Archive
Instantaneous Feedback
Alfie Kohn wrote a whole book on the subject. So, what subject…. you ask? Why, it’s the subject of the “venerable” yearly performance review created in the bygone era of the early 1900s. Specifically, Alfie’s book conscientiously provides details on how to get rid of what Dan Pink describes as the “highly stylized ritual in which people recite predictable lines in a formulaic way and hope the experience ends very quickly“.
In case you don’t want to, or are afraid to read Alfie’s heretical tome for fear of tossing a grenade at your existing mental model, Mr. Pink gives the subject some treatment as point number 12 in his FLIP Manifesto: “Scrap performance reviews”.
Dan gives not only 1, but 3 ideas for drop kicking the yearly performance review out of the borg and into its rightful place in obscurity. My fave is number 2:
I know, I know. Abolishing the yearly performance review can’t possibly work in your borg. Your business and industry are “different“. It is the way it is because it is the way it has always been and it is the way it has to be. Case closed.
The “E” Test
From Dan Pink’s “FLIP Manifesto“:
To take the E test, draw the letter “E” on your forehead. Oops, too late. You already know which way is the “correct” one.
What Do You Do?
While perusing Dan Pink’s FLIP-Manifesto, point number 5 triggered a “WTF?” moment within my being:
“Outraged” at Dan’s audacity to attack one of the pillars of my UCB (the burning desire to continually search for personal passion), I navigated directly to the blasphemous pages that rationalize his assertion.
I discovered that Dan is right. In lieu of wrestling with an “endless self-examination and searching for some inscrutable holy emotional grail“, ask “what do I do?” instead of “what is my passion?“.
What do you think? More importantly, “what do you do“?
Six “C”s
Whoo Hoo! I found another non-mainstream heretic to learn from: Mr. Alfie Kohn.
I’m currently in the process of reading Mr. Kohn’s book: “Punished By Rewards“. PBR is a well researched and eloquently written diatribe against anything that reeks of the Skinnerian dogma: “Do This And You’ll Get That“. Mr. Kohn is a staunch opponent of rewards, punishments and any other form of external control.
People don’t resist change. They resist being changed. – Unknown
Applying his rhetoric to parenting, the classroom, and the corpricracy, Alfie cites study after study and experiment after experiment in which all external motivational actions perpetrated by “authorities” achieve only short term results while destroying intrinsic motivation and ensuring long term, negative consequences – like reluctant compliance and uncreative, mechanistic doing.
The classic (and reasonable) question posed most often to Mr. Kohn is “if rewards and punishments don’t work, what alternatives are there Mr. Smartie Pants?“. Of course, he doesn’t have a nice and tidy answer, but he cites three “C”s: Choice, Collaboration, and Content, as the means of bringing out the willful best in children, students, and employees.
Much like Dan Pink‘s big 3 (mastery, autonomy, and purpose), creating an environment and supporting culture in which Alfie’s three “C”s are manifest is devilishly difficult. In familial, educational, and corporate systems, their hierarchical structures naturally suppress Alfie’s 3 “C”s while nurturing this 3 “C” alternative:
Risk Averse Weenie
In this short video interview with the MIX‘s Polly LaBarre, “Are you a Type A or a Type I”, Daniel “Drive” Pink talks about finding and flocking with the right people for you. Mr. Pink wisely advises each person to “find out what you’re good at when nobody’s looking” and to avoid flocking with “risk averse weenies who are fixated on achievement for achievement’s sake“.
Clever And Mistake-Free
In “The 3 rules of mindsets”, Daniel Pink provides these examples in order to contrast fixed minded thinkers with growth minded thinkers:
- Fixed mindset: Look clever at all costs.
- Growth mindset: Learn, learn, learn.
- Fixed mindset: It should come naturally.
- Growth mindset: Work hard, effort is key.
- Fixed mindset: Hide your mistakes and conceal your deficiencies.
- Growth mindset: Capitalize on your mistakes and confront your deficiencies.
I don’t know about you, but I’m constantly struggling against the “Look clever at all costs” and “Hide your mistakes..” fixed mindset maladies. It’s easy to criticize the “environment” for these shortcomings, but ultimately it’s a personal ego battle, no?
Why am I here?
WTF?
Meh!
D'oh!
My BTC Address
Bulldozer00's Blog 