The Three Laws of Performance: Rewriting the Future of Your Organization and Your Life [Audiobook, Ungekürzte Ausgabe] [Englisch] [Audio CD]

This review covers:

- Why I found Three Laws different from most business books.

- One example of a powerful technique I use from the book.

- The concept of the "Self-Led Organization" - a company that can run itself

The Three Laws of Performance could not come at a better time. Unless you have been living underground cut off from communication with the outside world, you must know that the world is facing unprecedented challenges. From the economy to the environment to global terrorism, the future doesn't look pretty. In fact it looks down right depressing.

While the authors of the book may not have intended it, the ideas in this book could very well be the answer to the question "How do we get ourselves out of this mess?" The US President has recruited some of the best minds in America to his administration to fix the US banking system, jump start the economy and stop climate change. We all may be praying that they are successful, but in each of our hearts we know that we are going to need to each embrace the required change if it is to be successful.

The personal and political habits that got us where we are now will not allow us to get where we need to go. We don't need change, we need re-invention.

So what about this book?

I, like many people want to do something about the issues that we are facing. A friend of mine gave me a copy of the book to read saying that I would like it especially because of the community work that I do. I was doubtful. I found the title to be boring and I am generally not interested in business books. She said that I would like it because I have to deal with a lot of resignation, which is true. Being an environmental advocate can feel like talking to stones.

I began reading it and got immediately intrigued by the First Law of Performance:

"How people perform correlates to the way the world occurs to them"

I would have never said it that way, but it made perfect sense to me. People don't recycle because it occurs for them like it doesn't matter. People will drive out of their way to save 10 cents on a gallon of gas or to use a 2 for 1 coupon but they won't recycle. How we act in the face of climate change or the economy really does make a difference but as my friend says, we are resigned.

This is also true even in organizations where people get paid to do a job. The authors Steve Zaffron and Dave Logan contend that it is people's individual views and the language they use to describe their situations that determine the actions they take. According to the book, the way people both view and speak about situations is influenced almost exclusively by the past. This in turn limits people's ability to adapt and work cooperatively together as past successes and failures literally limit their view of what is possible. This is true for both individual people as well as the organizations they are a part of. Just think of the auto industry or a losing sports team.

In most organizations, individual people feel that they have little or no say in what happens. As a result there is little or no real communication between the leaders and those they lead. The Three Laws asserts and illustrates that it is possible not just pay lip service to the notion of giving people a say in the organization but open a kind of platform for communication that is profoundly human.

An example of this comes in a surprisingly moving passage from the book where two women, working at the Lonmin Platinum Mine in South Africa, one black and one white were able to speak openly about their personal experiences of apartheid with one another and thus heal wounds they had carried since their childhoods. On the surface this conversation had almost nothing to do with the operations of a mine. Presumably mines care about productivity, profitability and safety, yet the legacy of distrust from apartheid and the fact that no one was willing to talk about it openly affected all of those things. The book goes on to tell the story of how a new spirit of trust developed at Lonmin and surrounding community.

The book is loaded with similar examples from real organizations all of which are used to illustrate the basic assertions of the book. I was finding it almost hard to believe until I read the endorsement from Bishop Desmond Tutu:

"God invites each of us to participate in the process of transforming the world - to create a world in which every person knows their infinite and irreplaceable worth and can truly fulfill their potential. This book filled with insights, real-life encounters and experiences, shows us how we may do this work of transformation. Applicable in the corporate, labour, political and civil society sectors - Steve and David have written an inspiring, practical book that will assist all who seek to rewrite the future of our world."

I must admit that I am one who seeks to rewrite the future of our world. I don't think I am very different than most people. As I said this is the right book at the right time.

In an age where conversations have become a commodity, a good book on the relationship between organizational performance and language is a must-read; and The Three Laws of Performance doesn't disappoint.

I was interested to see how the authors would handle the issue of generative language, language that's used to create rather than just describe. I was pleasantly surprised. Not only did the authors do a great job of navigating the delicate balance between the extremes (no appreciation for the power of future-based language on the one hand and a complete disregard for real world limitations on the other); they provided a clear road map along with engaging cases studies that help to guide the reader along a path that I believe will help leaders for years to come take their organizations to new levels of effectiveness and performance.

Ironically, the only thing I would suggest changing about this book is the language. The title should have been simply The Three Laws, or possibly The Three Laws of Leadership. Additionally, the 3 main laws could have been stated in a way that was easier for the reader to remember. Twice now, I've tried to describe the 3 laws to a friend and I wasn't able to articulate the laws effortlessly. I had to work at remembering the precise language. For those in the same boat, here's the shorter version that I'm now using when I give a quick description of the book to friends.

1) Performance is related to perception
2) Perception is rooted in language
3) Vision casting changes perception (Or, Generative language changes perception)

Rather than perception, the authors speak of the way things occur to the members of an organization, which works great in the book, but not as great in an elevator. I imagine that they strayed from the term perception in order to steer clear of the obvious clichés related to the term. For example, "Perception is 9/10th of reality" can be used to mean too many things.

With that said, I don't want to diminish the power of this book. I found that it was one of the few books that took me a couple of nights to read because I didn't want to miss anything. It may also be one of the few books I actually read again.

The overall structure of the book worked well for me: a section describing the 3 laws, a section on leadership and the 3 laws, and then, finally, a section on personal application. The first section includes 3 chapters which introduce the 3 laws by taking the reader through a mesmerizing weave of case studies that help to put real world handles on the ideas proposed by the Three Laws.

The second section focuses on the application of these 3 laws in the context of leadership. I loved the 3 corollaries to the 3 laws written for leaders and found the concept of listening for the future of your organization to be compelling in light of the supporting case studies.

The second chapter in this middle section describes the Self-lead organization. This is a loaded term that is defined in the chapter, but in essence the authors are providing guidance to leaders on how to guide organizational conversations so that the whole organization moves in unity toward what Jim Collins described in Good to Great as the organization's hedgehog principle. I loved this chapter.

Finally, the book ends with 3 chapters in a section that focuses on a personal application of the Three Laws. Don't skip these chapters! I can only imagine what it would cost to attend a Three Laws workshop with the authors, and I felt as though they provided all the instructions needed to replicate that experience as closely as possible.

As the authors note in the final chapters, reading The Three Laws is just the first step. The real goal is mastery; and in the new age of hyper-connected, social-media-powered conversations, the future shoguns (this term will make more sense when you read the book) of organizations of all sizes will be those leaders who have not only mastered the Three Laws, but are able to train others in the same art.