The Success Equation

We Judge Performance, But Do We Understand the Conditions?

Think about a time when you have done some of your best work. Perhaps you solved a difficult problem, delivered a presentation you were pleased with, or finally made progress on something that had been troubling you. Now think about a day when even the simplest task seemed to take twice as long as it should have. You were still the same person. Your knowledge hadn't suddenly disappeared, and your ability hadn't changed overnight. Yet your performance was different. Perhaps you had slept badly, had too many things competing for your attention, or simply hadn't had the time and space to think properly.

We tend to explain differences in performance through effort, motivation or ability. Sometimes those explanations are right. But they don't tell the whole story. How well we think, learn and perform is also shaped by the conditions in which we are trying to do it. This matters in our own working lives, but it matters just as much when we think about the people we lead, the colleagues we work alongside and the children we teach. If we want to help people perform and learn at their best, we need to look beyond the results they produce and consider what makes those results possible.

Why do we perform differently from one day to the next?

Most of us recognise the difference between a day when we can concentrate properly and one when our attention is pulled in every direction. We know how difficult it can be to tackle a demanding task when we're tired, how interruptions break our train of thought, and how competing priorities can leave us busy all day without making much progress on the things that matter most. We also know that the way we organise our work makes a difference. Having uninterrupted time to think, breaking a large task into manageable chunks, building useful routines and allowing ourselves time to recover can all help us work more effectively. Yet we don't always create the conditions we know we need. We fill our diaries, respond to every notification and move from one task to another, sometimes expecting ourselves to maintain the same level of performance throughout.

The important point is that recognising these influences doesn't mean abandoning personal responsibility. We still have choices to make, habits to develop and skills to improve. But our ability to make good choices and sustain good habits is influenced by our circumstances, too. Knowing what helps us perform well is one thing. Having the opportunity to put it into practice is another. Once we recognise this in our own lives, it becomes easier to see why the same principle matters when we work with others.

What does this mean for children's learning?

Think about a student who struggles to concentrate in a lesson, forgets what they learned the previous week or repeatedly fails to complete their homework. We might reasonably ask whether they are putting in enough effort, whether they understand the material or whether they have developed effective study habits. But we should also be asking what else might be going on. Are they getting enough sleep to arrive ready to learn? Have they had opportunities to practise retrieving and applying what they have been taught? Do they have the prior knowledge needed to understand a new concept? When they are asked to revise at home, do they have the space, resources and support to do so? These questions are not excuses for poor performance. They help us understand it. A student who finds revision difficult may need to develop better habits, but they may also need to be taught how to revise effectively. A child who struggles with unfamiliar content may need to work harder, but they may also need some of the assumed background knowledge to be made explicit. What looks like a lack of motivation or ability can sometimes reflect a difficulty with the conditions in which learning is taking place.

The connection with our own working lives is worth considering. We would recognise the unfairness of expecting a colleague to produce their best work while denying them the time, information or resources needed to do it. We understand that even capable adults can struggle when demands become excessive or their working environment makes concentration difficult. Yet we don't always apply the same thinking when considering the performance of children. Perhaps that's because we see their results more readily than we see the circumstances behind them. We see the completed homework, the assessment score or the student who hasn't contributed to a discussion. We don't necessarily see what happened before they walked into the classroom, what knowledge they bring with them or what it takes for them to meet the expectations we have set.

The conditions aren't the same for everyone

There is another important consideration. Even when we understand what helps people perform and learn well, we cannot assume that everyone has equal access to those conditions. Some adults have the space, time and flexibility to organise their work around the demands of their role. Others are managing competing responsibilities, unpredictable workloads or environments in which sustained concentration is difficult. Some children have a quiet place to study, reliable access to technology and an adult at home who can help them organise their learning. Others share bedrooms, look after younger siblings or have limited access to the resources we assume they can use.

The same applies to experiences and knowledge. We can sometimes assume that people understand particular terminology, recognise cultural references or know how to navigate an unfamiliar situation because those things seem obvious to us. But what feels familiar to one person may be entirely new to another. These differences don't define what people are capable of achieving, nor should they automatically determine what we expect of them. They do, however, influence the opportunities people have to develop their abilities and demonstrate what they can do.

This is where our own experiences can be useful. When we remember how difficult it is to concentrate after a poor night's sleep, how frustrating it is to work without the right resources or how easily a demanding day can disrupt our best intentions, we gain a more immediate understanding of why conditions matter. We may then become more willing to look beyond a person's performance and consider the barriers they face. That doesn't mean assuming we know what someone else is experiencing, it just means being curious enough to find out.

What can we change?

We cannot control every factor that influences human performance. We cannot eliminate every interruption, remove every difficulty from a person's life or guarantee that everyone has the same resources and opportunities. But there are conditions we can influence. In our own lives, we can think more carefully about how we organise our time, protect our attention, build routines and make space for recovery. As leaders, we can consider whether the way we organise work helps people concentrate and perform well, or whether our expectations and working practices make that unnecessarily difficult. In schools, we can teach students how to learn effectively, make important background knowledge explicit, build opportunities for practice and retrieval, and examine whether our expectations assume resources or support that some children may not have. We can also look at the wider opportunities we offer and ask whether all students can realistically access them.

Sometimes the most useful change is not asking people to try harder. It is changing something about the conditions in which they are trying to succeed. The challenge is to hold two ideas together. People need to develop the knowledge, skills, habits and resilience to meet demanding expectations. At the same time, we have a responsibility to create conditions that give them a fair opportunity to do so. Neither matters enough on its own.

A different question to ask

Imagine that you're struggling to make progress on an important task. Or a colleague is finding it difficult to meet a deadline. Or a student isn't achieving the results you believe are possible. Our first instinct might be to focus on the person. Do they need to work harder? Are they sufficiently motivated? Do they have the necessary knowledge or skills? These are reasonable questions, but they are not the only ones worth asking. What else might be going on? What is competing for their attention? What support or knowledge might they be missing? How well does their environment help them do what is being asked? Are there barriers that have been overlooked? And, crucially, which of those conditions could be changed?

Before our session, I'd like you to consider three questions:

• Your own performance: When do you do your best thinking and work? What helps you perform well, and what most often gets in the way?

• Understanding others: Think of a time when someone you work with wasn't performing as well as you expected. What did you initially think was causing the problem, and what else might have been influencing their performance?

• The conditions for success: Think of one expectation we place on colleagues or children. What does someone need in order to meet that expectation, and might we be assuming that everyone has it?

You don't need to arrive with answers. The starting point is simply to notice the conditions that help you perform at your best, recognise how those conditions influence the people around you, and consider what responsibility we have for creating them. Because if we want people to think, learn and perform at their best, we need to look beyond performance itself. We need to understand the conditions that make it possible.