- Ways to Improve Performance in Businesses!

The New Performance-Focused Paradigm: The Real Engine That Drives Process Improvement

For many years, a prevailing approach in the business world was: "If you improve processes, performance increases." This perspective has been accepted as a fundamental principle in many areas, from quality management to lean manufacturing, from corporate transformation to digitalization. Organizations analyzed their processes, identified bottlenecks, standardized flows, and expected increased performance through improvement initiatives.

However, in today's business environment, which demands high uncertainty, rapid change, and a focus on results, this traditional approach is being questioned.

CMMI* introduces a new paradigm in its latest versions:

"Performance is the reason and driver of process improvement. If performance data is not robust, process improvement cannot be focused on the right thing."

The whole point is to focus on the right thing!

So why is this important?

1. Is the Traditional Approach No Longer Enough?

The fundamental weakness of traditional process improvement approaches is that they make improvement a technical activity disconnected from the results. Teams often experience the following:

Improvement efforts take a long time.

It's difficult to decide where to start.

The desired performance target remains unclear.

Because no measurement is made, the impact of the improvement cannot be clearly seen.

In this case, process improvement is perceived as a project disconnected from business objectives.

2. The New Paradigm: Performance Data Drives the Process
Today, thanks to data analytics, KPI management, the OKR methodology, and AI-powered monitoring tools, it is possible to monitor performance in real time. This capability is triggering the following paradigm shift:

Old: Process → Improvement → Performance
New: Performance → Goal → Rationale → Process Improvement
Organizations are now seeing this:

It is not the process that initiates improvement, but rather performance deviations.

The best improvement projects start where the greatest performance gap exists.

Processes are designed around performance targets—not the other way around.

This makes organizations much more agile and effective.

3. Benefits of This Approach to Organizations
- Faster improvement cycles. Triggers based on performance data eliminate unnecessary analysis.

- Focusing resources on the right areas. Data clarifies which process steps are not creating value.

- Aligning teams around a common goal. Improvement ceases to be a technical task; it becomes a performance improvement mission.

- Maximum benefit from artificial intelligence. AI models detect performance fluctuations early and recommend improvements.

4. Natural Compatibility with ISO/IEC 42001, Agile, Lean, and OKR
This new paradigm aligns perfectly with many contemporary management approaches:

- ISO/IEC 42001: Continuous improvement through performance indicators and risk-based thinking.

- Agile: Performance (velocity, quality) drives improvement at the end of the sprint.

- Lean: Losses in the value stream are determined by performance.

- OKR: Performance-focused goals, not processes, drive improvement.

In short, modern management approaches already prioritize performance over process.

5. The Role of Leaders: Creating Organizations That Talk About Performance
To implement this paradigm, leaders must take the following steps:

Clearly define strategic performance metrics

Establishing a real-time performance monitoring infrastructure

Making performance deviations automatic triggers

Educating process owners with performance awareness

Establishing improvement as a culture that flows from results to processes.

Conclusion: It's Time to Talk About Performance, Not Process

In the new world of work, what moves organizations forward is not how smooth their processes are, but how quickly and consistently their performance achieves its goals.

Therefore, the approach for a sustainable, agile, and data-driven organization is clear:

Start improvement with performance, not processes. Performance is the most powerful compass.

***Get information about our performance-oriented "Process Improvement" "Consultancy" and Training" Services.

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