The name "Mastery Feedback Loops" is derived from Daniel Pinks' Drive. In it, he identifies three intrinsic motivations in the workplace: purpose, autonomy and mastery (to which I would also add identity, to account for the social nature of the human animal, but that's another discussion). The practice formerly known as performance management needs to be better aligned with these intrinsic motivations. For that reason, mastery feedback loops would differ in three important ways:
- The focus would be on mastery of capabilities - Instead of obsessing on backward looking metrics, the goal would be to constantly improve and make appropriate investments in a firm's talent (even when that means "reallocating resources" away from underperforming talent). Coaches, rather than managers, would help individuals identify the capabilities that are important to the success of the business (collective, purpose-driven goals) as well as the individuals ongoing professional development (autonomous goals). Metrics would then be set to monitor progress toward the ideal mastery of those capabilities.
- The process would be decoupled from compensation and promotions - Tying feedback to promotions and raises only increases the stress and negative emotion from both receiving and giving constructive criticism. Taking that out of the equation returns the focus to where it should be - continuous improvement, kaizen for the individual. Concerns about that next bump up create a distraction and can poison the employee/manager relationship. Money may also not be the best way to motivate the desired behaviors.
- Feedback would be social and continuous - Freed from the strictures of the fiscal calendar, feedback could be delivered with more frequency so individuals can monitor their progress on an ongoing basis, helping to set the stage for flow in the workplace. Brining in a greater variety of perspectives will improve the quality of feedback and incentives for improving, helping individuals understand how they are perceived by all parts of the organization (social esteem being important to human happiness).
An interesting area for further investigation might also be how to align performance management better to the intrinsic motivations of groups as well as individuals. As the social behavior of hives and swarms suggest, it cannot just be assumed that the same intrinsic motivations will dominate in a group.
The management hack "Just-in-time Teams" suggests some ideas for how mastery feedback loops might be implemented, bottoms up.
- Organize into groups of 7-13 individuals, ideally around specific capabilities or competencies that the constituents are looking to develop or that are important to their roles at the company
- Meet regularly (weekly if possible) for an hour or so over coffee (or other refreshments) in something like a performance support group (hmmm, maybe that's what we should call this hack)
- Working together without any nominated leader, set mastery goals for each person in the group; maybe assign some at home individual pre-work so the process moves quickly while meeting
- Help "coffee chat" members set specific metrics to monitor their progress toward mastery and figure out how to take the necessary measurements
- Each week (two weeks or month), discuss where each person is at and provide advice on how to improve
- Use an online tool (e.g. wiki, Google Site, etc.) to post metrics of progress and to solicit and provide feedback asynchronously
- At the end of the year and start of the formal performance review, prepare documentation on each group member, signed collectively by the group, recording how that person's performance has changed over the course of the year; this document can be brought into conversations with management as an additional data point in the review/evaluation/appraisal and help make the case for promotions and raises where appropriate
Hi Ben--great to see you on here. Very intriguing suggestion... can you tell me more about why you think it would help to decouple feedback from compensation? I have my own ideas, but I'd love to hear yours...
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Thoughtful and very well stated.
I like the idea of just in time teams and would like to see this idea evolving in the new era when the work is more distributed (outsourcing to same location or distant locations) and still need to be collaboratively.
Further more, aligning performance management to the intrinsic motivations of groups as well as individuals could be daunting task. I have seen individuals who said that money doesn't motivate them but all their actions depicted otherwise. It would be interesting to see some ideas around this topic
Lastly, I believe that peers are the best people for individual performance feedback and should be incorporated in the process in addition to the coaches.
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Hi Ben,
Intriguing topic.I’d like to volunteer to help develop this definition further.
Regards,
Rajal
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Hi Ben,
I have a question:
These days, unfortunately, there are individuals in an organization that are narcissistic and cannot handle a high performer colleague who quickly becomes liked by the team and management. How does/would your definition, with its emphasis on the feedback received by collegues to measure an individual's performance ensure that a high-performer does not become the target of an under-performer, jealous colleague who has just bullied the rest of the team into submitting negative comments/feedback/documentation on his/her performance? If your defintion does/would not address this, it is worth considering. This may seem far-fetched but it is an increasing trend in workplaces and therefore I think any future Management 2.0 definition needs to have a way of administering and combatting this. Thank You.
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Hi Ben,
Thanks for the thorough and excellent answer. I think you make very good points here and I actually worked in an organization that was implementing an application that enabled exactly your idea/concept. I didn't get a chance to see the results so not sure if it worked for everyone and in the way you suggest here. One of the benefits of your idea is that it addresses the issue of emloyees, especially the younger generations demanding more, frequent and continuous feedback on their performance. Again, thank you and I will share your concept with others.
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