Rol Fessenden asserts that "The important question is not what tools I
use, but what I use them for."
A crucial point of difference between Rol and some of those who differ
with him on ranking is this:
"The important question is not what one wants to accomplish with tools,
but what the tools do that one does not want to accomplish."
This is not merely an attempt at paradox, but a statement of the crucial
importance of "unintended consequences."
I use pesticides on my crops to improve the crop yield, the crop quality,
and to lower produce prices. I do not intend to poison the
environment--but I do,
I use hair spray to keep my hair kempt. I do not intend to damage the
ozone layer or increase global warming: but I do.
I use performance ranking to help workers learn of their strengths and
weakness, to reward merit, and to strengthn company performance. I do not
want to create an atomosphere of fear and make cooperative and team
relations between employees difficult or impossible--but the tool that I
use for one purpose leads to these unintended consequences.
Steve Eskow
Dr. Steve Eskow
President, The Pangaea Network
288 Stone Island Road
Enterprise, Florida 32725
Phone: 407-321-8770; Fax: 407-321-4861
http://www.durand.com/pangaea
dreskow@durand.com
>Re ranking, rating, and triage, I use all 3. The important question is
>not what tools I use, but what I use them for. They all provide different
>perspectives. All useful perspectives. The sum of all the perspectives
>is far, far richer than the individual perspectives. I learn something
>from examining performance through many lenses instead of just one.
--"Dr. Steve Eskow" <dreskow@magicnet.net>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>