A collaborometer measures how decision authority is shared between two people in order to drive successful results.
The 7 Performance Drivers is a collaborative change management tool developed by leadership expert and author John Kuypers. First published formally in his book, Who’s The Driver Anyway?, published by Carswell, The 7 Performance Drivers provides leaders with a tool that gets people onto the same page quickly and cooperatively…by agreeing upfront on who gets to decide on issues that are crucial to organizational success. It trumps old-school leadership tools like ‘Situational Leadership’ because it is two-way, involving both parties, not just the leader alone deciding how much decision authority to share.
The 7 Performance Drivers is a collaborometer. Just as a thermometer measures heat, a collaborometer measures authority. The 7PDs collaborometer was invented by John Kuypers as a by-product of his work leading a small not-for-profit charity that helps the poor in Toronto, Canada. He encountered tremendous resistance from staff to seemingly small changes designed to deal with the organization’s chronic deficits.
Recognizing that a very different cultural set of values was at play from his own traditional corporate background, Kuypers set out on a five year mission to develop an instrument that would give leaders a means by which to cooperatively and quickly lead teams and organizations through much-needed strategic changes.
The 7 Performance Driver is an instrument that measures shared decision-making authority. It uses four words and a scale of 7 ratios ranging from 100:0 to 0:100. The four words are driver-passenger and near-far. Driver and passenger identify and separate who is the ‘doer’ of the work from who is the ‘decider’ of how the work gets done. Only a driver can be a doer, whereas either person can be the decider.
Near and Far describe how authority is shared between the driver and passenger. With a “Near Driver”, the passenger is in control and the driver executes accordingly. With a “Far Driver”, the driver is in control and the passenger supports whatever the driver decides.
Near and Far cannot co-exist, since it is logically impossible for both persons to be in control at the same time. Thus the 7PDs collaborometer’s main function is to diagnose any issue where two or more people are in disagreement. It makes plain why there is a rift and it points out that either person could make a shift in order to agree on who gets to decide.
The practical impact of The 7PDs is that people will support final decisions even if they disagree with them, simply by virtue of the fact that they agreed upfront as to who gets to decide and by default, who will be supportive of that final decision. Please watch this video to learn more:
With 7 types of driver-passenger relationships and shared decision-making authority levels, users of The 7 Performance Drivers collaborometer quickly learn that decision-making is not ‘all or nothing’ and that indeed, both parties have many options with which to be respectfully heard, even if they do not have the final decision-making authority.
The 7 Performance Drivers reveals individual, team and organizational decision-making habits that reflect the culture of each. Thus, organizations, individuals and even families are typically “Near” or typically “Far”. This is caused by the fact that these two variables cannot co-exist without a lot of conflict or disengagement.
Near and Far each have pros and cons. For business leaders, the main use of The 7 Performance Drivers is to recognize when the organization or their own personal leadership style is too near or too far. Too Near stifles individual creativity and breeds conformity. Too Far leads to staff members who each do their own thing, and breeds dysfunction and poor teamwork.
Thus, The 7PDs develops better leaders by helping them see themselves (not unlike a mirror) more clearly. It gives leaders a tangible means by which to intentionally choose what level of shared decision authority is optimal for getting people to drive more successfully towards important results.
The 7PDs is part of JohnKuypers.com executive leadership development services…with a mirror.
For more information, please go to www.johnkuypers.com or www.performanceshift.com.
