A New Paradigm of Individual, Group, and Organizational Performance

Abstract

The current theory (model) of performance, while having produced many improvements in performance during its hundred-year reign, has been essentially exhausted. This has left us with little more than a labyrinth of explanations for human performance. Quoting the Committee on Techniques for the Enhancement of Human Performance of the U.S. National Research Council Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education (Druckman et al. 1997): “The committee is therefore unable to draw conclusions, based on scientific evidence, on what does or does not work to enhance organizational performance” Given that models are constrained and shaped by the paradigm from within which they are generated, a truly new model of performance would require a new paradigm of performance. Our new model of performance (a part of our new paradigm of performance), rather than adding more explanations for why people do what they do and why they don’t do what they don’t do, provides actionable access to the source of human performance. This actionable access to the source of performance opens up a new realm of opportunity for study and research, and for new and more effective interventions, applications, and practices for improving individual, group, and organizational performance.