Rethinking Annual Performance as Workshops

1. A TOTALLY NEW WAY TO… ANNUAL PERFORMANCE REVIEW WORKSHOP EVERYTHING

2. Each year millions of line managers do performance reviews with each member of their team

3. Reviews are tricky, risky, and difficult to run as structured conversations, which is how they have always been run

4. This deck proposes that managers replace conversations with workshops, which are easier to run, generate more insights, and less likely to cause bad feelings as focus turns from attack-defend to collaborative problem solving

5. BEFORE THE SESSION Setup a 90 minute meeting and invite 1) the manager, 2) the team member and 3) one other participant who knows the team member well. Nobody needs to do any prep-work.

6. PART ONE: WHAT IS THE ROLE (20 min) Tape some flip chart paper on the wall. Then, ask the candidate to break his/her role into 4-6 functions (and add 1 for Misc). Write each function on a sticky note and align them along the top horizontally. As a group, talk about this scope of work. Is it complete? Which functions are more important and time consuming than others?

7. Job: Consulting Partner Misc Admin & Reporting People Management Sales Management Delivery Management

8. PART TWO: WHAT IS SUCCESS (10 min) For each function, ask the team member to define what success looks like and then discuss quickly. Try to be quantitative and specific.

9. Job: Consulting Partner Misc Admin & Reporting People Management Sales Management Delivery Management • <3% error rate in admin data quality • No delays in regular reporting • Customer satisfaction >5.2 • Hit Delivery Quality metrics • Revenue of 20M • Consulting team Utilization >84% • Pipeline quality • Engagement Survey Scores >86% • Attrition below 7% • Hit hiring objectives

10. PART THREE: WHAT WENT WELL PT 1 (7 min) In the first 7 minutes have each participant independently (nobody talks during this time) identify successes over the last year and write each success on a post-it note (1 success per post-it). Each participant should aim for 10-15 post-its. When the 7 minutes is over, everybody should post their post-its under the relevant function.

11. Job: Consulting Partner Misc Admin & Reporting People Management Sales Management Delivery Management • <3% error rate in admin data quality • No delays in regular reporting • Customer satisfaction >5.2 • Hit Delivery Quality metrics • Revenue of 20M • Consulting team Utilization >84% • Pipeline quality • Engagement Survey Scores >86% • Attrition below 7% • Hit hiring objectives

12. PART THREE: WHAT WENT WELL PT 2 (23 min) As a group, merge similar ideas into common themes. If not everyone understands a post-it, stop to clarify. Then, talk about areas of obvious agreement as well as outliers (where only 1 of 3 recognized this as a success). You might also look at why “Misc” occurred. Finally, look for 1 or 2 items that have low-hanging opportunities to accentuate a strength in the next year.

13. Job: Consulting Partner Misc Admin & Reporting People Management Sales Management Delivery Management • <3% error rate in admin data quality • No delays in regular reporting • Customer satisfaction >5.2 • Hit Delivery Quality metrics • Revenue of 20M • Consulting team Utilization >84% • Pipeline quality • Engagement Survey Scores >86% • Attrition below 7% • Hit hiring objectives Successes

14. PART FOUR: OPPORTUNITIES TO IMPROVE (30 min) Go through the exact same exercise that you just did, but for opportunities to improve / what things did not work in the last 12 months

15. Job: Consulting Partner Misc Admin & Reporting People Management Sales Management Delivery Management • <3% error rate in admin data quality • No delays in regular reporting • Customer satisfaction >5.2 • Hit Delivery Quality metrics • Revenue of 20M • Consulting team Utilization >84% • Pipeline quality • Engagement Survey Scores >86% • Attrition below 7% • Hit hiring objectives Opportunities to Improve

16. That’s it! Good luck!