Puppy training and people power!

No I haven’t lost the plot this week… I am real believer in the amazing power of synchronicity and serendipity – both are in my life at the moment. I also believe that they are in the lives of all of us – if we can recognise it!!

So the synchronicity part – our current Circle of Peers roadshow highlights performance management. When researching, it was clear that many other organisations are really querying Performance Management. I have long held the view that HR makes a mountain out of a molehill when supporting organisations in their quest to drive performance management. It is clear to me that managers and their people find the process difficult and from personal perspectives it is de-motivating. We also have the ludicrous concept of trying to use a normal distribution curve to distribute monetary awards. What happens if the whole team is high performing? So at a time when celebration is due, a process gets in the way and the net result is disillusion and cynicism.

Is this really what People Professionals and Leaders want? I believe that we need managers to understand that their people want honest feedback immediately so that an effective two way dialogue is the norm and not just a once a year event. I call this puppy training – could be perceived as patronising but it isn’t meant to be. All of our team know about this concept – high praise and recognition for things done well and immediate feedback and a learning opportunity if activities have not met our standards or a situation arose unexpectedly.

Finally the serendipity bit – I was up in York last Friday and Saturday at the CIPD Northern Area Partnership (NAP) Conference. NAP covers the branches in Cumbria, Humber, Lancashire, Manchester, Merseyside, North Cheshire, North Wales, North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and Tees Valley. The title of the Conference was Creating an Amazing Workplace..through well-being and engagement: improving performance and the bottom line. So we are all in alignment and my question is why isn’t it happening??