When performance irritates

In a Western world that has organized stability and prosperity for years, excellence has become a foreign concept. It lives in social exile.

Mediocrity stabilizes itself. And it leads to below-average performance. Its supporters benefit from a system that enables them to live a decent life with moderate performance.

The idea of leading one’s own talents to a top individual level through sacrifice and great effort is not particularly attractive today. It seems excessive, sometimes even antisocial.

Excellence disturbs

Not because it is wrong, but because it makes differences visible.

This is where we stand as a society and therefore also as a business location.
With infinite wealth, this would not be a problem. But even the printing press and quantitative easing only postpone the point in time of a conflict of realities: declining efficiency with a simultaneous claim to prosperity.

Top performance has therefore not disappeared. It has just receded.

It continues to exist in areas such as art, sport and business.
It is visible where it is not constantly relativized.

A different logic is evident in the wider economy: organizations optimize for stability and not for excellence.

The focus on safeguarding is increasing: processes, committees, responsibilities and language are being aligned accordingly. Much of this makes sense.
The result is a system that reduces friction.

The normalization of mediocrity

Excellence creates friction. And that is precisely why it is reduced.

Not openly, but structurally: through priorities, through evaluation systems, through what is considered “appropriate”. This is how the benchmark shifts. Not abruptly, but gradually.

The promotion of top talent and the development of real skills are taking a back seat.
Social and media acceptance are moving to the forefront.

This is stable in the short term, but risky in the long term.

As a result, competitiveness is declining. This trend is already visible in Germany and will take time to be corrected.

Provocation trumps inspiration

An attitude that demands excellence does not automatically lead to integration. On the contrary: it creates resistance.

That is understandable: Excellence challenges existing standards.

And that is why it is withdrawing. From organizations, from public debates, from visibility.

It loses one of its most important functions: to inspire others.

Excellence makes you lonely. Not because it isolates, but because it makes differences visible.

I wish it were different.
It doesn’t change the findings.