Comments on: 6: Performance=Results

By: M. McEwen

M. McEwen — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 00:23:33 +0000

A classic on this very subject is Thomas Gilbert’s Book: Human Competence: Engineering Worthy Performance
[Lots to digest, main points made in first several chapters]

Gilbert defines the measure of performance as the ratio of the Accomplishment (A) to the Cost (C). Therefore a “Worthy performance” is one where this ratio is greater than 1, (W = A/C; where W > 1) i.e. the accomplishment is greater (or of more worth) than the cost of the behavior that brought about the accomplishment. To increase worthy performance we can increase the value of the Accomplishment or decrease the Cost. As you can see, more effort (read:Cost) without an increase in Accomplishment only decreases the value of the Worthy performance. Even if the effort is “unpaid” (overtime, etc.) there is still a very real “cost”. To make use of this formula one must understand the real value of the accomplishment as well as the real cost to obtain it.

Older book, worth the read – if nothing else to bring a new perspective about defining and evaluating worthy performance.

By: Nathan Philpot

Nathan Philpot — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 15:44:41 +0000

Excellent posting. I have been wanting to tell my managers this for years.

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 10:46:21 +0000

This reminds me to two experiences:
1. In Japan, where I currently work, sales people are rewarded for effort. Working hard is rewarded even if they do not make any sales. A very strange way to run a sales department.

2. As an IT director, I had an employee who I was having a hard time motivating. Finally, during an interview with him, I found his motivation to be free time to play ping pong and foosball. I told him if he delivered, he could play games as much as he wanted. Within a few weeks, the servers and systems he was responsible for had nearly no problems, the backups worked each night, and there were virtually no user-reported problems. He got to play as much as he wanted. The one drawback was he was very persuasive, and persuaded folks from other groups to play with him, thus lowering their productivity.

By: KyleM

KyleM — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 22:58:46 +0000

Richard,

My boss does it for me. He knows it will end up costing more to replace me than to give me projects and let me get it done my own way. I put in 20 hours one week and well over 40 another. He lets me coach football in the fall (still covering the normal responsibilities of my job), and knows I’ll make it up to him in the winter and spring. I’ve been here 7 years, and he knows it’s the only reason I’m still here. He’s OK with it because he knows I get the job done.

The only difference between me and Joel’s employee is that I’m not anoying to be around. I hope.

By: Todd R. Jensen

Todd R. Jensen — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 06:49:58 +0000

I like your focus and in my experience teams that focus on results tend to start ‘winning’ and succeeding, which solves a host of internal problems and distractions (not to mention improving the lives of their customers). I’ve managed performance in the Church for many years and believe employees want clear expectations. Team members appreciate managers who see and reward results rather than monitor and dictate behavior. We shouldn’t forget, in all this, that results must equate to something the customer values.

By: Justin Masters

Justin Masters — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 03:43:52 +0000

Today’s management often wants impossible schedules met in which to satisfy impossible “features” that were sold to customers.

I often say “If you don’t want to spend the time doing it right the first time, when are you going to find the time to do it later?”

Some managers don’t care, and rely on “Good enough” or “Hope for the best”. Outstanding companies will listen to their customers and go beyond giving them what they want – they give them GREAT SERVICE. It seems to be sorely lacking in today’s workplace in so many ways when “going that extra mile” may not always be recognized. But you’d be surprised when it is…

By: Richard

Richard — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 15:16:21 +0000

It sounds very nice in theory but I have yet to meet the first manager who actually works like that. Why pay a person for a full week when he can apparently do his job properly in 20 hours. Doesn’t make sense to me.

[Joel: The point I was trying to make was really the opposite. If you work 40 hours per week and don't produce value then you're not performing. Performance equals results, not effort.]

By: JC

JC — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 14:51:27 +0000

A good manager will also understand what “results” really means. I work in software development (not for the Church), and I see many software engineers getting “results”, but often not “true value” in those results – meaning they constantly finish tasks quickly, but not effectively. But often those tasks do not “hold up” – meaning when the software is moved to production, bugs are everywhere, and then large chunks of code needs to be rewritten and redesigned. I always encourage my team to take a little longer to make sure that their tasks are completed correctly before they are completed quickly. I would rather have a software engineer on my team who completes 10 tasks correctly than 20 tasks partially incorrectly within the same time frame. I will take a quality-conscience employee over a results-conscience employee anyday. Over time, quality is far more productive, and really produces results.

By: Larry Nielsen

Larry Nielsen — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 18:25:20 +0000

Thanks for the Performance = Results commentary. Upon my first observation of the title (Performance = Results), and the subsequent reading of the content, I translated your meaning to be that performance does not really equal results, but rather it equals only performance be it successful or not. What I did read and understand from between the lines of your message was that success in the acquisition of desired and expected result has much more to do with preparation than performance and that in fact without preparation our performance is somewhat of a charade. I paraphrase Henry Ford: The secret to success is getting ready!