From the Ask Tom mailbag:
Question:
How do you develop longer Time Span in an individual?
Response:
Elliott Jaques, in his research on Time Span (Requisite Organization), believed that each person has an innate ability to deal with a certain amount of complexity in the world. The complexity can be objectively measured as Time Span and is different for each person.
With that understanding, there is nothing that can be trained, learned, coerced or manipulated to change a person’s maximum capability. It is what it is.
Within that range, up to a person’s maximum capability, we can influence a person’s applied capability. Applied capability creates evidence, observable behavior, goals that are achieved.
We can impact applied capability through education, training, providing opportunity in areas of interest or opportunity where the work has value to the team member. All of these elements will stimulate (without a motivational speaker) a person to bring their highest game to the table.
Hi Tom,
Because this pill can be a hard one for people to swallow, I’d like to add that one’s current potential capability does mature over time. It is what it is, but it does increase over the course of people’s lives. Where I am today is not necessarily where I will be in 5 years.
For reason’s unknown, some people mature at faster rates than others; however, the rate of maturation has not yet been found to be subject to any influence.
Regards,
Michelle