Rethink Performance
Part 1 – Why Trust Matters
Explore what your metrics reveal too late
Innovate Wisely™ presents Rethink Performance, a research-informed manifesto exploring why trust matters in organisations and communities.
Trust, knowledge and energy shape project performance long before their effects appear in the schedule, budget or benefits report.
Download this practical, research-informed ebook to understand what may be happening beneath the visible symptoms and be guided on asking better questions before adding more activity, resources or controls.
Grab a sneak preview by downloading chapter 1 for free:
https://www.innovatewisely.com/Rethink-Performance-Part-1-Chapter-1-V4.pdf
Your performance metrics may be accurate and still tell you too late
Cost, schedule, scope and benefits tell leaders what has happened. They rarely explain the conditions that produced the result.
By the time a project is delayed, over budget or struggling to gain adoption, the underlying problems may have been developing for months.
You may have already noticed the early signs:
- decisions are repeatedly revisited;
- stakeholders attend meetings but do not follow through;
- critical knowledge remains with a few people;
- activity is increasing while momentum is falling; or
- a technically sound solution is struggling to become embedded.
These patterns are often treated as communication, capability or performance problems. Yet the visible symptom may not reveal what the work actually needs.
Rethink Performance offers a different way to look beneath the metrics.
Examine the conditions that make progress possible
Drawing on the research-derived InnoWise® framework, the ebook explores three conditions that influence whether complex work can move:
Trust is delivery infrastructure
Trust affects whether people raise concerns, share what they know, rely on the evidence, support decisions and commit to action.
Knowledge is system memory
Knowledge must be found, created, shared, applied and retained as work progresses. When that process breaks down, teams repeat mistakes, lose continuity and become dependent on individuals.
Energy is adaptive capacity
Energy reflects the attention, effort, time, willingness and resources available to act. A project can appear busy while its capacity to make meaningful progress is declining.
Understanding these conditions helps leaders look beyond activity and consider what may be enabling—or constraining—movement.
What you will learn
The ebook will help you:
- understand why conventional performance measures often reveal problems too late;
- recognise how trust influences decisions, collaboration and knowledge sharing;
- identify where missing or poorly transferred knowledge may be slowing progress;
- distinguish productive energy from activity that is being absorbed by uncertainty, friction or rework; and
- use the Locate → Measure → Act pathway to develop a more focused response.
The ebook does not replace project controls, technical evidence or professional judgement. It helps you examine the conditions that influence whether those systems can work effectively.
Discover the InnoWise® framework
Innovation and knowledge-management processes have traditionally been represented through separate frameworks.
InnoWise® brings them together across four connected phases:
- Form — understand the problem, purpose, people and requirements.
- Create — develop, test and refine the solution and supporting knowledge.
- Adopt — transfer knowledge, build capability and embed the outcome.
- Critique — review results, capture learning and carry value forward.
Trust and energy influence what can be achieved in every phase.
By considering the innovation work and its knowledge requirements together, leaders gain a more complete way to understand why an initiative may be progressing, slowing or becoming vulnerable.
What is inside the ebook?
Chapter 1 — What your performance metrics see too late
Explore the gap between conventional project measures and the conditions that shape performance earlier.
Chapter 2 — InnoWise®: a framework for seeing performance earlier
Discover how InnoWise® aligns innovation and knowledge processes—and why correctly locating the work matters.
Chapter 3 — Trust is delivery infrastructure
Understand how trust influences risk, decisions, knowledge sharing and coordinated action.
Chapter 4 — Knowledge is system memory
Examine how knowledge moves through work, where it becomes vulnerable and why documentation alone is not enough.
Chapter 5 — Energy reveals whether work can move
Recognise the difference between visible activity and the capacity to sustain meaningful progress.
Chapter 6 — Diagnose the conditions, not only the symptoms
Apply the practical Locate → Measure → Act pathway to a current project, program or initiative.
Includes the InnoWise® Process Mapping Checklist
Use the self-reflection checklist to consider the innovation and knowledge work that has actually been completed—not simply the phase shown in the project plan.
The checklist can help you:
- reflect on where unresolved work may sit;
- identify areas requiring further discussion; and
- establish a clearer context for examining what the project needs next.
It is a self-reflection tool, not a project diagnostic or performance assessment. Work may also be occurring across more than one InnoWise® phase.
Who should read Rethink Performance?
The ebook is written for people responsible for helping complex work progress, including:
- executives, sponsors and organisational leaders;
- project and program leaders;
- innovation, transformation and change practitioners;
- technical specialists moving solutions into practice; and
- leaders working across organisational and stakeholder boundaries.
It will be particularly useful when a project appears active, but decisions, participation, adoption or momentum are becoming difficult.
About Lee Foster
Lee Foster is the founder of Innovate Wisely® and the developer of the InnoWise® framework and Trust Analyser™.
Her work combines more than 30 years of experience in engineering, infrastructure and complex project environments with research into the relationship between knowledge and innovation. That research was published in the peer-reviewed Journal of the Knowledge Economy.
Through Innovate Wisely®, Lee helps leaders understand and measure the trust, knowledge and energy conditions affecting project performance—so risks can be identified earlier and action can be directed towards what the work actually needs.