Case study: Consultant Pegine Echevarria (http://www.pegine.com)
challenges employees at a Fortune 100 tech giant to blow their
own horns BEFORE formal review sessions ... and managers love it.
I. TWO WORRIED PEOPLE
Performance review time. Joe, a five-year employee at components
giant GlobalTech, is trying once again to read his supervisor’s
mind: "What, exactly, does he want from me?" He’s been worrying
about this meeting for weeks.
He’s not the only one.
Ed, Joe’s manager, doesn’t really know what he wants from Joe.
He’s uncomfortable discussing things he can’t quantify with
numbers, he's worried about his own upcoming performance review,
he's afraid of saying something that will get him in trouble,
and he's uncertain where Joe’s potential for growth really lies.
II. THE PERFORMANCE REVIEW MEETING
Instead of asking questions that will help develop a personal
goal that will build on what Joe has accomplished over the last
three months, Ed takes what seems to be the easy way out: he
starts a discussion about workplace processes skipping over the
human equation.
After all, evaluating processes is what he’s good at.
Process analyses during performance reviews, however, drive
employees like Joe nuts.
The result? Joe nods his head obediently, takes notes, then
retreats to his cubicle, where he mutters unflattering things
about his boss.
One personal evaluation at a time, GlobalTech’s historic
commitment to innovation and improvement is collapsing.
III. THE CULTURE OF SILENCE
In thousands of America’s engineering-driven companies,
collaboration and teamwork are the exception. And silence --
specifically, covering yourself to avoid punishment from
above -- is the rule.
Many (though not all) of GlobalTech’s numbers-driven managers
have lost sight of the entrepreneurial vision that launched the
company in the first place.
What’s more, a fair number of these managers aren’t particularly
good at – and don’t really enjoy – communicating with the people
who report to them.
The result is a three-part crisis undermining the company’s
return on its human resource investment.
1. Loss of organizational opportunity. Good ideas and process
improvements that are developed by individual employees are
never shared throughout the organization, because managers
don’t hear about them in the first place.
2. Loss of personal productivity. When managers don’t even know
which workers are posting personal increases in productivity,
they can’t encourage these behaviors over time.
3. Loss of team efficiency. Many team member follow Joe’s
example, investing lots of energy in a performance review
process that ultimately frustrates them. They form unrealistic
ideas and expectations of management, but end up demotivated
and cynical, and then clam up about what they're doing. People
eventually conclude – correctly – that their manager simply
has no idea what he or she wants.
IV. A DECLINE IN INNOVATION
GlobalTech was still an industry leader within its primary
market. The company’s historic emphasis on innovation and
creativity, however, had declined. After spending time with
some GlobalTech team members, performance coach Pegine
Echevarria thought she knew why.
In their interactions with managers, employees were focusing
on avoiding mentioning anything that might conceivably lead
to a "black mark" on quarterly performance reviews. In other
words, most team members were, like their managers, in
"cover-your-anatomy" mode, which usually meant confirming the
assumptions of managers. In many cases, this mean that managers
did not get a full picture of the true accomplishments, assets,
or requirements of their team members.
GlobalTech’s ability to support high-functioning, innovative
teams had been undercuT. Poor morale, mediocre daily plans, and
unproductive, low-information communication patterns were daily
workplace norms.
V. TEACHING DIRECT REPORTS TO PROMOTE THEIR OWN VALUE
Working with the team at GlobalTech, Echevarria developed tools
to help team members identify and promote their own value as a
regular workplace event ... not just during annual reviews.
Her goal was to train team members to communicate or "brag"
about specific accomplishments, insights, ideas and applications
BEFORE formal performance assessments. She also wanted to help
people enjoy and relate to each other in a fun and interactive
environment, one that eliminated communication barriers, infused
employees with energy and laughter, reduced anxiety, stress and
fear, increased productivity, and enhanced teamwork.
The program she developed for GlobalTech taught and coached a
process that enabled the company's people to win by:
1. FOCUSING on who they were in relation to the organization.
2. COMMUNICATING who they were in relation to the organization.
3. CELEBRATING their own achievements and innovations, as well
as those of their teammates.
VI. BREAKING THE CULTURE OF SILENCE IN PERFORMANCE REVIEWS
To break the culture of silence in performance reviews at
GlobalTech, Echevarria had to confront a crippling fear that
pervades many organizations – namely, that a given person’s
value or accomplishments would not be worth the trouble of
communicating upwards to one's supervisor.
Pegine offered employees evidence that the company as a whole
would flounder without the contributions of individual team
members. She helped employees get over the notion that their
managers "should already understand" their world. And she
challenged managers to overcome their own fears about asking
direct questions that connected to the personal goals of
employees.
Echevarria developed exercises and role plays that helped team
members overcome "cover your anatomy" communication patterns that
had solidified over time. The job then became one of replacing
these habits with new communication values. There were five of
these values. (The word "value" itself became a trigger for
questions that would spark a productive series of questions.)
========
CRITICAL VALUE QUESTIONS TO ASK EVERY WEEK, NOT JUST RIGHT
BEFORE YOUR PERFORMANCE REVIEW
(Courtesy of Pegine Echevarria, http://www.pegine.com)
V: Visibility. What is clearly visible to others about your
expertise, the tasks you do, and the accomplishment of those
tasks? What should be more visible?
A: Attitude. What is your state of mind at work?
L: Looking. Do you look for solutions, innovations, and
brainstorms? Do you share those discoveries with others?
U: Using resources. Do you actually use the expertise of others
to gain insight on how to handle situations you face?
E: Evolution. Have you grown as a result of a recent project?
How? What did you notice that no longer worked for you? How
did that situation motivate you to change? How would that
change affect your job?
========
THE RESULTS
GlobalTech managers and team members agreed that, after the
training, participants began promoting their own value more
effectively – and sharing new ideas and processes with colleagues
and superiors. They did this by means of networking effectively,
asking supervisors for guidance, and developing written and
verbal assessments of recent projects.
Working with the team at GlobalTech, Echevarria developed, found
sponsors for, and implemented an ongoing program that resulted
in greater team cohesion, lower anxiety levels, and improved
productivity.
As if all that weren't enough, managers and direct reports
could be heard talking about how they actually enjoyed the
performance-review process.
Now there's an accomplishment.
Copyright © 2005, Team Pegine, Inc.
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