Students are not tested on their ability to think beyond the scope of their studies. Uniform tests have made sure of that. The average student simply says, "what will I be tested on - I will study only that."
The same philosophy follows a student into the workplace. A worker, knowing what he or she is likely to be graded on, will do only that. They are called performance reviews and they are narrow-focused, spirit-killing, motivation-halting tragedies that happen at work daily.
Managers and organizations set the bar too low in an effort to reduce their potential turnover. The criteria for performance is laid out and the employee is forced into complying with the criteria only. Otherwise, they may receive poor performance reviews if they are not fully focused on their assigned criteria.
Most corporate web sites make it easier for customers to file complaints than pay compliments. My bank's web site didn't provide me any outlet to compliment a call-centre employee but there were several ways to file a complaint. I wonder which they get more of.
Organizations who set the bar low for their customers get just what they ask for.
"Tell me what you're scoring me on and I will do only that," is a terrible attitude that leads to an apathetic Culture. But it happens because most organizations have no way to measure going over and above. Therefore, it rarely happens.
- Join us on Facebook
No comments:
Post a Comment