In the 2002 movie Minority Report, a trio of “precogs” predicted crimes before they occurred and the “pre-perpetrator” was arrested and convicted based on the premonitions from the “precogs.” Wouldn’t it be nice if we could do the same with talent in our organizations? Not the arrest and conviction part but the predict future performance part?
Unfortunately, we don’t have a way to predict performance. We do the opposite of what “precogs” do. We manage talent by watching, measuring and documenting past behaviors and performance and then devise interventions to “fix” any problems we uncover. No problems – no intervention. But this process has a major flaw. When you focus on the lower performing personnel (and let’s face it – we all do) the top performers notice. When top performers see you spend all your time with the non-performers, the message is – “if I want time with management – I better screw something up.” Management attention is a form of reward. Unconsciously, you are rewarding poor performance.
What to do?
Bring in The PreCogs
There is a site called The Situationist that is associated with Harvard Law School. Their mission is… “provide a forum for scholars, students, lawyers, policymakers, and interested citizens to examine, discuss, and debate the effect of situational forces – that is, non-salient factors around and within us – on law, policy, politics, policy theory, and our social, political, and economic institutions.”
Quite the mouthful. The bottom line is they study how we behave in different situations.
Recently, they highlighted a study that was designed to reduce the achievement gap in schools. They showed a significant improvement in student performance when one group of students took part in a series of 15-minute writing assignments. The assignments asked the students to choose from a list of values and write about the value most important to them.
The results were pretty impressive:
- The exercise reduced the achievement gap between black and white students by 40 percent over one term
- The benefits for low-achieving black students continued for the entire two years — students who completed the self-affirmation exercise raised their GPA by four-tenths of a point compared to the control group. They were also less likely to need remedial work or to repeat a grade — 5 percent as compared to 18 percent of the control group
They concluded that when people are reminded of negative stereotypes, the stress of worrying about confirming those stereotypes can negatively affect their performance. The self-affirmation exercise reminded students about what is really important to them and may have helped reduce that stress and therefore, helped increase overall performance.
Why This Matters in Business
Here’s where I think this can have an impact. Typically, new hires feel a bit disconnected and a bit overwhelmed with the new position. They have the impression they are “behind the curve.” But what if when new talent is brought on board at your company you had them write an essay about how what they do best will improve, enhance,and drive success for themselves and your business. This will “pre-affirm” their contribution and set the stage for greater performance – if the research holds.
This also ties into a principle of influence called “commitment and consistency.” This principle states that we want to remain consistent with past actions, and when we publicly put something out there, we are committing to it – and that has a huge impact on our desire to achieve those goals.
Worst case – you have a document that shows how well new talent understands the mission of the company and their role in it. Best case – you have improved performance in the future. Not a bad way to start the day, eh?
I love the idea of having a new hire write an essay. It encourages them to make sure they understand, not only the company and its direction, but themselves as well. I might even take it a step further and have everyone re-evaluate themselves in this way regularly. It’s a bit different than just setting goals. It’s a way to reflect on yourself and how you can improve and contribute and a way to keep you in tune with the company’s goals and direction.
Good point… adding it to an ongoing “check up” not only let management see the employees point of view but also gives employees a feeling that the company is interested in their development.
The key here is implementation – if the company does nothing but file the document – FAIL.
I think this post is pretty questionable.
1. If students (people etc) are advised by doing e.g. writing an essay they will perform better than those that don’t and the results are that they do is it the positive affirmation (mental) or the writing (physical) that has achieved the result?
2. The point that ‘management’ focus all their efforts on poor performers goes against the evidence of ‘top talent’ groups that are identified and developed in isolation to other employees. Microsoft for example have been quoted as claiming to an ordinary company if not for their Top 20 people.
3. The school room example of ‘top performers’ is well known so why would the essay writing concept be any different?
If employees overall are guided by a great leader e.g. Tesco and Sir Terry Leahy then that is the key.
The research is interesting but carries insufficient evidence over a sustained period of time to warrant any real attention. IMHO.
Thanks for the comments Peter. I don’t think anything in managing people can be limited to one single issue. Even great leaders will have problems – we can’t rely on a single process, approach to drive performance. As far as not warranting any real attention – I think, as I state in the post, the process is valid from a commitment and consistency standpoint (a proven psychological behavior influencer) as well as a great way to understand an employees view of their role within an organization. Neither would be a bad outcome and therefore, could do no harm.
Both the act of writing and the process of formulating what you write mentally play into the effect – I don’t think you can separate the two. It has been proven during the Viet Nam War that having POWs transcribe anti-American propaganda influenced their perceptions of America.
I would support however, that when top performers are part of a group where management spends an inordinate amount of time with the poor performers they will either become poor performers or leave – in either case a negative result.
I would support however, that when top performers are part of a group where management spends an inordinate amount of time with the poor performers they will either become poor performers or leave – in either case a negative result.
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Wouldn’t it be nice if we could do the same with talent in our organizations? Not the arrest and conviction part but the predict future performance part?