How to turn your business into a high-performance organisation

Telegraph

04-03-2025

Performance is measurable, whether the dial turns towards success or hovers over a need to do more. But which measures of high performance are the reliable ones? Defining 'high performance' in business can be difficult because no two high-performance organisations (HPOs) look the same: sector, size, services and products all impact what defines 'good' performance.
Another serious impact on an organisation's high performance extends from the health or otherwise of the wider economic climate, and that climate's outlook is not at its brightest across the UK at present. Add to that a lack of necessary awareness about HPOs and how to achieve that status in companies and you have a challenge to meet and a problem to solve. But André de Waal, academic director of the HPO Center, says there is a simple, defined framework for spotting an HPO: '[It's] an organisation that achieve[s] both financial and non-financial results that are increasingly better than those of its peer group over a period of five years or more.'
However, how this translates in practice, and what the secrets of high performance are, remain more challenging to pin down.
High performance = sustainable and seamless high productivity
Improving performance is a critical challenge for UK PLC. Though the UK's productivity level is the fourth highest in the G7 countries, it is 18 per cent lower than the United States, and we've been drifting further from international benchmarks since the pandemic.
So how do you set about creating and sustaining a high-performing organisation? De Waal, now a globally leading HPO practitioner, has developed a detailed list of five HPO factors based on years of research: management quality; openness and action orientation; long-term orientation; continuous improvement and renewal; and employee quality.
It therefore makes sense that building an HPO must start from the very foundations of the organisation – which can sometimes mean unlearning old ways. 'What got you here won't get you there,' says award-winning social entrepreneur Anisa Morridadi. 'If you look at leaders, entrepreneurs, athletes, performers – anyone at the top of their game – they leave strategies behind and adopt new ones to get to the next level.'
Taking De Waal's framework in a broader sense, Morridadi believes an organisation's ability to access high performance can be broken down into two factors: systems and, perhaps most importantly, mindset.
Building the HPO mindset
'It's not about your assets. It's not about your machinery. It's about how your people behave, and if they behave in a high-performance way, you'll automatically get the financial results,' says De Waal.
Morridadi cites learning from mistakes as a key factor: 'A critical element of high performance is visionary leadership. You have to create an environment where people can recognise the boundaries, push past them and learn from the results – how do we go again?'
De Waal echoes this, pointing to continuous learning as one of the most important behaviours that drives performance. What's the only type of mistake you're never allowed to make in an HPO? 'The same mistake,' he says.
Learning is one area where the UK has fallen behind. According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the number of publicly funded qualifications started by adults has declined by 70 per cent since the early 2000s. Employer-funded training has also declined, with a 27 per cent fall in spending per trainee since 2011.
The nature of workplace training has changed radically in recent years, from afternoon sessions in stuffy rooms filled with flipcharts to a more self-directed approach powered by digital learning systems like the one offered by MHR, a leading HR, payroll and finance software provider. An agile and effective training model allows you to learn in the flow of work. It is estimated that up to 70 per cent of learning comes from doing, and learning as you work is more effective because it means fewer distractions and greater focus on learning, as well as completing the task at hand.
Social learning, within and between teams, and the more easily digestible approach of bite-size learning are both well-placed to connect effective training with the process of doing. Learning on the job is the flexible friend of organisations bent on achieving high performance. Offering staff these kinds of routes to advance their career, and encouraging them to pursue self-development through feedback, is key to building a business environment that can sustain and fuel a thriving HPO.
Sustaining performance
A key component of an HPO is sustained performance. Morridadi believes that it starts with strong systems: 'You don't rise to the level of your goals; you fall to the level of your systems.'
According to De Waal, it means constantly embracing growth. 'Never stand still. As every sports person will tell you, it's not that difficult to get to the top.' The real challenge, he says, is staying at the top.
This is an area where technology can have a significant impact. While good technology alone won't deliver an HPO, De Waal acknowledges it's hard to deliver and sustain high performance without it: 'Without technology, I don't think you can become an HPO, but it's not enough [on its own]. It's got to combine with the people.'
MHR's HR payroll and finance capabilities are a prime example of technology systems that can accelerate the raw performance potential of a team, unlocking frictionless focus and company-wide high performance. Good systems embed good practice; great systems do that while also creating the platform for adaptability and change.
Collaboration for innovation
Learning in a high-performance organisation goes beyond skills; engaging with stakeholders and customers to understand their changing needs is critical. 'What makes a lot of organisations stand out is not that they just chase what matters but that they're constantly asking what matters and why, and they involve their teams, their stakeholders and their customers in that process,' says Morridadi.
This inclusive approach has repeatedly been shown to drive better performance. But you can't just ask people to participate. 'You have to be quite explicit in creating an inclusive approach to risk-taking; that it's not just reserved for people with certain securities in their job title. You have to make it psychologically safe for everyone,' explains Morridadi.
Of course, with a range of factors both inside and outside an HPO impacting on the level of its success, perhaps we should accept that the very definitions of high performance are themselves subject to change. 'I'm 64, I'm probably now recognised as the world expert on high-performance organisations,' says De Waal. 'You know what? I have more questions now than I had nine or 10 years ago.'
If you want to stay on top – no matter how long you've been doing it – the journey to change, grow and adapt never stops.