People First Mentality with Dr. George Hanshaw
I attended a presentation given by Dr. George Hanshaw, a performance psychology professional with a doctorate in Sports and Performance Psychology. Dr. Hanshaw is also the facilitator for my competency course, and I’ve enjoyed the short videos he makes to keep that class interesting and insightful. Something I’ve appreciated about the way Dr. Hanshaw approaches facilitating that course is that he tries to make the time valuable - he is focused on the learner and the learnings. When I listened to his presentation about human performance consulting, that same care shone through. Unequivocally, Dr. Hanshaw is a people person. This should not be mistaken for being a people pleaser; instead, he believes the way to reach goals and grow is through people. During the presentation he said “When you focus on performance, you focus on people. When you focus on people, you grow the organization.”
By approaching performance consulting situations with the same outlook he shared, I believe it’s possible to listen to the stories unfolding around you and stay in growth mindset (rather than “fix it” mindset), allowing for solutions to arise naturally and collaboratively.
Some principles he espouses for good performance consulting:
Think like a kid
Ask questions
Actively wonder “what if”
Enjoy the process - even the painful parts
Go in with an open mind
Figure out what is important to the people in the organization
Some tips he espouses for building fruitful partnerships:
Be purposeful and real - practice emotional intelligence and empathy
Pick the low hanging fruit to start
Under promise and over deliver
Start conversations well before they are needed
Engage with organizations where they are. Embed in the organization.
My biggest takeaway from Dr. Hanshaw’s presentation is that human performance consulting is a collaborative effort between the consultant and every member of the organization, whether directly or indirectly. It is not about being an outsider that comes into an organization to save it, or fix it. It is about being a bridge that carries the organization and all it’s people from the current state to the desired state. The impact a performance consultant makes affects the entire organizational culture for years to come.
To make this type of impact possible one must gain trust, build rapport, and ask questions that penetrate to the root of the matter - or as Dr. Hanshaw recommended - become embedded in the organization. Listening is vital during this process. If causes and solutions are top of mind while interviewing and asking questions, relationships and partnerships aren’t able to go deeper than surface level, and important aspects will be missed. By practicing the people first mentality of Dr. Hanshaw, actively and deeply listening become center to the human performance consultant and the successful partnership they build with their clients.
**Context - this post was written for Purdue’s Human Performance Technology course, as part of my Master’s in Learning Design and Technology.