Sustaining High Performance Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Senior Managers, Department Heads and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-LD-324

Before you join: Participants should have experience supervising people, coordinating work or contributing to team performance discussions.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Sustaining high performance requires more than setting demanding targets. Leaders must maintain clear priorities, reliable operating rhythms and productive team behaviours while customer expectations, competitive pressures, technology, regulation and capacity constraints change. Without these disciplines, teams can become reactive: meetings multiply, urgent work displaces important work, accountability weakens and performance gains fade after an initial improvement effort.

This course equips managers to build conditions in which strong performance can be maintained through change. Participants use the Balanced Scorecard, OKRs, scenario planning, PDCA, A3 problem-solving, GROW coaching and ADKAR change management to connect strategy with daily execution. They learn to set meaningful measures, identify constraints, establish review routines, manage cross-functional dependencies, build workforce capacity and address underperformance constructively. The course also examines psychological safety, decision rights, feedback, resistance and recovery practices that affect whether teams can sustain demanding delivery expectations.

Teaching combines concise instructor briefings with sector-based cases, group analysis, performance-review simulations and structured planning. Cases reflect challenges faced by banks, public agencies, multinational operations, NGOs and service organisations, including service backlogs, regulatory change, operational disruption and competing strategic priorities. Participants leave with a practical performance system pack: a scorecard, team operating rhythm, stakeholder map, performance conversation tools and a 30-60-90 day implementation plan.

The course suits managers responsible for teams, functions, programmes or operational units where performance must remain dependable while priorities, demand or working methods change. It is particularly valuable for leaders moving from personal delivery into responsibility for sustained team results.

What you will be able to do

  • Design a high-performance system linking strategy, capability, culture, measures and operating rhythm
  • Build a Balanced Scorecard and OKR set that converts priorities into measurable commitments
  • Apply scenario planning and market-sensing methods to identify risks, opportunities and response triggers
  • Run tiered performance reviews using variance analysis, PDCA cycles and escalation decisions
  • Diagnose performance constraints using demand-capacity analysis, skills matrices and Theory of Constraints
  • Conduct GROW coaching and SBI feedback conversations that strengthen accountability and performance
  • Plan change adoption using ADKAR assessments, impact analysis and resistance-management actions
  • Produce a 30-60-90 day performance improvement plan with measures, owners and review points

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Lead performance conversations with clearer evidence, expectations and follow-through
  • Build a personal operating rhythm for priorities, decisions, coaching and review
  • Identify whether poor results stem from capability, capacity, process or motivation
  • Respond to market and operational change without losing focus on critical commitments
  • Present a credible performance improvement plan to senior stakeholders

For your organisation

  • Improves alignment between strategic priorities, team commitments and operational measures
  • Reduces recurring performance variance through disciplined review and countermeasure routines
  • Strengthens cross-functional accountability for hand-offs, dependencies and escalation decisions
  • Builds manager capability to address underperformance before service or delivery failures grow
  • Creates practical change plans that protect performance during implementation

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can diagnose the components of a high-performance system and establish a meaningful performance baseline.

  • High-performance system: strategy, capability, culture, processes and operating rhythm
  • Distinguishing output, outcome, quality, capacity and behavioural performance measures
  • Balanced Scorecard cause-and-effect logic linking priorities to operational measures
  • Diagnosing performance constraints through the Theory of Constraints five focusing steps
  • Leading and lagging indicators balanced against unintended behavioural consequences
  • Performance baseline using trend, variance, segmentation and benchmark evidence
  • Cadence design for daily, weekly and monthly performance reviews

Participants can interpret external and internal signals and convert them into response priorities.

  • PESTLE signals translated into assumptions, risks, opportunities and response triggers
  • Porter's Five Forces used to test competitive pressure and margin exposure
  • Scenario planning with plausible futures, signposts, contingency actions and owners
  • Customer journey evidence converted into service, product and channel priorities
  • Assumption logs maintained with confidence ratings, review dates and decision owners
  • After-action reviews separate signal, interpretation, decision quality and result
  • Strategic choices tested through pre-mortem analysis and red-team challenge

Participants can translate strategic priorities into aligned team commitments, decision rights and delivery plans.

  • OKRs written with outcome-based objectives, measurable key results and confidence ratings
  • Strategy maps connect enterprise priorities, team contributions and individual commitments
  • RACI matrices clarify decision rights, consultation duties and escalation paths
  • Translating annual priorities into 90-day team plans and weekly commitments
  • Cross-functional dependencies mapped with hand-offs, service levels and named owners
  • Priority trade-offs decided using impact, effort, risk and time criteria

Participants can establish practical review routines that turn performance evidence into timely decisions.

  • Tiered daily management boards expose safety, quality, delivery and cost deviations
  • Visual management distinguishes target, actual, variance, countermeasure and owner
  • Weekly performance reviews use facts, commitments, blockers and escalation decisions
  • PDCA cycles convert recurring variance into tested process improvements
  • Decision logs record rationale, assumptions, accountabilities, deadlines and review points
  • Meeting charters protect preparation time, participation rules and decision closure

Participants can identify capacity and capability risks that threaten sustained team performance.

  • Demand-capacity analysis identifies bottlenecks, workload peaks and single-point dependencies
  • Skills matrices reveal coverage gaps, development priorities and succession risks
  • Work-in-progress limits reduce overload, context switching and unfinished work
  • Recovery protocols address fatigue, incident learning and sustainable work patterns
  • Capacity buffers sized against volatility, service commitments and risk appetite
  • Business continuity roles tested against absence, supplier failure and system outage

Participants can adapt their leadership approach to maintain trust, focus and commitment under pressure.

  • Situational Leadership matches direction and support to competence and commitment
  • SCARF model diagnoses status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness and fairness concerns
  • Psychological safety built through fallibility, inquiry and productive response practices
  • Adaptive leadership distinguishes technical fixes from complex adaptive challenges
  • Leader standard work specifies observation, coaching, decisions and follow-through
  • Stakeholder maps identify influence, interests, resistance and communication requirements

Participants can conduct evidence-based coaching and feedback conversations that produce clear commitments.

  • GROW coaching structures performance conversations around goals, reality, options and will
  • SBI feedback describes situation, behaviour, impact and requested next action
  • Performance agreements define outcomes, standards, resources, checkpoints and consequences
  • Feedforward conversations focus on future choices, support and observable commitments
  • Root-cause questioning separates skill, motivation, process and resource barriers
  • Accountability ladders distinguish ownership, excuse-making, blame and corrective action

Participants can plan adoption actions that protect critical performance while changes are implemented.

  • ADKAR assessments identify awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement gaps
  • Change impact assessments map role, process, technology and policy consequences
  • Kotter's eight steps translated into sponsorship, coalition and communication actions
  • Resistance conversations surface losses, concerns, alternatives and negotiated commitments
  • Pilot design sets hypothesis, scope, measures, learning cycle and scale criteria
  • Implementation risks managed through owners, triggers, mitigations and contingency actions

Participants can use structured problem-solving to remove recurring causes of poor performance.

  • A3 problem-solving frames background, condition, analysis, countermeasures and follow-up
  • Value-stream mapping identifies delay, rework, queues, hand-offs and waste
  • Five Whys tests causal chains before selecting corrective actions
  • Control plans specify process checks, limits, response actions and owners
  • Experiment backlogs prioritise hypotheses by expected value, effort and learning
  • Benefits tracking separates realised results, forecast gains and attribution evidence

Participants can consolidate course methods into a measurable plan for sustaining performance in their area.

  • Personal performance system integrates priorities, metrics, routines, feedback and recovery
  • 30-60-90 day action plans sequence interventions, owners, milestones and measures
  • Stakeholder commitments secured through explicit requests, reciprocal value and follow-up
  • Leading indicators reviewed against risk triggers and adjustment thresholds
  • Peer accountability arrangements establish check-ins, evidence sharing and challenge
  • Learning reviews capture results, failures, adaptations and next-cycle decisions

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Balanced Scorecard and OKR template
  2. Team performance operating-rhythm charter
  3. Demand-capacity and skills-matrix analysis
  4. GROW coaching and SBI feedback guide
  5. ADKAR change impact assessment
  6. 30-60-90 day performance action plan

Who should attend

  • Senior Managers — need to sustain results across competing strategic priorities and organisational change
  • Department Heads — need consistent performance measures, review routines and accountable delivery
  • Operations Managers — need to manage capacity, bottlenecks, service levels and process improvement
  • Programme Managers — need to coordinate cross-functional commitments, risks and delivery dependencies
  • Team Leaders — need practical methods for coaching, feedback and performance conversations
  • Change Managers — need to connect adoption activity with measurable operational performance

Skills and tools covered

Performance system designStrategic alignmentOperational review disciplineCoaching accountabilityChange leadershipContinuous improvement

Tools and standards

Balanced Scorecard, Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), ADKAR Model, A3 Problem Solving

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce frameworks, followed by realistic cases, small-group analysis, simulations and individual application planning. Participants interpret scorecards, diagnose operational constraints, run performance-review conversations and plan responses to changing demand or priorities. Group work examines decisions and trade-offs from multiple stakeholder perspectives. Facilitators provide structured feedback on measures, operating rhythms, coaching approaches and change actions. Participants apply each method to a current workplace challenge and consolidate their work into an implementation plan.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have experience supervising people, coordinating work or contributing to team performance discussions. Familiarity with organisational objectives, basic performance measures such as service levels or budgets, and routine team meetings is helpful. Participants should be prepared to apply course methods to a current team, function or programme challenge. No formal leadership qualification, finance background, Lean certification or prior knowledge of Balanced Scorecard, OKRs, ADKAR or A3 problem-solving is required. The course does not assume responsibility for an entire business unit.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Participants should have some experience leading people, coordinating work or contributing to performance discussions. No formal leadership qualification or previous study of Balanced Scorecard, OKRs, Lean or change management is required.

Participants should bring details of a current performance challenge, such as missed service levels, changing priorities, delivery delays or cross-functional dependencies. Existing team measures, plans or meeting agendas are useful but not essential.

The course is designed for managers, team leaders, department heads, operations managers, programme managers and change managers. It is most useful for people accountable for maintaining team or service performance through change.

General leadership courses commonly focus on leadership styles, communication and motivation. This course concentrates on the operating disciplines that sustain results: measures, review routines, capacity, accountability, coaching, change adoption and process improvement.

Participants develop a scorecard, operating rhythm and 30-60-90 day action plan based on their own work context. These materials can be used immediately in team meetings, planning sessions, performance reviews and stakeholder discussions.

The five days provide approximately 32.5 contact hours, delivered from 08:30 to 16:30 each day. Time is divided between framework briefings, case analysis, group work, simulations, reflection and application planning across ten modules.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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