You Are Wrong About Your Model: Here Is How to Fix Things

Like a lot of fields, the field of practice we call performance improvement bristles with what are offhandedly called models. It is not uncommon to hear practitioners and aspirants proudly refer to their toolkit and its reams of models as if it were a superhero utility belt. With this in mind, we should feel very confident that we have lots of support for any sort of project that aims to improve the performance of individuals or organizations. However, using any model is not guaranteed to result in success, and following any model with singular dedication may even result in failure. This follows from the idea that models are always incomplete and thus come with the implicit expectation that we, the users, have to fill in the blanks and blind spots, and that we have to change ourselves in the process.