High performance is not any one thing and it is not easy to accomplish. It requires a series of habitual actions, implemented with discipline, that produce focused, high impact change. This paper sets out the NSC High Performance Operating Model and the research behind it.
The performance paradox
Applied research has identified the gap between high-performing and low-performing organisations as considerable and long-lasting. In one of Australia's most comprehensive applied research initiatives, Insync Surveys studied the differences between high and low performing companies using survey data from more than 100,000 employees across 200 companies.
Insync's paper identifies seven specific behaviours, but the crucial term is habit. To be genuinely considered habits, behaviours must be so deeply engrained into the culture and DNA of the organisation that they become its way of life. They cannot be initiatives piloted or adopted for a season.
Jason Wolf described this as the performance paradox: the good or right things we know we should be doing are often not the easy things to accomplish.
Five components
The NSC High Performance Operating Model consists of five components that together create a high performance environment: an agile organisational structure; a high performance culture; Enterprise Leadership; a psychologically safe working environment; and high collaboration with open communication.
The effect of the model is to drive decision-making down to where the work is being done, lift employee engagement, increase both the quantity and the effectiveness of innovation, and cultivate customer-centrism — each of which correlates with high organisational performance.
Central to the model, the principles of Enterprise Leadership establish the core leadership behaviours that nurture and enhance high performance.
Discipline, not investment
Success with the model requires discipline. The good news is that the habitual actions themselves require little investment — a change of mindset, and then action.