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Disconnect Purpose from Reality

If the purpose of measurement is to manage things that matter, then probably one of the worst ways you could try to do that, is to complete a document which is then discussed in a performance review once a quarter or less. It is highly unlikely that the best action to take, in order to get the most positive outcomes, within the best possible timeframe, would be to file away the record of performance for three months or more, then raise it as part of a conversation void of all other organisational context, as part of a process that seems to run disconnected from all other organisational processes, in a setting that is emotionally loaded in a way that is totally uncorrelated with the true impact that the conversation will have on the actual delivery of products to customers.

Invert – How Not to Do This

Charlie Munger says, “Invert, invert, invert. Always invert.”

If your performance management system sounds like the above paragraph, then it's time to start inverting.

How would you build a performance management system that does not work?

Here are some ideas:

1. Get someone other than the person doing the work to complete a report about that person's work.
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2. Do this on a fixed schedule that does not happen too often. Definitely not more than once a month. Preferably ensure that the reporting happens long enough after any events that any discussions regarding change of behaviour are likely to be irrelevant by that time.
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3. Do not teach managers how to have hard conversations in a constructive way. Allow them to just “be themselves.” If they are not comfortable with confrontation, let them blunder through these conversations avoiding any hard feedback. If they default to aggression when they feel insecure, allow them to just intimidate and bully people through these conversations without giving any positive feedback. Anything goes, as long as the document gets completed and signed.
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4. Do not look at performance records in between the times when it is discussed.
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5. Try to standardize the process as much as possible. Treat people as cogs in a big machine, not as individuals whose full mental and creative capability you want engaged in your business. Try and make sure that people who are doing a terrible job get just a slightly worse score than people who are performing brilliantly. A great way to do this is to link some kind of performance bonuses to people's scores, and create a culture where people feel bad to give someone a score that would result in them not getting a bonus.
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6. Disconnect this process as much as possible from the actual day to day work that the person does.
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7. Only allow performance feedback to happen between a person and their direct manager, as part of a formal process. Do not allow informal, ad-hoc positive and critical feedback between peers and colleagues to become part of your culture.
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8. Ensure that feedback always only flows from superiors to subordinates … and make sure that they feel inferior in the process. Never allow subordinates to tell their superiors how they might improve.
   
9. Ensure that the process, although disconnected from organisational context, is heavily loaded with emotional context. Do not teach the managers or leaders how to have constructive conversations that are not emotionally laden. Load these conversations with a sense of discomfort and awkwardness for the person being reviewed as well as the person reviewing, to ensure that the whole performance management idea is strongly linked in people's nervous systems as unpleasant, something to be done as seldom as possible, to be finished as quickly as possible.
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10. Do not make a serious effort to really focus on what matters to customers, and do not link performance back to customer experience. Do not focus on what other people in your team and in other teams require, and how they would describe excellence. Let every person focus on their own definitions of good performance and excellence.
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11. Do not do the hard work of linking performance measurements back to organisational strategy, and how your team's processes support the overall success of the business.
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12. Don't respond to non-performance by taking the time to understand the true reasons for non-performance. Immediately assume that the person is lazy, incompetent, or downright destructive. Do not question whether there might be a leadership issue, culture issue, rewards issue, lack of tools or broken processes, or that the person might just need some training or coaching.
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13. Finally, and most importantly: Be infinitely patient with non-performance. Keep giving people another chance, even if they have not indicated a willingness to make the best of the chances you've already given them to improve performance.

If you make sure that you do all of these things, you are sure to build an organisation that performs really badly.

Blessings to you

Ashton

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