Re:An Uneducated of the title of this Blog

Thanks to Himanshu for a great post!

To start with, I loved his comment:

"So when I am hit with the words - sustained peak performance - I am truly and properly hit"!

Absolutely delicious sense of humor!

But then he went ahead and gave us some profound advice on “increasing total performance”: Synchronize Recruitment – Have Vision – Operational Excellence and capping it up with Innovation!

Slightly before that he did in bring an element of tragedy:

“And this way, the fulcrum of the whole setup, the individual is broken. And the only reason it is broken is because of a lack synchronization between elements.”

I think this is absolutely fabulous – starting with Humor, suddenly “peaking” with Tragedy and finally hitting the nail on the head with profound Full Blown Expression on nuts and bolts of enhancing performance! With the overall theme of an “Uneducated Take”, I think this is exemplary expression, beautifully entwined with Dramatics!

I love this!

Of course, I have to fulfill my duty and deal with the apparent “anti-individual” elements in the word “Performance”.

So, for the record, “performance”, especially “peak performance”, defeats its purpose if there is a COMPULSION about it.

For Peak Performance to work, ABSOLUTE CHOICE is needed, with COMPLETE FREEDOM!

Now, before this is misunderstood, let me clarify that CONSTRAINTS are likely to be there in a corporate set-up. But, the individual has to simply drop those constraints (in his mind, at least, to start with) and TRANSCEND the environment.

A Peak Performer CHOOSES to be COMPLETELY FOCUSSED on an “engagement” of his choice irrespective of circumstances. The limitations imposed by the environment including the team and organization does not matter (sports like soccer and cricket are "easy" illustrations of peak performing individuals).

Look back and see your “best performances” – you might have had amazing successes working under “project deadlines” but probably the most exotic performances were those that “produced” maximum output EFFORTLESSLY! More than “doing” anything, you were in a FLOW!

Allow me to quote Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi (1990 book, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience) who once described flow as:

“Being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you're using your skills to the utmost.”