Guest post by John Hunter, founder of CuriousCat.com.
Dr. Deming called for the elimination of the annual performance appraisal.
This post, part of our Deming on Management series, provides some resources to help those getting started in transforming their management system to one based on Deming’s management ideas.
This topic is one that is difficult for many people to accept. Some people see the huge problems that annual performance appraisals cause and immediately see the value in eliminating them. Some don’t. There are more organizations today that have eliminated them (even without adopting other of Dr. Deming’s management ideas) but still many organizations put effort into these every year.
In my experience, rather than wasting much effort trying to convince people about this at the start if they disagree, it is better just to get to work making other improvements first. Then, a couple years into transforming into an evidence based (with an understanding of variation), customer focused, continually improving organization that practices respect for people, the discussions about how bad performance appraisals are will become much easier. The organization has learned to think systemically and to question practices critically, instead of reflexively clinging to current practices.
Blog posts
- Dr. Deming Called for the Elimination of The Annual Performance Appraisal
- Why do you hire dead wood? Or why do you hire live wood and kill it?
- The Idea of Performance Rating to Capture Merit is Alluring
- Deming and Performance Appraisal
- To Achieve Success Focus on Improving the System Not On Individual Performance
- 94% Belongs to the System
- We Need to Understand Variation to Manage Effectively
- Righter Performance Appraisal
- Tis the season….for performance appraisals
- Talking about our own personal mid-year review getting scrapped is one thing. Visibly supporting and empowering the people trying to do it, and punishing the inhibitors, is another. from the Mini-Microsoft blog
- Huge Payments to Executives for Good Luck
- A Bad System Will Beat a Good Person Every Time
- The Defect Black Market
- Is the Result Due to Mathematical Probability or Individual Merit?
Articles
- Total Quality or Performance Appraisal: Choose One by Peter Scholtes
- Reward and Incentive Programs are Ineffective — Even Harmful by Peter Scholtes
- Unjust Deserts by Mary Poppendieck
- Performance Evaluations: How Is This Still a Thing?
Books
- The Leader’s Handbook: Making Things Happen, Getting Things Done by Peter Scholtes
- Abolishing Performance Appraisals by Mary Jenkins and Tom Coens
- Get Rid of the Performance Review!: How Companies Can Stop Intimidating, Start Managing–and Focus on What Really Matters
- Punished By Rewards by Alfie Kohn
Webcasts
- Mary Jenkins: Statistical Approach to HR Systems
- Lessons From the Red Bead Experiment with Dr. Deming
- Video of W. Edwards Deming at Western Connecticut State University in 1990
Podcasts
- Deming Podcast: The Deming Journey at New York Label & Box Works – “I knew performance appraisals were useless and a tremendous amount of time and a waste of time. [Deming’s] theory of systems thinking really showed me that it is less about the person and more about the leadership” Steven Haedrich
- 10 Minutes with Dr. Deming – Performance Appraisals
- Samuel A. Culbert, “Get Rid of the Performance Review!”