Most performance conversations start with the individual. Yet organisations regularly employ highly capable people whose work stalls at the same point: somewhere between a strong start and a finished outcome. When the pattern repeats across teams, roles and managers, the cause is not always individual.
Performance comes from an interaction: the person, their manager, the workflow, the expectations attached to the work, and the way communication happens around it. When those elements are misaligned, friction builds quietly. Instructions live only in meetings, priorities compete, and “done” is never quite defined.
The useful question is not “what is wrong with this person?” but “where in the system does capable work keep getting stuck?” That question can be assessed, and its answers can be acted on.