Perspective on the Performance Gap Jill E. Carter Carter Consulting 801/

In a Perfect World What might a perfect “collaborative” environment look like for a supervisor and for an employee? SupervisorEmployee

The Supervisor’s Role To create competent, confident people who own their performance. The “slinky” and systems thinking.

Deming and the Performance Gap Edwards Deming* suggests ◦ 94% of the “Performance Gap” is a function of:  Process  Leadership ◦ 6% is employee-based (individual will/accountability) *Aguayo, Rafael. Dr. Deming, What Every U.S. Business Person Should Know About Successful Management and Bringing Quality Back Home. First Fireside Edition, Carol Publishing Company, New York, New York, 1991.

A Supervisor’s Response To Poor Performance ◦ First time: Hope the performance will go away ◦ Second time: Get angry because the performance expectations are still not met ◦ Third time: Transfer ownership of the problem to the will/attitude of the employee What is the Supervisors “frame of mind”? ◦ Anger and Dread? ◦ Problem Solving and Accountability

Transactional Analysis SupervisorEmployee Adult -Collaboration -Accountability Adult -Collaboration -Accountability Parent -Nurturing (good news/supportive) -Judgmental (critical: anger/dread) Parent -Nurturing -Judgmental Child -Playful (positive/innovative) -Whiny (negative) Child -Playful -Whiny

White Bead/Red Bead Exercise Let’s try it!

White Bead/Red Bead Exercise How did the employees respond during this exercise? Can’t Do (structure) Won’t Do Performance Expectations Employee Will Procedures and Processes Employee Skill/Competency Leadership/Culture

Basic Truth “Organizations are perfectly designed to get exactly what they are getting.” --Vivian Harrington, Student WSU

Narrowing the Performance Gap Desired OutcomeMethodology Have the employee feel validated & respected Specifically recognize what the employee is doing well Encourage the idea of behavior aligned with successful performance Create an environment where people can make mistakes and learn from them Move to problem solving rather than defensiveness Jointly define the problem, the root cause and the solution with the employee Collaborate on problem-solving (transfer accountability to the employee) Ask the employee for insight & recommendations to resolve the issue

Narrowing the Performance Gap Desired OutcomeMethodology Transfer solution development to the employee rather than the supervisor Facilitate the discussion for potential solution options Facilitate the outcome/ownership to the employee rather than the supervisor Look at the pro’s and con’s of all solution options against the performance standard Give outcome/ownership to the employee Ask the employee for recommendation on the best solution Foster an employee implementationAsk the employee for steps, milestones, etc. Clarify joint roles and expectationsRecap root cause, solution & requested resources

“People do the best they can do or else they would do better.”