Potential for Improving Competitive Performance

 

Competitive advantage is what differentiates winners from losers.

Competitive advantage is the gap that opens up between good value and poor value, between excellence and that which is second rate, between reliability and unreliability, between that which gives satisfaction and that which is dissatisfying.

Competitive advantage is the difference between being chosen and being rejected. Competitive advantage applies to people in work as it does to goods on a supermarket shelf. It applies to personal relationships as it does to the clothes we wear and things we choose to do.

The world is mobile, fluid and constantly changing. People move towards the things they enjoy doing, the things that satisfy, the things that give good value. The world is polarising between those people with competitive advantage and the uncompetitive disadvantaged.

Competition throughout the world of work is intensifying, for individuals as it is for all businesses. Fewer people are expected to produce more, fewer suppliers are expected to provide fewer producers with excellence in products and services.

When a company is re-organising, amalgamating or downsizing, the people who are chosen to stay will be those with competitive advantage. They are the ones that have something extra to offer. When applying for a new job or seeking promotion, the chosen applicants will be those with competitive advantage.

How do we gain competitive advantage?

From his research into human performance in athletics, education and industry, T. F. Gilbert developed an index for the measurement of our competitive rating against the average as a "potential for improving performance". He called this a ‘P-I-P' rating. He demonstrated that the average person can increase his or her P-I-P rating by at least 200% if an efficient method to increase personal creativity is followed.

Our research confirms that creativity and innovation are equally important factors for business organisations if they are to gain competitive advantage.

This is what we call:

‘The creative potential for improving performance'.

What is creative potential?

Every human being is born with THREE POTENTIALS for improving performance. They are:

Talent - Creativity - Personality

Each potential has two supporting attributes:

Talent requires knowledge and method

Personality depends on attitude and motivation

Creativity is on two different levels: primary and secondary.

Of these three potentials, creativity is the first and most important. It is after all, the genesis of our being and the origin of being human. And of the two levels of creativity, the primary level is the highest and most rewarding.

What is the difference between primary and secondary creativity?

Secondary creativity relies on brainpower, knowledge and education. It is the application of intelligence to problem solving and the design of new products.

We teach a method called ‘Creative Action' for increasing our potential for secondary creativity.

Primary creativity on the other hand is the natural development of mind - power . There is no limitation to mind-power. Everyone gets ideas that come naturally. The source of those ideas is a special kind of higher mind-power. We teach a method of primary creativity that brings into play all of what we call ‘four phases of consciousness'. Our method connects our conscious thoughts with a higher level of thinking in a way that makes the most of our full creative potential.

Primary creativity sounds complicated, what does it mean exactly?

In fact primary creativity is easier and more natural than the secondary level.

All that is required to develop our natural primary creativity is a commitment to a short daily exercise, and to record key thoughts and ideas in a pocket note-pad, or what we call an Ideas Organiser.

From this simple routine will flow the realisation of our natural talents, the release of our true personality and the continuous improvement that leads to self-actualisation.

What is self-actualisation?

The great American psychologist Abraham Maslow, described self-actualisation as peak-experience and peak-performance, which is the attainment of our full potential as human beings. He said that through creativity arises unhindered our unique personality, free of all uncertainty, stress, anxiety and doubt. Our natural talents become co-ordinated, organised and directed effortlessly, spontaneously and efficiently in ways that would be impossible for us at a lower level of being.

Through creative self-actualisation Maslow describes how our personality becomes more whole and unified, more unique, alive and spontaneous, more perfectly expressive and uninhibited more effortless and powerful, more caring and more loving.

How can such benefits come from such a simple exercise? There must surely be more to it than that!

Remember that our potential for developing a creative personality requires two supporting attributes: attitude and motivation.

The exercise is simple but becomes very powerful when it is combined with a positive attitude and the motivation to achieve continuous improvement. This will lead eventually to full self-actualisation, which is the attainment of our full potential for improving performance - the best of which we are capable.

We call this:

a commitment to continuous improvement.

Some of the world's largest organisations, such as IBM, General Motors and Rank Xerox, whose survival has been threatened by fierce global competition, have been saved by making a serious commitment to continuous improvement. Those organisations who failed to make the commitment failed to survive. They lost competitive advantage. The British car industry is an example of competitive failure.

Companies have to make a conscious decision to improve. Having made the commitment, they then need the right method to take them along the road of continuous improvement to gain competitive advantage, which means safety, success and prosperity.

What have the problems of large organisations to do with the daily lives of ordinary people?

The best organisations recognise that they will gain competitive advantage by improving the performance of every employee. They do this by concentrating on the Three Improvement Potentials: talent, creativity and personality.

By developing their employees through knowledge and multi-skill training, or what we call ‘right method', they bring out natural talent.

By creating the right atmosphere and ideal working conditions, the best organisations will encourage all their employees to have the right attitude towards work and be highly motivated to do their best for themselves and their employers.

The organisation that is also creative and innovative is the one that pro-actively manages change. That means it is a leader of change rather than becoming its victim.

What is right for the large organisation is also right for every individual employee. And what is right for the people in work applies equally to every person who is seeking work or a better job and even for those who have finished their working lives but want to improve the quality, interest and variety of retirement.

Is there a creative age-limit or does the method apply to any age?

Remember there are two levels of creativity: primary and secondary.

Secondary creativity is the application of our intelligence to problem solving and inventions. It relies on brainpower, knowledge and education. Brainpower peaks at a similar age to other physical capabilities: between the ages of 20 and 35 years, after which there is a steady decline.

Primary creativity however, improves consistently with age providing we have made a commitment to self-improvement. In effect this means that the quality of our primary creativity improves with age which more than compensates for the lessening of secondary creativity.

Is there a creative occupation such as being an artist or writer? Or does your method apply to anyone?

There are two expressions of creativity: that which is expressed through talent and that which is an expression of personality. Notice the subtle but significant difference between the two.

Thus the artist and writer are expressing their creativity through their natural talents for painting and writing and for which they need to develop skills and expertise.

There is no such skill requirement to develop a creative personality - for that comes naturally to us at birth. Through the development of our creative personality we may also discover talents we would not otherwise know we possessed.

Our method is based on many years of research and observation. Any person in any situation can apply it with benefit.

Or it can be adopted by any kind of organisation large or small that wishes to increase its competitive advantage by improving the performance of its individual employees.

The problem most of us face in work is that we are so busy we do not have the time to take on any other commitments.

We agree. This is why our method can be used every day by busy people: it is quick, easy, simple and very effective. We have designed it to fit in with the busiest schedule. With practice, it becomes a natural part of the normal day's activities.

Like everything else today. Our method has to be competitive in price and performance. It has to pay its way. It has to show a benefit. It has to add value to our lives in return for the efforts made. It does all of these things by quickly improving personal performance, generating new ideas for problem solving and innovation and by more efficient working.

How long will it be before I can see any benefit?

Immediately we make a commitment to continuous improvement we create a new sense of direction and purpose. We become ‘self-centred', which is not at all the same as being selfish.

What is the difference?

Self-centredness is the first essential step on the inner path to self-actualisation. Self-centredness is the recognition of our own unique personality. Think of it as your centre-of-gravity. Self-centredness then makes us feel more secure, more independent and more self-reliant. In contrast think of being off-centre when we can easily be pushed to one side.

Self-centredness gives us the confidence to be more open, more helpful to others and more giving. Whereas selfishness is to care for one's self to the detriment of others. It is to take from others. As a consequence selfish people suffer from poor relationships.

Self-centred people, committed to a cycle of continuous improvement have a positive attitude towards life, they are highly motivated with an outgoing personality that is attractive to others.

 

More Information

If you require further information regarding the above or would like to attend one of our professional workshops then please contact us via e-mail: info@productmanager.co.uk or Information Request Form.