by Jenny Clarke
Would you be surprised if I told you that performance appraisal process leaves most people less motivated and less satisfied with their jobs after their appraisal than before it and that the majority of these people have little or no idea how to improve? Probably not! Luckily, a methodology known as Solutions Focus is at hand to help managers have useful conversations which lead to improved performance rather than poorer morale. The Solutions Focus approach is part of the new wave of change methodologies – positive interactional approaches to change which include Appreciative Inquiry, positive psychology, narrative and positive deviance.
Before introducing the Solutions Focus approach, let's look at a typical situation, where a manager with a 5 point rating scale available, decides to give his employee a "Good" this year. The employee is disgruntled by this, expecting to be rated "Excellent", and tells the manager so. Now the manager has to defend his judgment, bringing up examples of less than "Good" performance to justify his decision. The employee is forced onto the defensive and an uncomfortable conversation follows.
Way back in 1982, in his book "Out of the Crisis" (MIT Press), W Edwards Deming made the same point – perhaps over-dramatically:
"It [performance appraisal] leaves people bitter, crushed, bruised, battered, desolate, despondent, dejected, feeling inferior, some even depressed, unfit for work for weeks after receipt of rating..."
And yet, a quarter of a century later, we are still putting people through this annual ritual torture! Perhaps now is the time to reconsider the appraisal conversation and the role of rating scales within the process.
Think of the implication in giving anyone a particular rating: it suggests that the employee's performance has been constant over the year and over the various tasks he has to undertake. It disguises the fact that performance doesn't follow a straight on a graph; it has peaks and troughs, varying through time and different aspects of the job.
By averaging performance, variation is hidden and, more to the point, important and useful information is lost. For example, what about the times when the employee was at his best: what can we learn from the strengths and resources he showed then? What went particularly well? How did he do that? What helped him to do that? How could he use his strengths even more? How could he share his knowledge/skill with others?
Solutions focused questions like these lead to fruitful and rewarding conversations for both parties. They elicit valuable details about what the employee does well and how he does it - information that can be used to address areas where the employee could do better.
Let me introduce you to one of the tools in the Solutions Focused manager's box: the Scaling tool.
Manager: Think of a scale from 0 to 10, where 10 represents the ideal state, where everything [insert an aspect of the job] is going utterly perfectly and 0 means that absolutely nothing of that perfect sate is happening at the moment. Where would you put yourself on that scale?
Employee: About 6.
Manager: Uh huh. And what is helping you get to 6? … What else? … [Manager gets lots of concrete detail about what the employee does well and what skills and resources he uses.]
Manager: How would you tell that you had got to 7 on the scale? What would I see? What would your colleagues notice? ... What else?
Manager: What small action could you take in the next couple of days to get you closer to 7 on the scale? What would be the first step towards that? How confident are you that that would work?
Where they place themselves on the scale is not a matter for debate by the manager, who accepts whatever number – let's say 6 - is offered and works with it. There are two important facts implicit in the number: that some elements of the perfect state are already happening and that there is some way to go. A Solutions Focused manager spends a lot of time talking about what is already happening to get the score up to 6 – in concrete detail – and no time at all commenting on the gap between 6 and 10. Instead, the manager explores possibilities for moving just one point – or half a point – up the scale to 7 or 6.5. We look for small steps in the right direction – steps that can be taken in the next day or two. The smaller the step, the more confident we can be that it will be taken, that it will provide good evidence of progress and that it will lead to further steps in the right general direction.
Try it for yourself – and enjoy more productive conversations with your staff (And guess what – it works with family as well!)
Further reading
Out of the Crisis, 1982, W Edwards Deming (MIT Press)
The Solutions Focus, 2nd edition, 2006, Paul Z Jackson & MarkMcKergow (Nicholas Brealey)
Positive Approaches to Change, 2005, edited by Mark McKergow & Jenny Clarke (SolutionsBooks)
Jenny Clarke is a Partner in sfwork – the Centre for Solutions Focus at Work. Contact her at jenny@sfwork.com
SF principles applied to performance enhancement
Where is our awareness directed?
Problem Focus | Solutions Focus |
Weaknesses and deficits Reducing weaknesses Discussing failures in the past Goal setting, if any, is vague Tends to make the employee fit the job Idea that performance problems are solved NOW Standardised approach to process Conversation is to justify the rating given | Strengths and successes Using strengths Future orientation – how we (both) want it to be Precise descriptions of what is wanted Possibility of altering the job to fit strengths Focus on small steps and continuing progress Flexible application to fit each person Conversation highlights useful differences – particularly in |
Based on work by Günter Lueger, Solution Focused Rating: New Ways in Performance Appraisal in Positive Approaches to Change, edited by Mark McKergow & Jenny Clarke, SolutionsBooks 2005
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