Laura Hoppa – Principal Performance Consultant What is Performance Experience Design (PXD)? It’s the intentional design of experiences that change behaviors to get results. The approach focuses on galvanizing individuals and teams to “think, feel, and do” the precise things that will support their overall performance, well-being, and success—and achieve the company’s desired outcomes. PXD is entirely performer-centered in its methodology, but at the end of the day, it puts organizational leaders in the driver’s seat of taking action, at the right time and in the right way, to have impact.
Have you ever found yourself looking forward, setting your sights on a new or elevated goal? We’re guessing you have—leaders regularly think about how and where their organization or team can perform better. “Better” might mean correcting an existing issue or problem, supporting the development of a particular role, or replicating a recent success. It could also mean a complete transformation of your function or company.
No matter what it looks like for you, the reality is that success is a group activity—it will require others, possibly entire teams and even cross-functional groups, to get aligned, and then change their behavior in both subtle and dramatic ways. Making this happen is where we often miss the boat—helping others change course isn’t easy. Humans are delightfully, beautifully, frustratingly complex. And influencing their growth and behavior is hard work. But it is possible to design an effective way forward using PXD.
When it comes to moving from plan to action, two mistakes are extremely common. The first is when leaders consider communicating the plan the same as activating the plan. Short story—it’s not; performers need more than just awareness to be successful.
The second is when leaders assume that achieving the desired result requires us to control (aka “direct” or “manage”) the performance of others. In fact, this unconscious belief sets us up to misplace our energy and undermine our own efforts. Because even as leaders, the only performance we can truly direct or manage is our own. PXD recognizes this. It’s based in the science of influence, not control.
Performance Experience Designers unpack the process of effectively inspiring and motivating others. Using PXD, they predict the emotional, intellectual, and behavioral journey your performers will need to travel to achieve your future vision.
The PXD approach starts with deep knowledge of, and empathy for, your specific employees’ reality and the factors that encourage their performance. And it balances this with an equally deep understanding for where you want your organization to go and why. Then it paints a real picture of how to get there by delivering a series of right-sized and right-timed experiences that will change hearts, minds, and actions.
As you deliver the designed experience, you’ll want to know if it’s working as predicted, so an evaluation methodology is built-in to the PXD approach. At every step of the journey, you’ll be able to assess whether the journey is going as planned or needs a real-time adjustment. And frankly, adjustments are normal. We live in the real world, after all. And that means life is bound to throw us a few curve balls. Performance Experience Design is a nimble and responsive design technique that’s ready to help take your organization forward, measuring your success along the way.
Want to learn more about applying Performance Experience Design to your organization’s initiatives? Reach out to our team at 859-415-1000 or with our Let’s Talk form.