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Three Laws of Performance [Paperback] [Jan 01, 2009] Steve Zaffron, Dave Logan
The Three Laws of Rewriting the Future of Your Organization and Your Life-Wiley-Steve Zaffron-2009-EDN-1
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
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May 15, 2011
Why did your father behave the way he did? Why do your mother or child or your spouse act the way they do? Why does your boss say and do the things the does? Why do you behave and act the way you do, even if you don’t want to act that way? Why do organization and corporation function in the way they do? Psychologist, management experts and philosophers have sought to explain human behaviour in innumerable ways. There are plenty of theories and systems of thought to explain and understand the way we and people around us act and do things. But the problem with these theories and concepts is precisely this: they explain and help us to understand but don’t allow us a concrete, hands-on access to alter the behaviour and action of people or us. They give us ‘tips and strategies’ to ‘fix’ the problems.
The Three Laws of Performance: Rewriting the Future of Your Organization and Your Life by Zaffron and Logan is not a theoretical book or a book giving ‘tips and strategies or solutions’ to ‘problems’. Most of the times, Zaffron and Logan say, ‘the problem-solution’ mode of thinking doesn’t work. The reason they say lies in what they term ‘the problem-solution mass’ where the solution to a problem becomes an additional problem. The example they give is a youngster who feels lonely and frustrated and thinks that marriage will ‘solve’ the ‘problem of loneliness’. However, after marriage, what really happens is that he has two problems on his hands: loneliness and marriage! He tries to ‘fix’ this by raising a family and how he has three problems on his hand: loneliness, marriage and children! He tries to ‘fix’ it by ‘divorce’ or an extramarital affair and now he has one more problem in his life! The answer lies in ‘transforming’ rather than finding solutions to the problems.
The laws are not ‘ideas, strategies, principles or theories’: they are ‘laws’ like the law of gravitation. Knowing these laws help not just to explain but also transform the performance of a person or an organization, that is, rewrite the future of that person or organization. That’s the incredible power of this book. Let’s look at the three simple laws in brief.
The First Law: How people perform correlates to how situations occur to them.
The law is very simple and yet we simply have no idea how deeply it affects our life and the life of the organization. The most important words here are ‘occur’ and ‘correlate’. The word ‘occur’ indicates that it is NOT what situation or a person really IS but how it OCCURS TO US that determines our behaviour. For instance, if we see a situation or person as threatening, our actions will be correlated to our perception of threat IRRESPECTIVE of the fact whether it IS threatening or not.
Speaking from my own experience, my mother ‘occurred’ to me as a person who has treated my father badly and as a person who did not care for me at all. After I was able to distinguish that this is how my mother occurred to me and that was NOT how she WAS, great bitterness and anger towards her vanished. This realization transformed my behaviour towards her so much that I don’t fight with her at all after this. When this bitterness and anger and fights disappeared, there was unprecedented peace and affinity in my life. In fact, before this realization, when my psychotherapist had asked me to tell him ‘three good qualities’ of my mother I could not even tell him one! So much was the anger and resentment I was carrying around.
How situations or person occur to us is closely dependent on Zaffron and Logan term as ‘default future’. Default Future, according to the authors, is our future which we SEE as certainly coming unless something dramatic and unexpected happens. This ‘default future’ does not include the inevitable things like death or ageing. It includes the things like ‘how your evening will turn out’ or what you will be doing tomorrow, unless something unexpected happens for instance. We know this future at the gut level. If we know we are going to meet someone we love in the evening, our present becomes something else and if we know that she or he has changed the plan our present becomes something else. In fact, it is not our past that controls our life; it is our ‘default future’ which controls our life. Our present moment, our activities in the present are CORRELATED to how our FUTURE OCCURS to us this moment. That is, our present way of being and acting is a function of our ‘default future’. If we see in the morning when we wake up that it is going to be ‘the same routine day’ in our default future, our actions will be correlated to this perception. If we receive a phone call informing us of something totally unexpected, our morning changes for better or for worse. Imagine, a phone call informing us that we have won something by the sale scheme we got yesterday while shopping. Or imagine a call telling us about our application for something has been turned down. It changes our present way of being and acting.
What applies to us as individuals applies for the institutions and organization. The way people in the organization are working at present is correlated to their ‘default future’. If it is bleak and uninspiring, people’s activities will be correlated to this perception.
The question which comes to our mind now is HOW a situation (or a person) occurs to us the way it does? What made my mother occur to me the way she did? This brings us to the second law of performance.
The Second Law: How a situation occurs arises in language.
Simple again. How my mother occurred to me was based on what I kept SAYING to myself over and over again in my mind to myself or to her openly. I kept on saying, ‘she does not care for me or for my father. She treats him badly’. Remember this saying was not always conscious, it was often at the ‘gut level’. I ran this conversation repeatedly and every time I repeated it my anger went up exponentially. My feelings, expectations and beliefs are nothing but my conversations with myself and they determine how someone occurs to me. If I keep saying, as I did, that this is an ‘arranged marriage’ and there is no space for love in it, there wasn’t any.
Conversations are verbal and nothing is ‘just words’. Our feelings and emotions are correlated to our words. The ‘default future’ is a conversation we have with ourselves at the gut level. If you look at the conversation I had about my mother ‘she does not care for me at all and she treats my father badly’, you will realize that it started in the PAST, and that it uses language to DESCRIBE what my mother IS. This is a past-based use of language and it is mostly ‘descriptive’. In this use of language situation (or a person) ‘IS’ the way it is. When I describe something by saying it is the way it is, I m speaking from my past experience. For instance, if I say, as I have said often, ‘the most of the teachers in the colleges and universities are not really eligible for the job’, that is how I will see them, that is, this is how they will occur to me and how I behave with them is correlated to how they occur to me.
Zaffron and Logan call this ‘reality illusion’, the illusion that reality IS the way it OCCURS to us. It is the illusion that reality is ‘fixed’ and is independent of our conversations. . This is similar to what structuralists and poststructuralist philosophers (under influence of Heidegger) have been pointing out. That doesn’t mean, they point out, there is no ‘reality’ ‘out there’, but they emphasize that we cannot access it without language. My reality illusion was ‘this is how my mother is’. When we realize that there is no ‘fixed and stable’ reality existing independently of our conversation, reality becomes ‘malleable’ to us. We can now ‘rewrite’ our future.
Now if our performance is correlated to how situation occurs to us and how a situation occurs to us is due the language we use to talk about it to ourselves with others, how can we transform our performance? We can transform our performance by transforming our language (not ‘changing’ it mind you, this is not a book about ‘positive thinking’) and consequently transforming the way the situation occurs to us.
Most of our conversations are past based. Our complaints, our expectations, our intentions, our communication strategies that we use to get results all are based on our past. There is nothing wrong with this, except for the fact that most of us put them into our future most of the time. Zaffron and Logan call this ‘filing error’. The stuff that should go into the box file labeled ‘past’ should go into that file; however, it goes into the file labeled ‘future’. My conversation,’ mine is an arranged marriage and there is no scope for love’ came from some past conversations; however, by putting it into my ‘default future’, it controls my present. I don’t see any scope for love to exist at present. The ‘filing error’ makes me see my marriage as a closed space. There is no possibility of love here. I can see a possibility only when I put my past based conversation to where it belongs to the file called past only then can I see some ‘space’ some possibility in my default future and hence in my present as my present. This practice of rectifying the ‘filing error’ by putting the files from my past back into my past instead of my default future is called ‘completion’. This completion opens up a blank space from which new possibility can be created. How can I create a new possibility?
The Third Law: Future-based language transforms how situation occur to people.
By declaring your commitment to create a new possibility and keeping your word, you can create new future from the cleared space in the ‘default future’. The future based speech acts like, ‘I will do………………’, ‘I will create’ or ‘I declare the possibility of being…………..’ actually can CREATE new future. If you don’t believe this, just look at your past. When I was a very young child I said to my self, ‘I am not wanted, I am unwanted’ and I became ‘unwanted’ in my eyes. People said they loved me but as I saw myself as ‘unwanted’, I did not believe them. I thought they were manipulating me. Here was a classic ‘filing error’; I was putting my past based conversation into future. When I dropped this conversation, I no longer feel ‘unwanted’. I can sense that people want me and love me, in their own ways.
But the statement ‘ I am unwanted’ is actually nothing but a speech act. A verdict that I passed on myself: I was the judge, the jury, the advocate and the culprit at the same time. I BELIEVED in it, it was ‘TRUTH’ to me. If this decade old statement determined all my past, a speech act based in future can create my future.
The future based language, or what Zaffron and Logan call, ‘generative language’ is not an empty ‘ positive thinking’ as it comes from the space in default future cleared up by putting past into past, it comes out of a perception of possibility. Most of the ‘positive thinking’ fails because one does not SEE POSSIBILITY in this thinking. If I SEE myself sitting in front of a hungry lion, no amount of positive thinking can actually CONVINCE me that I won’t be eaten, unless I see that it is actually chained to the tree. No completion (rectifying the ‘filing error’), no possibility, no possibility, no new future.
Zaffron and Logan make a very interesting use of the term ‘integrity’, which is at heart of creating a future. According to Logan and Zaffron, ‘integrity’ has nothing to do with ‘ethics’ or ‘morality’ as it is commonly understood. It has nothing to do with right or wrong. It has everything to do with ‘workability’ in our life. Integrity, according to the authors, means keeping your word, honoring your word. If you don’t keep your word, the work cannot be done. If you cease to honour your word, people will be even quicker to cease to honour it. Integrity, according to Zaffron and Logan, is ‘being whole or complete’. A chair with one leg missing has no workability; a wheel with one spoke missing has no workability. Only when it is restored can there be any workability in life. A chair with a broken leg is not ‘bad or wrong’, a wheel with a broken spoke is not ‘bad or wrong’, it simply doesn’t WORK.
The key to rewriting a new future is by using future based language and with integrity.
This is a book about results and not about ideas. This is a book which leads to action. Reflections and insights are usually dime a dozen. This is a book which is not concerned with ‘explanation’ or ‘understanding’, but with performance: as a leader, as a father, as a teacher, as a doctor, as a brother, as a daughter, as a friend, as an employee, as an employer, as a businessman and as anyone. The book, the authors tell us, can be our coach in this game of life. If we sit and argue with our coach about theoretical niceties, we won’t be on the court. So I recommend this book about anyone who wants to act effectively and powerfully so as to get the results one wants. So get hold of a copy and get on the playground!
Steve Zaffron and Dave Logan. Three Laws of Performance: Rewriting the Future of your Organization and your Life, San Francisco: Josey-Bass, 2009
Distributed in India by the Times Books, Rs. 395
The Three Laws of Performance: Rewriting the Future of Your Organization and Your Life by Zaffron and Logan is not a theoretical book or a book giving ‘tips and strategies or solutions’ to ‘problems’. Most of the times, Zaffron and Logan say, ‘the problem-solution’ mode of thinking doesn’t work. The reason they say lies in what they term ‘the problem-solution mass’ where the solution to a problem becomes an additional problem. The example they give is a youngster who feels lonely and frustrated and thinks that marriage will ‘solve’ the ‘problem of loneliness’. However, after marriage, what really happens is that he has two problems on his hands: loneliness and marriage! He tries to ‘fix’ this by raising a family and how he has three problems on his hand: loneliness, marriage and children! He tries to ‘fix’ it by ‘divorce’ or an extramarital affair and now he has one more problem in his life! The answer lies in ‘transforming’ rather than finding solutions to the problems.
The laws are not ‘ideas, strategies, principles or theories’: they are ‘laws’ like the law of gravitation. Knowing these laws help not just to explain but also transform the performance of a person or an organization, that is, rewrite the future of that person or organization. That’s the incredible power of this book. Let’s look at the three simple laws in brief.
The First Law: How people perform correlates to how situations occur to them.
The law is very simple and yet we simply have no idea how deeply it affects our life and the life of the organization. The most important words here are ‘occur’ and ‘correlate’. The word ‘occur’ indicates that it is NOT what situation or a person really IS but how it OCCURS TO US that determines our behaviour. For instance, if we see a situation or person as threatening, our actions will be correlated to our perception of threat IRRESPECTIVE of the fact whether it IS threatening or not.
Speaking from my own experience, my mother ‘occurred’ to me as a person who has treated my father badly and as a person who did not care for me at all. After I was able to distinguish that this is how my mother occurred to me and that was NOT how she WAS, great bitterness and anger towards her vanished. This realization transformed my behaviour towards her so much that I don’t fight with her at all after this. When this bitterness and anger and fights disappeared, there was unprecedented peace and affinity in my life. In fact, before this realization, when my psychotherapist had asked me to tell him ‘three good qualities’ of my mother I could not even tell him one! So much was the anger and resentment I was carrying around.
How situations or person occur to us is closely dependent on Zaffron and Logan term as ‘default future’. Default Future, according to the authors, is our future which we SEE as certainly coming unless something dramatic and unexpected happens. This ‘default future’ does not include the inevitable things like death or ageing. It includes the things like ‘how your evening will turn out’ or what you will be doing tomorrow, unless something unexpected happens for instance. We know this future at the gut level. If we know we are going to meet someone we love in the evening, our present becomes something else and if we know that she or he has changed the plan our present becomes something else. In fact, it is not our past that controls our life; it is our ‘default future’ which controls our life. Our present moment, our activities in the present are CORRELATED to how our FUTURE OCCURS to us this moment. That is, our present way of being and acting is a function of our ‘default future’. If we see in the morning when we wake up that it is going to be ‘the same routine day’ in our default future, our actions will be correlated to this perception. If we receive a phone call informing us of something totally unexpected, our morning changes for better or for worse. Imagine, a phone call informing us that we have won something by the sale scheme we got yesterday while shopping. Or imagine a call telling us about our application for something has been turned down. It changes our present way of being and acting.
What applies to us as individuals applies for the institutions and organization. The way people in the organization are working at present is correlated to their ‘default future’. If it is bleak and uninspiring, people’s activities will be correlated to this perception.
The question which comes to our mind now is HOW a situation (or a person) occurs to us the way it does? What made my mother occur to me the way she did? This brings us to the second law of performance.
The Second Law: How a situation occurs arises in language.
Simple again. How my mother occurred to me was based on what I kept SAYING to myself over and over again in my mind to myself or to her openly. I kept on saying, ‘she does not care for me or for my father. She treats him badly’. Remember this saying was not always conscious, it was often at the ‘gut level’. I ran this conversation repeatedly and every time I repeated it my anger went up exponentially. My feelings, expectations and beliefs are nothing but my conversations with myself and they determine how someone occurs to me. If I keep saying, as I did, that this is an ‘arranged marriage’ and there is no space for love in it, there wasn’t any.
Conversations are verbal and nothing is ‘just words’. Our feelings and emotions are correlated to our words. The ‘default future’ is a conversation we have with ourselves at the gut level. If you look at the conversation I had about my mother ‘she does not care for me at all and she treats my father badly’, you will realize that it started in the PAST, and that it uses language to DESCRIBE what my mother IS. This is a past-based use of language and it is mostly ‘descriptive’. In this use of language situation (or a person) ‘IS’ the way it is. When I describe something by saying it is the way it is, I m speaking from my past experience. For instance, if I say, as I have said often, ‘the most of the teachers in the colleges and universities are not really eligible for the job’, that is how I will see them, that is, this is how they will occur to me and how I behave with them is correlated to how they occur to me.
Zaffron and Logan call this ‘reality illusion’, the illusion that reality IS the way it OCCURS to us. It is the illusion that reality is ‘fixed’ and is independent of our conversations. . This is similar to what structuralists and poststructuralist philosophers (under influence of Heidegger) have been pointing out. That doesn’t mean, they point out, there is no ‘reality’ ‘out there’, but they emphasize that we cannot access it without language. My reality illusion was ‘this is how my mother is’. When we realize that there is no ‘fixed and stable’ reality existing independently of our conversation, reality becomes ‘malleable’ to us. We can now ‘rewrite’ our future.
Now if our performance is correlated to how situation occurs to us and how a situation occurs to us is due the language we use to talk about it to ourselves with others, how can we transform our performance? We can transform our performance by transforming our language (not ‘changing’ it mind you, this is not a book about ‘positive thinking’) and consequently transforming the way the situation occurs to us.
Most of our conversations are past based. Our complaints, our expectations, our intentions, our communication strategies that we use to get results all are based on our past. There is nothing wrong with this, except for the fact that most of us put them into our future most of the time. Zaffron and Logan call this ‘filing error’. The stuff that should go into the box file labeled ‘past’ should go into that file; however, it goes into the file labeled ‘future’. My conversation,’ mine is an arranged marriage and there is no scope for love’ came from some past conversations; however, by putting it into my ‘default future’, it controls my present. I don’t see any scope for love to exist at present. The ‘filing error’ makes me see my marriage as a closed space. There is no possibility of love here. I can see a possibility only when I put my past based conversation to where it belongs to the file called past only then can I see some ‘space’ some possibility in my default future and hence in my present as my present. This practice of rectifying the ‘filing error’ by putting the files from my past back into my past instead of my default future is called ‘completion’. This completion opens up a blank space from which new possibility can be created. How can I create a new possibility?
The Third Law: Future-based language transforms how situation occur to people.
By declaring your commitment to create a new possibility and keeping your word, you can create new future from the cleared space in the ‘default future’. The future based speech acts like, ‘I will do………………’, ‘I will create’ or ‘I declare the possibility of being…………..’ actually can CREATE new future. If you don’t believe this, just look at your past. When I was a very young child I said to my self, ‘I am not wanted, I am unwanted’ and I became ‘unwanted’ in my eyes. People said they loved me but as I saw myself as ‘unwanted’, I did not believe them. I thought they were manipulating me. Here was a classic ‘filing error’; I was putting my past based conversation into future. When I dropped this conversation, I no longer feel ‘unwanted’. I can sense that people want me and love me, in their own ways.
But the statement ‘ I am unwanted’ is actually nothing but a speech act. A verdict that I passed on myself: I was the judge, the jury, the advocate and the culprit at the same time. I BELIEVED in it, it was ‘TRUTH’ to me. If this decade old statement determined all my past, a speech act based in future can create my future.
The future based language, or what Zaffron and Logan call, ‘generative language’ is not an empty ‘ positive thinking’ as it comes from the space in default future cleared up by putting past into past, it comes out of a perception of possibility. Most of the ‘positive thinking’ fails because one does not SEE POSSIBILITY in this thinking. If I SEE myself sitting in front of a hungry lion, no amount of positive thinking can actually CONVINCE me that I won’t be eaten, unless I see that it is actually chained to the tree. No completion (rectifying the ‘filing error’), no possibility, no possibility, no new future.
Zaffron and Logan make a very interesting use of the term ‘integrity’, which is at heart of creating a future. According to Logan and Zaffron, ‘integrity’ has nothing to do with ‘ethics’ or ‘morality’ as it is commonly understood. It has nothing to do with right or wrong. It has everything to do with ‘workability’ in our life. Integrity, according to the authors, means keeping your word, honoring your word. If you don’t keep your word, the work cannot be done. If you cease to honour your word, people will be even quicker to cease to honour it. Integrity, according to Zaffron and Logan, is ‘being whole or complete’. A chair with one leg missing has no workability; a wheel with one spoke missing has no workability. Only when it is restored can there be any workability in life. A chair with a broken leg is not ‘bad or wrong’, a wheel with a broken spoke is not ‘bad or wrong’, it simply doesn’t WORK.
The key to rewriting a new future is by using future based language and with integrity.
This is a book about results and not about ideas. This is a book which leads to action. Reflections and insights are usually dime a dozen. This is a book which is not concerned with ‘explanation’ or ‘understanding’, but with performance: as a leader, as a father, as a teacher, as a doctor, as a brother, as a daughter, as a friend, as an employee, as an employer, as a businessman and as anyone. The book, the authors tell us, can be our coach in this game of life. If we sit and argue with our coach about theoretical niceties, we won’t be on the court. So I recommend this book about anyone who wants to act effectively and powerfully so as to get the results one wants. So get hold of a copy and get on the playground!
Steve Zaffron and Dave Logan. Three Laws of Performance: Rewriting the Future of your Organization and your Life, San Francisco: Josey-Bass, 2009
Distributed in India by the Times Books, Rs. 395
June 13, 2009
I learnt in this book how to apply some of the main principles I learnt when doing the Landmark Forum to a business environment even though I am an employee and not the owner.
This book gives good tips on how to deal with relationships inside of a corporate culture without any drama or emotion, how to deal with change and empower your staff to be inspired by, instead of terrified of, transformation in the organisation. A great read for anyone in the working world.
This book gives good tips on how to deal with relationships inside of a corporate culture without any drama or emotion, how to deal with change and empower your staff to be inspired by, instead of terrified of, transformation in the organisation. A great read for anyone in the working world.
July 24, 2014
I've read a lot of self-development and leadership books in the last decade, and this is one of the best.
Having said that, I read this book after participating in the Landmark Forum, and I am certain that this book would have been far less impressive, useful, or even comprehensible to me prior to that. Which speaks to the fact that a review says about much about the reviewer as it does about what they are reviewing - a great point to meditate on with respect to this book.
As a set of "interesting ideas", it's academic, and more than a little abstract.
With the "experiential transformative learning" approach of Landmark Education, it is powerful.
I sat in the Landmark Forum and found myself thinking at various points: "I already know this, and furthermore ......". Then I would stop myself and look around me. In the room, 120 people were getting what "I already knew".
My immediate reaction was: "OK, I may know that, but I don't know how to communicate that to 120 people in a way that (at least a large number of them) get it like this."
That awareness of something unfamiliar at the periphery of my perception changed my listening, and suddenly I had access to something that I didn't have access to before.
Mouthing slogans and precepts and having facts that sit in memory doesn't change either individual or organisational performance. Weird Al's new song and video "Mission Statement" is a great statement on that point.
Approaching this book as a set of slogans and precepts and ideas misses the point that the book puts forward: quantum performance improvement comes about through a transformation of your processing, not by merely adding more information within your existing "framework for facts".
I don't know if you can provoke the same transformation of frame merely by reading a book. Humans are social and a lot of our thinking takes place outside of our head. Large Group Awareness Training, which is an aspect of Landmark Education, rests on the same biological principles that underlie religious ceremony, sports events, and political rallies - a lot of our unconscious thinking is collective.
I recommend participating in the Landmark Forum before reading this book, if you really want to get it. If you read it without doing the Landmark Forum and find it trite, superficial, familiar, or incomprehensible - consider that "what you are using to process the information" is getting in the way, because that's what the book is actually addressing.
To give an example: you are reading these words because light is entering your eyes. You can see the words, but you can't see the light by which you are seeing them. It underlies your perception.
In the same way, the ideas in the book arrive in your consciousness as "meaning" through the medium of your meaning-making capability. You are aware of the meaning, but not the meaning-making that makes it perceptible to your consciousness.
The book states clearly that changing your meaning-making apparatus is the key to a quantum improvement in performance, and that it cannot be done by study or thinking alone, but requires action outside of your current comprehension to create breakthrough performance.
If you find the book uninspiring or incomprehensible, you have a great opportunity to perform a powerful A/B test by reading it again after doing the Landmark Forum.
I listen to it as an audio book daily, and find that it is giving me access to further insights.
I read a study about Landmark Forum participants that found a measurable difference with the control group four weeks after the Forum, but no measurable difference 18 months later. I think a study should control for what people do after the Forum - for example, by comparing those who complete the entire curriculum for living with those who only do the Forum. Since much of our thinking takes place outside our head, if after the Forum you don't stay in the association of people who are applying the distinctions of the Forum, then it's inevitable that your group think will revert to the wider society that you are in.
Studies are inconclusive. Here's something that I'm pretty sure would not show up in a study - at least I can think of no study that could identify it:
My wife is an amazing cook, and we've been married for 16 years. In all that time, every time she cooks the food is out of this world, but the kitchen is like a bomb-site. Every pot, pan, and dish has been used; the sink is filled with potato peelings; sponges are soaking wet and covered in gunk. Every time, I tell her: "Why don't you clean things up as you go? If you are going to put the potato peels somewhere, why not put them in the bin?"
Sixteen years of this go by, to no avail, and no change. She goes away over a weekend and does the Landmark Advanced Course (the course that follows on and builds upon the Forum). When she comes back, the next day she cooks and the kitchen is spotless. A month or more has gone by, and every time she cooks, the kitchen is spotless.
This is a perfect example of what Landmark Education, and The Three Laws of Performance talk about: your performance in any area is affected to a significant degree by factors that are outside of your conscious awareness. Quantum transformation or improvement in performance is thus not a question of improving what you are already aware of, but rather changing your consciousness to bring more factors inside your conscious awareness.
I don't know what was in the background that showed up as the intractable "performance challenge" of not cleaning the kitchen while cooking, but the shifts in perception through the Landmark Education definitely gave my partner access to a new way of being and a new level of performance that she didn't have access to previously.
Shifts in consciousness in human beings require a combination of action, reaction, and interaction, because our neural network is built through experience of the world. That's how we are, biologically.
The Three Laws of Performance is not a book to be analysed from an "objective perspective". It is a book that changes your perspective and drives unfamiliar actions. New levels of performance are by definition unfamiliar actions, and there is a reciprocal cause-and-effect relationship between actions and awareness. A new awareness drives unfamiliar actions, leading to new performance. Unfamiliar actions cause new awareness, leading to a transformation of performance.
The Three Laws of Performance and the Landmark Forum talk about getting on the court, and the book ends with the instruction to use the book as a coach and to connect in to a community.
The entire thing is a process, and it is much larger than a book. When you interact with the book in this way, it's a great tool to unlock new levels of performance.
Having said that, I read this book after participating in the Landmark Forum, and I am certain that this book would have been far less impressive, useful, or even comprehensible to me prior to that. Which speaks to the fact that a review says about much about the reviewer as it does about what they are reviewing - a great point to meditate on with respect to this book.
As a set of "interesting ideas", it's academic, and more than a little abstract.
With the "experiential transformative learning" approach of Landmark Education, it is powerful.
I sat in the Landmark Forum and found myself thinking at various points: "I already know this, and furthermore ......". Then I would stop myself and look around me. In the room, 120 people were getting what "I already knew".
My immediate reaction was: "OK, I may know that, but I don't know how to communicate that to 120 people in a way that (at least a large number of them) get it like this."
That awareness of something unfamiliar at the periphery of my perception changed my listening, and suddenly I had access to something that I didn't have access to before.
Mouthing slogans and precepts and having facts that sit in memory doesn't change either individual or organisational performance. Weird Al's new song and video "Mission Statement" is a great statement on that point.
Approaching this book as a set of slogans and precepts and ideas misses the point that the book puts forward: quantum performance improvement comes about through a transformation of your processing, not by merely adding more information within your existing "framework for facts".
I don't know if you can provoke the same transformation of frame merely by reading a book. Humans are social and a lot of our thinking takes place outside of our head. Large Group Awareness Training, which is an aspect of Landmark Education, rests on the same biological principles that underlie religious ceremony, sports events, and political rallies - a lot of our unconscious thinking is collective.
I recommend participating in the Landmark Forum before reading this book, if you really want to get it. If you read it without doing the Landmark Forum and find it trite, superficial, familiar, or incomprehensible - consider that "what you are using to process the information" is getting in the way, because that's what the book is actually addressing.
To give an example: you are reading these words because light is entering your eyes. You can see the words, but you can't see the light by which you are seeing them. It underlies your perception.
In the same way, the ideas in the book arrive in your consciousness as "meaning" through the medium of your meaning-making capability. You are aware of the meaning, but not the meaning-making that makes it perceptible to your consciousness.
The book states clearly that changing your meaning-making apparatus is the key to a quantum improvement in performance, and that it cannot be done by study or thinking alone, but requires action outside of your current comprehension to create breakthrough performance.
If you find the book uninspiring or incomprehensible, you have a great opportunity to perform a powerful A/B test by reading it again after doing the Landmark Forum.
I listen to it as an audio book daily, and find that it is giving me access to further insights.
I read a study about Landmark Forum participants that found a measurable difference with the control group four weeks after the Forum, but no measurable difference 18 months later. I think a study should control for what people do after the Forum - for example, by comparing those who complete the entire curriculum for living with those who only do the Forum. Since much of our thinking takes place outside our head, if after the Forum you don't stay in the association of people who are applying the distinctions of the Forum, then it's inevitable that your group think will revert to the wider society that you are in.
Studies are inconclusive. Here's something that I'm pretty sure would not show up in a study - at least I can think of no study that could identify it:
My wife is an amazing cook, and we've been married for 16 years. In all that time, every time she cooks the food is out of this world, but the kitchen is like a bomb-site. Every pot, pan, and dish has been used; the sink is filled with potato peelings; sponges are soaking wet and covered in gunk. Every time, I tell her: "Why don't you clean things up as you go? If you are going to put the potato peels somewhere, why not put them in the bin?"
Sixteen years of this go by, to no avail, and no change. She goes away over a weekend and does the Landmark Advanced Course (the course that follows on and builds upon the Forum). When she comes back, the next day she cooks and the kitchen is spotless. A month or more has gone by, and every time she cooks, the kitchen is spotless.
This is a perfect example of what Landmark Education, and The Three Laws of Performance talk about: your performance in any area is affected to a significant degree by factors that are outside of your conscious awareness. Quantum transformation or improvement in performance is thus not a question of improving what you are already aware of, but rather changing your consciousness to bring more factors inside your conscious awareness.
I don't know what was in the background that showed up as the intractable "performance challenge" of not cleaning the kitchen while cooking, but the shifts in perception through the Landmark Education definitely gave my partner access to a new way of being and a new level of performance that she didn't have access to previously.
Shifts in consciousness in human beings require a combination of action, reaction, and interaction, because our neural network is built through experience of the world. That's how we are, biologically.
The Three Laws of Performance is not a book to be analysed from an "objective perspective". It is a book that changes your perspective and drives unfamiliar actions. New levels of performance are by definition unfamiliar actions, and there is a reciprocal cause-and-effect relationship between actions and awareness. A new awareness drives unfamiliar actions, leading to new performance. Unfamiliar actions cause new awareness, leading to a transformation of performance.
The Three Laws of Performance and the Landmark Forum talk about getting on the court, and the book ends with the instruction to use the book as a coach and to connect in to a community.
The entire thing is a process, and it is much larger than a book. When you interact with the book in this way, it's a great tool to unlock new levels of performance.
June 23, 2012
One of those difficult-to-rate books. It certainly delivers less than you would expect from the summary, but, unlike many bad books out there, at least it delivers something. The quality of the book is not consistent, as the "something" delivered is all concentrated in the first half, where the core concepts are presented. The second half tried to discuss the application of those concepts, and that's where the book goes downhill. The advice provided sounds like a compilation of a plethora of other leadership books, with a whole self-help tone that will definitely annoy those who don't enjoy such kind of books.
On the good side, some of the concepts presented here can be really useful and worth your read. The "default future" concept was my favorite, it's so true & real that I would say that almost everyone will relate to it some way or another. It sounds obvious after you read it, but you probably never stopped to think about it in that way. Other concepts of the book can also fall into a similar category. Although many of them definitely weren't presented here for the first time ever, I would give a thumbs-up for the way the authors organize them.
On the bad side, the book will disappoint those who expected something minimally scientific, like me. Like I said before, the second half is the ultimate self-help segment, but even the first one in some way would fit into that category as well. Authors say what their concepts are, and give example of situations in which they have worked, but they don't really ask themselves WHY they work. Having read some cognitive & behavioral science books in the past, in some occasions I could relate part of my reading background to what was being discussed. In that sense, I would expect that the authors delved a little more on the WHY as well, instead of just focusing on the WHAT and HOW.
Overall, I don't intend to persuade you to discard the book once and for all - as I said, it has a few useful ideas in it - but I wouldn't recommend you to put it in your priority list, especially if you wouldn't enjoy books that are on the self-help borderline.
On the good side, some of the concepts presented here can be really useful and worth your read. The "default future" concept was my favorite, it's so true & real that I would say that almost everyone will relate to it some way or another. It sounds obvious after you read it, but you probably never stopped to think about it in that way. Other concepts of the book can also fall into a similar category. Although many of them definitely weren't presented here for the first time ever, I would give a thumbs-up for the way the authors organize them.
On the bad side, the book will disappoint those who expected something minimally scientific, like me. Like I said before, the second half is the ultimate self-help segment, but even the first one in some way would fit into that category as well. Authors say what their concepts are, and give example of situations in which they have worked, but they don't really ask themselves WHY they work. Having read some cognitive & behavioral science books in the past, in some occasions I could relate part of my reading background to what was being discussed. In that sense, I would expect that the authors delved a little more on the WHY as well, instead of just focusing on the WHAT and HOW.
Overall, I don't intend to persuade you to discard the book once and for all - as I said, it has a few useful ideas in it - but I wouldn't recommend you to put it in your priority list, especially if you wouldn't enjoy books that are on the self-help borderline.
August 19, 2015
This book is all about the most common laws where an organisation’s focus should be at. As the title goes, there are 3 laws explained in depth to rewrite the future of the organisation. 1 - How problems occur and the effective ways to handle them as a team. 2 - Questioning ourselves why such problems occurred and then trying to identify the core to analyse and decide the future course of action 3 - This law is about involving thoughts of several people within the team and communicating with them to find a possible way to handle such situations. The results will not disappoint anyone when the laws are followed as explained says the Author. This is a good book to read and I give this book a 3 star.
February 3, 2021
A powerful tool. “The Three Laws of Performance” starts from an enormous obstacle: its concept is counterintuitive for the human mind. But the feeling after crossing its ideas is language can really be the way to transform everything in our lives. The book brings various examples of leadership that faced enormous challenges and not just survived but achieved high results through a new perspective about language. One big plus is that these concepts are completely applicable to our personal lives. This is not a “believe in yourself” kind of coach thing, there's not easy, and requires effort and discipline, but it looks viable and achievable for groups and individuals.
March 6, 2019
Three Laws of Performance
1. How people performs correlates to how situations occur to them
2. How a situation occurs arises in language
3. Future-based language transforms how situations occur to people
Leadership Corollary
1. Leaders have a say, and give others a say, in how situations occur
2. Leaders master the conversational environment
3. Leaders listen for the future of their organization
Milestones for Road to Mastery
1. Seeing your “Terministic Screen” in Action.
2. Building new Terministic screen.
3. You’ll see new opportunities for elevated performance everywhere.
4. Teaching others.
Materials for the Pathway of Mastery
First Law Practice - Exploring how the situation occurs to you and others.
Experiencing correlation
Second Law Practice - Exploring how language shapes how things occur to you
Experiencing language at work.
Third Law Practice - Having a say about how situations occur
Creating a new future
Best Learnings Ever!
Commitments to break the performance barrier
1. Get out of Stand
2. Create new Games
3. Make the obstacles conditions of the Game
4. Share your Insight
5. Find the right coaching
6. Start filing your past in your past
7. Play the game as if your life depends on it.
1. How people performs correlates to how situations occur to them
2. How a situation occurs arises in language
3. Future-based language transforms how situations occur to people
Leadership Corollary
1. Leaders have a say, and give others a say, in how situations occur
2. Leaders master the conversational environment
3. Leaders listen for the future of their organization
Milestones for Road to Mastery
1. Seeing your “Terministic Screen” in Action.
2. Building new Terministic screen.
3. You’ll see new opportunities for elevated performance everywhere.
4. Teaching others.
Materials for the Pathway of Mastery
First Law Practice - Exploring how the situation occurs to you and others.
Experiencing correlation
Second Law Practice - Exploring how language shapes how things occur to you
Experiencing language at work.
Third Law Practice - Having a say about how situations occur
Creating a new future
Best Learnings Ever!
Commitments to break the performance barrier
1. Get out of Stand
2. Create new Games
3. Make the obstacles conditions of the Game
4. Share your Insight
5. Find the right coaching
6. Start filing your past in your past
7. Play the game as if your life depends on it.
July 9, 2014
If you are well-acquainted with leadership books, skim this book fast but pay close attention to Chapters 4,5, and 8. The recommend from Archbishop Desmond Tutu on the cover may be exciting, but I personally found the book soft with the exception of Chapter 8.
July 30, 2020
A good, not great book. The importance of perspective and language does need more emphasis by leaders. Those are principles, not laws.
December 30, 2020
The content is interesting and instigant — it invites us to reframe the way we think, deal and, most of all, talk about our current and future situations. The Three Laws introduce the concept of how language creates our reality and how we can use it to establish our desired futures.
The book is based on cases when companies and people used the Three Laws, which could be more straight to the point but delivers the message.
The book is based on cases when companies and people used the Three Laws, which could be more straight to the point but delivers the message.
April 7, 2013
I had high hopes for this book. I approached it with an open mind and a desire to follow its recommendations in all seriousness. Alas, one thing that massively hampered my enjoyment, was that the authors relied heavily on the purportedly successful case study of Lonmin plc. Viewers of the news may have seen coverage of the recent miners' strike in Marikana 2012, a Lonmin mine, where many miners were gunned down and killed over what was ultimately a wage dispute. I felt this exemplar case study - a large chunk of this book - drained the book of almost all it's credibility. At the end of each sentence, I found myself mentally adding the words "yeah right". Had it not been for that, I could say there are certain things in the book worth gleaning and internalising. Yeah right.
July 27, 2015
I'm giving this book 3 stars ONLY because the first law (and first couple chapters) was its redemption. After that.. The book just flops. There's no science to back any of this up, just overly perfect little example stories, the second two laws I didn't really fully agree with and it just becomes intensely self-helpy. I wanted a book to help me find methods I could use, practically, to preform better (mainly) at work. This didn't do that. So I'd say- read section 1 (I think that's chapters 1-3) then don't bother. I had to literally force myself to finish this book through all the eye rolling and "that's so cheesy no one talks like that.." (Especially the story about the holocaust survivor my god..)
December 30, 2016
Self evaluation has its own language. It can be learned & applied.
For Christians, the practical applications can be filtered through everything God has already taught us in His word about living for His glory. For instance, the "rackets," as the author puts it, are lies we tell ourselves to gain some sense of power or control over our circumstances. Even though we know we are supposed to "dwell on the things that are true..." from Philippians 4, if untrue thinking has been habitual, we might not even realize we do it until someone points it out. That is essentially the point of this book; to get the reader to evaluate & dismantle how he or she perceives problems & trials.
I found the process of evaluation uncomfortable, revealing, & helpful.
For Christians, the practical applications can be filtered through everything God has already taught us in His word about living for His glory. For instance, the "rackets," as the author puts it, are lies we tell ourselves to gain some sense of power or control over our circumstances. Even though we know we are supposed to "dwell on the things that are true..." from Philippians 4, if untrue thinking has been habitual, we might not even realize we do it until someone points it out. That is essentially the point of this book; to get the reader to evaluate & dismantle how he or she perceives problems & trials.
I found the process of evaluation uncomfortable, revealing, & helpful.
October 2, 2013
Zaffron and Logan boil the decades of evolution of Werner Erhadt's initial distinctions into three basic concepts that empower anyone, or any group, to transform their context, and thus their performance. A straightforward read that starts with examples, so you can monkey read, monkey try out the practical application on your own issue.
The circumstances do not determine your experience- you do. Beware if you are not up to taking responsibility for your life.
The circumstances do not determine your experience- you do. Beware if you are not up to taking responsibility for your life.
August 23, 2009
I'm disappointed by this book because I didn't learn anything truly applicable from it. Certainly, the ideas related to how circumstances occur to people, and how language relates to that, aren't useless... but in this case I think it's just a repackaging of common sense notions of leadership and people-motivation in fancy terminology.
January 3, 2017
Definitely going to keep this book close by for future reference.
It was such a great reminder of the Landmark Forum course.
The laws are very easy to understand and so difficult to master. The book is concisely written to make it easy to reference.
I finished it right at New Year's, so it will be a great application towards my new years resolution.
It was such a great reminder of the Landmark Forum course.
The laws are very easy to understand and so difficult to master. The book is concisely written to make it easy to reference.
I finished it right at New Year's, so it will be a great application towards my new years resolution.
September 14, 2019
One of the best books on organizational transformation
Please read this book word by word, the three laws of performance that the authors share in this book can significantly transform you as a human being and in turn your life and organization. Grab the copy, some interesting wisdom and insights awaits you.
Please read this book word by word, the three laws of performance that the authors share in this book can significantly transform you as a human being and in turn your life and organization. Grab the copy, some interesting wisdom and insights awaits you.
May 3, 2011
Inspiring stories, for sure, but not all that actionable.
I did the Landmark Forum, Advanced Course, and SELP, and was excited to read a book from the makers of those programs. The book doesn't at all live up to the course's standards.
I did the Landmark Forum, Advanced Course, and SELP, and was excited to read a book from the makers of those programs. The book doesn't at all live up to the course's standards.
February 19, 2023
This book is all about how communication and how things "occur" to people influence performance and results. I really enjoyed the thoughts on "future thinking" and how that can change the "default future"
August 31, 2021
I had high hopes for this book, but was disappointed by the writing, so this is more like 2-2.5* for me,
The main idea in the book is this: to change problems at the root, you need to change the CONTEXT in which you're approaching them... And you do that by tackling the underlying perceptions and the spoken/unspoken language shaping those perceptions.
If that sounds abstract, yeah, it's indeed abstract. Made worse by the vague, fluffy, convoluted language used by the authors. And the examples or case studies were disappointing at best.
Here are the 3 laws of performance, verbatim:
1. “How people perform correlates to how situations occur to them.”
2. “How a situation occurs, arises in language.”
3. “Future-based language transforms how situations occur to people.”
If you find the language confounding, the rest of the book is worse.
Here's a much simpler translation:
1. Our perceptions shape our performance
2. Our language shapes our perception
3. We can shift perspectives using generative language
Just to set the context, I'm a Money&You graduate. And I know many graduates from Landmark Forum (or Landmark Education). So, I DO believe in the power of language, distinctions, intentionality and so on. This book is supposed to convey that, but it just didn't do a good job of it. The authors are obviously influenced strongly by Werner Erhard, as everything in the book is about how things "occur" to you and others.
There was a fair amount of repetition. And the authors didn't even try to paraphrase the key ideas as they repeated them. So if you didn't get it the first time, you probably still won't get it later. For example: “Consider the gap between how situations occur to you now and how they could occur to you”. Eh, what does that even MEAN?? This could’ve been so much simpler if they'd give a few concrete examples of helpful mental dialogues vs unhelpful mental dialogues. But no, they didn't....they ramble on about how things occur and how else they could occur.
After presenting the 3 laws (in ways that'd tangle your brains), the authors move on to recommendations for organizational leadership and personal performance. Loads of overlaps there too, adding to the mess of ideas floating around in the book.
I acknowledge that this is a really abstract topic that's is probably best understood through an experience than through words. Still, I find the concepts to be easier to understand in other books like The Anatomy of Peace, Awaken the Giant Within, The Art of Possibility and Thanks for the Feedback…. These books all deal with the power of perception and language -- of course, the essence and context differ slightly. But they're SO much clearer to grasp and apply.
This book really mind-f*cked the team at readingraphics and we fried our brains trying to dismantle and reassemble the ideas in a comprehensible form....
Still, I decided to be nice and give 3* because the underlying intent and messages are great. It was just soooo painful to read :(
Book Summary at: https://readingraphics.com/book-summa...
The stories aren’t the normal ones we read about in business; rather, they are illustrations of organizations bringing out the best in people and in communities.
Cycle; Or, we quit smoking only to gain weight, we spend more time at the gym only to have our family complain we aren't spending enough time with them, so we feel stressed and start smoking again]
[Even people who claim they want help may be unconsciously sabotaging their own progress because at a deep and fundamental level, they don't believe they can change]
The main idea in the book is this: to change problems at the root, you need to change the CONTEXT in which you're approaching them... And you do that by tackling the underlying perceptions and the spoken/unspoken language shaping those perceptions.
If that sounds abstract, yeah, it's indeed abstract. Made worse by the vague, fluffy, convoluted language used by the authors. And the examples or case studies were disappointing at best.
Here are the 3 laws of performance, verbatim:
1. “How people perform correlates to how situations occur to them.”
2. “How a situation occurs, arises in language.”
3. “Future-based language transforms how situations occur to people.”
If you find the language confounding, the rest of the book is worse.
Here's a much simpler translation:
1. Our perceptions shape our performance
2. Our language shapes our perception
3. We can shift perspectives using generative language
Just to set the context, I'm a Money&You graduate. And I know many graduates from Landmark Forum (or Landmark Education). So, I DO believe in the power of language, distinctions, intentionality and so on. This book is supposed to convey that, but it just didn't do a good job of it. The authors are obviously influenced strongly by Werner Erhard, as everything in the book is about how things "occur" to you and others.
There was a fair amount of repetition. And the authors didn't even try to paraphrase the key ideas as they repeated them. So if you didn't get it the first time, you probably still won't get it later. For example: “Consider the gap between how situations occur to you now and how they could occur to you”. Eh, what does that even MEAN?? This could’ve been so much simpler if they'd give a few concrete examples of helpful mental dialogues vs unhelpful mental dialogues. But no, they didn't....they ramble on about how things occur and how else they could occur.
After presenting the 3 laws (in ways that'd tangle your brains), the authors move on to recommendations for organizational leadership and personal performance. Loads of overlaps there too, adding to the mess of ideas floating around in the book.
I acknowledge that this is a really abstract topic that's is probably best understood through an experience than through words. Still, I find the concepts to be easier to understand in other books like The Anatomy of Peace, Awaken the Giant Within, The Art of Possibility and Thanks for the Feedback…. These books all deal with the power of perception and language -- of course, the essence and context differ slightly. But they're SO much clearer to grasp and apply.
This book really mind-f*cked the team at readingraphics and we fried our brains trying to dismantle and reassemble the ideas in a comprehensible form....
Still, I decided to be nice and give 3* because the underlying intent and messages are great. It was just soooo painful to read :(
Book Summary at: https://readingraphics.com/book-summa...
The stories aren’t the normal ones we read about in business; rather, they are illustrations of organizations bringing out the best in people and in communities.
Cycle; Or, we quit smoking only to gain weight, we spend more time at the gym only to have our family complain we aren't spending enough time with them, so we feel stressed and start smoking again]
[Even people who claim they want help may be unconsciously sabotaging their own progress because at a deep and fundamental level, they don't believe they can change]
December 25, 2023
1 lei - o desempenho das pessoas está correlacionado a como a situação ocorre para elas.”quando faço algo, faz sentido para mim” e logo penso que faz sentido para todos! A realidade ocorre em função da perspectiva da situação.
2 lei - a maneira como a situação ocorre aparece na linguagem!
*nós de linguagem ( palavras, símbolos e etc)
O nao dito mas comunicado ( via linguagem)
* operação de fachada: 1 a uma reclamação persistente; 2 a um padrão de comportamento associado; 3 o ganho em manter o comportamento; 4 o custo deste comportamento ( 3 e 4 não dito e inconsciente)
A chave para o desempenho está na linguagem
3 lei - a linguagem baseada no futuro transforma a maneira como as situações ocorrem para as pessoas.
2 tipos de linguagem:
1 - descritiva ( como sao ou como acontecem), ela n serve para falar do futuro pois baseasse no passado. Também chamado de futuro automática( baseado nas nossas crenças do passado)
2 generativa( baseada no futuro), as narrativas que possibilitam avanço, criação
* as pessoas vivem no futuro que vem até elas( futuro automático baseado no comportamento de hoje), agem “como sempre” e isso produz esse futuro!
A linguagem generativa se baseia em atos expressos ( compromissos formais), não é um sonho mas um caminho a percorrer!
Como construir essa linguagem?
1 o futuro inspira ação
2 o futuro fala para todos no processo( todos precisam se ver na narrativa)
3 o futuro existe no momento que se fala dele!
Para a maestria nas 3 leis:
1 veja sua “tela terministica” ( como vemos o mundo baseado em nossos conhecimentos. É impossível inovar ou criar algo tentando encaixar o novo aprendizado dentro da tela existente.
2 construa uma nova tela
3 você verá as possibilidades de desempenho!
Os 8 compromissos:
1 saia da plateia e seja jogador
2 crie um novo jogo ( declarando que algo é importante)
3 faça dos obstáculos as condições do jogo
4 compartilhe suas ideias
5 encontre ou seja o técnico correto
6 comece a colocar o passado no passado!
7 jogue o jogo como se sua vida dependesse disso!
Jogo o jogo de maneira apaixonada, com coragem e de forma intensa!
2 lei - a maneira como a situação ocorre aparece na linguagem!
*nós de linguagem ( palavras, símbolos e etc)
O nao dito mas comunicado ( via linguagem)
* operação de fachada: 1 a uma reclamação persistente; 2 a um padrão de comportamento associado; 3 o ganho em manter o comportamento; 4 o custo deste comportamento ( 3 e 4 não dito e inconsciente)
A chave para o desempenho está na linguagem
3 lei - a linguagem baseada no futuro transforma a maneira como as situações ocorrem para as pessoas.
2 tipos de linguagem:
1 - descritiva ( como sao ou como acontecem), ela n serve para falar do futuro pois baseasse no passado. Também chamado de futuro automática( baseado nas nossas crenças do passado)
2 generativa( baseada no futuro), as narrativas que possibilitam avanço, criação
* as pessoas vivem no futuro que vem até elas( futuro automático baseado no comportamento de hoje), agem “como sempre” e isso produz esse futuro!
A linguagem generativa se baseia em atos expressos ( compromissos formais), não é um sonho mas um caminho a percorrer!
Como construir essa linguagem?
1 o futuro inspira ação
2 o futuro fala para todos no processo( todos precisam se ver na narrativa)
3 o futuro existe no momento que se fala dele!
Para a maestria nas 3 leis:
1 veja sua “tela terministica” ( como vemos o mundo baseado em nossos conhecimentos. É impossível inovar ou criar algo tentando encaixar o novo aprendizado dentro da tela existente.
2 construa uma nova tela
3 você verá as possibilidades de desempenho!
Os 8 compromissos:
1 saia da plateia e seja jogador
2 crie um novo jogo ( declarando que algo é importante)
3 faça dos obstáculos as condições do jogo
4 compartilhe suas ideias
5 encontre ou seja o técnico correto
6 comece a colocar o passado no passado!
7 jogue o jogo como se sua vida dependesse disso!
Jogo o jogo de maneira apaixonada, com coragem e de forma intensa!
April 11, 2022
This was an assigned reading and a decent find (although it’s from 2009). I opted for the 6hr audiobook, but only read the first three chapters.
Three stars because I believe there’s a limit to how much linguistics can do to create genuine change.
- Piecemeal fixes only address symptoms but not the underlying cause. The solution for a problem often creates other problems. (Eg: no budget —>cut costs —> lower performance)
- Start off by picking an area in your business or life that will benefit from a breakthrough in performance. Ask yourself why you care about resolving this issue, and you’ll realise that it gets in the way of you producing results.
- Law #1: How people perform correlates to how situations occur to them. (This answers why people do what they do)
- Reality Illusion: How we behave is not based on objective facts, but how these facts appear to us.
- “Tell me what you want me to know that doesn’t work.”
- Identify the ‘default future’ if things went on as it is. Rewrite a new future and work towards it.
- What you resist will persist
- Law #2: How a situation occurs, arises in language
- We are searching for the key to performance in the illumination provided by knowledge. (We check to see if we know the solution or find ppl who know how to) However, we sometimes need to search for solutions in the dark/unknown.
- Enough new actions from enough people will move the needle on performance.
- Law #3: Future-based language transforms how situations occur to people
- You can’t create something new by describing what it is already there.
Three stars because I believe there’s a limit to how much linguistics can do to create genuine change.
- Piecemeal fixes only address symptoms but not the underlying cause. The solution for a problem often creates other problems. (Eg: no budget —>cut costs —> lower performance)
- Start off by picking an area in your business or life that will benefit from a breakthrough in performance. Ask yourself why you care about resolving this issue, and you’ll realise that it gets in the way of you producing results.
- Law #1: How people perform correlates to how situations occur to them. (This answers why people do what they do)
- Reality Illusion: How we behave is not based on objective facts, but how these facts appear to us.
- “Tell me what you want me to know that doesn’t work.”
- Identify the ‘default future’ if things went on as it is. Rewrite a new future and work towards it.
- What you resist will persist
- Law #2: How a situation occurs, arises in language
- We are searching for the key to performance in the illumination provided by knowledge. (We check to see if we know the solution or find ppl who know how to) However, we sometimes need to search for solutions in the dark/unknown.
- Enough new actions from enough people will move the needle on performance.
- Law #3: Future-based language transforms how situations occur to people
- You can’t create something new by describing what it is already there.
July 31, 2019
I thought this book was good but not great. I feel I am a little biased given that I have read many books that had a similar message.
The first law of performance:
How people perform correlates to how the situation occurs to them.
Relationships are the key. Leadership is the transfer of belief. You have to involve as many team members as you can and give them a voice (skin in the game) in order for them to have ownership of the project. We live a half changed world where we need to think more of a network rather than a hierarchy.
The second law of performance:
How a situation occurs arises in language
Words have power. I was reminded of this yesterday when I used "dumb ass" when speaking to my son. remember to used positive language. Language that will foster growth and build people up.
The third law of performance:
Future based language transforms how situations occur to people:
Speak it into existence . We will believe the truth we tell ourselves. Whatever we say over and over again we will believe. And we can control what we and in turn what we manifest. Therefore why not choose to talk positively about the future?
Lesson: Think from the laws and not about the laws. Deep understanding means you can think from the laws and thus things become easy to relate and allows you to create. That that I cannot create, I do not understand.
As i write this I think it was a better book than i remember. it was just a little to verbose. The stories/collieries were a little long an too detailed I felt.
But good book.
The first law of performance:
How people perform correlates to how the situation occurs to them.
Relationships are the key. Leadership is the transfer of belief. You have to involve as many team members as you can and give them a voice (skin in the game) in order for them to have ownership of the project. We live a half changed world where we need to think more of a network rather than a hierarchy.
The second law of performance:
How a situation occurs arises in language
Words have power. I was reminded of this yesterday when I used "dumb ass" when speaking to my son. remember to used positive language. Language that will foster growth and build people up.
The third law of performance:
Future based language transforms how situations occur to people:
Speak it into existence . We will believe the truth we tell ourselves. Whatever we say over and over again we will believe. And we can control what we and in turn what we manifest. Therefore why not choose to talk positively about the future?
Lesson: Think from the laws and not about the laws. Deep understanding means you can think from the laws and thus things become easy to relate and allows you to create. That that I cannot create, I do not understand.
As i write this I think it was a better book than i remember. it was just a little to verbose. The stories/collieries were a little long an too detailed I felt.
But good book.
December 31, 2017
Performance is what we all strive for in every area of our life, whether be it business, relationships, health, entertainment. Werner Erhard is a scientist whose research in the field of ontology provided the basic elements what makes us human beings. Every aspect of our life is governed by the 'being' we are in that situation. When someone says, "are being mean", it is the being that you are at that moment of time, in that situation, to which they are referring to and not you. Because you are not mean all the time. We act according to what we are being. Understanding of that fundamental concept can alter our performance as performance comes from the being. Animal beings cannot perform like a human being.
Although the book provides a very useful way to enhance your performance, it might be difficult to understand for someone who is not familiar with the concept of being. I did a course organized by Landmark worldwide education called Landmark Forum and so it was easy for me to understand the concept of the book. That is the only reason for low rating.
Although the book provides a very useful way to enhance your performance, it might be difficult to understand for someone who is not familiar with the concept of being. I did a course organized by Landmark worldwide education called Landmark Forum and so it was easy for me to understand the concept of the book. That is the only reason for low rating.
June 13, 2018
I have a love-hate relationship with books like this. They can have good things in them, but then they get caught up in their own narrative and also in trying to pad out the text to make it a book and not a leaflet.
In this case, the padding does give good examples from different angles to help the reader understand the concepts which can be summarized in a paragraph. You can make a case that some of the language used is self-consistent with the methods being described, so it is forgivable if still a little annoying.
That all said, this book was helpful for me at the time that I read it. Some concepts about creating a new future using declarations help to frame up how someone like Steve Jobs could make anything real while he was talking about it. I can see how the whole system is very compelling and powerful for many people.
Is it life-changing, I'm not sure, but it at least does give you something to think about and different ways to view problems and potentials in your life and business.
In this case, the padding does give good examples from different angles to help the reader understand the concepts which can be summarized in a paragraph. You can make a case that some of the language used is self-consistent with the methods being described, so it is forgivable if still a little annoying.
That all said, this book was helpful for me at the time that I read it. Some concepts about creating a new future using declarations help to frame up how someone like Steve Jobs could make anything real while he was talking about it. I can see how the whole system is very compelling and powerful for many people.
Is it life-changing, I'm not sure, but it at least does give you something to think about and different ways to view problems and potentials in your life and business.
May 1, 2023
o clichêzão autoajuda e negócios está aí, com sua receita de bolo, só que dessa vez os ingredientes são mais sofisticados, nem tão óbvios e abrangestes, de modo que acomodam situações, contextos e culturas diferentes. taí, me pegou.
partindo de um pressuposto até comum mas ignorado sobre o que é desemprenho e como se aplica no mundo (spoiler digno: tudo que se realiza em função de um objetivo benéfico - interpretei assim), já se compra cedo a ideia de “tem coisa aqui pra mim”, afinal quem não deseja desempenhar melhor em alguma área tá vivo na real? sim, há muita enrolação e e exemplos de negócios perfeitamente moldados para comprovar a teoria, sugiro não se apegar a isso e sim a lógica das “leis” e seus possíveis impactos a uma situação sua.
nesse prisma, o livro ganha complexidade, aplicabilidade e potencial de insights super interessante, como pouco vejo nesse estilo. vale pra negócios, vale pra vida.
partindo de um pressuposto até comum mas ignorado sobre o que é desemprenho e como se aplica no mundo (spoiler digno: tudo que se realiza em função de um objetivo benéfico - interpretei assim), já se compra cedo a ideia de “tem coisa aqui pra mim”, afinal quem não deseja desempenhar melhor em alguma área tá vivo na real? sim, há muita enrolação e e exemplos de negócios perfeitamente moldados para comprovar a teoria, sugiro não se apegar a isso e sim a lógica das “leis” e seus possíveis impactos a uma situação sua.
nesse prisma, o livro ganha complexidade, aplicabilidade e potencial de insights super interessante, como pouco vejo nesse estilo. vale pra negócios, vale pra vida.
January 9, 2018
This was a quick read about how to improve how your performance at work. The authors shared many interesting anecdotes and stories and ways to think about a given situation. These mindsets can help you see things from the perspective of others, your boss, your customers or clients, your vendors, etc. I am striving and trying to learn how to follow Stephen R. Covey's habit of seek first to understand, then to be understood. The three laws of performance are closely related to this Covey habit. I found this very applicable in my current job, where I'm striving to perform better and make a real difference with my boss and colleagues.
February 21, 2019
Compelling, moving, enrolling, inspiring
This book is awesome for any human being who wants to build a new possible future.
The book is following the mainstream principles of Landmark Forum in which the person transforms his or her life through breakthroughs.
Some remarks may be too conceptual for readers who did not complete the Forum. And definitely they all taste the one essential drop of any-possibility future, desire to learn more.
Last note: Be coach-able while reading the book. Do the assignments, answer the questions. Do not judge or assess what is written. If you really want to transform..
This book is awesome for any human being who wants to build a new possible future.
The book is following the mainstream principles of Landmark Forum in which the person transforms his or her life through breakthroughs.
Some remarks may be too conceptual for readers who did not complete the Forum. And definitely they all taste the one essential drop of any-possibility future, desire to learn more.
Last note: Be coach-able while reading the book. Do the assignments, answer the questions. Do not judge or assess what is written. If you really want to transform..
October 6, 2019
The books original content could be summarized in a 20 page lecture note. The examples make it a bit more interesting but obviously very selective example were included. I would have liked the book better if it included failure examples and other misunderstood attempts to implement the three laws.
Finally I think a heart of advertisement was in place. Encouraging people to visit the website too often and to create a usually unnecessary community.
If you are a business leader or team leader in some business I would recommend the book to get some ideas to improve performance but, don't think it's going to create a miracle in your success.
Finally I think a heart of advertisement was in place. Encouraging people to visit the website too often and to create a usually unnecessary community.
If you are a business leader or team leader in some business I would recommend the book to get some ideas to improve performance but, don't think it's going to create a miracle in your success.
November 18, 2023
One of the best life changing book I have read on my Kindle App.
The book gave us the needed direction of thinking & evolving.
You still need a coach to find answers for questions which you can't answer by yourself. If no such coach is available to you economically then you may not able to get full benefit but yet the directional thinking you gain can help you in a long way.
I learned new definitions for commitment, integrity & language. These changed the way I am seeing & talking about the world.
Language is the key & Commitment is the direction in which you have to turn the keys. Life is the lock. If you have appropriate language & commitment then you can open the life.
The book gave us the needed direction of thinking & evolving.
You still need a coach to find answers for questions which you can't answer by yourself. If no such coach is available to you economically then you may not able to get full benefit but yet the directional thinking you gain can help you in a long way.
I learned new definitions for commitment, integrity & language. These changed the way I am seeing & talking about the world.
Language is the key & Commitment is the direction in which you have to turn the keys. Life is the lock. If you have appropriate language & commitment then you can open the life.
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