day5 - beef jerky, culture, and why performance reviews are toxic

Reflections on beef jerky day - feeling like my colleague was a jerk

I'll just share the video I recorded at the end of the day. I basically felt like there was some gap in the engagement and accountability in the team.  You can tell I'm a bit pissed off in the video.



We are delusional as people

So almost immediately after recording, and feeling discouraged about lagging engagement, and thinking back on the day, I had a realization.  It's interesting the two of us incorrectly perceived our contribution and role in the team. Who was who's apprentice?

And we're just freaking two people! We are delusional.

Good intention to help people not be delusional
I can now better appreciate why organizations create measurements and performance reviews - so as to check members from becoming 'delusional.' For example, if my manager and I agree that I was a 4 out of 5, and have it on paper, then I can't come back and say 'but I delivered more revenues than he/she who also has a 4 rating!'

Performance reviews are used to avoid perception of unfairness.

But it's wrong
While I can now appreciate first-hand the organizational leadership's position in defaulting to performance reviews, I also believe that it is the wrong step to take.

What you really want are individuals to become more self-reflective, self-aware, and self-sufficient. You can't enlighten people by banging them on the head with 360 reviews. That only makes them less engaged and bitter and resentful. It is a sure sign of distrust at a deep level among the team members. Instead, focus on dialogue and communicate your grievances.

Instead, focus on dialogue and communicate your thoughts. Support each other and help the counter-party see the reality. Difficulty conversations aren't supposed to be done through mind-numbing written performance reviews using sanitized words. (Didn't you always love that guy who had no filter in his mouth and said whatever the hell came to his mind?)

Talk to each other. Know that hard is good.

Yet there's a tension
I can also appreciate the tension present here. It is the tension between having great people, and being able to scale growth. If you had to hand-pick and cultivate great people one by one, you might spend too much time recruiting for the team.

How are you resolving this tension in your organization?

Learning by doing

To see what this overall project is about, see the original 12appyDays entry.

Today was project 5 - a skeleton eCommerce site for beef jerkys.  On the previous day, we built a simple and simplistic site using google map api to show the path back to the car. And on the prior day (project 3 pickr), I wrote about the experience of how knowing what's hard is ... hard.

And I'm learning so much, because I am building. Lot more so than I could by thinking and reading. 

IC Classes 7 & 8 - Professional Barriers: Luke's paradox

Last two days at IC have been challenging because I've been unable to focus on the topics we've discussed in class due to extra curricular activities and due to skepticism about value of the content we've handled.

It is weird. I think the idea about many of the leadership challenges is that there are lack of clear communications or proper energizing of the base. Based on some of my personal experiences, I wonder if it's actually because of the character of the individual. It seems those who are intelligent, humble, and have high character never cause intentional harm in an organization. Those who lag, on the other hand, not only stink at what they do, but they stink up the joint around them. Does this mean that you don't help the struggling swimmer, but that you let her drown? Maybe.

Here's a paradox. To those who have much, much will be required of them. To those who have little, even the little they have will be taken away.

Does that apply to the work place? Some organizations cut the bottom 10%. Should that number be higher if you want a really high performing organization? Darden itself is very selective, but I find it troubling that even at Darden, there are folks that I might like to cut from the organization. And I'm sure those others feel similarly about me. How can I reconcile this to working and performing in an organization?

How would having difficult conversations fix the performance problem? If it doesn't fix it, is it merely a tool to clarify the issue so that a manager can have an excuse for letting go of the poor performer?

IC Class 2 - Six Degrees of Lois Weisberg

Reading from Malcom Gladwell. What world is she in? She knew no bounds, she was confident, not always center of attention, but nevertheless central. She sought authentic connection and was generous with her connections. She demonstrates power of weak ties.

Robert Chaldini wrote of reciprocal relationships. Something Lois seemed to excel in.

What are barriers to networking? They may include: 1) lack of confidence and personal skills (incompetence); 2) difficulty of asking for help (haughtiness); 3) challenge of reciprocating help (scarcity of resource); and 4) concern about sharing information (self-disclosure).

As I revisit my self-awareness and my place in relationships and networks, I will also want to mirror the extent of self-disclosure and its impact on those networks.

IC Class 1 - Objectives

Today, classmates shared why they registered for the course.

Why do I want to take Interpersonal Communications?
1. To better understand nuances of communication in group setting - it's of some personal interest as I grew up in a high context society (Korea) and now live in low context society (US).
2. Because I deal with feeling of being mediocre, and the hunch from various experiences is that what might be missing is a strong communications platform. For example, for me, it's relatively easy to delegate tasks to get a team to accomplish a goal. Communication a compelling vision to inspire them is another. I had some leadership opportunities at Darden, but the inspiration piece and excellence remain elusive.

Other key ideas that came to mind from class discussion:
1. To conduct some research about summer employer and map out a networking strategy.
2. To improve self-awareness (for purposes of better career direction).
3. To improve general professional communications skills.