PDG is advancing the body of knowledge and practical application of Human Performance Improvement (HPI) and Human Performance Technology (HPT) models, methodology, and principles. Our approach pays homage to the HPI history, steeped in Psychology and Systems Theory, and the HPI pioneers such as Drs. Gilbert, Harless, and Rummler. Additionally, we leverage contemporary HPI practitioners such as Dennis Mankin and his proven PerformanceDNA methodology as an integral component to PDG’s Performance Architecture Framework.

Our mission is to create performance-minded individuals, leaders, and organizations that unlock value, growth, and results by integrating business and cultural outcomes. And just so there’s no confusion: business = profits; culture = people.

We believe that mission starts with an acknowledgement that organizations – at their core – are human performance systems; and that organizational performance is unavoidably complex because performance is about achieving results through people….and people have dimensionality. This inherent complexity, however, doesn’t equate to being inevitably difficult, quite the contrary.

Our definition of organizational performance is three-pronged:

• The efficacy of achieving goals while remaining healthy
• Analysis of actual vs intended results
• Achievement of full self-awareness

Our Performance Architecture addresses all three aspects of organizational performance, and we believe the more effective an organization is at architecting performance, the increased probability it has of surviving, flourishing, and innovating in the long-term.

PDG’s Performance Architecture is about translating strategy into results, and to do so effectively, requires an understanding, acceptance, and integration of the inherent complexity and interplay of four key organizational elements:

• Performance Layers – the key levels in an organization accountable for results and the appropriate cascade of responsibility and decision rights to those levels
• Performance Discipline – the approach that keeps the organizational focus on the goal/outcome and commitment to the process it takes to get there
• Performance Tradecraft – the holistic analytic process, methods, and techniques to inform organizational decisions to design and support human performance systems
• Performance Habits – the specific, tailored, and collective behavior patterns and practices within an organization that drive achievement of desired results

Performance Architecture has been compared to Building Architecture in that both fields take a broad view of design and see the structure as a dynamic interconnected system that must be considered in terms of all of its parts. Design is not simply about the structure, it’s also about aligning and balancing function, flow, materials, sequencing, and creativity.

PDG’s Performance Architecture is a blueprint that purposefully integrates an organization’s desired business and cultural outcomes into strategy and engineers the conditions necessary to execute that strategy and perform – mind-set, structure, habits, levers, and analysis. Performance Architecture is the means to propel success and achieve extraordinary results.

Once the code to unlock performance is understood – light switch flips, ‘ah-ha’ moment occurs – that clarity reveals the hidden simplicity and there’s no turning back. You can’t unsee or turn off what you now know….Performance Architecture.

• What separates PDG’s Performance Architecture Framework from the competition is the marriage between HPI best practices and the proven performance best practices from organizations that can’t afford to ‘miss’ – from US intelligence and special operations task forces to premium corporate brands to small high-performing businesses and industries.
• One of the best things about PDG’s Performance Architecture Framework? It scales to all levels of your organization, not matter how big or small.

It is this hidden simplicity concealed by complexity that became one of the key drivers of the creation of PDG. Having been told many times that we have a knack for “boiling down the complex” and “making things easier to understand” we decided to channel our passion and ‘superpower’ into Performance Architecture as a means to transform the way people think about performance to inspire an appetite for excellence.