Eliminate the Performance Review: Part 2

By Bill Cushard

For many years, I have wanted to improve my fitness and lose a few pounds. Many times I said, "I will start my diet on Monday" only to NOT start my diet on Monday. It was all talk. It was not until Thanksgiving 2010 that I said nothing and started a diet that enabled me to lose 25 pounds, all of which I have kept off over a year later. It was not until I took action and stopped talking about taking action, that I really made it happen and got the results I wanted. And so it is with my last blog post on eliminating the performance review. You may have read it and thought, "Yeah, sure, it's all talk. A business needs performance reviews." 

We disagree. 

And in the spirit of Henry Ford, "You cannot build a reputation on what you are going to do," let me tell you what we are doing about it. 

First, we contracted with the social performance management firm Rypple to bring credibility and transparency back to performance feedback. Rypple will help us put the ownership of performance feedback into the hands of individuals, empower people to have more frequent ongoing performance discussions, and to create a culture in which people know where they stand. The idea has been well received inside Allonhill.

Second, at our all-employee staff meetings last week, we talked about Rypple, the blog post, and our intention to change the way performance feedback occurs at Allonhill. As the basis for the decision, I said that I always felt as if performance reviews were done to me. People agreed. Enthusiastically. And remember, we are not espousing the elimination of performance feedback and honest, straight talk about performance. That is mandatory. We are talking about eliminating the one-way, manager-induced, performance review that everyone hates. 

Third, we have designed training that will help our people understand how to use Rypple to have more frequent, ongoing performance conversations and to ask for feedback in real time and in the moment of need. The goal of this training is not only to help people understand how to use Rypple, but to also change the culture and people's mindset about how performance discussions should occur. 

We are at the beginning of our implementation and expect to launch Rypple to our entire organization in early Q1. We will keep you updated on our progress. There are exciting things on the horizon.