I see a lot of hullabaloo about the new ways of performance management in corporations.
The recent one making waves is “Deloitte’s” ( supposedly) radical new way of doing performance management.
I still believe the very fundamentals of “performance management” is being overlooked by the experts.
Let me narrate a story of a coconut farmer.
A coconut farmer in a non-industrialised part of the world, had two critical employees. An elephant and a monkey.
The farmer employed the elephant to use its weight to rub against the coconut tree, shake it up, so the coconuts fall down.
He was happy selling the coconuts that fell down. A very nice way of plucking them without going through climbing up the tree (without any branches really to support the climbing).
The farmer had another employee, the monkey ! Who he employed to jump around in the yard full of dry shells of coconut, to soften them, so that he can sell them as coir-goods merchants.
When the business picked up, he was not really happy with any of his employees performance.
The elephant was shaking the tree, indiscriminately. The tenderer of the tender coconuts used to fall down. Such a waste !!!
The monkey was jumping around all day in a yard full of dry shells, but was not good enough to mash the shells of coconut to the likings of coir-merchants.
The farmer was not too happy with what he could produce and he put both his employees in a “PIP (Performance improvement plan)”.
A PIP that reduced the food given to elephant, so that it could reduce weight. And a plan that provided monkeys, ingredients to by jumpier.
None of them worked to improve the business.
Business was driving the farmer crazy, until one day a hermit was passing by and suggested him to change the role of the elephant and the monkey.
The monkey was trained to choose the ripe coconut and made in charge of plucking the right coconuts from the trees.
He was really happy climbing up the trees. The elephant, used its best talent, its gift, its weight to crush the shells of the coconuts in the yard, under its massive steps.
…and the farmer was happy !
There are two fundamental aspects to one’s contributions to business (a.k.a. performance).
The talent, the gift - each one inherently has !
1 Peter 4:10
“As every man hath received the gift” - The gifts of grace, whatever they may be, are talents entrusted to individual Christians for the good of the whole Church;
And the love for the work one does -
“And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man’s ears to the voice of the day and the voice of the night” - “The Prophet - Kahlil Gibran”.
So, whose responsibility is it to deliver the right performance ?
The positioning of each employee matters most in the the organization's performance.
And to create the optimal positioning we need to focus on 3 things.
1. Employees: to identify what their talent truly is
2. The leadership: to see the talent, and find the fitment within the organization
3. And a system and a process to connect, the above two.
In the nature’s scheme of things, performance management is more of a leadership function than an employee function.
One can not provide feedback to the elephant to climb faster ( the coconut tree) , and expect it to improve its performance.
I would urge the organizations to look at this very simply. And help employees identify their talent, and organizations to open its needs for verity of talents.
Its like electrical engineering - "impedance matching" with a social interface !!
Its just natural. Flow with it !!!!
The recent one making waves is “Deloitte’s” ( supposedly) radical new way of doing performance management.
I still believe the very fundamentals of “performance management” is being overlooked by the experts.
Let me narrate a story of a coconut farmer.
A coconut farmer in a non-industrialised part of the world, had two critical employees. An elephant and a monkey.
The farmer employed the elephant to use its weight to rub against the coconut tree, shake it up, so the coconuts fall down.
He was happy selling the coconuts that fell down. A very nice way of plucking them without going through climbing up the tree (without any branches really to support the climbing).
The farmer had another employee, the monkey ! Who he employed to jump around in the yard full of dry shells of coconut, to soften them, so that he can sell them as coir-goods merchants.
When the business picked up, he was not really happy with any of his employees performance.
The elephant was shaking the tree, indiscriminately. The tenderer of the tender coconuts used to fall down. Such a waste !!!
The monkey was jumping around all day in a yard full of dry shells, but was not good enough to mash the shells of coconut to the likings of coir-merchants.
The farmer was not too happy with what he could produce and he put both his employees in a “PIP (Performance improvement plan)”.
A PIP that reduced the food given to elephant, so that it could reduce weight. And a plan that provided monkeys, ingredients to by jumpier.
None of them worked to improve the business.
Business was driving the farmer crazy, until one day a hermit was passing by and suggested him to change the role of the elephant and the monkey.
The monkey was trained to choose the ripe coconut and made in charge of plucking the right coconuts from the trees.
He was really happy climbing up the trees. The elephant, used its best talent, its gift, its weight to crush the shells of the coconuts in the yard, under its massive steps.
…and the farmer was happy !
There are two fundamental aspects to one’s contributions to business (a.k.a. performance).
The talent, the gift - each one inherently has !
1 Peter 4:10
“As every man hath received the gift” - The gifts of grace, whatever they may be, are talents entrusted to individual Christians for the good of the whole Church;
And the love for the work one does -
“And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man’s ears to the voice of the day and the voice of the night” - “The Prophet - Kahlil Gibran”.
So, whose responsibility is it to deliver the right performance ?
The positioning of each employee matters most in the the organization's performance.
And to create the optimal positioning we need to focus on 3 things.
1. Employees: to identify what their talent truly is
2. The leadership: to see the talent, and find the fitment within the organization
3. And a system and a process to connect, the above two.
In the nature’s scheme of things, performance management is more of a leadership function than an employee function.
One can not provide feedback to the elephant to climb faster ( the coconut tree) , and expect it to improve its performance.
I would urge the organizations to look at this very simply. And help employees identify their talent, and organizations to open its needs for verity of talents.
Its like electrical engineering - "impedance matching" with a social interface !!
Its just natural. Flow with it !!!!
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