As part of the annual meeting I was attending , the topic of discussion was differentiation. I could see different views amongst people and they all agreed that it is necessary to ' differentiate ' people basis performance but when it comes taking a call within their teams the word had a negative conotation.
Just the previous night we had a band comprising of all three former Indian Idols who had come to entertain us . The first artist came and tried to woo us with his ' singing style ' but the crowd was hardly interested and he was smart enough to recognise the early warning signals and bid farewell to us. Later we had a female & male artist who captivated the crowd till late midnight and the crowd wanted more.
I am a HR professional and was trying to relate the concept of ' differentiation ' with the band . I thought if we were asked to rate all the three people in the band , it would have been very easy for all of us to derate the first performer but when it would come to the next 2 artists who were equally good it would pose a question mark . People who have their own preferences ( including myself ) .
Each one of us has a filter of ' conformance / wanting to look good ' hence when it comes to differentiating the best , we all find it difficult. Jack Welch ( former CEO of GE ) introduced Forced Ranking.
When I googled for this on wikepedia I found something interesting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitality_curve
Every change takes time and I am sure next when a group is asked to differentiate performance we will be able to choose the best.
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