. We have to discover our own definition of it." (Twyla Tharp, 'The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life", 2003)

"Leaders should be aware of how their mental models affect their thinking and may cause 'blind spots' that limit understanding. Becoming aware of assumptions is a first step toward shifting one’s mental model and being able to see the world in new and different ways. Four key issues important to expanding and developing a leader’s mind are independent thinking, open-mindedness, systems thinking, and personal mastery." (Richard L Daft, "The Leadership Experience" 4th Ed., 2008)

"Mastery is not a function of genius or talent. It is a function of time and intense focus applied to a particular field of knowledge." (Robert Greene, "Mastery" 2012)

"Models are formal structures represented in mathematics and diagrams that help us to understand the world. Mastery of models improves your ability to reason, explain, design, communicate, act, predict, and explore." (Scott E Page, "The Model Thinker", 2018)

"Art calls for complete mastery of techniques, developed by reflection within the soul." (Bruce Lee)

"In the pursuit of excellence, there is no finish line." (Robert H Farman)

"Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason mastery demands all of a person." (Albert Einstein)

"The performance of public duty is not the whole of what makes a good life; there is also the pursuit of private excellence." (Bertrand Russell)

Performance Management: Teams [Sports] (Just the Quotes)

"A team divided against itself can break down at any moment. The least bit of pressure or adversity will crack it apart." (Bill Parcells, "Finding a Way to Win: The Principles of Leadership, Teamwork, and Motivation", 1995)

"Bringing together disparate personalities to form a team is like a jigsaw puzzle. You have to ask yourself: what is the whole picture here? We want to make sure our players all fit together properly and complement each other, so that we don't have a big piece, a little piece, an oblong piece, and a round piece. If personalities work against each other, as a team you'll find yourselves spinning your wheels." (Pat Summitt, "Reach for the Summit", 1999)

"Never set a goal that involves number of wins - never. Set goals that revolve around playing together as a team. Doing so will put you in a position to win every game." (Mike Krzyzewski, "Leading with the Heart", 2000)

"In putting together your standards, remember that it is essential to involve your entire team. Standards are not rules issued by the boss; they are a collective identity. Remember, standards are the things that you do all the time and the things for which you hold one another accountable." (Mike Krzyzewski, "The Gold Standard: Building a World-Class Team", 2009)

"A leader may be the most knowledgeable person in the world, but if the players on his team cannot translate that knowledge into action, it means nothing."  (Mike Krzyzewski, "Leading with the Heart: Coach K's Successful Strategies for Basketball, Business, and Life", 2010)

"Encourage members of your team to take the initiative and act on their own." (Mike Krzyzewski, "Leading with the Heart: Coach K's Successful Strategies for Basketball, Business, and Life", 2010)

"Goals should be realistic, attainable, and shared among all members of the team." (Mike Krzyzewski, "Leading with the Heart: Coach K's Successful Strategies for Basketball, Business, and Life", 2010)

"If a team cannot perform with excellence at a moment's notice, they probably will fail in the long run." (Mike Krzyzewski, "Leading with the Heart: Coach K's Successful Strategies for Basketball, Business, and Life", 2010)

"In leadership, there are no words more important than trust. In any organization, trust must be developed among every member of the team if success is going to be achieved." (Mike Krzyzewski, "Leading with the Heart: Coach K's Successful Strategies for Basketball, Business, and Life", 2010)

"Leaders have to search for the heart on a team, because the person who has it can bring out the best in everybody else." (Mike Krzyzewski, "Leading with the Heart: Coach K's Successful Strategies for Basketball, Business, and Life", 2010)

"Mutual commitment helps overcome the fear of failure - especially when people are part of a team sharing and achieving goals. It also sets the stage for open dialogue and honest conversation." (Mike Krzyzewski, "Leading with the Heart: Coach K's Successful Strategies for Basketball, Business, and Life", 2010)

"People want to be on a team. They want to be part of something bigger than themselves. They want to be in a situation where they feel that they are doing something for the greater good." (Mike Krzyzewski, "Leading with the Heart: Coach K's Successful Strategies for Basketball, Business, and Life", 2010)

"There are five fundamental qualities that make every team great: communication, trust, collective responsibility, caring and pride. I like to think of each as a separate finger on the fist. Any one individually is important. But all of them together are unbeatable." (Mike Krzyzewski, "Leading with the Heart: Coach K's Successful Strategies for Basketball, Business, and Life", 2010)

"When you first assemble a group, it's not a team right off the bat. It's only a collection of individuals." (Mike Krzyzewski, "Leading with the Heart: Coach K's Successful Strategies for Basketball, Business, and Life", 2010)

"You develop a team to achieve what one person cannot accomplish alone. All of us alone are weaker, by far, than if all of us are together." (Mike Krzyzewski, "Leading with the Heart: Coach K's Successful Strategies for Basketball, Business, and Life", 2010)

"In climbing, having confidence in your partners is no small concern. One climber's actions can affect the welfare of the entire team." (Jon Krakauer, "Into Thin Air: A personal account of the Everest disaster", 2011)

"Basketball is a great mystery. You can do everything right. You can have the perfect mix of talent and the best system of offense in the game. You can devise a foolproof defensive strategy and prepare your players for every possible eventuality. But if the players don't have a sense of oneness as a group, your efforts won't pay off. And the bond that unites a team can be so fragile, so elusive." (Phil Jackson, "Eleven Rings", 2015)

Performance Management: Performance (Just the Quotes)

"If we view organizations as adaptive, problem-solving structures, then inferences about effectiveness have to be made, not from static measures of output, but on the basis of the processes through which the organization approaches problems. In other words, no single measurement of organizational efficiency or satisfaction - no single time-slice of organizational performance can provide valid indicators of organizational health." (Warren G Bennis, "General Systems Yearbook", 1962)

"Workers cannot be expected to perform regularly and consistently at full capacity." (Wilbert E Scheer, "Leadership in the Office", 1963)

"The absence of a marked or consistent correlation between job satisfaction and performance casts some doubt on the generality or intensity of either effects of satisfaction on performance or performance on satisfaction." (Victor H Vroom,  "Work and Motivation", 1964)

"Management is defined here as the accomplishment of desired objectives by establishing an environment favorable to performance by people operating in organized groups." (Harold Koontz, "Principles of Management", 1968)

"The management of a system has to deal with the generation of the plans for the system, i. e., consideration of all of the things we have discussed, the overall goals, the environment, the utilization of resources and the components. The management sets the component goals, allocates the resources, and controls the system performance." (C West Churchman, "The Systems Approach", 1968)

"The systems approach to problems focuses on systems taken as a whole, not on their parts taken separately. Such an approach is concerned with total - system performance even when a change in only one or a few of its parts is contemplated because there are some properties of systems that can only be treated adequately from a holistic point of view. These properties derive from the relationship between parts of systems: how the parts interact and fit together." (Russell L Ackoff, "Towards a System of Systems Concepts", 1971) 

"Effectiveness is the foundation of success - efficiency is a minimum condition for survival after success has been achieved. Efficiency is concerned with doing things right. Effectiveness is doing the right things." (Peter Drucker, "Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Challenges", 1973)

"Leadership is lifting a person's vision to higher sights, the raising of a person's performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations." (Peter Drucker, "Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Challenges", 1973)

"[Management] has authority only as long as it performs." (Peter F Drucker, "Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices", 1973)

"To be productive the individual has to have control, to a substantial extent, over the speed, rhythm, and attention spans with which he is working […] While work is, therefore, best laid out as uniform, working is best organized with a considerable degree of diversity. Working requires latitude to change speed, rhythm, and attention span fairly often. It requires fairly frequent changes in operating routines as well. What is good industrial engineering for work is exceedingly poor human engineering for the worker." (Peter F Drucker, "Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices", 1973)

"'Management' means, in the last analysis, the substitution of thought for brawn and muscle, of knowledge for folkways and superstition, and of cooperation for force. It means the substitution of responsibility for obedience to rank, and of authority of performance for authority of rank. (Peter F Drucker, "People and Performance", 1977)

"[...] when a variety of tasks have all to be performed in cooperation, syncronization, and communication, a business needs managers and a management. Otherwise, things go out of control; plans fail to turn into action; or, worse, different parts of the plans get going at different speeds, different times, and with different objectives and goals, and the favor of the 'boss' becomes more important than performance." (Peter F Drucker, "People and Performance", 1977)

"Executive stress is difficult to overstate when there is a conflict among policy restrictions, near-term performance, long-term good of the company, and personal survival." (Bruce Henderson, "Henderson on Corporate Strategy", 1979)

"Keep it simple. The purpose of performance evaluation should be to draw a line between above and below average performers." (Joe Kelly, "How Managers Manage", 1980)

"Management by objectives is a philosophy of managing that is based on identifying purposes, objectives, and desired results, establishing a realistic program for obtaining these results, and evaluating performance in achieving them." (R Henry Miglione, "An MBO Approach to Long-Range Planning", 1983)

"It is much more difficult to measure non-performance than performance. Performance stands out like a ton of diamonds. Non-performance can almost always be explained away." (Harold Geneen & Alvin Moscow, "Managing", 1984)

"The best way to inspire people to superior performance is to convince them by everything you do and by your everyday attitude that you are wholeheartedly supporting them." (Harold Geneen & Alvin Moscow, "Managing", 1984)

"An ability to tolerate ambiguity helps to avoid overdetermining one's goals. [...] As they proceed, peak performers can adjust goals. [...] What they are doing is balancing between change and stasis, between innovation and consolidation." (Charles Garfield, "Peak Performers", 1986)

"Goal setting has traditionally been based on past performance. This practice has tended to perpetuate the sins of the past." (Joseph M Juran,  1986)

"If you want to utilize your people to a maximum degree, it is definitely cheaper to have an existing guy work overtime than to add another person." (Josef Ehrengruber, "Regardies", 1986)

"Operating managers should in no way ignore short-term performance imperatives [when implementing productivity improvement programs.] The pressures arise from many sources and must be dealt with. Moreover, unless managers know that the day-to-day job is under control and improvements are being made, they will not have the time, the perspective, the self-confidence, or the good working relationships that are essential for creative, realistic strategic thinking and decision making." (Robert H Schaefer, Harvard Business Review, 1986)

"Peak performers concentrate on solving problems rather than placing blame for them." (Charles Garfield, Peak Performers, 1986)

"How you measure the performance of your managers directly affects the way they act." (John Dearden, Harvard Business Review, 1987)

"The manager must decide what type of group is wanted. If cooperation, teamwork, and synergy really matter, then one aims for high task interdependence. One structures the jobs of group members so that they have to interact frequently [...] to get their jobs done. Important outcomes are made dependent on group performance. The outcomes are distributed equally. If frenzied, independent activity is the goal, then one aims for low task interdependence and large rewards are distributed competitively and unequally." (Gregory P Shea & Richard A Guzzo, Sloan Management Review, 1987)

"If our people develop faster than a competitor's people, then they're worth more." (James M Biggar, USA Today, 1988)

"When a team outgrows individual performance and learns team confidence, excellence becomes a reality." (Joe Paterno, American Heritage, 1988)

"A manager of people needs to understand that all people are different. This is not ranking people. He needs to understand that the performance of anyone is governed largely by the system that he works in, the responsibility of management." (W Edwards Deming, "The New Economics for Industry, Government, Education", 1993)

"In short, performance ratings are indicative only of how a person is performing in their given role at the time they are being evaluated. Ratings, although an important way to measure performance during a specific period, are not predictive of future performance and should not be used to gauge readiness for a future role or qualify an internal candidate for a different team. (They can, however, be used to evaluate whether an employee is properly or improperly slotted on their current team; therefore, they can provide an opportunity to evaluate how to better support an internal candidate moving forward.)" (Titus Winters, "Software Engineering at Google: Lessons Learned from Programming Over Time", 2020)

Performance Management: Teams (Just the Quotes)

"A few honest men are better than numbers." (Oliver Cromwell, [Letter to William Spring], 1643)

"The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready." (Henry D Thoreau, Walden, 1854)

"It is the lone worker who makes the first advance in a subject: the details may be worked out by a team, but the prime idea is due to the enterprise, thought and perception of an individual." (Alexander Fleming, [Address at Edinburgh University] 1951)

"Top management work is work for a team rather than one man." (Peter F Drucker, "Memos for Management: Leadership", 1983)

"Teamwork is consciously espoused but unwittingly shunned by most people in business because they are deathly afraid of it. They think it will render them anonymous, invisible." (Srully Blotnick, "The Corporate Steeplechase", 1984)

"The whittling away of middle management is further reinforcing the trend for companies to smash the hierarchical pyramid and adopt new people structures such as networks, intrapreneurs, and small teams." (John Naisbett & Patricia Aburdene, "Re-inventing the Corporation", 1985)

"Teams are less likely [than individuals] to overlook key issues and problems or take the wrong actions." (Eugene Raudsepp, MTS Digest, 1987)

"The manager must decide what type of group is wanted. If cooperation, teamwork, and synergy really matter, then one aims for high task interdependence. One structures the jobs of group members so that they have to interact frequently [...] to get their jobs done. Important outcomes are made dependent on group performance. The outcomes are distributed equally. If frenzied, independent activity is the goal, then one aims for low task interdependence and large rewards are distributed competitively and unequally." (Gregory P Shea & Richard A Guzzo, Sloan Management Review, 1987)

"We know we need better teamwork; the question is how to achieve it. Very few people defend the adversarial relationship, but no one has a clear idea of how to do away with it. The usual method is exhortation. But this approach has failed us time and time again." (Robert F Daniell, Harvard Business Review, 1987)

"Managing requires setting aside one's ego to encourage and develop the work of others. It requires a 'big picture' and team perspective rather than an individual-achiever perspective." (Sara M Brown, 1988)

"When a team outgrows individual performance and learns team confidence, excellence becomes a reality." (Joe Paterno, American Heritage, 1988)

"Complacency is the last hurdle standing between any team and its potential greatness." (Pat Riley, "Winner Within Success", 1993)

"Even when you have skilled, motivated, hard-working people, the wrong team structure can undercut their efforts instead of catapulting them to success. A poor team structure can increase development time, reduce quality, damage morale, increase turnover, and ultimately lead to project cancellation." (Steve McConnell, "Rapid Development", 1996)

"Software projects fail for one of two general reasons: the project team lacks the knowledge to conduct a software project successfully, or the project team lacks the resolve to conduct a project effectively." (Steve McConnell, "Software Project Survival Guide", 1997)

"We think most process initiatives are silly. Well-intentioned managers and teams get so wrapped up in executing processes that they forget that they are being paid for results, not process execution. (Peter Coad et al, "Java Modeling in Color with UML", 1999)

"The business changes. The technology changes. The team changes. The team members change. The problem isn't change, per se, because change is going to happen; the problem, rather, is the inability to cope with change when it comes." (Kent Beck, "Extreme Programming Explained", 2000)

"A well-functioning team of adequate people will complete a project almost regardless of the process or technology they are asked to use (although the process and technology may help or hinder them along the way)." (Alistair Cockburn, "Agile Software Development", 2001)

"Team leaders have to connect with their team and themselves. If they don't know their team's strengths and weaknesses, they cannot hand off responsibilities to the team. And if they don't know their own strengths and weaknesses, they will not hand off responsibilities to the team." (John C Maxwell, "Teamwork Makes the Dream Work", 2002)

"Good bosses provide a constant flow of clear and concise information and encourage you and the rest of your team to do the same." (John Hoover, "How to Work for an Idiot", 2004)

"On a team, trust is all about vulnerability, which is difficult for most people." (Patrick Lencioni, "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: Participant Workbook", 2007)

"Nothing has a more profound and long-term degrading effect upon a development project than bad code. Bad schedules can be redone, bad requirements can be redefined. Bad team dynamics can be repaired. But bad code rots and ferments, becoming an inexorable weight that drags the team down." (Robert C Martin, "Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship", 2008)

"Mission is at the heart of what you do as a team. Goals are merely steps to its achievement." (Patrick Dixon, "Building a Better Business", 2005)

"The facts are in: diverse companies and teams consistently outperform all others. It's not only the smart thing and the right thing, it makes getting the job done much more interesting." (Marilyn C Nelson, "How We Lead Matters: Reflections on a Life of Leadership", 2008)

"Teams should be able to act with the same unity of purpose and focus as a well-motivated individual." (Bill Gates, "Business @ the Speed of Thought: Succeeding in the Digital Economy", 2009)

"If your team is filled with people who work for the company, you'll soon be defeated by tribes of people who work for a cause." (Seth Godin, "The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly?", 2012)

"Ultimately, leadership is not about glorious crowning acts. It's about keeping your team focused on a goal and motivated to do their best to achieve it, especially when the stakes are high and the consequences really matter. It is about laying the groundwork for others' success, and then standing back and letting them shine." (Chris Hadfield, "An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth", 2013)

"A software team can get severely constrained when a velocity target is imposed on it. Velocity works well as a measurement, not as a target. Targets limit choice of actions. A team may find itself unable to address technical debt if it is constrained by velocity targets. At a certain threshold of constraints, team members lose the sense of empowerment (autonomy)." (Sriram Narayan, "Agile IT Organization Design: For Digital Transformation and Continuous Delivery", 2015)

"Although essential, governance is an activity, not an outcome. This makes it risky to grant autonomy to a pure governance team. Instead, it is better to constitute each area of governance as a community of practice consisting of practitioners from various capability teams." (Sriram Narayan, "Agile IT Organization Design: For Digital Transformation and Continuous Delivery", 2015)

"In order to control where a team devotes its energies, all you need to do is to impose a bunch of targets and track progress at regular intervals. For greater control, increase the range of targets and track more frequently. This is called micromanagement and is universally detested by teams. Doing so increases reporting overhead but rarely improves team performance." (Sriram Narayan, "Agile IT Organization Design: For Digital Transformation and Continuous Delivery", 2015)

"Self-organizing teams need autonomy. […] Autonomy allows us to act on the opportunity that purpose provides. Mastery then lets us service the opportunity with a degree of excellence. Targets distort purpose, limit autonomy, and disregard mastery." (Sriram Narayan, "Agile IT Organization Design: For Digital Transformation and Continuous Delivery", 2015)

"Teams motivated by targets tend not to take ownership of problems. They attend only to those aspects that affect targets and leave the rest to be picked up by someone else. To some extent, the problem isn’t the target itself but rather the incentive behind the target." (Sriram Narayan, "Agile IT Organization Design: For Digital Transformation and Continuous Delivery", 2015)

"Whatever way we organize, the unit of organization is a team, and any team can turn into a silo if it acts in an insular manner. Therefore, in a sense, we can’t eliminate silos but only try to design around their side effects." (Sriram Narayan, "Agile IT Organization Design: For Digital Transformation and Continuous Delivery", 2015)

"The higher the price of information in a software team, the less effective the team is." (Yegor Bugayenko, "Code Ahead", 2018)

"To make technical decisions, a result-oriented team needs a strong architect and a decision making process, not meetings." (Yegor Bugayenko, "Code Ahead", 2018)

"A 'stream' is the continuous flow of work aligned to a business domain or organizational capability. Continuous flow requires clarity of purpose and responsibility so that multiple teams can coexist, each with their own flow of work. A stream-aligned team is a team aligned to a single, valuable stream of work; this might be a single product or service, a single set of features, a single user journey, or a single user persona." (Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais, "Team Topologies: Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow", 2019)

"Organizations that rely too heavily on org charts and matrixes to split and control work often fail to create the necessary conditions to embrace innovation while still delivering at a fast pace. In order to succeed at that, organizations need stable teams and effective team patterns and interactions. They need to invest in empowered, skilled teams as the foundation for agility and adaptability. To stay alive in ever more competitive markets, organizations need teams and people who are able to sense when context changes and evolve accordingly." (Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais, "Team Topologies: Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow", 2019)

"Teams take time to form and be effective. Typically, a team can take from two weeks to three months or more to become a cohesive unit. When (or if) a team reaches that special state, it can be many times more effective than individuals alone. If it takes three months for a team to become highly effective, we need to provide stability around and within the team to allow them to reach that level." (Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais, "Team Topologies: Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow", 2019)

"The culture of your organization comprises your stated principles, and to a far greater extent, the actual lived principles as reflected by the attitudes, communication styles, and behaviors of your teams." (Eben Hewitt, "Technology Strategy Patterns: Architecture as strategy" 2nd Ed., 2019)

"One of the great enemies of design is when systems or objects become more complex than a person - or even a team of people - can keep in their heads. This is why software is generally beneath contempt." (Bran Ferren)

Performance Management: Motivation (Just the Quotes)

"A manager sets objectives - A manager organizes - A manager motivates and communicates - A manager, by establishing yardsticks, measures." (Peter F Drucker, "The Practice of Management", 1954)

"A manager [...] sets objectives [...] organizes [...] motivates and communicates [...] measure[s] [...] develops people. Every manager does these things - knowingly or not. A manager may do them well, or may do them wretchedly, but always does them." (Peter F Drucker, "People and Performance", 1977)

"The single most important task of a manager is to elicit peak performance from his subordinates. So if two things limit high output, a manager has two ways to tackle the issue: through training and motivation." (Andrew S Grove, "High Output Management", 1983)

"Training won't cover up for poor equipment and outmoded methods. It won't offset mediocre products or deteriorating markets. It won't compensate for poor compensation or abusive supervisory or management practices. And training definitely won't turn the unwilling and uncaring in your organization into motivated, devoted, gung-ho fireballs." (Ron Zemke, Training, 1986)

"The [quality control] issue has more to do with people and motivation and less to do with capital and equipment than one would think. It involves a cultural change." (Michael Beer, The Washington Post, 1987)

"Even when you have skilled, motivated, hard-working people, the wrong team structure can undercut their efforts instead of catapulting them to success. A poor team structure can increase development time, reduce quality, damage morale, increase turnover, and ultimately lead to project cancellation." (Steve McConnell, "Rapid Development", 1996)

"Mission statements should be inspirational. They should supply energy and motivation to the organization. But inspirational mission statements and slogans are not sufficient." (Robert S Kaplan & David P Norton, "The Balanced Scorecard", Harvard Business Review, 1996)

"Motivation is undoubtedly the single greatest influence on how well people perform. Most productivity studies have found that motivation has a stronger influence on productivity than any other factor."  (Steve McConnell, "Rapid Development", 1996)

"Organizations must know and understand the current organizational culture to be successful at implementing change. We know that it is the organization’s culture that drives its people to action; therefore, management must understand what motivates their people to attain goals and objectives. Only by understanding the current organizational culture will it be possible to begin to try and change it." (Margaret Y Chu, "Blissful Data", 2004)

"Leadership is the capacity to influence others through inspiration motivated by passion, generated by vision, produced by a conviction, ignited by a purpose." (Myles Munroe, "Charge: Finding the Leader Within You", 2008)

"Great companies don't hire skilled people and motivate them, they hire already motivated people and inspire them. People are either motivated or they are not. Unless you give motivated people something to believe in, something bigger than their job to work toward, they will motivate themselves to find a new job and you'll be stuck with whoever's left." (Simon Sinek, "Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action", 2009)

"Teams should be able to act with the same unity of purpose and focus as a well-motivated individual." (Bill Gates, "Business @ the Speed of Thought: Succeeding in the Digital Economy", 2009)

"Ultimately, leadership is not about glorious crowning acts. It's about keeping your team focused on a goal and motivated to do their best to achieve it, especially when the stakes are high and the consequences really matter. It is about laying the groundwork for others' success, and then standing back and letting them shine." (Chris Hadfield, "An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth", 2013)

"Companies leverage two basic pulleys of human behavior to increase the likelihood of an action occuring: the ease of performing an action and the psychological motivation to do it." (Nir Eyal, "Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products", 2014)

"Teams motivated by targets tend not to take ownership of problems. They attend only to those aspects that affect targets and leave the rest to be picked up by someone else. To some extent, the problem isn’t the target itself but rather the incentive behind the target." (Sriram Narayan, "Agile IT Organization Design: For Digital Transformation and Continuous Delivery", 2015)

"Goals may cause systematic problems in organizations due to narrowed focus, unethical behavior, increased risk taking, decreased cooperation, and decreased motivation. Use care when applying goals in your organization." (John Doerr, "Measure what Matters", 2018)

"Control is not leadership; management is not leadership; leadership is leadership. If you seek to lead, invest at least 50% of your time in leading yourself–your own purpose, ethics, principles, motivation, conduct. Invest at least 20% leading those with authority over you and 15% leading your peers." (Dee Hock)

Performance Management: Excellence (Just the Quotes)

"Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit." (Aristotle)

"With regard to excellence, it is not enough to know, but we must try to have and use it." (Aristotel, "Nochomachean Ethics", cca. 340 BC)

"It takes a long time to bring excellence to maturity." (Publilius Syrus, "Moral Sayings", cca. 1st century BC)

"The best way to come to grips with one’s own business knowledge is to look at the things the business has done well, and the things it apparently does poorly. […] Knowledge is a perishable commodity. It has to be reaffirmed, relearned, repracticed all the time. One has to work constantly at regaining one’s specific excellence. […] The right knowledge is the knowledge needed to exploit the market opportunities." (Peter F Drucker, "Managing for Results: Economic Tasks and Risk-taking Decisions", 1964)

"Because ease of use is the purpose, this ratio of function to conceptual complexity is the ultimate test of system design. Neither function alone nor simplicity alone defines a good design. [...] Function, and not simplicity, has always been the measure of excellence for its designers." (Fred P Brooks, "The Mythical Man-Month: Essays", 1975)

"The achievement of excellence can occur only if the organization promotes a culture of creative dissatisfaction." (Lawrence M Miller, "American Spirit", 1984)

"Managers jeopardize product quality by setting unreachable deadlines. They don’​​​​​​t think about their action in such terms; they think rather that what they’​​​​​​re doing is throwing down an interesting challenge to their workers, something to help them strive for excellence." (Tom DeMarco & Timothy Lister, "Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams", 1987)

"When a team outgrows individual performance and learns team confidence, excellence becomes a reality." (Joe Paterno, American Heritage, 1988)

"Excellence is a better teacher than is mediocrity. The lessons of the ordinary are everywhere. Truly profound and original insights are to be found only in studying the exemplary." (Warren G Bennis, "Organizing Genius: The Secrets of Creative Collaboration", 1997)

"The desire for excellence is an essential feature for doing great work. Without such a goal you will tend to wander like a drunken sailor. The sailor takes one step in one direction and the next in some independent direction. As a result the steps tend to cancel each other, and the expected distance from the starting point is proportional to the square root of the number of steps taken. With a vision of excellence, and with the goal of doing significant work, there is tendency for the steps to go in the same direction and thus go a distance proportional to the number of steps taken, which in a lifetime is a large number indeed." (Richard Hamming, "The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn", 1997)

"If a team cannot perform with excellence at a moment's notice, they probably will fail in the long run." (Mike Krzyzewski, "Leading with the Heart: Coach K's Successful Strategies for Basketball, Business, and Life", 2010)

"In the pursuit of excellence, there is no finish line." (Robert H Farman)

Performance Management: Success (Just the Quotes)

"The role of the manager here is also clear: it is that of the coach. First, an ideal coach takes no personal credit for the success of his team, and because of that his players trust him. Second, he is tough on his team. By being critical, he tries to get the best performance his team members can provide. Third, a good coach was likely a good player himself at one time. And having played the game well, he also understands it well."  (Andrew S Grove, "High Output Management", 1983)

"The skills that make technical professionals competent in their specialties are not necessarily the same ones that make them successful within their organizations." (Bernard Rosenbaum, "Training", 1986)

"Whether you call it a 'team' or an 'ensemble' or a 'harmonious work group' is not what matters; what matters is helping all parties understand that the success of the individual is tied irrevocably to the success of the whole." (Tom DeMarco & Timothy Lister, "Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams", 1987)

"Even when you have skilled, motivated, hard-working people, the wrong team structure can undercut their efforts instead of catapulting them to success. A poor team structure can increase development time, reduce quality, damage morale, increase turnover, and ultimately lead to project cancellation." (Steve McConnell, "Rapid Development", 1996)

"Good leaders make people feel that they're at the very heart of things, not at the periphery. Everyone feels that he or she makes a difference to the success of the organization. When that happens, people feel centered and that gives their work meaning." (Warren Bennis, "Managing People Is Like Herding Cats", 1999)

"How people feel can be more a factor in the success of a change than what they think. Anxiety of any kind can only complicate the task of change introduction. That’s why the period of sudden decline of corporate fortunes is exactly the worst moment to introduce a change. People are uneasy about their jobs, worried about lasting corporate health, perhaps shocked by the vitality of the competition. In retrospect, a far better time to introduce the change would have been back in the period of healthy growth. Growth always carries with it a certain necessity for change. You may have to hire more people, expand to larger quarters, diversify or centralize, all to accommodate your own burgeoning success. But growth feels good; it feels like winning. It even feels good enough to reduce the amount of change resistance." (Tom DeMarco, "Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency", 2001)

"Lack of power is a great excuse for failure, but sufficient power is never a necessary condition of leadership. There is never sufficient power. In fact, it is success in the absence of sufficient power that defines leadership." (Tom DeMarco, "Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency", 2001)

"Ultimately, leadership is not about glorious crowning acts. It's about keeping your team focused on a goal and motivated to do their best to achieve it, especially when the stakes are high and the consequences really matter. It is about laying the groundwork for others' success, and then standing back and letting them shine." (Chris Hadfield, "An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth", 2013)

"Trust is fundamental to leading others into the dark, since trust enables fear to be 'actionable' as courage rather than actionable as anger. Since the bedrock of trust is faith that all will be OK within uncertainty, leaders’ fundamental role is to ultimately lead themselves. Research has found that successful leaders share three behavioral traits: they lead by example, admit their mistakes, and see positive qualities in others. All three are linked to spaces of play. Leading by example creates a space that is trusted - and without trust, there is no play. Admitting mistakes is to celebrate uncertainty. Seeing qualities in others is to encourage diversity." (Beau Lotto, "Deviate: The Science of Seeing Differently", 2017)

"While basic laws underlie command authority, the real foundation of successful leadership is the moral authority derived from professional competence and integrity. Competence and integrity are not separable." (William C Westmoreland)

Performance Management: Productivity (Just the Quotes)

"The productivity of a work group seems to depend on how the group members see their own goals in relation to the goals of the organization." (Paul Hersey & Kenneth H Blanchard, "Management of Organizational Behavior", 1972)

"When companies see their productivity drop, they should ask how they can improve jobs, and not merely by setting up new productivity targets but also by sharing gains with workers and responding to their needs." (Jerome M Rosow, "Management", 1976)

"The productivity of work is not the responsibility of the worker but of the manager." (Peter F Drucker, "Management in Turbulent Times", 1980)

"Stressing output is the key to improving productivity, while looking to increase activity can result in just the opposite." (Andrew S Grove, "High Output Management", 1983)

"Operating managers should in no way ignore short-term performance imperatives [when implementing productivity improvement programs.] The pressures arise from many sources and must be dealt with. Moreover, unless managers know that the day-to-day job is under control and improvements are being made, they will not have the time, the perspective, the self-confidence, or the good working relationships that are essential for creative, realistic strategic thinking and decision making." (Robert H Schaefer, Harvard Business Review, 1986)

"Opportunities abound for linking productivity to business strategy." (John L Grahn, Harvard Business Review, 1986)

"Productivity is closely tied to morale, and morale is a reflection of how people see themselves. If you can improve your employees' perceptions of themselves, you can improve their morale and thereby boost productivity." (Howard Hurst, Personnel Journal, 1986)

"The way to get higher productivity is to train better managers and have fewer of them." (William Woodside, "Thriving on Chaos", 1987)

"A good part of the problem [poor productivity ...] lies with the current accounting system, which sort of makes overhead disappear - it simply gets added into the cost of a product, like a tax." (Paul Strassmann, Inc. Magazine, 1988)

"Even when you have skilled, motivated, hard-working people, the wrong team structure can undercut their efforts instead of catapulting them to success. A poor team structure can increase development time, reduce quality, damage morale, increase turnover, and ultimately lead to project cancellation." (Steve McConnell, "Rapid Development", 1996)

"It's better to wait for a productive programmer to become available than it is to wait for the first available programmer to become productive." (Steve McConnell, "Software Project Survival Guide", 1997)

"Today’s big companies do very little to enhance the productivity of their professionals. In fact, their vertically oriented organization structures, retrofitted with ad hoc and matrix overlays, nearly always make professional work more complex and inefficient." (Lowell L Bryan & Claudia Joyce, "The 21st century organization", 2005)

"Productivity is the name of the game, and gains in productivity will only come when better understanding and better relationships exist between management and the work force. [...] Managers have traditionally developed the skills in finance, planning, marketing and production techniques. Too often the relationships with their people have been assigned a secondary role. This is too important a subject not to receive first-line attention." (William Hewlett, "The Human Side of Management", [speech])

Performance Management: Training (Just the Quotes)

"When a fixed procedure is too long to be memorized economically, job aids in the form of check lists or some other cuing mechanism are provided to enable the man to become familiar with the task during training and to perform it dependably in the field situation." (Leslie J Briggs, "Problems in Stimulation and Programming in the Design of Complex Trainers", 1959)

"Management techniques are obviously essential, but what matters is leadership. [...] Leading the whole organization needs wisdom and flair and vision and they are another matter; they cannot be reduced to a system and incorporated into a training manual." (Anthony Jay, "Management and Machiavelli", 1967)

"A job in which young people are not given real training though, of course, the training need not be a formal 'training program' does not measure up to what they have a right and a duty to expect." (Peter F Drucker, "People and Performance", 1977)

"It makes little sense to subject all employees to training programs, to personnel policies, and to supervision designed for one group of employees, and in particular designed, as so many of the policies are, for yesterday's typical entrant into the labor force the fifteen or sixteen year old without any experience. More and more we will have to have personnel policies that fit the person rather than bureaucratic convenience or tradition." (Peter F Drucker, "Management in Turbulent Times", 1980)

"Because the importance of training is so commonly underestimated, the manager who wants to make a dramatic improvement in organizational effectiveness without challenging the status quo will find a training program a good way to start." (Theodore Caplow, "Managing an Organization", 1983)

"Training is the teaching of specific skills. It should result in the employee having the ability to do something he or she could not do before." (Mary A Allison & Eric Anderson, "Managing Up, Managing Down", 1984)

"Training frequently fails to pay off in behavioral changes on the job: Trainees go back to work and do it the way they've always done it instead of the way you taught them to do it." (Ruth C Clark, "Manager, Training and Information Services", Training, 1986)

"Training won't cover up for poor equipment and outmoded methods. It won't offset mediocre products or deteriorating markets. It won't compensate for poor compensation or abusive supervisory or management practices. And training definitely won't turn the unwilling and uncaring in your organization into motivated, devoted, gung-ho fireballs." (Ron Zemke, Training, 1986)

"You can change behavior in an entire organization, provided you treat training as a process rather than an event." (Edward W Jones, "Training", 1986)

"Effective training programs are essential to identify needs for improvement wherever they might occur, and develop solutions to the concerns that we discover [...] before they become problems." (T Allen McArtor, [speech] 1987)

"One of management's most important functions is to train people for their jobs." (Philip W Metzger, "Managing Programming People", 1987)

"The way to get higher productivity is to train better managers and have fewer of them." (William Woodside, "Thriving on Chaos", 1987)

"Some people are excited about learning a new piece of software. Other people get very depressed. Good managers anticipate both situations - they involve the persons to be affected in the process of selecting a particular program, and they provide time and resources for training. Training is the key in both cases." (Jonathan P Siegel, "Communications", 1988)

Performance Management: Learning (Just the Quotes)

"Much learning does not teach understanding." (Heraclitus, "Fragments", 6th c. BC)

"Learning is more important than practice because it leads to practice." (Talmud, [Megillah] cca. 5th century BC)

“For the things we have to learn before we can do, we learn by doing.” (Aristotle, “Nicomachean Ethics”, Book II, 349 BC)

"Learning is its own exceeding great reward." (William Hazlitt, "The Plain Speaker", 1826)

"Thoroughly to teach another is the best way to learn for yourself." (Tyron Edwards, “A Dictionary of Thoughts”, 1891) 

"Learning is for the future; that is, the object of instruction is to facilitate some form of behavior at a point after the instruction has been completed." (Robert F Mager, Developing Attitude Toward Learning, 1968)

"Modern organization makes demands on the individual to learn something he has never been able to do before: to use organization intelligently, purposefully, deliberately, responsibly [...] to manage organization [...] to make [...] his job in it serve his ends, his values, his desire to achieve." (Peter F Drucker, The Age of Discontinuity, 1968)

"Learning does not occur because behavior has been primed [stimulated]; it occurs because behavior, primed or not, is reinforced." (B F Skinner, "Beyond Freedom and Dignity", 1971)

"Learning is finding out what you already know. Doing is demonstrating that you know it. Teaching is reminding others that they know just as well as you. You are all learners, doers, teachers." (Richard Bach, "Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah", 1977)

"Organizations tend to grow through stages, face and surmount crises, and along the way learn lessons and draw morals that shape values and future actions. Usually these developments influence assumptions and the way people behave. Often key episodes are recounted in "war stories" that convey lessons about the firm's origins and transformations in dramatic form. Eventually, this lore provides a consistent background for action. New members are exposed to the common history and acquire insight into some of the subtle aspects of their company." (Richard T Pascale & Anthony G Athos, "The Art of Japanese Management", 1981)

"The term closed loop-learning process refers to the idea that one learns by determining what s desired and comparing what is actually taking place as measured at the process and feedback for comparison. The difference between what is desired and what is taking place provides an error indication which is used to develop a signal to the process being controlled." (Harold Chestnut, 1984)

"Culture [is] a pattern of basic assumptions invented, discovered, or developed by a given group as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems." (Edgar H Schein, "Organizational Culture and Leadership", 1985)

"The style of participative management is at its best when the supervisor can draw out the best in his people, allow decisions to be made at the point of influence and contribution, and create a spirit that everyone is in it together and that if something is unknown, they'll learn it together." (Joseph A Raelin, "Clash of Cultures: Managers and Professionals", 1986)

"Teaching is only demonstrating that it is possible. Learning is making it possible for yourself." (Paulo Coelho, "The Pilgrimage", 1987)

"The ability to learn faster than your competitors may be the only sustainable competitive advantage." (Arie P. de Geus, Harvard Business Review, 1988)

"When a team outgrows individual performance and learns team confidence, excellence becomes a reality." (Joe Paterno, American Heritage, 1988)

"[…] new insights fail to get put into practice because they conflict with deeply held internal images of how the world works [...] images that limit us to familiar ways of thinking and acting. That is why the discipline of managing mental models - surfacing, testing, and improving our internal pictures of how the world works - promises to be a major breakthrough for learning organizations." (Peter M Senge, "The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization", 1990)

"A typical software project can present more opportunities to learn from mistakes than some people get in a lifetime." (Steve McConnell, "Rapid Development", 1996)

"Learning is the process of obtaining new knowledge. It results in a better reaction to the same inputs at the next session of operation. It means improvement. It is a step toward adaptation. Learning is a major characteristic of intelligent systems." (Nikola K Kasabov, "Foundations of Neural Networks, Fuzzy Systems, and Knowledge Engineering", 1996)

"Whoever teaches learns in the act of teaching, and whoever learns teaches in the act of learning." (Paulo Freire, "Pedagogy of Freedom", 1996)

"Learning is a multi-faceted, integrated process where changes with any one element alters the larger network. Knowledge is subject to the nuances of complex, adaptive systems." (George Siemens, "Knowing Knowledge", 2006)

"Learning is the process of creating networks. Nodes are external entities which we can use to form a network. Or nodes may be people, organizations, libraries, web sites, books, journals, database, or any other source of information. The act of learning (things become a bit tricky here) is one of creating an external network of nodes - where we connect and form information and knowledge sources. The learning that happens in our heads is an internal network (neural). Learning networks can then be perceived as structures that we create in order to stay current and continually acquire, experience, create, and connect new knowledge (external). And learning networks can be perceived as structures that exist within our minds (internal) in connecting and creating patterns of understanding." (George Siemens, "Knowing Knowledge", 2006)

"Learning is a process of modifying or completely changing our mental models based on new experiences or evidence." (Edward D Hess, "Learn or Die: Using Science to Build a Leading-Edge Learning Organization", 2014)

"No methodology can guarantee success. But a good methodology can provide a feedback loop for continual improvement and learning." (Ash Maurya, "Scaling Lean: Mastering the Key Metrics for Startup Growth", 2016)

"There is a remarkable agreement upon the definition of learning as being reflected in a change of behavior as the result of experience." (E A Haggard)

"We can expect the revolution in communications to extend the power of our brains. Its ultimate effect will be the transformation and unification of all techniques for the exchange of ideas and information, of culture and learning. It will not only generate new knowledge, but will supply the means for its world-wide dissemination and absorption." (David Sarnoff)

Performance Management: Skills (Just the Quotes)

"By far the most valuable possession is skill. Both war and the chances of fortune destroy other things, but skill is preserved." Hipparchus, Commentaries, 2nd century BC)

"Let a man practice the profession which he best knows." (Cicero, "Tusculanarum Disputationum", cca. 45 BC)

"Numeracy has two facets - reading and writing, or extracting numerical information and presenting it. The skills of data presentation may at first seem ad hoc and judgmental, a matter of style rather than of technology, but certain aspects can be formalized into explicit rules, the equivalent of elementary syntax." (Andrew Ehrenberg, "Rudiments of Numeracy", Journal of Royal Statistical Society, 1977)

"Five coordinating mechanisms seem to explain the fundamental ways in which organizations coordinate their work: mutual adjustment, direct supervision, standardization of work processes, standardization of work outputs, and standardization of worker skills." (Henry Mintzberg, "The Structuring of Organizations", 1979)

"Training is the teaching of specific skills. It should result in the employee having the ability to do something he or she could not do before." (Mary A Allison & Eric Anderson, "Managing Up, Managing Down", 1984)

"The skills that make technical professionals competent in their specialties are not necessarily the same ones that make them successful within their organizations." (Bernard Rosenbaum, "Training", 1986)

"[…] data analysis in the context of basic mathematical concepts and skills. The ability to use and interpret simple graphical and numerical descriptions of data is the foundation of numeracy […] Meaningful data aid in replacing an emphasis on calculation by the exercise of judgement and a stress on interpreting and communicating results." (David S Moore, "Statistics for All: Why, What and How?", 1990)

"[By understanding] I mean simply a sufficient grasp of concepts, principles, or skills so that one can bring them to bear on new problems and situations, deciding in which ways one’s present competencies can suffice and in which ways one may require new skills or knowledge." (Howard Gardner, "The Unschooled Mind", 1991)

"Education is not the piling on of learning, information, data, facts, skills, or abilities - that's training or instruction - but is rather making visible what is hidden as a seed." (Thomas W Moore, "The Education of the Heart", 1996)

"Even when you have skilled, motivated, hard-working people, the wrong team structure can undercut their efforts instead of catapulting them to success. A poor team structure can increase development time, reduce quality, damage morale, increase turnover, and ultimately lead to project cancellation." (Steve McConnell, "Rapid Development", 1996)

"Success or failure of a project depends upon the ability of key personnel to have sufficient data for decision-making. Project management is often considered to be both an art and a science. It is an art because of the strong need for interpersonal skills, and the project planning and control forms attempt to convert part of the 'art' into a science." (Harold Kerzner, "Strategic Planning for Project Management using a Project Management Maturity Model", 2001)

"Even with simple and usable models, most organizations will need to upgrade their analytical skills and literacy. Managers must come to view analytics as central to solving problems and identifying opportunities - to make it part of the fabric of daily operations." (Dominic Barton & David Court, "Making Advanced Analytics Work for You", 2012)

"The biggest thing to know is that data visualization is hard. Really difficult to pull off well. It requires harmonization of several skills sets and ways of thinking: conceptual, analytic, statistical, graphic design, programmatic, interface-design, story-telling, journalism - plus a bit of ‘gut feel.’ The end result is often simple and beautiful, but the process itself is usually challenging and messy." (David McCandless, 2013)

"Finding the right answer is important, of course. But more important is developing the ability to see that problems have multiple solutions, that getting from X to Y demands basic skills and mental agility, imagination, persistence, patience." (Mary H Futrell)

"Productivity is the name of the game, and gains in productivity will only come when better understanding and better relationships exist between management and the work force. [...] Managers have traditionally developed the skills in finance, planning, marketing and production techniques. Too often the relationships with their people have been assigned a secondary role. This is too important a subject not to receive first-line attention." (William Hewlett, "The Human Side of Management", [speech])

"Solving problems is a practical skill like, let us say, swimming. We acquire any practical skill by imitation and practice." (George Polya)

Performance Management: Efficiency (Just the Quotes)

"Simplicity is the soul of efficiency." (Austin Freeman, "The Eye of Osiris", 1911)

"Efficiency and economy imply employment of the right instrument and material as well as their right use in the right manner." (Louis D Brandeis, "St. Louis & Ohio Railway v. U.S.", 1928)

"If we view organizations as adaptive, problem-solving structures, then inferences about effectiveness have to be made, not from static measures of output, but on the basis of the processes through which the organization approaches problems. In other words, no single measurement of organizational efficiency or satisfaction - no single time-slice of organizational performance can provide valid indicators of organizational health." (Warren G Bennis, "General Systems Yearbook", 1962)

"But waste is often hard to find. The costs of not-doing tend to be hidden in the figures. […] Waste runs high in any business. Man, after all, is not very efficient. Special efforts to find waste are therefore always necessary." (Peter F Drucker, "Managing for Results: Economic Tasks and Risk-taking Decisions", 1964)

"The myth of efficiency lies in the assumption that the most efficient manager is ipso facto the most effective; actually the most efficient manager working on the wrong task will not be effective." (R Alec Mackenzie, "The Time Trap", 1972)

"Effectiveness is the foundation of success - efficiency is a minimum condition for survival after success has been achieved. Efficiency is concerned with doing things right. Effectiveness is doing the right things." (Peter Drucker, "Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Challenges", 1973)

"It is more important for the manager to get his information quickly and efficiently than to get it formally." (Henry Mintzberg, "The Nature of Managerial Work", 1973)

"Overemphasis of efficiency leads to an unfortunate circularity in design: for reasons of efficiency early programming languages reflected the characteristics of the early computers, and each generation of computers reflects the needs of the programming languages of the preceding generation." (Kenneth E Iverson, "Notation as a Tool of Thought", 1979)

"The practice of first developing a clear and precise definition of a process without regard for efficiency, and then using it as a guide and a test in exploring equivalent processes possessing other characteristics, such as greater efficiency, is very common in mathematics. It is a very fruitful practice which should not be blighted by premature emphasis on efficiency in computer execution." (Kenneth E Iverson, "Notation as a Tool of Thought", 1979)

"There is an especially efficient way to get information, much neglected by most managers. That is to visit a particular place in the company and observe what's going on there." (Andrew S Grove, "High Output Management", 1983)

"Most managers are rewarded if their unit operates efficiently and effectively. A highly creative unit, in contrast, might appear ineffective and uneven, and rather crazy to an outside or inside observer." (William G Dyer, "Strategies for Managing Change", 1984)

"The chain of command is an inefficient communication system. Although my staff and I had our goals, tasks, and priorities well defined, large parts of the organization didn't know what was going on. Frequent, thorough, open communication to every employee is essential to get the word out and keep walls from building within the company. And while face-to-face communication is more effective than impersonal messages, it's a good idea to vary the medium and the message so that no one (including top management) relies too much on ''traditional" channels of communication." (William H Peace, Harvard Business Review, 1986)

"The premise here is that the hierarchy lines on the chart are also the only communication conduit. Information can flow only along the lines. [...] The hierarchy lines are paths of authority. When communication happens only over the hierarchy lines, that's a priori evidence that the managers are trying to hold on to all control. This is not only inefficient but an insult to the people underneath." (Tom DeMarco, "Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency", 2001)

"Management can be defined as the attainment of organizational goals in an effective and efficient manner through planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling organizational resources." (Richard L Daft, "The Leadership Experience" 4th Ed., 2008)

"An organization’s culture is the underlying set of key values, beliefs, understandings, and norms shared by employees. These underlying values and norms may pertain to ethical behavior, commitment to employees, efficiency, or customer service, and they provide the glue to hold organization members together. An organization’s culture is unwritten but can be observed in its stories, slogans, ceremonies, dress, and office layout." (Richard L Daft, "Organization Theory and Design", 3rd Ed., 2010)

"Efficiency refers to the amount of resources used to achieve the organization’s goals. It is based on the quantity of raw materials, money, and employees necessary to produce a given level of output. Effectiveness is a broader term, meaning the degree to which an organization achieves its goals." (Richard L Daft, "Organization Theory and Design", 3rd Ed., 2010)

"I think there is a profound and enduring beauty in simplicity; in clarity, in efficiency. True simplicity is derived from so much more than just the absence of clutter and ornamentation. It's about bringing order to complexity." (Jonathan Ive, 2013)

"Simplicity in a system tends to increase that system’s efficiency. Because less can go wrong with fewer parts, less will. Complexity in a system tends to increase that system’s inefficiency; the greater the number of variables, the greater the probability of those variables clashing, and in turn, the greater the potential for conflict and disarray. Because more can go wrong, more will. That is why centralized systems are inclined to break down quickly and become enmeshed in greater unintended consequences." (Lawrence K Samuels,"Defense of Chaos: The Chaology of Politics, Economics and Human Action", 2013)

Performance Management: Measurement (Just the Quotes)

"It is important to realize that it is not the one measurement, alone, but its relation to the rest of the sequence that is of interest." (William E Deming, "Statistical Adjustment of Data", 1943)

"If we view organizations as adaptive, problem-solving structures, then inferences about effectiveness have to be made, not from static measures of output, but on the basis of the processes through which the organization approaches problems. In other words, no single measurement of organizational efficiency or satisfaction - no single time-slice of organizational performance can provide valid indicators of organizational health." (Warren G Bennis, "General Systems Yearbook", 1962)

"[...] long-range plans are most valuable when they are revised and adjusted and set anew at shorter periods. The five-year plan is reconstructed each year in turn for the following five years. The soundest basis for this change is accurate measurement of the results of the first year's experience with the plan against the target of the plan." (George S Odiorne, "Management by Objectives", 1965)

"[Management by objectives is] a process whereby the superior and the subordinate managers of an enterprise jointly identify its common goals, define each individual's major areas of responsibility in terms of the results expected of him, and use these measures as guides for operating the unit and assessing the contribution of each of its members." (Robert House, "Administrative Science Quarterly", 1971)

"A manager [...] sets objectives [...] organizes [...] motivates and communicates [...] measure[s] [...] develops people. Every manager does these thingsknowingly or not. A manager may do them well, or may do them wretchedly, but always does them." (Peter F Drucker, "People and Performance", 1977)

"The performance of profit center managers is [usually] measured over a moderate time span. The penalty for unsatisfactory absolute performance over the short-term is severe. The proper balance between known performance and potential future benefits is never clear." (Bruce Henderson, "Henderson on Corporate Strategy", 1979)

"Goals should be specific, realistic and measureable." (William G Dyer, "Strategies for Managing Change", 1984)

"Setting goals can be the difference between success and failure. [...] Goals must not be defined so broadly that they cannot be quantified. Having quantifiable goals is an essential starting point if managers are to measure the results of their organization's activities. [...] Too often people mistake being busy for achieving goals." (Philip D Harvey & James D Snyder, Harvard Business Review, 1987)

"How you measure the performance of your managers directly affects the way they act." (John Dearden, Harvard Business Review, 1987)

"Industrial managers faced with a problem in production control invariably expect a solution to be devised that is simple and unidimensional. They seek the variable in the situation whose control will achieve control of the whole system: tons of throughput, for example. Business managers seek to do the same thing in controlling a company; they hope they have found the measure of the entire system when they say 'everything can be reduced to monetary terms'." (Stanford Beer, "Decision and Control", 1994)

"A strategy is a set of hypotheses about cause and effect. The measurement system should make the relationships (hypotheses) among objectives (and measures) in the various perspectives explicit so that they can be managed and validated. The chain of cause and effect should pervade all four perspectives of a Balanced Scorecard." (Robert S Kaplan & David P Norton, "The Balanced Scorecard", Harvard Business Review, 1996)

"Many management reports are not a management tool; they are merely memorandums of information. As a management tool, management reports should encourage timely action in the right direction, by reporting on those activities the Board, management, and staff need to focus on. The old adage 'what gets measured gets done' still holds true." (David Parmenter, "Pareto’s 80/20 Rule for Corporate Accountants", 2007)

"Key performance indicators (KPIs) are the vital navigation instruments used by managers to understand whether their business is on a successful voyage or whether it is veering off the prosperous path. The right set of indicators will shine light on performance and highlight areas that need attention. ‘What gets measured gets done’ and ‘if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it’ are just two of the popular sayings used to highlight the critical importance of metrics. Without the right KPIs managers are sailing blind." (Bernard Marr, "Key Performance Indicators (KPI): The 75 measures every manager needs to know", 2011)

"KRAs and KPIs KRA and KPI are two confusing acronyms for an approach commonly recommended for identifying a person’s major job responsibilities. KRA stands for key result areas; KPI stands for key performance indicators. As academics and consultants explain this jargon, key result areas are the primary components or parts of the job in which a person is expected to deliver results. Key performance indicators represent the measures that will be used to determine how well the individual has performed. In other words, KRAs tell where the individual is supposed to concentrate her attention; KPIs tell how her performance in the specified areas should be measured. Probably few parts of the performance appraisal process create more misunderstanding and bewilderment than do the notion of KRAs and KPIs. The reason is that so much of the material written about KPIs and KRAs is both." (Dick Grote, "How to Be Good at Performance Appraisals: Simple, Effective, Done Right", 2011)

"'Getting it right the first time' is a rare achievement, and ascertaining the organization’s winning KPIs and associated reports is no exception. The performance measure framework and associated reporting is just like a piece of sculpture: you can be criticized on taste and content, but you can’t be wrong. The senior management team and KPI project team need to ensure that the project has a just-do-it culture, not one in which every step and measure is debated as part of an intellectual exercise." (David Parmenter, "Key Performance Indicators: Developing, implementing, and using winning KPIs" 3rd Ed., 2015)

"Preparation precedes performance. When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported, the rate of improvement accelerates." (Thomas S Monson)

Performance Management: Mentoring (Definitions)

 "A technique used to help less skilled or experienced people learn from more experienced people. The mentor is the experienced person and the protégé is the person who is guided. A product manager will benefit throughout his or her career by establishing relationships with others deemed to have a comprehensive set of skills and experiences." (Steven Haines, "The Product Manager's Desk Reference", 2008)

"The process of transferring the lessons of greater experience in a workforce competency to improve the capability of other individuals or workgroups." (Sally A Miller et al, "People CMM: A Framework for Human Capital Management" 2nd Ed., 2009)

"The offering of experience, emotional support, and guidance by an experienced person to a less experienced person." (Joan C Dessinger, "Fundamentals of Performance Improvement" 3rd Ed., 2012)

"An opportunity for a more experienced person to impart knowledge and expertise to a less experienced person." (Sally-Anne Pitt, "Internal Audit Quality", 2014)

"The helping of an employee in formulating her future plans beyond the present role by someone higher in the organization." (Fred MacKenzie, "7 Paths to Managerial Leadership", 2016)

"Provides access to knowledge and experience within a supportive professional relationship. A mentor is usually at a more advanced career stage than the person being mentored." (Christina Lovelock & Debra Paul, "Delivering Business Analysis: The BA Service handbook", 2019)

Performance Management: Resilience (Definitions)

"The capacity of individuals and the holding environment to contain disequilibrium over time." (Alexander Grashow et al, "The Practice of Adaptive Leadership", 2009)

"Ability to recover easily or to adapt to change and adversity." (Maria de Ludres Cró, "Resilience and Psychomotricity in Preschool Education", 2013)

"The ability to withstand stressful and adverse circumstances in one’s life as if one has some internal protective mechanism." (Constantine Ngara, "Educating Highly Able Students from an African Perspective", 2017)

"A capability to anticipate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from significant multi-hazard threats with minimum damage to social well-being, the economy, and the environment." (Carolyn N Stevenson, "Addressing the Sustainable Development Goals Through Environmental Education", 2019)

"It is the attitude of adapting quickly to different situations in order to achieve the goal in the best way." (Marco A C Paschoalotto et al, "The Role of the Entrepreneur in the Promotion of the Digital Economy", 2019)

"the act of resolving conflicts, turning disruptive changes into new directions, learning from this process, and becoming more successful and satisfied in the process." (Amina Omrane, "Which Are the Appropriate Skills Needed for the Entrepreneurial Success of Startups in the Era of Digitalization?", 2020)

"The ability of human or natural systems to cope with adverse events and be able to effect a quick recovery." (Maria F Casado-Claro, "Fostering Resilience by Empowering Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses in Local Communities in Post-Disaster Scenarios", 2021)

"The word resilience refers to the ability to overcome critical moments and adapt after experiencing some unusual and unexpected situation. It also indicates return to normal." (José G Vargas-Hernández, "Urban Socio-Ecosystems Green Resilience", 2021)

Performance Management: Organizational Learning (Definitions)

[single-loop learning:] "This is adaptive learning which involves detecting and rectifying errors or exceptions within the scope of the organisation’s existing practices, policies and norms of behaviour." (Bernard Burnes, "Managing change : a strategic approach to organisational dynamics" 5th Ed., 2009)

[double-loop learning: "This process involves challenging the appropriateness of an organisation’s basic norms, values, policies and operating procedures." (Bernard Burnes, "Managing change : a strategic approach to organisational dynamics" 5th Ed., 2009)

[triple-loop learning:] "This involves questioning the rationale for the organisation and, in the light of this, radically transforming it." (Bernard Burnes, "Managing change : a strategic approach to organisational dynamics" 5th Ed., 2009)

"This term describes the process of collective, as opposed to individual, learning in an organisation. Its aim is to improve the performance of the organisation by involving everyone in collecting, studying, learning from and acting on information." (Bernard Burnes, "Managing change : a strategic approach to organisational dynamics" 5th Ed., 2009)

"A set of concepts, methods and tools popularized in Peter Senge’s book The Fifth Discipline that enable both individual and collective learning in the context of an organization or social network." (Aldo Romano & Giustina Secundo (Eds.), "Dynamic Learning Networks: Models and Cases in Action", 2009)

[enterprise learning:] "Any system that delivers instruction that is critical to the entire organization and must be disseminated to a large number of people dispersed over a wide geographic area." (Joan C Dessinger, "Fundamentals of Performance Improvement" 3rd Ed, 2012)

"A discipline concerned with the way individuals, groups, and organizations develop knowledge." (Project Management Institute, "A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide)", 2017)

"A theory proposing that an organization adjusts to changes in the environment through the learning of its employees." (Thomas L Wheelen & J David Hunger., "Strategic management and business policy: toward global sustainability" 13th Ed., 2012)

Performance Management: Emotional Intelligence (Definitions)

"A gauge of an individual’s ability to control his or her emotions and evaluate and manage the emotions of others. Individuals with high levels of emotional intelligence do an outstanding job at leading teams, managing others, and working with customers." (Gina Abudi & Brandon Toropov, "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Best Practices for Small Business", 2011)

"The capability to identify, assess, and manage the personal emotions of oneself and other people, as well as the collective emotions of groups of people." (For Dummies, "PMP Certification All-in-One For Dummies" 2nd Ed., 2013)

"The ability to perceive, control, and evaluate emotions in oneself and in others. US psychologist Daniel Goleman noted that high EQ is common in business leaders and facilitates other leadership traits. |" (DK, "The Business Book", 2014)

"Describes an ability, capacity, or skill to perceive, assess, and manage the emotions of oneself, of others, and of groups." (Project Management Institute, "Project Manager Competency Development Framework 3rd Ed.", 2017)

"The ability to identify, assess, and manage the personal emotions of oneself and other people, as well as the collective emotions of groups of people." (Project Management Institute, "A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide )", 2017)

"Emotional intelligence is the measurement of an individual’s abilities to recognise and manage their own emotions and the emotions of other people, both individually and in groups." (Christina Lovelock & Debra Paul, "Delivering Business Analysis: The BA Service handbook", 2019)

"The ability to identify, assess, monitor, and control emotions of self to guide thinking and impact effective actions of others." (Joan C Dessinger, "Fundamentals of Performance Improvement 3rd Ed", 2012)

"The ability to identify, assess, and manage your own emotions and the emotions of others; useful in reducing tension and increasing cooperation." (Cate McCoy & James L Haner, "CAPM Certified Associate in Project Management Practice Exams", 2018)

"The ability, capacity, and skill to identify, assess, and manage the emotions of one's self, of others, and of groups." (IQBBA)