从考核指标转向核心要务：打造绩效文化

From targetsto priorities The path to a future-proof organization In these times of unprecedented challenge and change,organizations cannot afford to sit still. Rising cost pressures,shifting market demands, accelerating digitalization andpersistent talent shortages are forcing companies to adaptfaster and more deliberately than ever before. In short, theymust become future-proof. Our report "Crafting tomorrow: Shaping future-prooforganizations in turbulent times" explored how companiesmight achieve this. We identified nine essential dimensionsfor organizing and operating a company, covering themesfrom leadership to innovation. Success in these dimensionsis what makes excellent organizations stand out fromaverage ones. We surveyed more than 260 business leaderson each dimension to determine what it takes to be a next-generation winner – in other words, a company that sets thefuture standard in organizational development through itsexemplary structures and processes. This spin-off report is part of our Crafting Tomorrow series,which examines each of the nine dimensions in depth. Itfocuses on performance culture – one of the most decisiveof these dimensions. Many organizations emphasizeperformance in strategy and leadership rhetoric, yet fail totranslate it into daily behavior. Next-generation winners takea different approach: They define performance in concretebehavioral terms, concentrate on a small number of clearpriorities, and reinforce them consistently. Our findingsshow that organizations with a strong performance cultureare 6.6 times more likely to outperform their competitors,making culture a powerful, if underutilized, lever of sustainedperformance. Why organizations struggleto turn performance ambitioninto reality Performance culture features prominently in strategies and leadershipagendas, yet it rarely shows up in daily work. The core problem is simple:Most organizations never define what performance means in terms ofconcrete behaviors, nor do they adjust structures and processesaccordingly. Culture is treated as important, but what it looks like inpractice remains vague. At the same time, organizations try to pursue everything at once –functional excellence, collaboration, stability and flexibility – withoutmaking hard choices about what truly matters. When everything islabeled as a priority, nothing is reinforced. Employees are left tonavigate competing expectations that pull them in different directions. Even where intentions are clear, the surrounding conditions often workagainst them. Incentives, key performance indicators (KPIs), structuresand decision-making routines continue to reward caution andfunctional optimization rather than ownership, collaboration or aproblem-solving mindset. People are told to act differently, but thesystem encourages business as usual. As a result, performance culture often remains aspirational rather thanreal. When organizations define performance in behavioral terms, makeexplicit choices and reinforce them consistently through leadership andeveryday work, culture becomes a genuine source of advantage. Ourresearch shows that organizations with a strong performance cultureare 6.6 times more likely to outperform their competitors.The task fortoday's leaders is to turn that potential into practice. Next-level performance Average likelihood of successful performance forcompanies with and w/o a performance culture Companiesemphasizingperformance cultureare 6.6x more likelyto be successful The choices that turnculture into performance While many organizations struggle to define performance, next-generation winners do the opposite. They focus on a small numberof priorities and make explicit trade-offs. Those choices are thentranslated into how the organization actually works. Rather thanpursuing every ambition at once, they decide which behaviors mattermost and reinforce them consistently through leadership, incentives,communication, talent processes and daily routines. What sets these organizations apart is not the volume of initiatives, butthe clarity of what they stand for. They favor challenge over comfort,collaboration over functional optimization and flexibility over stability.At the same time, they treat hierarchy and ownership as pragmatic toolsrather than rigid principles, applying ownership where speed mattersand hierarchy where clarity is required. Because these choices areexplicit, teams know how to act when priorities conflict. These characteristics are embedded across the system: in howperformance is defined, how collaboration works across functions, howdecisions are made and escalated, how incentives reward contributionand how leaders are expected to show up. Next-generation winners donot rely on culture as messaging. They make it executable by building itinto everyday processes. Different focus Cultural trait prioritization comparison(Top vs. low performers) How culture delivers:The enablers that make it real Culture becomes effecti