Om avsnittet
Most organisations separate development from performance. One conversation asks: What do you need to learn? Another asks: What do you need to deliver? I have never been convinced that these questions should live so far apart. Learning without application can become abstract, while performance without development can become unsustainable. So why not connect them? That is the idea behind what I call Devformance Goals. A Devformance Goal combines a Development Goal with a Performance Goal. You develop a skill, capability or area of knowledge while using that development to achieve a measurable business outcome. You do not only complete the level. You level up while doing it. What is a Devformance Goal? A Devformance Goal is a goal that deliberately combines development and performance in the same objective. Traditional Development Goals focus on improving skills, knowledge or competencies. Traditional Performance Goals focus on delivering a specific result. Both matter, but they answer different questions. A Development Goal might be: Improve my data analytics capability. A Performance Goal might be: Reduce reporting turnaround time by 30%. A Devformance Goal connects them: Develop advanced data analytics capability and apply it to reduce reporting turnaround time by 30%. Now learning has a purpose, and performance creates development. That connection is the important part. Development Goals build capability Development Goals are primarily about becoming better equipped for the future. They might involve learning a new technology, developing leadership capability, improving negotiation skills, understanding a new market, strengthening communication, building financial knowledge or improving teamwork. These goals may create significant long-term value even when they do not immediately produce a measurable financial outcome. Think of an RPG. You spend time developing your character, acquiring new abilities, improving your equipment, increasing your stats and unlocking new parts of the skill tree. You are becoming more capable. But levelling up is not the objective of the game. Eventually, you need to use those abilities. Performance Goals create the win condition Performance Goals are different. They define what must actually happen. Launch the product. Increase sales. Reduce cost. Improve service quality. Complete the project. Shorten cycle time. Increase customer satisfaction. These are the mission objectives. They provide direction and a measurable definition of success. The problem appears when performance becomes detached from capability. An organisation can continuously raise targets without asking whether the people expected to achieve them are developing the skills required to do so. Eventually that becomes unsustainable. You cannot indefinitely demand higher performance from the same capabilities, processes and resources. Something has to improve. Why separate the two? Imagine an employee development plan…
