Operationalizing Performance

The adaptive profiles, like the one on the right, that we measure at GRI, possess several characteristics that are central for understanding, implementing, and managing individual and organizational performance. This note lists and comments on these characteristics.

Key Characteristics

The eight key characteristics of the measures carried out by the adaptive profiles are the following:

• Quality of the measures—what's measured—on how people perform, function, and act, which is at the crossroads of their preferences, interests, mindset, how they think, value, and feel about how they behave, their beliefs about who they are, and how they interact in their environment.
• Quality of the result—the adaptive profile—that allows a concentration of significant meaning and continued learning about people and their organization.
• Adaptive nature of the measures, for understanding people in context, the energy it takes to adapt, and people's engagement.
• Behavioral aspect of the measures, and their ability to be observed, learned, shared, and validated.
• Accuracy of the measures, including their general validity, reliability over time, and predictability.
• Utility of the measures in a broad range of applications for recruitment, management, leadership and organisational development.
• Universality of the measures. The measures are independent of a person's age, gender, cultural origin, education, religious and political affiliation, and language spoken.
• Work-relatedness of the measures. The measures apply to any position in organizations, regardless of the industry, country, or hierarchy level.

Understanding Adaptation

By understanding the energy it takes to adapt and the implications on someone's engagement and productivity, the measures invite asking new questions about how people can perform in their jobs. The profiles help adjust behaviors within the ranges of variability specific to each person. With practice, the measures become a trustworthy source for understanding people in context and solving individual and organizational challenges creatively.

Making the Connection with the Job demand

Whether a person is suitable for a job also depends on whether their adaptive profile aligns with it, which is not just about intelligence, skills, or experience. Instead, it’s about how those other characteristics develop and adapt, which the measures from the adaptive profiles can reveal. The mismatches seen between the Natural and Role profiles or between the Natural and Effective profiles and the position’s profile are likely to lead to practical adjustments at the individual level or in the job.

Seeing the Unseen

The adaptive profiles reveal characteristics that cannot be observed directly, but only subjectively and through behaviors being directly observed in contact with the person from time to time, indirectly through comments from other people, or from information available on them, including on social media. Some characteristics, such as physical traits, diplomas, years of experience, etc., are easily accessible and observable. This is not the case for the information coming from the adaptive profiles. The behaviors being measured may reveal themselves over time and at various levels of intensity. They may often contradict our first perception and understanding of the person, something we spontaneously construct with our private concepts and techniques.

Making Sense of Other Concepts

By nature, the concepts and adjectives we use to describe people and their behaviors have different meanings. A limited number of factors—in the case of GRI, four—allow us to analyze these concepts and bring accuracy regarding their expression.

The factors were originally evidenced by analyzing a large number of adjectives used to describe behaviors. With these factors and appropriate measurement, we can describe how other concepts are being expressed, such as the way of being creative, delegating, communicating, directing, managing, leading, mentoring, teaching, learning, solving complex problems, etc.

Making Sense of the Adaptive Profiles

By the limits of variability indicated in the measures, it is possible to focus on individual actions while avoiding strong adaptation and disengagement, which will most probably lead to dissatisfaction and a lack of productivity. When there is interest in improving oneself and an organization's performance, using the adaptive profiles starts to make sense, and their applications are limitless.