Everyone loves to hate performance evaluations, and with good reason: Research has shown them to be ineffective, unreliable and unsatisfactory for seemingly everyone involved. They consume way too much time, leave most workers deflated and feel increasingly out of step with reality. A once-a-year, backwards-looking conversation with the boss hardly fits our forward-looking, instantly updated world. Yet despite all that frustration, many companies do little to change them, thinking there are few alternatives.
That hasn’t been the case at Deloitte. The new issue of the Harvard Business Review, released Tuesday, unveils a detailed look at the professional services firm’s total redesign of its performance management program. It’s an overhaul the company first started rolling out nine months ago.
Is the Banking Industry Living on Borrowed Time?
Based on this research, carried out for a new book called Bye Bye Banks?, written by James Haycock, and co-authored by technology reporter Shane Richmond, despite the fact that banks are spending billions of dollars on digital transformation and innovation activities, changing the entrenched culture within these organizations is very difficult. The extensive qualitative and quantitative research for the book stems from discussions with 110 senior managers, directors, C-Level executives, CEOs and Presidents within the retail banking sector.
“The financial services playing field has been changed irreversibly in recent years by a new generation of companies and leaders who have torn the rulebook to pieces, adopting new technology, introducing new working practices, and serving customers whose lives are increasingly orientated around their mobile phones”, says the research. Thanks to the expansiveness of the web and the accessibility of the smartphone, digital disruption is happening all around us, breaking dominant business models in retail, entertainment, travel and telecommunications.
Transiting Andorra
Salta Area Argentina Panoramas
Barcelona Walk
Gazing at Santa Maria de Montserrat Abbey
Michael Perry’s recent words at Eaux Claires: water, Baptism and Absolution shot my mind back to stunning Montserrat. It was Ascension (week) in May.
Eaux Claires 2015: “You made the right decision”
Eaux Claires 2015 from Jim Zellmer.
A can’t miss. Fantastic weather, star gazing and geography provided by God (Michael Perry suggested vespers and hymns late Saturday evening) and a winning playlist orchestrated by Justin Vernon.
Vernon and his crew ran a fun and well organized festival. Rather impressive in its first year.
The video highlights and many images were captured on my iPhone 6. Not too bad.
Words that floated in the air:
“Hello festival people”.
“Water. Baptism. Absolution.”
Berlin Tiergarten: Café am Neuen See Panorama
Surgeon Scorecard
by Sisi Wei, Olga Pierce and Marshall Allen:
Guided by experts, ProPublica calculated death and complication rates for surgeons performing one of eight elective procedures in Medicare, carefully adjusting for differences in patient health, age and hospital quality. Use this database to know more about a surgeon before your operation.