Persistent Joke #5

Similar to the Twelve Days of Christmas, we are drawing special emphasis to Number 5!

This one comes to us via Henry Mintzberg at McGill University. Karl Moore has a very popular cover version of this joke.

Here is the joke:

A group of soon-to-be freshly minted MBAs are sent on their final program project where they leave the world of case studies and simulations. They are to test their skills on a “live patient” as they analyze a real organization and provide strategic counsel to improve their future competitiveness.

Through a family connection, they start to work on a mid-level professional orchestra.

Sound strategic analysis tells the group that one high-potential strategy for “regional service providers” is to focus on efficiency in delivery, which can create the case flow required to acquire and grow. After careful and thorough analysis, the group reports back with observations and strategic recommendations. Highlights include:

Under the heading Talent Effectiveness:

The group seems to be performing mostly on evenings and weekends. Payroll is a major expense for such services and we are concerned that you are paying a premium for work outside of regular business hours.
Performances tend to be 2 or 3 hours, several times per month, with summers off. Operations Management thinking around “batch processing” will suggest that grouping performances together can curtail costs for set up and take down.

Under the heading Technology Deployment:

Some of the instruments appear very outdated, with one violin being several hundred years old. A comprehensive equipment refresh would take advantage of new materials that require much less maintenance and, in many cases, weigh a great deal less than older instruments.

Audio technology to amplify sound could mean that some of the sections that currently employ several people—who, by the way, are often playing EXACTLY the same thing—could be reduced to one player per part.

NOTE: This latter recommendation will allow additional seating for audience members on the stage. (The group attributed this insight to Blue Ocean Strategy.)

Owing to extreme tact, the group was able to access position-level compensation. This had them create a special subheading Immediate Next-level Impact:

The conductor’s remuneration is the highest of the group, although the function of this position during performances seemed to be largely to keep time and cue musicians. The group provided contact information for a classmate developer who would create an app that could both keep time and provide instant messaging cues through small electric shock so as not to provide audio interference.

Needless to say, when leadership of the Orchestra politely rejected ALL of this strategic advice, our group took it as evidence that status quo decision makers often reject “out of the box thinking” only to come to regret that decision later on when they inevitably cease to operate competitively.

Here is the point:

In many workplace interactions, let’s be mindful of three important elements for those participating:

Level of understanding of the situation,
Level of insight into workable improvement, and
Level of confidence to share thoughts.

Misalignment between the last one and the first two creates unfortunate situations where EITHER people speak without knowing what they are talking about OR they do not speak when they really should.

Persistent thought-provoking joke #3

Jean-Paul Sartre occasionally frequents a local cafe. His order is always the same:

“Coffee, please. Sugar, no cream.”

Understanding his particular thinking on “being,” the server faces a predicament due to a supply chain issue. (Yes, these were a pre-COVID thing, too!) The following dialogue ensues:

Sartre: Good day to you, sir. Coffee, please. Sugar, no cream.

Cafe Server: I am so sorry, Monsieur Sartre. We do not have any cream. Can I bring your coffee with no milk instead?

(Thank you Sarah Bakewell for relaying this joke of uncertain origin in the book “At the Existentialist Cafe.”)

This shows the limits of imposing philosophical rigour on real-world business problems.

There can be great merit to exploring a logical distinction in making a decision, but sometimes it is of such little consequence that rather than let such sticking points hold up a decision, the nuances are best left for discussions in the lunchroom. This is the realm of, “Do you want to be right or do you want to get some work done?”

Persistent thought-provoking joke #2

Having shared passengership on an ill-fated cruise, three professionals (a mechanical engineer, a chemist and an economist) find themselves marooned on a desert island with no source of nourishment but cans of tuna. Together, using emergency equipment from a life-raft, they have fashioned a means to capture fresh water from rain and condensation. Having mitigated the risk of dying of thirst, the three now turn their problem-solving skills to avoiding starvation:

Mechanical Engineer: I am going to walk up the beach to see if there are rocks and vines we can use. We may be able to generate enough force to break into those cans.

Chemist: If we can get enough super-salinized water in a receptacle, we may be able to soak the cans and speed up the corrosion that will weaken the cans. I am going to start by digging a hole in the sand.

Economist: I’ll set the table.

Both non-economists in unison: Hey! We can’t eat until we get these cans open!

Economist: Oh, sorry. I should have told you. I am assuming that we have a can opener.

The metaphor here is for the problem: “how do we open these cans of tuna?” and the point of the joke is that we all bring our own tools and orientations to any problem. “If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail,” is yet another humourous illustrating of the weight of our own expertise in driving the action we think is best.

Rather than mocking economists for making assumptions, this joke illustrates that we all make assumptions all the time. In dealing with areas that are complex and have a degree of ambiguity (like managing performance in any business), we have to make some assumptions and make some decisions based on less-than-certain data and evidence.

Perhaps, once our two non-economists gently raise awareness to the fact that the stated assumption does not hold, our economist can engage in a more impactful supportive role. Such moments of redirection require a fairly specific context that includes shared focus, mutual trust and assertive communications.

Persistent thought-provoking joke #1

A new beat police officer patrolling the street one night finds a man squatted down at the base of lamppost. He appears to be looking for something. The officer learns that the lost object is indeed car keys and, being a kind soul, joins in the search. After a few minutes, and almost apologetically, the young officer probes to kick off the following dialogue:

Officer: “Where did you last have the keys?”

Man: “I had them when I went into that alley to, ah, take care of something.”

Officer (curious about the “something”, but feeling the next question is almost patronizing): “Then can I ask you why you are searching for them at the base of this lamppost?”

Man: “Well, you see, the light is so much better out here.”

Funny? Relevant? Yes, indeed!

The joke relates to the area of organizational performance in that people will focus on the data/evidence/findings that they have. The metaphorical circle around the base of the lamppost that is reasonably well lit. The statement, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it,” suggests that we pay attention to what is under the lamppost… or, bring big lights in to illuminate the alley.

The alley is the metaphor for the ambiguity and uncertainty that surrounds many business decisions. Even with top-flight (and expensive!) lighting, we are not going to see every nook and cranny. Alley is a misleading metaphor because it has walls and eventually ends. Maybe the joke should reference a recollection of having the keys while in “the abyss.”

Maybe we can wade into the alley/abyss with a flash light and create more well-lit circles to inform the situation. This should be an area of curiosity around what else we could be measuring.

Maybe we simply venture into the alley and see what we bump into. This may indeed uncover some learning about which parts of the abyss are more interesting.

It is much more comfortable to stay by the lamppost, but this limits our ability to assess the situation and, thereby, monitor and judge performance.

It has been a while – what’s new and what’s changed?

Maybe it was the uncertainty around Twitter, but I have decided to return to blogging here. Talk (blogging?) is cheap, so we will see how long this energy lasts.

Off the top, looking back and some of my posts and drafts from almost five years ago (The last time I published on this site was 2017), much of what I had originally positioned as “fundamental thinking” is unchanged. I will continue to review and revise. The first set of posts will likely be focussed on such changes or affirmations.

Turns of phrase that I have found myself using more and more center around “action” and “inaction.” The retrospective brings together binary thinking (from Bandersnatch, 2018) and the “always three options” from my reading of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (also 2018, based on the publish date of a Linked In article). So, in the face of “stay the course” or “try something new,” that every business faces, we can indeed act in a new way or not. The “not” part of if can be divided in two: not acting because you can’t figure out what to do or are still talking about it AND not acting because you have consciously decided to stay the course.

Note: If you want to further dissect the “stay the course,” one could ask: “Are you staying the course with confidence OR staying the course with curiosity?” As Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance warns, it is possible to over contemplate.

Looking forward to getting back to this kind of writing and thinking. I am always looking for things to think and write about: questions, developments, concerns, etc.

Stay tuned.

The solvable problem with Self Evaluations

I have a vivid memory of a self-evaluation from my undergrad days at McGill. We had to take a writing course, which must have been a cross-cultural exercise for the Faculty of English instructors that ventured into the Business building for these weekly encounters. There was a self-evaluation at the end of it, which, if I recall correctly, included a pre-amble that encouraged reflection on your development over the 12 weeks, as well as your ability compared to your classmates. I think I may have been guilted into responding “B+” and admitting that I could really have done more. I talked to classmates afterwards, some of whom skipped a number of classes. Their responses were “A. Can I give myself an A+?” (Note: A+ was not an option. McGill operated on the U.S. 4-point GPA system.)

This is a very obvious example of the challenges of “self-evaluations.” Self-attribution bias leads us to truly believe that we excel. Self-preservation instincts dampen the guilt of over stating the truth because these results can create positive future options or avoid negative future outcomes. For the undergrad business student, “strong marks = better job opportunities upon graduation” so, go for the A. In a business context, if staffing cuts are looming, do you really want to have a mediocre self-evaluation in the HR file?! I wonder how many of my fellow graduates, decades into their business careers, have grown to learn that actual strength in writing provides a significant advantage in the workplace.

Necessary perspective

The self-evaluation brings the performer’s perspective into the discussion, which is absolutely crucial and applies to an organizational context. In addition to “perspective,” objectivity is also vital and this is enabled by clear criteria. The healthiest criteria mix features both “what you do” (e.g. somewhat controllable; gets at “how” your get results) and “what you accomplish” (e.g. somewhat more impacted by external factors; focussed on outcomes).

The evaluation becomes less of an assault on the ego if we can validate that someone did “what was expected” even if they did not “achieve expected results.” This demands some time and effort up front to go through the exercise of making logical connections between activity and results. You have to be ready for a reasoned conversation about what drives performance.

“How are we doing?” is a big question

For an organization, the questions about “what results do you want to achieve?” and “what do you think gives the best chance at achieving those results?” are really big questions that bring out some deep-seeded assumptions. A good strategic discussion will expose these and will explore some of the big decisions behind some of our assumptions. This should surface options to move forward rather than a clear best way. Imagine interactions where people say, “We said we are trying to reduce T&E, so we can’t fly everyone down for this meeting,” OR “We said that our focus was growing our business with our top-tier accounts, so we can’t get too anxious because we lost some tier-3 business.”

Like anything, involvement breeds acceptance, so it makes sense to have a senior-team conversation to tease out relevant expected outcomes and relevant expected actions. When you are involved in creating your own report card, the evaluation feels less daunting. This may turn down the volume on the “self-attribution bias” and the “self-preservation instinct.”

All I really need to know I learned in… Business School?

Every once in a while you will see the “Everything important I learned in Kindergarten” claims that list insights like: clean up after yourself, share everything, be nice to others and wash your hands before you eat. I find myself thinking about the responsibility of business schools (especially at the graduate level) to encourage business-ready behaviours in addition to business-ready thinking. A big part of this, in my opinion, is dialling down the teacher-student dynamic whereby the latter is extremely attentive to discerning what the former wants to hear and restricts all commentary accordingly. There is an interesting transition from “what are your expectations for a deliverable?” to “what should I write for the deliverable?” I know managers face the same challenge in dealing with some direct reports.

School can be an exciting and stressful time for students and any instructor has to deal with a wide range of behaviours. As an instructor in an MBA program, I frequently use the litmus test of “would this be tolerated/encouraged in an effective workplace?” to determine my responses to some of the more notable cases. Consistent with this, in my opinion, an effective workplace would not have employees pandering in the aforementioned manner to the “bosses,” although I know that such corporate cultures and managerial styles do exist.

There are two big buckets of behaviours that catch my focus:

Surprise and delight – e.g. Wow! I didn’t even ask you to / tell you to do that.
Jaw dropping – e.g. Wow! Someone has to ask you / tell you to do (not to do) that?

The contents of Bucket #1 often shed a light on areas where I could have been much more clearer with my instructions. As I find myself with dozens of downloaded files with the title “mid term,” the file stands out when it includes the student’s name and other identifying information (e.g. chris_irwin_mid-term_ WED class). People often talk about little things making a big difference, but the impact of that alone is huge. Perhaps those who include it have received guidance in the past (e.g. please include your name and section number in the file name). Perhaps they have been in a similar multiple-file-receiving situation themselves. I can’t help but draw the assumption that this is an example of someone thinking “My professor will get a lot of these. What can I do to make their life a little easier?” (Note: I am fully aware that any future student, having read this, may engage in that specific practice because they know that is what I want.)

The agonizingly opposing actions (destined for Bucket #2) is the response: “You didn’t tell us we had to…” Understandably, this is most often in response to students losing marks for things… and usually the student is “right” in that I could have told them. (Equating “grades” and “performance evaluations” is a topic for another time.) Invoking my earlier litmus test, should someone at a Masters level of education be expecting to be told everything they need to do? My answer to this is, “No,” but I am sure there are differing responses that are completely reasonable. In some work contexts, it is reasonable to be prescriptive about the tasks involved. I have heard many a manager complain that their team members are too quick to say “just tell me what to do,” rather than be reasonably pro-active… maybe thinking “I do have some questions, but my boss is really busy; can I do anything to make my bosses life easier?”

In addition to analysis tools and skills, in addition to practical conceptual frameworks, I think that business schools have a responsibility to promote behaviours that will lead to success in the workplace (and discourage behaviours that won’t). Idealistic as this may be, if we go back to the litmus test, we are looking for behaviours that align with an “effective workplace.” Whether these behaviours are the cause or the effect of business success is an academic question (that could be kicked around a business school!).

“That’s a great company name!”

When the prompt of “Company name?” comes my way, “Measure of Success” often gets a reaction. Just this week, my bank paid me the complement you find in title of this post.

NOTE: An SEO expert would not share this evaluation: a search for “measure of success” does not easily serve up Measure of Success Inc.

The original naming contained a double entendre referencing “measures/metrics” (e.g. “So, tell me what do you use to measure your success?”) and “small amount” (e.g. “Well, our last foray into that market did generate a measure/modicum of success.”) Clever, no?

The practical focus of this venture is the importance and complexity of measuring performance. Financial measures are great to show past results, and forecasts are great for setting expectations. For current activity, attempts to “measure” cause more problems than they solve.

No one questions the importance of setting goals in order to mobilize a group of people or an organization. These are important gauges for individuals to derive a sense of accomplishment and, perhaps more importantly, set the expectation by which we are evaluated and judged. Choosing the measure shapes activity and can quickly change the focus. Recall the oft-relayed story of the spouse looking for keys in the kitchen. It is later revealed that the keys were indeed last seen in the bedroom, but “the lighting is better here.” (There is also a version involving a drunk, a lamppost and the other side of the street.)

The clarity of metrics and measures give rise to an emboldened sense of purpose for both current activity forecasting. I have written about the utility of logic models in isolating what exactly you are measuring. Again, the rigour of this model—and the fervour with which some apply it—suggest that it is all encompassing when in the very large picture, the greater impact of any activity will be necessarily ambiguous.

Here is an example that is near to my métier: Evaluation of training and education.

The Kirkpatrick model seems to mirror the logic model in moving from more superficial to more complex:

Level 1 – Reaction (Did you .. . like it? … find it relevant? … etc.)
Level 2 – Learning (Did you… remember it? … get it?)
Level 3 – Behaviour (Are you using it?)
Level 4 – Results (Is it making a difference? What is the ROI?)

Sounds pretty straightforward, yes? Well, imagine you conducting training on some area of communication like being assertive, professional and respectful in dealing with workplace conflict.

Level 1 – What is the reaction if a participant learns that she/he is not very good at listening? How is “reaction” affected by a hot lunch?
Level 2 – Can you test this?
Level 3 – What do we look for? What if, during an observation, we get the sense that people are “going through the motions”?
Level 4 – Where do you even start? Complaints to managers (conceivably of people who encounter approaches to conflict which are not professional, respectfully, etc.)? Retention numbers (because, if we manage conflict better, people will be happier and stay)? Instances of obvious conflict (because people are not shying away from these important conversations)?

The tremendous temptation is to (1) oversimplify or (2) not really even try to measure impact. Temptation #1 would be invoked if the client (internal or external) demands measurement. The real danger here is that the oversimplified metric sways activity. Imagine if we were tracking “visible searching hours” as a Level 3 indicator after we had trained people in “looking for keys.” The camera is in the kitchen. (Recall: the keys are in the bedroom.)

I would love to think that my services can help you avoid Temptation #2.

So, is there irony in a company called “Measure of Success” suggesting that it is impossible to clearly measure your success? May it’s not such a good name…

Oral tradition and written word in the workplace

Bloomberg published a fascinating article on a potential transition from society’s reliance on the written word to a society that works more heavily in spoken word (e.g. Post-literate) even if that “spoken word” is actually written in short burst (e.g. tweets).

Thankfully, no organization has to manage the breadth of diversity and divisiveness that exists today in the United States, but it is worth looking at the interplay between spoken and written word in providing the context for the working environment (e.g. corporate culture). The Bloomberg article identifies ways to make the most of a primarily oral environment (and how Donald Trump used these so effectively):

Use tightly descriptive language (e.g. Crooked Hillary);
Be redundant and repetitive (e.g. “I am a leader. I am a leader. I lead people,” etc.); and
Engage in reflexive debate (e.g. “You’re the puppet!”).

To the first point, any workplace teems with acronyms and lingo that can convey a great deal of information quickly. We are also quick to hammer such mantras as “we are here for our customers” or “we have to be patient-centred.” Reflexive debate may be visible in more formal meeting environments or can also take place between two people behind closed doors. Unfortunately, such quips are also part of corrosive e-mail chains. The manner in which an organizational culture allows such “debates” can be defining of the work environment.

On the other side of the divide, the written word provides the luxury of being able to reference (rather than simply recall) decisions that we have made, policy that we have crafted and lessons that we have learned. In written documentation, we also have the opportunity and responsibility to fully explore a nuanced space, for example, we can describe exactly what “customer-centric decision making” entails beyond the tagline that “the customer is always right.” Further benefits of written communication come to bear when we make such content widely available, which can promote transparency beyond the group that is directly involved.

Technology has given us excellent solutions for availability. Accessibility may provide the biggest challenge for workplace policies and procedures. The written documents become very important in dealing with such issues as compliance, governance and litigation. The expectations of these areas tend to pull us away from being “widely accessible.”

NOTE: I was recently exposed to the acronym RTFM (Read the F@#%!*@g Manual) or RTFI (Read the F@#%!*@g Intranet). The predictable “oral response” to this written barb is: Make Your F@#%!*@g Manuals More Accessible (MTFMMA).

Discussion and dialogue are the means of collaboration that are most familiar and effective. In today’s work world, “oral” may not mean just spoken (think “chat” or informal e-mail discussions). The Bloomberg article references Marshall McLuhan’s edict “The medium is the message.” In a workplace, one can expect a blending of media and messages. The written reflexive debate can get ugly very quickly. As an example (ironically), have a look at the written “oral” comments at the bottom of that Bloomberg article.

The Feedback Context – Developing and Evaluating

When it comes to performance, the question “How are you doing?” can start a very rich discussion. Do you really want to know? Do we really have a good way to gauge it (except by historical occurrences or lack thereof)? In typical business education fashion, let’s say it depends.

Feedback fills a really nice space in an working context, and any survey of employees will say that it is much sought after information. Hopefully the yearly performance evaluation as the sole source of feedback is a thing of the past that left with the move toward “flat” organizational structures and non-linear career development. There is an important difference between “evaluative feedback” and “developmental feedback.” I argue that they are best kept separate in order for feedback to work for both individuals and for contributing to the performance culture of organization.

Feedback for evaluation

In the evaluation sphere, the guiding question for feedback seems to be, “I am doing awesome, right?” or “Your not going to fire me, are you?” The receiver is primed for positive reinforcement or for some piece of mind that there job is not in jeopardy. This can be driven by a number of things, but ego is probably front and centre. Routinely research will find that much more than 50% of a group will think that they are above average. This creates an unworkable situation in many workplaces where we are striving for performance “excellence,” but those delivering “average” think they are going above an beyond the call. If the tick boxes are “meeting” and “exceeding” expectations, most of those you evaluate will be disappointed with the former even though logic dictates in a performance culture the expectations are high. To further complicate things, the Dunning-Kruger effect suggests that those who are furthest away from “excellence” will think themselves closest to it.

I encounter this in classroom evaluations in the MBA program within which I teach. There is conundrum created by the university expectation for a B to B+ class average and the reality that the large majority of students think that they should be getting As. This drives a reluctance to accept critical feedback without having to defend and justify the position (presumably because accepting criticism would be setting the stage for accepting a lower or “average” evaluation.)

If this is the kind of tension that manifests itself in the workplace, it is no wonder that managers find providing feedback a challenge. Who wants to get into a debate about someone’s performance? It becomes so much easier to provide positive feedback or at least put a bigger emphasis on the positive elements, even if those are not the most relevant. (e.g. Don’t worry about the sales results, you had a lot of really good meetings with some very key people.) One of the knock-on effects for an organization is that the standards get relaxed (e.g. the President’s club gets expanded) and there can be a general inflation of any quantified evaluation (e.g. you see more 5 out 5s or 100% ratings). This expands and dilutes your group of top performers. This does not have to be a problem and in many organizations there is a lot of resignation that this is the way it is.

On the other end of the bell curve, a similar conflation can happen in that unsatisfactory performance can get bumped up to “satisfactory” or better (which is actually much worse). If you are after high performance, this situation could not be worse. Your very high performers will be group in with the “average,” and the “below average” are convinced that they are doing their job.

Feedback for development

The nuanced difference with this kind of feedback is that everyone can improve: good enough is never good enough. There is a an apocryphal anecdote about Prince and his back-up band the Revolution. When working on a new number, the band members were encouraged to let Prince know if they mastered their part during the rehearsal period. He would be ready with an extra guitar lick, a percussion part, a dance move, a vocal harmonization, etc., to keep them occupied while the rest of the band worked on their parts. The message being, don’t hide the fact that you can handle more.

With evaluation in place, too often people direct effort based on the location of the goal line. This is why those who are being evaluated complain when we “move the goal posts.” With an evaluative set-up, your most capable performers (especially those who understand the system), know exactly how much effort to expend to meet the given bar and not make the next one any higher. I worked with a sales manager, who was surgical about meeting budgets almost to the penny (nickle?) and mysteriously having a bunch of business “just come in” in the early weeks fo the new quarter. The fear of having the goal posts moved based on an extraordinary result is a function of the evaluative context. The risking of falling short is enough of an incentive to launch very elaborate gaming of the system.

For lower-level performers, you get the opposite behaviour where people will sacrifice “next quarter” in order to drive short-term results. Picture the account manager who is pushing a major client to close business to meet the end of their quarter, and goes as far as to extend an exploding offer in the flavour of “If I can’t get your commitment on the renewal before next week, I am not sure that we can extend the same offer.” Picture also the predictable response from the major client saying: “We will make our decisions based on our financial year, not yours. Thanks very much and we will talk to you in about 6 weeks and will be expecting at least as good a deal as you just described.” It is hard to say whether such an exchange would actually hurt next years’ arrangement, but I suspect there would be some future blow back.

With a developmental mindset, we can entertain stretch goals without worrying about people feeling that they “failed” by achieving 89% of a really challenging goal. The “evaluated outcome” is immaterial; the direction (e.g. forward) is the only thing that matters (so it is crucial to have a shared understanding of what “forward” looks like). The focus is simply what went well and what could be better next time.

Analogy from the world of sport: “Hey, Jason Day, I know that you are number one in the world and just won in a blow out. Your approach shots are phenomenal, but can we talk about your course management off the tee. Twice you were between clubs and better distance control could get you relying a bit less on feel for those shots.”

In the world of work, this will equate to drawing attention to something that had to “give” to meet a deadline, achieve a client outcome, etc. In the “developmental world,” this won’t be seen as “Great job, but…” There will be a thirst and expectation for some reflection on how could this be even better, or more sustainable, or less contentious, or… some other desirable—even aspirational—attribute. This is the drummer for the revolution keeping great rhythm, nailing the drum solo, and working on a juggling move for next time.

When you try to do both…

The flavours of feedback have very different intent: evaluative feedback seeks to differentiate performance, (e.g. separating the wheat from the chaff), while developmental performance doesn’t care how you stack up, (e.g. how could you improve?).

Here are the very predictable outcomes you can expect from not distinguishing between these types of feedback.

The effect on top performers can happen in at least three ways:

Just-enoughing: As mentioned above, giving exactly enough effort to attain the prescribed “goal.” A friend of mine joked about the grading at our alma mater, McGill University, saying there are only two grades you should get: 85%, which was the minimum to getting an “A” (this was the highest grade, so any effort beyond this had no impact), and 56%, which was the minimum to get your credit. The thinking being, you certainly don’t want to fail, but unless you are getting an “A,” the grade doesn’t matter.
Sandbagging: In setting the original goal, you can count on active negotiation to establish a bar that they are certain they can attain, but they convince you that it is a stretch goal. In client-facing activities, this is called managing expectations. This may be avoided by splitting up the types of feedback.
Skinner-boxing: When attempts motivate involve evaluation and reward, you can create a stimulus-response dynamic where you feel that the only way to maintain performance is to continue offering tangible rewards. Peak performance has to include some intrinsic drive. Any theory of human motivation takes us beyond the gun-for-hire, will-work-for-rewards mindset.

The effect on “average” performers may be that the category ceases to exist. With a reluctance to acknowledge that one is average, the evaluators can be stuck evaluating everyone as “high performing.” JK Simmons in the movie Whiplash has a nice little soliloquy about performance that finishes with: “there are no two words in the English language more harmful than ‘good job’.”

Under performers are always an interesting group. Jack Welch had an answer for this group (identified as being in the bottom 10%): Fire them. As cold-hearted as that seems, the compassionate view is that the situation is not working for either party. There is something about the context that is not working. You will find a context that is a better fit for you. It’s not you… it’s us (and you). When you are able to separate the results from the development, you can get a cleaner look at what is not working. If it can’t be fixed, maybe the “exit” is best for all involved.

What exactly to keep separate

For the developmental conversation, there is no differentiating. Everyone is tagged for improvement. The evaluation decisions you make have a huge impact on the culture of the organization because you will get the behaviour that you reinforce. Bringing performance out in the open will create pressure to align with existing systems and practices.

The mindset when approaching a top-performer has to be around tapping into intrinsic areas to maintain motivation. What can we do to help you be even better? What can we do to help you develop in ways that you want to?

The approach for the “average” employee should balance the possibility that the person could be performing at a higher level, but chooses not to. As an organization, are we OK with someone phoning it in and delivering adequate results? There will also be those who work really hard for adequate results. Can those two archetypes co-exist?

If performance and accountability are part of the fabric of your organization, healthy churn on the lower end of performance will mitigate churn at the top end because results do matter. Many organizations (but not all) will want to keep a compassion and understanding about underperformance because every industry has external factors. If sales are down because no one is buying, do we really judge by results only? Again, curiosity should be the driving force toward those who are not delivering to the level they should be. Did we not do a good job of assessing potential at onboarding? Has the work environment changed such that your best effort is no longer good enough?

The conversation about the “change in fit” is not limited to under-performers. You may find that churn can be healthy across different levels of the performance spectrum. A former colleague of mine, who was a very long-standing top-performer, talked about diplomatically broaching the subject of a “new horizon” next step in a performance review. Apparently, this had been an elephant in the room and both parties seemed to appreciate the overt acknowledgement. A CEO client routinely states, “No one is working here forever, including me.” These discussions are clearly in the “development” realm and can very quickly tie into the clichés that “everyone can be replaced” and “if you love something, set it free.”

The way in which an organization handles performance has a huge impact on the culture. This is a complex collision of scientific evaluation, individual motivation and the art of collaboration. Drawing a clear divide between the development and the evaluation will give you a better chance at getting and sustaining the desired performance.