Performance Consulting: my action and transfer plan

When I started the Performance Consulting course early this year, little did I know about how much it would change me. Four months later, I am realizing a good course will change your mindset by asking you to know thyself more; it will provide you with techniques, tools, and resources and of course, give you the gift of community. Whether I will be hired as an internal or external performance consultant, the knowledge, skills and attitude acquired in this course given by the wonderful Sonia di Maulo will help me do a great job in the service of companies and individuals.

Mindset

We went on a self-exploratory journey in this course. We prepared 2 presentations, with fixed durations, a fixed number of slides and visuals to speak about our guiding principles, leadership styles, strengths, and areas for improvement. Continuous work on who we are, whom we want to be and how to get there was interwoven into the fabric of the course. Self-leadership has become a topic I devote time to weekly now. Being a lifelong learner means, after all, continuously learning who we really are and how we can make a difference in the world. I intend to keep this work going by journaling and taking on challenges professionally.

Resources

Early in the course, the instructor asked us to read the Performance Consulting book by the Robinsons as a basis for all our assignments and activities later on. This was smart. Also, reading Meadows’ book on systemic thinking opened the door to another way of looking at things in the world: the systems view. The Six Boxes Model as a framework for analyzing factors that impact human performance is another model I intend to use more professionally. Strategic thinking and cause analysis, and especially the SHOULD versus the IS states are all concepts I am taking with me from the Performance Consulting course. Technical skills are important, but in my opinion, they are secondary. What matters the most is active listening and a genuine wish to help people do better.

Network

This course showed me the full might of teamwork. I worked with four smart, strong and disciplined young professionals who were always on time for the group meetings, who sincerely supported one another and who drove the project according to a pre-established schedule. The class on social styles showed us how we work best, and so we succeeded. All my other colleagues are competent, creative, positive, and ambitious people that I want to keep in touch with as we slowly approach graduation and are looking towards finishing purposeful work in the instructional design field. Teamwork makes dreams work: yes! Those who believe in the power of togetherness build community.

I am truly thankful for this term. Human performance is fascinating to study and apply as we move towards a more inclusive, transparent, authentic way of working. Onto new challenges now!