Steve, you ask,
> What does the learning organization learn from ranking?
It learns who is not learning. Who is not moving forward -- continuously
improving -- as fast as his or her peers. It learns who is -- using
Deming's criteria -- operating below the normal range of acceptable
performance. It learns where to invest additional resources, where to
focus more attention, where to do some problem-solving, where to possibly
invite some dialog and reflection with the person about causes, about
potential need for personal help (EAP), about drug counseling, about
marriage counseling, and so forth. It is merely the first step in the
process of helping each other.
You seem to imply there is nothing to learn from it. Are you serious?
Then you say,
> If a sales manager wanted his salespersons to compete with each other
>for salary, commissions, bonuses, and respect he might institute a
>ranking system.
>If he wanted his salespersons to share prospects and selling
>techniques--to learn to cooperate and collaborate with each other--he
>might drop the ranking system and all other tools and devices that
>inhibited cooperation and collaboration.
In fact, I rank people on the effectiveness of their collaboration. If I
did not do that, I would not know who to help. How would you determine
who to help?
You say,
> Isn't it true that an organization learns little from the rhetoric of
>mission statements and managerial speechmaking but a great deal from the
>institutional practices that exhibit its true values?
Yes, this is what I call "Values in Action". People learn your values
from how you act, not from what you say. My values are that I recognize
and reward integrity, attitude, high performance, and learning. I try
very hard to set high standards in these categories. One of the ways I
encourage my own learning is that I measure and assess virtually all the
time.
As I said in another post, It is impossible to improve performance without
reflecting. Assessment, evaluation, ranking, rating, are all merely tools
on the road to reflection and improvement.
I sense fear of evaluation from quite a few of the opponents. My advice
is to fear the ignorant or ill-informed manager who misuses the system,
but not the tool itself. You can hurt yourself with a hammer, but that is
not its purpose. It drives nails far better than your naked hand will.
--Rol Fessenden
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>