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Category Archives: Performance Appraisal
Individual Bonuses Are Bad Management
Gojko Adzic provides a nice post on Mary Poppendieck’s presentation at Agile 2008 on bonus, compensation and motivation: Paying programmers: are bonuses bad and what to do about it? In software development, it is very hard to establish the effects of individual contributions and good teamwork is key to the project. Most individual compensation schemes, according to the presentation, absorb vast amounts of management time and resources and leave nobody happy, but team compensation strategies are not easy to implement. … Continue reading
Posted in Competition, IT, Management, Performance Appraisal, Psychology, Respect, Software Development, Systems thinking
Tagged bonus, Deming, Performance Appraisal, programming
1 Comment
“Pay for Performance” is a Bad Idea
Pay for performance is a bad investment [the broken link was removed] by Pete Waters “Teacher pay set by the results” was the headline of a (Baltimore) Sun article I read the other day which suggested that “performance-based bonuses (were) cropping up across Maryland” in our state education system. Bonuses would be given to teachers and principals that were successful in raising test scores of students. … One of the many shortcomings of the program was that job duties were … Continue reading
Posted in Deming, Management, Performance Appraisal, Systems thinking
Tagged bonus, Deming, Performance Appraisal
1 Comment
Deming and Performance Appraisal
Guest post by Ron Kingen (originally posted to the Deming Electronic Network) Several weeks ago someone in the DEN list ask what did Dr. Deming recommend about this issue, well I ask that very question of Dr. Deming back in the 80’s when I had the good fortune to work with him. I had expressed my concern to Dr. Deming about several of his fourteen points that I either didn’t understand completely or did not fit with my experience and/or … Continue reading
Posted in Deming, Management, Performance Appraisal, Systems thinking
Tagged Deming, guest post, Performance Appraisal
1 Comment
10x Productivity Difference in Software Development
10x Software Development The original study that found huge variations in individual programming productivity was conducted in the late 1960s by Sackman, Erikson, and Grant (1968). They studied professional programmers with an average of 7 years’ experience and found that the ratio of initial coding time between the best and worst programmers was about 20 to 1; the ratio of debugging times over 25 to 1; of program size 5 to 1; and of program execution speed about 10 to … Continue reading
Don’t Use Performance Appraisals
I like to continue to push for some things that might not seem achievable to many. It is too easy to accept that things have to stay the way they are. Several of Dr. Deming’s list of Seven Deadly Management Diseases are now accepted as serious problems by most. Performance appraisal is a strange disease: most people agree performance appraisals are not effective and indeed are harmful. Yet, most still don’t think anything can be done about it. But we … Continue reading
Posted in Deming, Management, Performance Appraisal, Psychology, Respect
5 Comments
Performance Appraisals are Worse Than a Waste of Time
Appraisals are a waste of Time Most British workers will certainly leave their appraisal fired up and motivated, but only to look for a new job, new research from workplace and HR body Investors in People has concluded. Nearly half of those who had an appraisal did not trust their managers to be honest during it, with a third dismissing the annual chat as a waste of time and a fifth leaving it feeling they had been unfairly treated. The … Continue reading
Posted in Deming, Management, Performance Appraisal, Psychology, Respect
Tagged Deming, Performance Appraisal, respect for people, system thinking, UK
4 Comments
Getting and Keeping Great Employees
I am not convinced of the premise of The new war for talent: that there will be a great shortage of talent soon. But the article makes some interesting points. The Conference Board CEO Challenge of 2007 points out that “Cracking the U.S. Top 10 this year is finding qualified managerial talent and top management succession.” … If we neglect to engage our own employees, those who are frustrated can surf hundreds of job boards to see what other opportunities … Continue reading
Posted in Management, Performance Appraisal, Respect
1 Comment
The Problem with Targets
Targets can seriously damage your health by Simon Caulkin Targets, claim their defenders, are simple, they provide focus, and they work. Yes, they do. Unfortunately, these are also their fatal flaws. The simplicity is a delusion. As Russ Ackoff put it: ‘The only problems that have simple solutions are simple problems. The only managers with simple problems are those with simple minds. Problems that arise in organisations are almost always the product of interactions of parts, never the action of … Continue reading
Posted in Deming, Management, Performance Appraisal, Systems thinking
CEO’s Given Lottery Sized Payouts
Comment on: Fun With Statistics, CEO Life Edition In the US, CEO’s tend to be fairly interchangeable these days and it is rare for their tenure to exceed five years. There are some notable exceptions such as chain-saw Al and Neutron Jack, but in general a change of CEO doesn’t seem to do much over the long term. This is one of the criticisms of American CEO’s they seem to be more interested in feathering their nest and getting out … Continue reading
Posted in Deming, Management, Performance Appraisal, Systems thinking
2 Comments
Seven Fatal Flaws of Performance Measurement
The Seven Fatal Flaws of Performance Measurement by Joseph F. Castellano, Saul Young, and Harper A. Roehm Performance measurement systems are used to establish specific goals, align employee behavior, and increase accountability. Organizations often use these systems to set targets for component units (e.g., individuals, profit centers, divisions, plants). Each unit is expected to develop its own goals consistent with overall targets. This process, sometimes called a “roll-up,” reflects the premise that if all units achieve their targets then the … Continue reading
Posted in Deming, Management, Performance Appraisal, Statistics, Systems thinking
Hiring – Does College Matter?
Another essay by Paul Graham packed with great thoughts – this one on hiring, colleges, measuring performance of people, etc.. Practically everyone thinks that someone who went to MIT or Harvard or Stanford must be smart. Even people who hate you for it believe it. But when you think about what it means to have gone to an elite college, how could this be true? We’re talking about a decision made by admissions officers—basically, HR people—based on a cursory examination … Continue reading
Posted in Data, Education, Management, Performance Appraisal, Psychology
Google Exceeded Planned Spending on Personnel
Often people have trouble understanding Dr. Deming’s disapproval of arbitrary numerical targets. What he was trying to prevent is what many see every day, such as managing to quarterly earnings targets. There are several problems with numerical goals but in here lets focus on one. The change from managing for what is best for the business to managing to hit a target. Google Profit Trails Analyst Estimates; Shares Slide: The company hired more people than expected last quarter, Chief Executive … Continue reading
Posted in Deming, Google, Investing, Management, Performance Appraisal, Psychology, quote
3 Comments
How to Get Ahead
Deep Thinkers Need Not Apply: How To Get Ahead In the Modern Business World [the broken link has been removed – when will sites be managed with the known wise practices from 1998 (web addresses need to live forever)?]: Fast forward to my first real job out of college. It didn’t take long for me to realize that management’s perception of who should be promoted was heavily biased by who they liked. There was one engineer in particular who was … Continue reading
Posted in Career, Management, Performance Appraisal, Psychology
Tagged managing people, Psychology
People are Our Most Important Asset
One of the beliefs I try and get the organizations I work for to adopt is to truly value excellent people. The costs are challenges of hiring great people, to me, makes it critical to do what you can to keep your exceptional people. I probably haven’t written about this because it can conflict with my advice against performance appraisals. I do actually believe it is possible to know certain people are great and contribute greatly to the success of … Continue reading
Posted in Creativity, Deming, Management, Performance Appraisal, Psychology, Respect
Tagged coaching, Creativity, curiouscat, John Hunter, Management, managing people, Psychology, respect for people
9 Comments
Tilting at Ludicrous CEO Pay
I continue to tilt at the robber barron CEO pay packages. Hopefully, at some point, the people approving these obscene pay packages can be shamed into stopping or replaced by people with some sense of decency. I was taught in the days of robber barrons the business world was seen as an amoral place (morality did not belong in this area of human endeavor) but that over time society decided that in fact morality did apply there. It is hard … Continue reading
Posted in Deming, Economics, Management, Performance Appraisal, Psychology, Respect, Systems thinking
Tagged curiouscat, Deming, executive pay, management, overpaid executives, quote, respect for people
10 Comments
Continuous, Constructive Feedback
Employee performance: Continuous, constructive feedback yields results [the broken link was removed]: Be specific. If you simply say “Good job, Frank,” Frank won’t know exactly what he did to get that atta boy. Therefore, he can’t consciously work to repeat that behavior. Instead, say something like “Frank, that new procedure you developed for handling service calls has really improved customer satisfaction. Thanks for coming up with it.” Include coaching. Annual reviews often are used as the only performance communication tool. … Continue reading
Posted in Management, Performance Appraisal, Psychology, Respect
Tagged managing people, Performance Appraisal, Psychology
4 Comments