It’s Magic
What has a 10%+ improvement in corporate performance, a magician and a gambler all have in common?
We strive for performance improvement in every aspect of our business lives. Wouldn’t it be great if it was as simple as coming up with a magnificent strategy, a gentle crack of the whip and hey presto! 10%+ year on year.
It sounds somewhat simplistic.
This is especially true if you are the one who is leading the charge and the challenges are mounting, counting the days remaining for the achievement of budgets.
Think of it this way: Our 10%+ quest for corporate performance growth is not outlandish by any stretch of the imagination. Hey!
We have one thing right: the expectation aligns with the job spec.
The magician
Surely, this is sleight of hand, trickery or some other illusion, well-practised and designed to make us gasp with delight or writhe in frustration in its simplicity.
However, I still do not see the join!
Magicians make things happen in front of your very eyes. Yes, they use every trick in the book to create illusions, entertain their audiences, and gain their reward and appropriate applause.
Just imagine a “human performance magician”, someone who could help people break through their limiting paradigms and have them imagine something has not yet happened, but with the performance magician’s help, an illusion is about to become a reality.
Imagine the illusion rapidly changed into a measurable output where the individual or teams believed that what they had experienced (illusion) was, in fact, achievable and ultimately rose to the challenge, only to deliver on queue.
A company floor show
This mastery of human change happened last year when a very average Pharmaceutical Company created their very own floor show for six of its top Executives.
The Master Magician helped create their illusion, helping them to believe that they could increase their corporate bottom line performance from an expectation of 12% to 70%.
Well, laugh we did, not a dry eye in the house and yet something magical had changed by their definition.
The shows results
In 2015, and with amazing nonchalance, the general manager announced a growth of 72% in bottom-line performance. Now where, did that come from, said the magician?
Oh yes! The gambler, I hear you say, where does that come into this equation? Well, most of us love a flutter; however, a true gambler is out there, comfortable with the technical and risk elements of their chosen profession, something I’m not sure that the shareholders or the CEO might appreciate.
The gamble! We reversed it, no illusion, and it went like this: If we do not create your measurable piece of magic within an agreed timescale, we will refund your fees in total. Madness! I hear you shout, no, just confidence in our delivery of a particular form of corporate magic!
Anyone for a bet?