Justin Hughes is Managing Director of Mission Excellence, a consultancy which accelerates organisational effectiveness. ​Justin previously spent 12 years as an RAF fighter pilot and served for 3 years on the Red Arrows.  He is a renowned speaker on performance and risk and the author of The Business of Excellence, published by Bloomsbury. He can be found on Twitter at @JustinMissionEx.

Some time ago, we were asked to support a high potentials programme for the NHS.  However, it was not allowed for the programme to have an entry selection test or assessment because that would be discriminatory. 

Now I hold the NHS in very high regard but on this occasion I pointed out an inconvenient reality: high performance is discriminatory. Not everyone is up for it. If they were, it would, by definition, be called average performance. 

Dealing in reality

I saw another variation on the theme from a well-known management consultancy. A potential client in its L&D department didn’t like our approach to debriefing because ‘they preferred to focus on strengths, not things which went wrong’.

You may be starting to realise that I will have an opinion on that line of thinking. Clearly, there is nothing wrong with playing to your (relative) strengths. In fact, it makes perfect sense. Why would you do anything else?

However, to use that (good) tactic as an excuse not to learn from how things actually worked out in practice is a mistake. Let me be unequivocal: learning fast from experience, good or bad, is simply what high-performance organisations do.

Medallist, not sexist

For a different perspective, see Sir Dave Brailsford’s recent defence of the culture of British Cycling in The Times. British Cycling has been the subject of considerable press coverage recently, in particular as to whether the organisation was systemically sexist.

If everyone was up for high performance, it would, by definition, be called average performance

Brailsford is a balanced, intelligent individual. And the most successful cycling coach (performance director) of his generation.

His defence was articulate but forceful. He makes no excuse for a policy he described as ‘medallist, not sexist’. Objectivity and dealing with performance issues as they really were, was simply British Cycling’s stock in trade. Discriminatory selection was the norm. Accelerating performance improvement through learning from experience was standard.

Learning organisations

If you have no ambitions to compete for an Olympic gold medal, you may find the above interesting (or not!) but be unconvinced of its relevance to a large corporate organisation.  In that case, I refer to two of the twentieth century’s corporate success stories:

“An organization’s ability to learn and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.” –Jack Welch, CEO of GE for over 20 years

“…not only do we have to be excellent, we have to continue to improve at a surprisingly fast rate.  Bridgewater operates consistently with the belief that to be excellent and improve at a fast rate, we must be hyper-realistic and hyper-truthful.” –Ray Dalio, Founder, Bridgewater Associates (the world’s largest hedge fund)

I have taken a slightly uncompromising position in this short post. I make no apologies.

I find the gap between what organisations say about learning and what they do in practice, incredibly frustrating. Learning from experience does not have to be negative or focused on weakness. But it does require a commitment of time and effort. And accountability.

Do not confuse no blame with no accountability. For those with the stomach for difficult honest conversations, prepare to reap the rewards of discrimination against your competitors and peers.

Learning to win is what high-performance organisations do.

The Business of Excellence, by Justin Hughes, is now available to order at Bloomsbury Publishing.