Book 11: The Three Laws of Performance

Yes, this book was a great book to finish this course. In my opinion, this is one of the best books of this semester. It shows just three laws, not steps or rules, that after we hear them, plenty of different situations from our daily life in individual, group, and organizational behavior come to our mind. I totally agree with these laws. Regarding the first one, said in other words “There’s what happens and what you make it mean.” The way how we perceive what happens is the crucial point in judging, interpreting and behaving. We can react and give the meaning we want to every situation.

“How a situation occurs, arises in language.” is the second law. We know that people / employees are the most worthy asset of any company. Communication with our colleagues is a powerful tool in developing relationships and of course enhancing the quality of the work, and our lives at the same time. The authors explain that the key to the analysis is the distinction between keeping one’s word and honoring one’s word. ” Honoring one’s word takes responsibility and actually restores one’s credibility. This is in contrast to trying to keep one’s word when the situation does not support it, resulting in finger-pointing (blaming somebody), giving reasons as if excuses were an acceptable substitute for the result. Such language does not in itself produce improved performance, but it lays down a commitment, a promise, of such performance. Furthermore, there are some examples where language actually produces the entire result as when an agreement is reached that two companies will merge or one will acquire the other. That agreement is a lot like “I now pronounce you man and wife,” in which the form of words creates the relationship (here in Albania it is the wedding ceremony, it seems that we like action). Of course, mergers are like marriages in that the fun really begins at the point of the performative act in language. For us it is “we are having a wedding party” then people name you as married.

The third law: “Future-based language transforms how situations occur to people.” This one makes the difference in describing what’s there and what that means and creating and generative language. It should generate something new, new ideas, a different experience. A new future where things that might be a problem now, may not be a problem in a future scenario so maybe you could skip them. They say that it is actually the tip of the iceberg for implementing integrity-based leadership. It is a book about creating the possibility of breakthrough performance. Given the ongoing economic dynamics, the series of scandals coming out of the business community, and the always thin level of integrity (in any sense of the word) in Congress I think that this is a really worth book.