HOW IT WORKS
HP2 has been so successful at generating revenue and profit growth for so long because we know what it takes to produce lasting change and authentic learning in a culture. Here is an overview of the four essential steps in the process.
Produce a breakdown - Everyone is all in favor of change as long as it doesn’t mean me and it doesn’t mean now. We are either too busy because things are going great or unwilling to invest the time and money because things aren’t going great. This is a cycle that has to be broken, as despite all of the talk about wanting to learn, individuals and organization do not take learning seriously unless they are faced with a breakdown. Our job is to bring to life in a clear and undeniable manner the long-term effect of continuing with ‘business as usual.’ In so doing we break the cycle of ‘we are too busy – we can’t afford it’ and people come to experience, in an anticipatory way, the breakdowns that are present but normally unexamined in their lives and their organization. They get a chance to talk about what isn’t working, what’s missing, and what is likely to happen if the future is merely a continuation of the present.
Guide the discovery of a new possibility - When faced with a breakdown people will be open to discovering new possibilities for learning new practices and processes, which in turn produces new levels of performance and satisfaction. The key is that whether it is a new strategic direction or an innovation in their products, processes, or structure we guide them in discovering a new way such that it becomes ‘theirs’ and not ‘the consultants.’ Our job is to help them see possibilities that are considerably bigger than the ones they would typically find on their own.
Introduce new practices - The key to being a designer of a different future is to build recurrence in a new set of practices. We teach a series of what are called generative practices. These are practices, which once embodied, enable the individual to invent their own particular repertoire of utilization. For example, reading and writing music is a generative practice. Once learned the practitioner has the capacity to read any and all music, and if so inclined can write his or her own. We introduce a series of new practices in Commitment Based Management and once the basic practices are in place our clients develop their own ways to use the practices that enable greater efficiency, effectiveness, performance, and profitability.
Put in place a structure for recurrence, feedback and calibration - This is fundamental to building competence. Learning is a social phenomenon and the establishment of learning teams is the vehicle by which we generate the focused interaction that drives learning. The two most powerful methods for generating useful feedback and calibration are individual coaching and peer learning teams that are supported by a coach. Thus we do both.