OBD Core Philosophy

Unleash – Accelerate – Triumph

Let’s look at these three steps in the context of a car race and human performance.

    1. Unleash. No car will run until it’s turned on. Without a key, the car remains fixed, motionless, idle. But once there’s a purpose for a trip, someone gets in the car, turns the key, and starts the car running. The car now has the immediate potential to be taken on a trip.From a human perspective, this step is known as Self-Motivation. All motivation must come from within; it can’t be forced on people who don’t want it. Main question: If you can’t motivate someone, what can you do to improve performance? Answer: You must engage in particular conversations out of which self-motivation is very likely to arise. (For our purposes, when we use the word “motivation,” we mean “self-motivation.”
    2. Accelerate. Once the car has been turned on, it can be driven. But it can’t go anywhere without acceleration (the change in velocity with respect to time). This step requires work to overcome inertia and to get the car moving. Once a car is moving, many things can happen. It can accelerate more (to reach a greater speed). It can meet up with obstacles (traffic lights, stop signs, other cars, people, etc.), after which it can accelerate again to reach the desired speed. Or it can coast, maintaining a current speed and direction. It can, unfortunately, also get into accidents!When talking about people, this step is known as Empowerment, which can be used in many implementations. It can be used to get people moving who are completely idle. It can be used to take people out of a “coasting” situation. And it can be used for continual, steady growth toward an empowering series of outcomes. Main question: How do you keep people empowered? Answer: You must engage them in specific, transformational (paradigm-shifting) conversations out of which they see something for themselves that will leave them able and willing to take actions that they weren’t seemingly able to take before. This is best accomplished in an ongoing partnership-based curriculum and structure. People are always losing their power, but they can regain it if they engage in the right kinds of guided conversations.
    3. Triumph. The triumph is not exclusively at the end of the race. It can also be found at various points along the ongoing, progressive journey the car takes to reach the finish line. Triumph can occur at every stage of a race, and success can be defined any number of ways (simply continually taking ground toward the finish line, coming in first, finishing the race – whatever). Once a car has successfully completed a lap, it hasn’t finished the race (or won it, obviously). Likewise, crossing the finish line or coming in first doesn’t mean it’s all over. There’s always another race and another record to beat, even if it’s your own. Plus, there’s always next season!People, on the other hand, don’t have an empowering relationship with this phase, which is in the realm of Breakthrough Results. They don’t often acknowledge themselves for their accomplishments; instead, they criticize themselves. Some need to have perfection (which doesn’t exist) in order to feel that they’ve been successful. Main question: How do you keep people at the top of their game? Answer: You, in an ongoing fashion, assist them in acknowledging themselves for their work and their commitment, and you use any victory (or any failure, for that matter) as a triumph that empowers the Acceleration Phase again. It’s all good, and it can all be completely empowering.

(Also, note that there is no “Coasting” phase in this “Unleash, Accelerate, Triumph” philosophy. Simply put, if you take your foot off the gas, you will lose momentum and eventually grind to a halt. In a car, there’s really no such thing as coasting, because you’re always working against friction and having to go up hills and inclines along the journey. In short, there’s always work to be done!)