Workscape Institute

Albert Einstein was a pretty smart guy.  The former patent clerk turned physicist turned our world upside down when he determined that speed is relative, depending upon the point of view of the observer.

Follow up:

Take the example of two people – Betty and Bill – flying side by side at exactly 500 mph. If they look over at each other, each sees the other as motionless.   If Betty speeds up to 502 mph, just a little faster than Bill, she will slowly but surely pull away.  For a while, Bill might think they are still traveling at the same speed, but soon enough he will realize that Betty is out in front.

Looking up from the ground, you can see Betty and Bill zoom by overhead rather quickly. After all, you’re standing still and they’re flying at hundreds of miles per hour.  You can’t tell the difference between 500 and 502 mph.  Simply, they are much faster than you.

Now imagine that Betty accelerates her speed by 10 mph every day and Bill accelerates by only 5 mph each day.  While each has accelerated and is feeling good about the progress, at the end of the month Betty has travelled 150 miles more than Bill.  While both have journeyed far, relative to Bill, Betty has excelled.

So, how does this apply to the workplace?

We see Bill and Betty every day in the workplace. How often do we stop to think about the importance of their relative performance?  In organizations that talk about pay-for-performance, how do we ascertain the exact performance of employees – and their ability to drive important outcomes for the business based on specific goals, objectives?  How do we ascertain relative performance?

At Workscape, our mantra is constant feedback.  Our best managers are in regular communication with their staff, providing specific feedback in the moment. Once a quarter we stack rank all employees and reflect on the performance of each, their impact on the business, and the relative performance of each employee.  Stack rankings drive bonus payouts. Some employees achieve 100% of their target. Others, at the very top of the pay-for-performance curve attain 140% of their target.  Some receive less than 100%, and some earn no bonus.  As a manager, if you aren’t having ongoing dialogue with your employees about performance and outcomes – these quarterly meetings are very difficult.  As a pay-for-performance organization are we perfect? No.  But we do take pay for performance seriously and as a result, we can point to some spectacular results.

Finally, in organizations that continuously raise the bar on performance, employees find that the A game they brought in January is a B game 12 months later.  The key is to raise the bar on everyone – not just employees, but managers and executives alike.  We all must continue to improve.  Competitors aren’t standing still.  Customers are in motion, demanding more products, more service, less cost, higher quality.  Nobody stands still. Not even Bill and Betty. Betty has been traveling now for several months, consistently faster than Bill. She’s raised her game, has been compensated as a top performer and over time has much higher real earnings than Bill.

After all, Einstein had it right.  Performance is relative.