Conversations For Transformation: Essays Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard

Conversations For Transformation

Essays By Laurence Platt

Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard

And More

At The Same Time:

Musings On Werner's Impact On Performance

Oakville Grocery, California, USA

April 7, 2018

"Action is always a closely connected natural correlate of (mutually arising with) the way in which the circumstances that the performer is dealing with occur for (are experienced by) that performer. This correlation between action and the way in which the circumstances occur for the performer, is the source of performance. Because the way in which the circumstances occur for the performer is at least shaped by language, and is in any case always accessible through language, language provides actionable access to the source of performance. When through the use of language the occurring is altered, the correlated action (and therefore performance) is altered."


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This essay, At The Same Time: Musings On Werner's Impact On Performance, is the companion piece to But And And.

To be transformed isn't to get better. To be transformed is to discover the context in which getting better (as well as getting worse, for that matter) occurs. To increase performance isn't to try harder. Listen: increasing performance is a matter of bringing language / transformation to bear on the way the circumstances occur. Changing the circumstances and / or trying harder, have very little to do with the natural state of high performance (they may even get in its way).

If you engage with Werner (ie be in a conversation with him) on performance, soon you'll realize it isn't like listening to any other performance coach. The difference is clear. Listening to many other performance coaches, is to listen to what it is to get into high performance gear ie what it is to psych yourself up ie to get into a peak state. Engaging with Werner on performance, on the other hand, is to get being a high performer. Restated tersely, engaging with Werner on performance, is to get the being of "being a high performer" - in other words, to simply be a high performer, recognizing the power of language to alter the way the circumstances occur.

<aside>

Video Link:

If you don't have an opportunity to be with Werner engaging with him on performance face to face in the same room, then experience him on video by clicking here.

Experiencing Werner on video on performance, is almost the same as being with him, engaging with him on performance face to face in the same room (and yes, I did say it's "almost" the same ...).

<un-aside>

It may seem like a paradox at first (and if not a paradox then at least ironic) that to effectively take on getting better, you also have to take on getting worse at the same time. Both of them (especially getting better) languish and impede as concepts, which get in the way of uncovering the access to high performance. This is a domain of transformation that's always challenging, always simple yet not always easy, always seeming to make something available yet in fact delivering nothing (which is actually lot closer to the truth than it sounds). Be careful: here, my use of "nothing" is a far cry from the colloquial use of "nothing". When human beings really get nothing, there's a new opening, a stunning new possibility for us to get who we are as language, and its impact, its power. If it could ever be said that there is such a thing as a stepping stone (if you will) to high performance, then this would be it.

One of the surest ways of bringing forth transformation, and consequently one of the most direct accesses to high performance, requires promoting language to be the determinant of the way things show up, up from merely being the describer of the way things show up. And both deployments of language, the determinant and the describer, occur in our lives at the same time. It's when we vote on one or the other, or hold one as being better than the other, that the entire miracle of language and transformation, is blurred, collapses, and is missed - and if not missed, then is at least muddied, confused, and disempowered. It's my opinion that when we aren't clear about the difference between language as the determinant of the way things show up, and language as the describer of the way things show up, that we vote on it ie we opine about it, which never does us any good or makes any real difference in the world (which is the subject for another conversation on another occasion).

Language as the determinant of the way things show up, is therefore also the leverage for altering the way things show up, or at least for altering the impact in our lives of the way things show up. Another way of saying this, is language is the leverage for recontextualizing (I love that word) the way things show up. The high performer therefore isn't merely reciting some rote, memorized script while psyching herself up into a peak state. No, the high performer is rather inventing / writing / re-writing the script of the way the circumstances are occurring, at the same time as she's going about living her daily life. In this way, she's the master of the context in which the circumstances are occurring - which is to say she's the master of the circumstances themselves.

When I'm engaging with Werner on performance, it's not required to take notes - and I may; its success doesn't require memorizing points - and I may (it's not like school). Werner's impact on performance, simply doesn't travel (if you will) in that way - in fact it may not even travel in that domain at all. Instead, it's his presence and spoken word that compellingly impact and thereby inspire the being of "being a high performer", recognizing the power of language to alter the occurring world.

An experience being around Werner speaking (ie in a conversation on) high performance, is not to learn about high performance per se ie about what it is and what it isn't. Nor is it about amassing tips and tricks which help people try harder and perform better. An experience being around Werner speaking (ie in a conversation on) high performance is, at the same time, getting mySelf being a high performer ie at the same time, getting who I am as an already high performer. That's all. Really.

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