Thread by @DerailleurAgile

Documenting wins won't help you: It just reinforces the arbitrary rules of the game you're in (and is practised widely)...

https://twitter.com/HarvardBiz/status/1497236948976640010

I've counselled managers who had strings of "exceeds expectations" performance ratings only to get their turn in the barrel with an inexplicable "meets".

For some, it was devastating because they could find no errors in their work. Even documented, and in some cases celebrated

by top management.

This is arbitrariness is a *feature* of the prevailing style of management, not a *bug*. An individual's performance is a reflection of capabilities within a system. It is top-management's job to make the *system* work and help those who make it work.

Dr. #Deming most famously illustrated management blindness in his Red Bead Experiment, a brilliant, stupidly simple demonstration of modern management that showed how carrots and sticks do nothing to improve performance - besides demeaning people.

I wrote about the experiment here:

digestibledeming.substack.com/p/the-parable-…

I also wrote about #Deming's observation that awards for good performance makes as much sense as rewarding the weatherman for a nice day here:

digestibledeming.substack.com/p/rewarding-th…

If you find yourself in a performance-managed system, there is no upside: One day you will be fired or put on a PiP - it's nothing personal, that's the game of the prevailing style of management.

Unless you can convince management to eliminate it, always keep your resume up-to-date, featuring your accomplishments and prepare to jump ship *before* they fire you so you control the reasons for departure rather than them. Lawsuits are messy and expensive.