You are the weak link.
Do you treat team performance as a strong-link problem or a weak-link problem?
When you have a strong link problem, you want to focus on getting more of the best of the group because these outliers have the greatest effect. When you have a weak link problem, you want to focus on eliminating the worst of the group because those outliers have the greatest effect. Like this:
We tend to treat strong-link problems as weak-link problems. I see this happen most frequently in management and leadership practices.
Take, for example, Optifye.ai. They’re creating an “AI performance monitoring system for factory workers.” Based on their video, the monitoring system tracks workers’ hand movements and output so a boss can look at graphs and yell at the workers about efficiency. Don’t believe me? Watch here.
Optifye.ai’s product fits within the paradigm of companies that track keystrokes and mouse movements. The only conclusion I can draw from this behavior is that the people implementing these policies fundamentally assume that all of their people wouldn’t work if no one watched them.
Alas, their thinking has roots in Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations. His view of work perpetuated three fundamental assumptions. First, people only work for the payoffs it produces — namely, pay. Second, as long as the work produces adequate payoffs, it doesn't matter what work people do. Third, there must be an authority monitoring people to ensure they're doing the work.
This understanding of work has resulted in leaders treating performance as a weak-link problem. They need to design their system to “catch” all the inevitably unproductive people so they can force them to an acceptable level of productivity or have reason to fire them.
Leaders would get better results if they treated performance as a strong-link problem.
Instead of designing their culture and practices to mitigate low performance, they should make choices to encourage top performance. In other words, instead of saying, “These are bad. How do I eliminate them?” ask “These are excellent. How do I get more of them?”
If you ask the latter, you will put practices in place that not only make your good team members better, but will also create an environment that makes your best team members want to stay. And those who aren’t improving or performing will become painfully obvious, allowing you to remove them entirely rather than attempt to mitigate their drag.
This shift is essential for value-driven businesses that define performance not as efficient but as effective.
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