Here's a blast from the past - Learning to Reperceive by Katherine Hammer of Fast Company. Her deeply personal examples aside, the essential message is an important one. You and each of your management team have a set of perceptions about the world, about each other, and about your organization and its performance.

I once heard about a leadership appraisal survey which contained the question "Does my leader speak with a loud authoritative voice?" - as if that had anything to do with the leader's performance. This may be an extreme example, but in a complex environment it becomes incredibly easy for your view of organizational performance to be coloured by your perception of the individuals responsible.

Katherine's point is that we need to constantly challenge our perceptions, and be courageous enough to "question your inherent assumptions and strive for a realization that may change your belief systems in a substantive way".

Undertaken constructively, a planning, forecasting and monitoring loop can facilitate this kind of inquiry on a monthly basis. Which KPI's actually reflect the important stuff about your business? What results are surprising? Why is this traffic light green, while another related one is red? Is the best dressed executive actually delivering the best results?

The power of this process is substantial, and Collaborative Performance can help. Call us today.