At eyespeak we have derived a lot of our professional (and personal) mindset from the P/PC principle outlined by Stephen Covey in the first few chapters of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. This week I am going to take you through various parts of the P/PC paradigm and how they relate to us.
To break down the equation, you have:
P – your current PRODUCTION output
PC – your PRODUCTION CAPACITY
With these numbers you can look at a staff or team in two very distinct ways. Let me explain with an example:
SCENARIO:
Sally is currently at a 7/10. Meaning her maximum production capacity has a maximum value of 10. Currently, she is producing a 7.
OPTION ONE:
Jimbo, Sally’s boss, is frustrated with Sally’s performance, “She should be giving me a 9 or a 10!” Jimbo proceeds to look for carrots and sticks to raise that 7 to meet her capacity.
OPTION TWO:
Jimbo sees that Sally is nearing her capacity and immediately looks for ways to start investing in Sally to increase her Production Capacity… or turning her 10 into a 15.
In option one, Jimbo is doomed. He is going to do nothing except create enormous amounts of stress. No one is capable of preforming at their theoretical maximum for extended periods of time. Even if it were physically possible, they would lose any margin in their life. The results are frustration, stress, disconnect and, ultimately, Sally is jumping on the next train that offers her a ticket.
The Jimbo in option two has an effective, holistic approach. He knows that if he can raise Sally’s PC by 5 points then she has 8 points of margin to share with the company and is much more inclined to do so.
In Part II we will look at how to invest in the PC of your team.
