The Three Laws of Performance by Steve Zaffron and Dave Logan

I finished this book in February 2026. I recommend this book 4/10.

Why you should read this book:

Taking the concept of becoming better at listening and understanding where people's heads are at, and where they want to go, and emphasizing that is the holy grail to move your company and your life into the future.

Get your copy here.

🚀 The book in three sentences

1. Laws: 1) How people perform correlates with how the situation occurs to them. 2) How a situation occurs arises in language. 3) Future-based language transforms how situations occur to people.

2. Make obstacles a condition of the game (You can't shorten the distance to the goal line)

3. Listen, ask a question, then listen, then ask questions ...

📝 My notes and thoughts

• P29. There are specific actions you can take to tap into the power of the First Law of Performance. Notice the connection between performance and how situations occur for people. See that this relationship always holds. See the reality illusion at work, in you and the people around you. Almost without exception, people don't notice that all they are aware of is how situations occur to them. They talk and act as if they see things as they really are. Find people whose actions make no sense to you. Ask them questions, mostly open-ended, that provide insight into how those situations are occurring to them. Keep going until you can see how their actions perfectly fit how the situation occurs to them. (You'll often find that this process alone goes a long way toward developing trust and cooperation.) Become aware of how your own performance correlates with how situations occur to you.

  • Notice that attempts to change a situation often backfire—strengthening, rather than altering, how the situation occurs. Remember: whatever you resist, persist.

  • Consider: What if you could do something about how situations occur—to you and everyone around you? What impact would this have on everyone's performance?

• P62. People often look for performance gains in the wrong place: in trying to force conversations before making space for them. We've seen that the way to make space is to leverage the fact that how situations occur arises in language—and in fact, the key to performance lies in language. In particular, dampeners to performance live in the unsaid, especially in the unsaid and communicated but without awareness. There are specific actions leaders can take to tap into the power of the Second Law of Performance:

  • Become aware of your persistent complaints about people and situations. Notice that these cycle through your internal voice.

  • Notice that these complaints are interpretations of facts, not facts themselves.

  • See all four elements of rackets: the persistent complaint, the set way of behaving, the payoff, and the cost. See your rackets at work. We all have them.

  • Probe into the situation by writing down everything you need to say to others, including anything you need to say, anything you need to forgive or be forgiven for, anything you need to take responsibility for, or anything you need to give up (including the complaint itself).

  • Communicate what you discover to others in your work and life. Many people find that this action has a dramatic impact on performance.

• P88. Malcolm Burns of New Zealand Steel was a remarkable leader because he allowed others to build the future that would inspire them. As that future developed, Burns became the walking embodiment of it. In contrast to a leader who creates dependency, when Burns left New Zealand, the company was self-reliant and self-generative. The people in the company and community were authors of their own future. There are specific actions that leaders can take to construct a future that causes themselves and others to live into it:

  • Commit to the discipline of completing any issue that surfaces as incomplete.

  • Articulate the default future—what is the past telling you will happen?

  • Ask, do we really want this default future?

  • If not, begin to speculate with others on what future would (a) inspire action for everyone, (b) address the concerns of everyone involved, and (c) be real in the moment of speaking.

  • As you find people who are not aligned with the future, ask, what is your counterproposal?

  • Keep working until people align—when they say "This speaks to me!" and they commit to it.

• P88. Three Laws:

  • How people perform correlates with how situations occur to them

  • How a situation occurs arises in language.

  • Future-based language transforms how situations occur to people.

  • Therefore:

    • Listen to understand

    • Ask questions about their words of choice.

    • Ask what they envision—"And."

• P100. Leadership Corollary 1: Leaders have a say, and give others a say, in how situations occur.

• P102. As a leader, you can't control or determine how situations occur for others, but you do have a say. Take a moment and ask these questions:

  • How can I interact with others so that situations occur more empowering to them?

  • What processes, dialogues, or meetings can I arrange so that people can feel like coauthors of a new future, not merely recipients of others' decisions?

• P102. Leadership Corollary 2: Leaders master the conversational environment.

• P109. Leadership Corollary 3: Leaders listen for the future of their organization.

• P127. People ask themselves these questions:

  • Why are they doing that to us?

  • Will this be a good quarter?

  • What's Wall Street going to think of us?

  • Are the rumors true?

  • My product is better than their product.

  • I just want to do a good enough job not to get fired.

  • I want to do a job that makes me proud.

  • I wish they'd appreciate what I just did for him.

  • How'd that person get so far ahead?

• P168. When we alter how we perceive ourselves, everything around us shifts. Our business associates, our families, even life, show up in a new way. With that new foundation, anything is possible—even a new future.

  • Is it the fear of losing security?

  • Is it the fear of losing the job?

  • Is it the fear of losing the money?

• P184. When facing a performance challenge, you will find yourself asking both yourself and others, "How do situations occur to me and others, such that we are performing the way we are?" You'll ask, "What conversations need to be completed, and what conversations need to be created, that would alter how these situations occur to the people involved?" You'll find that you're probing the default future of yourself and others, asking, "Is this what we want? And if not, what do we want?" You will notice that where there used to be a lot of confusion and anxiety about what to do, there now is a clarity and focus for what needs to be created. It's as if the frenzy concerning what could go wrong is replaced with an excitement of what can be created.

• P196. Mastery means that there's nothing between you and the thing you're dealing with. If you have knowledge, it's above and behind you, shining light on what you're dealing with. If you have beliefs, expectations, hopes, or fears about the situation, mastery means putting these on the shelf so you are not looking through them at what is in front of you. The masters we have looked at in this chapter don't see problems or bring their past baggage with them. Their commitment is to moving forward, to seeing the situation in a way that allows for elevated performance.

• P201. We recently heard a salesperson say, "Clients are slow to make decisions—I could sell more if they were faster." She was making the conditions of the game—selling—an obstacle. This is as absurd as a team that constantly failed to score saying, "We would have won if the field were only ninety yards long instead of a hundred." Or team members complaining, "We would have won if the players on the other side weren't so strong." If something occurs to you and others as an obstacle, you'll push back by playing on the obstacle's terms. Instead, make the obstacle conditions of the game. Like it or not, you are playing on a field that is one hundred yards long against strong players, with clients slow to make decisions. Given these conditions, what will you do to win?

• P205. People will resist you because people resist new ideas all the time. Remember, it was the same for Galileo. Don't take it personally. Resistance is like a thunderstorm: when it rains on you, you get wet—but it isn't personal. You may find yourself resisting your own commitments, making others wrong, and not creating what you know can be. Remember that you can give up anything that doesn't serve you. When something stops you, ask whether what is happening is "wrong" or "bad." If that is how it is occurring for you, alter the questions from "What is wrong?" to "What is missing?" Treat it as a part of the field on which you're playing. Your job is to win in those conditions. There are no obstacles; there are merely conditions of the game. Here is our last word. There are no circumstances in business or in life that you can't handle with the Three Laws. No matter what hurdles you have to jump, challenges you have to face, or unfamiliar territory you have to cross, you're ready for it. Play the game passionately, intensely, and fearlessly. But don't make it significant. It's just a game.