Here is an image of the employee of the quarter award I received from Bill Scherkenbach.
I took part in the Deming Red Bead Experiment and earned this award for my exceptional performance.
I have received other awards and I don’t think those awards were given with any more understanding of the contributions to results due to the management systems in those cases than was shown when giving me this award. Even knowing how little impact I could make on the results I was still happy to receive this award: psychology is not always (often? ever?) sensible.
Read some of the lessons from the Red Bead Experiment from my post on The W. Edwards Deming Institute blog:
Data very similar to that provided by the Red Bed Experiment is used everyday in businesses to reward and punish people. Data is used to blame those who fall short of expectations and reward those who have good numbers. In the Red Bead Experiment we know the numbers are not a sensible measure of value provided by the employee. But in our organizations we accept numbers that are just as unrelated to the value provided by the employe to rate and reward employees.
There is a powerful need to improve the numeracy (literacy with numbers) in our organizations. It isn’t a matter of complex math. The concepts are fairly simple…
Related: Guest Post by Bill Scherkenbach – Analysis Must be Implemented by People to Provide Value – Righter Performance Appraisal – Experience Teaches Nothing Without Theory
