Comments on: It’s Time to Go Old School in HR

By: HR World » Blog Archive » Friday Links: Small Business Challenges, Tests

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 23:37:45 +0000

[...] Frank Roche references my favorite children’s book of all time, Casey at the Bat, in his post on going old school with HR. Can you pick out the reference? [...]

By: Frank

Frank — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:40:59 +0000

Thanks, Ron. You and me, buddy. I like Old School.

By: Frank

Frank — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:40:30 +0000

Overenthusiam on my part…corrected the math ;-(

By: Frank

Frank — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:39:57 +0000

Hi Wally….I'm being an agent provocateur. I'm really into multiple contacts per day by qualified supervisors. I'm against bad managers administering a bad system. I've always liked your take on leadership…and you know how to make that happen. I'm glad you're out there showing the way on it.

By: Wally Bock

Wally Bock — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 21:22:34 +0000

Fine post, Frank. If you're talking about eliminating the performance appraisal systems we've got in most companies, then I'm with you. BUT I'm not for eliminating performance appraisal, at least not the direct, many-times-a-day evaluation that happens between supervisor and team member. Without that you get neither correction nor improvement.

The HR-run system sits atop that daily work. The HR-run systems we have in place are not just ineffective, they're often toxic.

So it turns out that we're mucking it up on both ends of the process. On the front lines, we're not selecting people with a shot at success to be supervisors. We barely train the ones we select and only a fraction of that training concentrates on the simple communication skills necessary to coach, counsel, encourage and correct. We don't hole supervisors responsible for their daily supervision work and we give them no support. Then, we stick some superstructure of an annual one-way system atop the whole thing and expect it to work.

By: dave

dave — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 17:12:57 +0000

Am I missing something, or is the picture actually from 1902 and not 1912?

By: Ron Ulrici

Ron Ulrici — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:28:53 +0000

Frank, you brought tears to my eyes today. Deming knew this truth – he thought performance appraisals were degrading and counter to productivity. Down with trends and the flavor of the month – I bet that the people that created Stonehenge didn't have performance reviews and they accomplished something superhuman. Count me in – I'm standing up today and everyday for Old School!

By: TotallyConsumed

TotallyConsumed — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 03:18:25 +0000

Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Mahatma Gandhi, et al, were all people who checked in with peers, loved ones and cohorts on a regular basis to discuss ideas, analyze results, measure progress and yes – even review their performance.

I'm gonna have to disagree with you on this one Frank; when it comes to HR, old school means performance reviews and performance management, not the absence thereof.