Busy
as a bee - the buzz of improved performance…
Once
upon a time, there were two beekeepers who worked for a company called Bees,
Inc. Demand for their honey was steadily increasing and as a result, each
beekeeper was told to produce more honey at the same quality.
Approach
1: Measure activities
The
first beekeeper established a bee performance management approach that measured
how many flowers each bee visited. The beekeeper provided feedback to each bee
at midseason on his individual performance, but the bees were never told about
the hive's goal to produce more honey so that the company could increase honey
sales. The beekeeper created special awards for the bees who visited the most
flowers.
Approach
2: Measure accomplishments
The second beekeeper communicated to each bee the goal of the hive to produce
more honey. The beekeeper and his bees measured:
1. The
amount of nectar each bee brought back to the hive
2. The amount of honey the hive produced.
At the
end of the season, the beekeepers evaluated their approaches…
Approach
1: Results DECREASED
The
first beekeeper found that his hive had increased the number of flowers
visited, but the amount of honey produced by the hive had dropped. The Queen
Bee reported that because the bees were so busy trying to visit as many flowers
as possible, they limited the amount of nectar they would carry so they could
fly faster. Also, because the bees felt they were competing against each other
for awards (only the top performers were recognised) they would not share
valuable information with each other that could have helped improve the
performance of all the bees, like the location of the flower-filled fields
they'd spotted on the way back to the hive. After all was said and done, one of
the high-performing bees told the beekeeper that if he'd been told that the
real goal was to make more honey, he would have done his work completely
differently. As the beekeeper handed out the awards to individual bees, unhappy
buzzing was heard in the background.
Approach
2: Results INCREASED
The
second beekeeper had very different results. Because each bee was focused on
the hive's goal of producing more honey, the bees had concentrated their
efforts on gathering more nectar in order to produce more honey than ever
before. The bees worked together to determine the highest nectar-yielding
flowers and to create quicker processes for depositing the nectar they'd
gathered. They also worked together to help increase the amount of nectar
gathered by the poor performers. The Queen Bee of this hive reported that the
poor performers either improved their performance or transferred to another
hive. Because the hive had reached its goal, the beekeeper awarded each bee his
portion of the hive incentive payment. The beekeeper was also surprised to hear
a loud, happy buzz and a jubilant flapping of wings as he rewarded the individual
high-performing bees with special recognition.
The
moral of this story is…
Measuring
and recognising accomplishments rather than activities - and giving feedback to
the worker bees - often improves the results of the hive. Although it somewhat
simplifies performance management, the beekeepers' story illustrates the
importance of measuring and recognising accomplishments (the amount of honey
produced per hive) rather than activities (visiting flowers).
Source:
Workforce Performance, August 1997 US Office of Personnel Management
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